The Thirty-Thousand-Year Illusion

Within the Heartforge world, Ji Ning received a visit from a curious Nine Lotos, who had grown into a graceful young woman. The moment she laid eyes on Ji Ning, she felt an inexplicable fondness for him. Ji Ning, however, remained on his guard. No matter what, he could not allow himself to sink into this Heartforge world. To 'sink' here meant to come to love this world from the depths of his heart, to accept it.

To fall in love with the Heartforge world was to abandon the real one.

If he sank into it, his true body in reality would surely die!

In this Heartforge world, his parents were alive and well. None of the tragedies had ever occurred. In truth, Ji Ning’s heart was glad, but having reached the third stage of Heartforce, ‘Master of the Heart’, he let each wave of joy and emotion wash over him while remaining his own master. He reminded himself, every moment of every day… that everything here was an illusion constructed by the Heartforge world. None of it was real.

“The bond with my parents has already deeply affected me here. I absolutely cannot let my feelings for Nine Lotos and Yu Wei get tangled up in this world too.” Ji Ning understood this clearly. Once he allowed romantic love to enter the mix, this Heartforge Tribulation would become truly perilous.

…

But the Heartforge world was not something Ji Ning could control.

After that first visit, Nine Lotos found a shadow of Ji Ning lingering in her heart, and she came to see him many more times.

“This is my senior apprentice-sister, Yu Wei. She is the true genius of our Black-White College,” Nine Lotos said.

“Of course, I cannot compare to the Darknorth Immortal,” Yu Wei added with a smile. The moment Yu Wei laid eyes on Ji Ning, she too felt that inexplicable fondness.

Both Yu Wei and Nine Lotos in this Heartforge world found themselves irresistibly drawn to Ji Ning.

But Ji Ning, wary and cautious, always held back his feelings.

Time flowed on.

In the blink of an eye, decades passed.

Having obtained the Starseizing Manor as a child, Ji Ning had now cultivated the Crimsonbright Diagram of the Nine Heavens to the seventeenth level.

Yu Wei and Nine Lotos, as close as sisters, did not mind sharing him. They built a simple residence near Mount Yan, not far from Ji Ning. They believed that, in time, their sincerity would move him. Unlike reality, in this Heartforge world, the hearts of Nine Lotos and Yu Wei belonged entirely to Ji Ning. They cast aside all other concerns. Even Nine Lotos abandoned her tribe.

Then, the great tribulation of the Three Realms arrived!

In this Heartforge world, Ji Ning allowed his Primaltwin to undergo the tribulation. Here, everything was an illusion. The Heartforge Tribulation was but a single moment, and after enduring it, his Primaltwin became a Celestial Immortal.

Amidst the chaos of the Tribulation, Ji Ning naturally formed an alliance with the Beishan clan of Anchan. Though he had never truly consummated his relationship with Nine Lotos, she and Yu Wei had pursued him with unwavering devotion. The Dongyan clan also drew closer to him. The Dongyan Patriarch, the Tonghe Patriarch, and others all became his allies against the coming storm.

War began!

Within the Grand Xia world, battle after battle erupted. Ji Ning fought to protect his tribe, but as the war progressed, he found himself struggling. Finally, he made a decision… to undergo the Empyrean Tribulation!

The Heartforge world had one fatal flaw—it was impossible to comprehend the Dao within it.

This was a world of illusion, and every tribulant knew it in their heart. After all, one could not even gain insights into the Dao here. Even though Ji Ning had lived for over a hundred years in this Heartforge world, his level of Dao comprehension had not advanced by a single iota compared to reality. The only thing that could improve here was his ‘Dao-heart’.

His Heartforce could still be tempered and strengthened within the Heartforge world.

Alas, he remained at the third stage, ‘Master of the Heart’, making only meager progress. Reaching the fourth stage, ‘Mortal Dust’, was an immense challenge. Those who achieved this level were true powerhouses throughout the Three Realms—legendary divine archers, and even Old Man Yuan himself were at this stage.

