Color of Despair A short story on Ji Ning turning into a devil, manipulating everyone and getting back his wife. Categories: Desolate Era Fanfiction A/N: No tragedy for Ji Ning, lots for Godking. If you are Godking fans, do not read. Has lots of manipulation, and since I do not excel at writing suspense, it might have a few plotholes. Still had to write anyway, the despair was too great! Will have 8 parts in total. Part 1 The black-robed Godking stood there at the island, staring into the skies. Ji Ning had already departed from this place. “Hmph.” The black-robed Godking laughed coldly. “He cares deeply about love, and yet is able to sever it. Quite an impressive figure. During ordinary times, I might need to be concerned about you…but now? The war is in full swing. Soon, even the major powers shall begin to die in large swathes. A single Empyrean God…nothing more than a minor character.” Whoosh. The black-robed Godking departed as well. The only thing left behind was that beautiful island, where countless flowers continued to bloom. Just then, a ripple of space formed behind the Godking. He realized that he was still floating above the island, and he hadn’t moved at all! The space around him had been frozen! A old man in Daoist robes appeared in front of him. He emanated the solemn aura of a enlightened master, and the space surrounding him seemed to ripple just by his presence. He was the great master who had embarked on the two paths of Daoism and Buddhism, and even gained mastery of Space-time. He had many great disciples who were peerless in their talent, and he was the master of Ji Ning! Daofather Subhuti had attacked him! “Haha, why has a old geezer like you come to attack! It seems that the great Subhuti truly cares for his disciples!” The Godking arrogantly laughed. This was simply an avatar, not even a true clone. Why would he be afraid? “My disciple has taken the [Heavenseeking Fiendrebirth] technique from me, declared his betrayal and his allegiance to the Seamless Gate! Why wouldn’t I attack!” Hearing these words, the Godking was shocked but then he arrogantly began laughing. Ji Ning might seem to have a frozen exterior, but his heart still burned inside! After all that posturing, he had stolen a technique from his Master to join his wife! In his laughter, the Godking never noticed the wind rushing around him, and spacetime converging to exterminate his avatar. The wind stopped flowing, and the world returned to normal. Subhuti flashed away soundlessly… Part 2 The Deerchaser Major World The black robed Godking sensed the death of his Avatar. As the memories were transmitted to him, he began to laugh. “Ji Ning, oh, Ji Ning. You finally fell into despair. I suppose that boy must have felt that he must not have enough treasures to bargain with me, so he stole Subhuti’s treasured technique. What a pity, that lightning agility technique would have been a pretty good trade. I suppose I will have to bargain with him now.” Daomother Devilhand who was nearby smiled. “Subhuti is truly too trusting! He actually allowed his disciple to glimpse at his precious [Heavenseeking Fiendrebirth] technique!” The [Heavenseeking Fiendrebirth] technique… it was a mysterious Divine Ability that Subhuti had created in the Primordial Era and was still refining. It was said that it mostly consisted of his insights into spacetime and some excerpts of his understanding of the Daoist and Buddhist path. What it was capable of… was unknown. Subhuti was too reclusive and unwilling to display his might. However in his conversations with Lord Buddha during the Primordial Era, he had said that it would be his ultimate legacy, a powerful technique with infinite might! He never found a successor capable of inheriting his spacetime techniques, so he had no one to pass it on to! Many masters of divination had reckoned that it was a technique to breakthrough to the Elder God stage! This was a treasure more precious than 100 Chaos-weapons! And Ji Ning had stolen this technique! Just as the Godking prepared to send out an avatar to bargain with Ji Ning once again, he realized that Ji Ning must be on the run from the Nuwa Alliance. Even if his master was soft enough to forgive him, his fellow disciples and the rest of the Nuwa Alliance’s heavyweights wouldn’t be so kind! Just then, a flying sword with a scroll bound on it flew in his path. It was a low grade Immortal sword, imbued with shocking 3rd grade swordforce! Reading the message, the Godking could not conceal his shock and rage… A small dot shone on one of the complete stellar maps that mapped out the Three Realms. One of the innumerable minor worlds shone with a coordinate marked on it. “Come to find me on this Stellar coordinate in 30 days. Bring your true body if you are scared. Come alone and bring Yuwei with you. If you take anyone to accompany you, I will change my decision.” Part 3 “My disciple, please reconsider… The path you have chosen is too risky.” Ji Ning was firmly facing his master’s entreaties. If not for his 4th Stage heartforce, he might have already promised to abandon his foolhardy thoughts. After all, the words of his beloved master were more impactful to him than that of his hateful