As the Tribulation raged on, Ji Ning felt himself becoming increasingly unable to withstand the onslaught. So, he decided to undergo the Empyrean Tribulation.

The Empyrean Tribulation was overwhelmingly powerful.

The Wind Tribulation and Fire Tribulation nearly killed Ji Ning.

Then came the Thunder Tribulation. The sixty-second heavenly tribulation thunder… struck Ji Ning dead.

He had failed.

His true body perished in the failed tribulation, and the Starseizing Manor departed, seeking its next inheritor.

…

Ji Ning was left with only his Primaltwin. Like countless other Celestial Immortals, he drifted along with the tide of the great tribulation. Yu Wei and Nine Lotos also survived their own tribulations one by one and became Celestial Immortals. They still followed Ji Ning… but Ji Ning remained wary of them, unwilling to deepen his emotional ties.

The deeper the feelings, the easier it was to sink into the Heartforge world.

Battle after battle!

Yu Wei and Nine Lotos always fought at Ji Ning’s side, experiencing life and death together countless times. Finally, after eighteen thousand years, the great tribulation of the Three Realms came to an end. Nine out of ten Celestial Immortals in the Grand Xia world had died. Even the Xia Emperor had fallen. Countless great powers perished. But Ji Ning, Yu Wei, and Nine Lotos all survived. Even the Ji clan of Mount Yan came through intact.

With the great tribulation over, Ji Ning returned to Mount Yan.

Yu Wei and Nine Lotos still pursued him, taking up residence in the mountains. Yuchi Snow and Ji Yichuan, who had also become Celestial Immortals during the final stages of the tribulation, urged Ji Ning to accept the two women.

A bond spanning eighteen thousand years!

A thousand times they had faced life and death together!

One had to understand that Ji Ning had only lived for a little over a century in the real world. Here in the Heartforge world, eighteen thousand years had already passed. Anyone with a slightly weaker Dao-heart would have long since confused illusion with reality, willingly accepting this Heartforge world as their true one. After all, they had lived here far longer, and life here was far happier.

But Ji Ning, at the ‘Master of the Heart’ level, was even more terrified.

His father and mother had both managed to become Celestial Immortals! He, Yu Wei, and Nine Lotos had all survived the tribulation… This Heartforge world was clearly constructing a life of perfect happiness for him. To weaken his ambition, it had even caused his Empyrean Tribulation to fail directly.

Weakened ambition, a happy life, deep emotions, countless life-and-death ordeals, and eighteen thousand years of existence… all of this was slowly eroding Ji Ning.

“Ji Ning, how can you be so heartless? Eighteen thousand years, and you are still so cold! Fine, fine, fine… I will never bother you again, never make you miserable again.” Nine Lotos looked at Ji Ning, tears streaming down her face.

“I will go with my sister, and no longer trouble you, you heartless man.” Yu Wei’s eyes were filled with pain as well.

In their hands, a flying Immortal sword appeared.

“No!”

Ji Ning instinctively intercepted them, knocking the two swords away.

“What, you stopped us? Even if you stop us now, we can simply go somewhere you can never find and end our miserable lives,” Nine Lotos said in anguish. “Big sister and I have nothing left to live for.”

“Let’s go, sister.” Yu Wei took Nine Lotos’s hand.

Ji Ning closed his eyes.

Had he been running away all this time within this Heartforge world? Was this right or wrong? Why, the more he ran, the more these feelings entangled him, causing him even greater pain?

“Don’t go.” Ji Ning suddenly spoke.

Yu Wei and Nine Lotos, who had already turned away, trembled. The two peerless beauties, one in black, one in white, turned around simultaneously and looked at Ji Ning. The longing in their eyes, a longing they had harbored for eighteen thousand years, made Ji Ning’s heart feel as though it were melting.