enemies! “Master, this is the only path. I will enter the Seamless Gate as a spy. I will take back Yu Wei and infiltrate the Seamless Gate. During the battles against the Nuwa Alliance, I will underperform due to my ‘broken heart’. Finally when the Endwar begins… I will breakthrough to a Daofather and betray the Seamless Gate!” Ji Ning gave a heartbroken smile. Subhuti sighed at his disciple’s expression. “If you were evil-hearted by nature and prone to be uncaring of good and evil, I would not be so reluctant. But you are a Sword cultivator! Your path is destined to be that of a righteous exterminator of evil! The guilt of battling against your own faction will twist your heartforce and impact your Dao-heart! How can I stand to see my own disciple destroy his overwhelming potential?” Despite his words, Subhuti was internally praising Ji Ning’s talent. He had reached the level where he needed to only master a Heavenly Dao to break through. And Subhuti had no illusions that Ji Ning would fail at comprehending a Heavenly Dao… his talent was phenomenal! “Master… to keep my Dao-heart straight like a sword is impossible! Yu Wei, my beloved wife is being tortured at this very moment! It has caused my heart to twist and shatter apart! But with your help, I can begin my path as a Demonic cultivator with a steady heart. This is something no one in the Three Realms is capable of, something only you can do. Please help me, master…” Part 4 Spacetime rippled as Daofather Subhuti teleported on a blue planet. This was an unnamed planet in a nameless mortal realm. Desolate and bare, it was a large desert that could not sustain life. Just like the heart of Ji Ning. Subhuti suppressed his thoughts about his beloved disciple as he let loose his domain. Spacetime froze still across the entire planet. No one could spy on them now. Ji Ning was now dressed in a robe of blood red. Desire to slaughter fused with the black sinflames surrounding him, causing an intent of despair to radiate across the world. “Thank you, master. This will make my transition to the Demonic Path easier.” Ji Ning said as he received a spatial ring from his master. “Ji Ning, as you requested me to, I froze the Godking’s Avatar with spacetime techniques, severed the karma surrounding him to convince his true body of its death, bound the Avatar into a spatial treasure and brought it to you. What are you going to do with it?” Subhuti was a master whose understanding of Karma and Spacetime was peerless in the Three Realms. Not many cultivators capable of this. “Master, Yu Wei’s truespirit was confined to a pearl that would bind it, making it impossible for her to cultivate. I had a fortuitous chance to get a treasure that could house her truespirit and create a Primaltwin for it. Unfortunately the Godking…” Ji Ning stopped speaking. He could not speak of the Undermoon Lake due to the Lifeblood Oath. He simply took out a silver egg-shaped stone that shone with freezing blue light. The instructions for forging and refining this treasure, the Truthfrost Egg, were in the scriptures and jade slips left behind by Worldgod Northrest. It was quite easy to refine and Ji Ning used some of the treasures he received in the Undermoon Lake’s trials to forge it for Yu Wei. “Are you going to use such a precious treasure on this godking?! You…” Subhuti’s angry words were stopped when Ji Ning interjected. “As if I will allow that piece of trash to be reborn with it! No, I have bound this treasure with countless curses and restrictions which will keep him alive and conscious, restrict him from refining a Primaltwin or engaging in any sort of cultivation, meditating or even resting! The treasure’s true use is to revitalize Yu Wei’s True Spirit into a soul. It will only cultivate the Godking’s soul for 3 days so that he may gain his memories and rebuild his personality… it is restricted to training his soul to the level of the weakest Earth Immortal… I will use him to temper my curses and my despair. Every day, I will torture him, every night I will torture him. His pain and despair will be the fuel that will allow me to cross from the Daoist path to the Demonic path!” Ji Ning madly laughed. He would torture! Torture the Godking without end, making his heart fall into despair! His memories and personality would be wiped out until he would be nothing more than a newborn child, guilty of nothing! And then, he would torture him even more, until even that would be snuffed out! For this, he would bear the tribulation of Sinflame. This would be even stronger than the tribulation he had sustained when he attacked the Youngflame clan. But this wouldn’t be a tribulation for him, but a cleansing! He would clear all the sentiments of the Daoist Path and be reborn as a Demonic cultivator! Subhuti only sighed on hearing his latest disciples’ words tinged with madness. It seemed that the young child fascinated with sword arts had died with his wife’s betrayal… Part 5 Once again, Ji Ning was alone on the lonely blue planet. Countless plots and schemes flashed in his mind. All of them would take countless years but they would assuredly make the Godking fall into unending despair. Finally, he cleared his mind of them. In the Undermoon Lake, Ji Ning had not only read technique and sword art manuals, but had also read the various memoirs and books kept by Worldgod Northrest. Some of them were romance novels, some of them were tales of adventure but all of them had one commonality… they all had plots, schemes, betrayal and despair. The element of a character succumbing to death by erosion of his truespirit was also a commonality! Worldgod Northrest had spent his final years in despair at his inevitable, impending death. He finally created the Undermoon Lake to choose a successor who would cultivate to a high realm, leave this backwater chaosworld and return the news of his death to his sect so that he would finally be avenged! Before his death, he left behind the cultivation techniques and sword arts to temper his successor. The techniques he did not possess but were necessary for tempering were created by him! And all of them had one commonality: despair! Even the cultivation technique for reaching the Worldgod stage, Forsaken Worldgod held this supreme feeling of despair. Ji Ning realized that the Godking was a cultivator who had cultivated heartforce. His understanding of heartforce would rise after sadistically making his opponents feel despair. This type of cultivation technique tempered heartforce by comprehending the emotional state of despair and imbuing it into attacks was used by him! However, a person who cultivated heartforce would find it difficult or even near impossible to blatantly break his oaths. This was because heartforce was also tempering of the will. It was difficult for Ning to believe that the cowardly person who trod on the weak and bent down before the strong held such willpower. This kind of persona was similar to that of the young masters who had been fed on treasures and who broke through cultivation stages without care. He was a person who underestimated his juniors and he would suffer for it… Ji Ning found it difficult to believe that such a Godking had reached the pinnacle of the Three Realms with such attitude. “This is only possible if he was born with the ability to use heartforce…” Ji Ning secretly said as he reviewed his memories. The Godking was a person of the Seamless Gate, or the previous Seamless Chaosworld. He could be a True God born with the Grand Dao of Heartwill, Willpower or one of other the Grand Daos that joined up to lead to the destroyed Heavenly Dao of Heart. The Godking being an Elder God was impossible; Ji Ning knew of the original Elder God of Heart from Subhuti’s teachings. “He must have comprehended the Heavenly Dao of Heart before the destruction of the Seamless Chaosworld. Or perhaps he didn’t, this might be the reason for his low understanding and tendency to force me to yield to despair…” Ji Ning walked in ten thousand mile circles, circling through the planet, his mind converging observations of the Godking’s psyche into a scheme that would end with his destruction and the destruction of the Seamless Gate. “The immortal path has failed me, so I resign myself to the path of the devil. Be what may, my sword shall chop through the Three Realms, weeding out all betrayers with the pain of being betrayed… Master, please trust in this disciple of yours. Yuwei, wait for me. Brightmoon, you will reunite with your mother soon…” Ji Ning’s cold expression softened for a moment before hardening again. “The Seamless Gate shall be completely destroyed and betrayers exterminated from this earth. Once bitten, twice shy…” Understanding of this chaosworld and the various elements that Worldgods knew but did not care to spread was transmitted by Worldgod Northrest to him. This information was crucial in turning the defeat of the Nuwa Alliance into victory. “The Endwar is coming… this can also be said to be the end of this era of the Three Realms. Then the next era shall be my era. The era of Ji Ning…” Ji Ning’s soft words were only the prologue to the turning of fate… Part 6 Within the Pangaea Prisonworld, the captured and restricted clone of the Godking was unleashed. Seeing the face of his captor, Ji Ning, he was extremely surprised. He immediately tried to broadcast a message to his true body, but he couldn’t even sense it, let alone send a message! All he could do was scream at Ji Ning. “What is this space? How can I not sense my true body?” “You don’t have to worry about the true body, clone formed from divine sense… Is it true that you were a True God born from the Seamless Chaosworld? What Great Dao were you bestowed by the virtue of birth?” Ji Ning’s questions were ignored by the Godking, but he unexpectedly couldn’t stop himself from replying. “The Great Dao I born with is that of Heartwill… Wait, how did you force me to answer that?!” The Godking fearfully asked Ji Ning. “Only a Grand Heart-Demon Oath. It forces you to answer all questions and prevents you from committing suicide. Well, I want to ask you more questions, but I know a small strand of divine sense will not have the memories to answer. Let’s begin then…” Ji Ning cold words resounded as a shiver ran through the Godking’s spine. Suddenly, a streak of blue light shot out, striking the avatar’s heart. It was the Truthfrost Egg. Entering