“Ji Ning, you really mean…?” Nine Lotos and Yu Wei looked at him.

“Don’t go,” Ji Ning said, walking towards them. “I don’t want you to leave.” He reached out and took Yu Wei’s and Nine Lotos’s hands.

Yu Wei and Nine Lotos each clung to one of Ji Ning’s arms, leaning gently against him.

But Ji Ning felt his Dao-heart growing hazier.

He understood…

His sinking had taken another step forward.

When he was completely submerged, his body would die and his soul would be extinguished.

…

Ji Ning, Nine Lotos, and Yu Wei lived together like a trio of divine immortals. Peace had returned to the Three Realms. The Ji clan boasted a total of nine Celestial Immortals: Ji Ning, Nine Lotos, Yu Wei, Yuchi Snow, Ji Yichuan, Uncle White, Autumn Leaf, Chuncao, and Little Qing. Everyone Ji Ning cared about had survived. They had even become Celestial Immortals.

Life was blissful and perfect. This was, in fact, the life Ji Ning had always truly yearned for.

Carefree. At ease.

Together with all his loved ones, living a joyous life.

He and Yu Wei and Nine Lotos had children. Raising them was a worry, but it also brought immense joy and happiness.

…

Happiness.

In all his lives, past and present, Ji Ning had never known such happiness. Yet here, in this Heartforge world, it was all real. It was perfect.

“No wonder the Grand Xia world produces a new Celestial Immortal only once in a million years, while countless returning-to-void Earth Immortals all fail their tribulations.” Ji Ning’s heart ached. He knew it was all a lie. But he had already lived over thirty thousand years here. Thirty thousand years of this life… countless times longer than his life in reality. Even with his Dao-heart, he found it incredibly difficult to break away.

A part of him even didn’t want to leave. He didn’t want this perfection to shatter.

…

The Heartforge world.

Night.

A small boat drifted on Serpentwing Lake. Ji Ning sat cross-legged on the boat, all alone.

“Am I really going to sink?” Ji Ning could feel his Dao-heart growing increasingly blurred, continuously eroded.

He looked towards the distant Brightheart Island, where the people he loved most lived. His father, his mother, Nine Lotos, Yu Wei, Uncle White, Little Qing, Chuncao, Autumn Leaf, and his children. All of these bonds were like chains, tightly binding him. And as time passed, they only bound him more deeply. Thirty thousand years… he had long since become incapable of breaking free.

“Still!”

Ji Ning gnashed his teeth. Blood leaked from his seven apertures as he forced the words out. “It’s all fake! It’s all fake!!!”

Just saying these words felt like a knife carving into his own heart.

“All of it is fake.”

“Because…”

“I want to make all of this real. I want them to truly come back to life in the real world!” Ji Ning’s Dao-heart was like a tiny blade of grass, wrapped in countless chains. But that blade of grass struggled with all its might, striving to grow. No matter how the chains pulled and tugged at it, it still grew.

“I am I!”

“I am the master of myself! Nothing can move me. Not thirty thousand years, not a hundred thousand years. Nothing can move me!!!” Ji Ning stood on the boat and let out a roar, a defiant cry against the entire Heartforge world.

With that roar, Ji Ning’s Dao-heart instantly grew far stronger!

He had only been at the peak of the third stage, ‘Master of the Heart’, but now, in that moment, he had achieved perfection within that stage.

The moment Ji Ning shouted those words.

“BOOM~~~” The heavens and the earth changed color.

“CRACK.”

Space shattered.

A towering figure stood in the distant void, his aura overwhelmingly powerful. His gaze fell upon Ji Ning, and his voice echoed in Ji Ning’s ears. “You are Ji Ning? You are the previous inheritor of the Starseizing Manor, aren’t you? The Starseizing Hand Divine Ability must not be leaked. One person is enough for me. So… DIE!” An enormous hand instantly blotted out the sky, its power boundless and terrifying, descending from above.