the avatar, it began nourishing its strand of divine sense into a soul. The Godking’s avatar felt that Ji Ning’s action was weird. This person considered him an enemy, so why was he nourishing him? He would feel more relieved if he struck to kill him. Ji Ning did not answer, and simply left. He was filled with the desire to torture the Godking to death, but the divine sense had not been nourished into a soul yet. So, three more days were left… Three days passed in a blink, and the avatar could only wait in dread of the upcoming doom. He couldn’t kill himself, so all he could do was wait. And finally, Ji Ning returned… “Aha, it seems that my estimations were correct. Your strand of divine sense has now bloomed into a soul barely in the league of a Earth Immortal. Now, it is time to begin…” Ji Ning’s eyes flashed as heartforce arts struck out to maul the soul and tear out memories. Countless devilish and demonic tormenting arts from Northrest’s legacy struck out to mark the Godking with despair… Part 7 “Ahaha, my soul feels at ease now.” Ji Ning looked at the avatar of the Godking, which only stared at him with glazed eyes, his spirit cleansed and soul shattered. The avatar was only hanging on to a thread of life, which could be cut by a single thought of Ji Ning’s. Originally, he felt that the transition to the Demonic Path would be harder, but the hate for the Godking helped him smoothly cross over. Every time he tore into the Godking’s memories and learnt of another of his countless atrocities, all traces of guilt from his heart were extinguished. This person was no longer a man but a demon. Thus, Ji Ning had to turn into a greater evil and become a devil to smoothly destroy him! “I should have encountered a Sinflame tribulation, but this Prisonworld does not have the Heavenly Dao. It seems that I will encounter it after I return to the Three Realms…” Since it was like this, he could think of a way to trap the Godking and roast him with Sinflame. A few more spells and runes struck the soulless shell with a wave of a hand. Along with the countless mental tortures that cleansed the soul of all thought and personality, the avatar was inlaid with countless controlling spells and runes. All to facilitate to a certain plan, a plan that would come to fruition after his meeting with the Godking! Part 8 The Windfree Minor World. This minor world had nothing that would interest the Seamless Gate or the Nuwa Alliance. Ji Ning chose it as it was fairly desolate and what he planned for the Godking wouldn’t be noticed here. As expected, the Godking arrived, decked as usual in his black robes. He brought along the pearl containing Yu Wei’s soul along, as agreed. “Give out the Heavenseeking Fiendrebirth and the Lightning agility technique. After that, swear an oath to join the Seamless Gate.” The Godking’s voice was taunting, as if aiming to aggravate the soul. “Hmph, my master already told you of my betrayal, didn’t he? Since I have already betrayed the Nuwa Alliance, the only ones I can stand with is by the side of the Seamless Gate. So, just give me Yu Wei. A trash Fiendgod born with the advent of the Seamless Chaosworld will not be able to train in these techniques in the first place.” Ji Ning’s words were aggravating, designed to pierce into the Godking’s shell. Hearing this, the Godking lazily threw the pearl at him. Ji Ning carefully caught it. Divine sense shot into the pearl, and Ji Ning’s face turned pale. “Shocked, aren’t you? Of course, the torture that you inflicted on her by not turning to us has negatively impacted her soul. If you want to actually interact with her, you will need pinnacle level Soul Elixirs, and you can only get them by rendering huge merits for the Seamless Gate… Of course, no matter what, that soul of your woman is bound to the pearl and has no hope of cultivating and becoming independent.” The Godking’s smirking words provoked no reaction from Ji Ning. He simply called out the Godking’s avatar from the Prisonworld. The Godking was momentarily shocked upon seeing it. The hollow, soulless eyes were extremely piercing. But he was not allowed to react. A single thought turned the avatar into divine sense which returned to the true body. And the Godking was subject to utter torment that spread through his soul like cancer, destroying it! At this moment, the tribulation that was postponed in the Prisonworld appeared to strike Ji Ning. Sinflames born from the supreme sin of utter soul annihilation struck him. But Ji Ning simply laughed, for the tribulation was less of an exterminator and more of a tempering, completing his change of Paths! The righteous Ji Ning was gone! This was the advent of a world shocking Demonic cultivator! The sinflames came and went, and Ji Ning was alone in the minor world. “The Godking is now my puppet. I will use him to gain ranks in the Seamless Gate, and turn use the ritual of forming a first-grade Jindan for you. But for now, take this Truthfrost Egg and regain your soul.” Saying this to Yu Wei, Ji Ning fused the two pearls together, allowing her soul to materialize. The upcoming trials would be hard, but now his wife would be at his side! With her, there was no way he could fail!