so many cons. one of my favorite things about the series is how lighthearted it can be and then boom chu yuyan, boom a father is like a mountain. genuinely touching, emotional, beautiful writing. makes me glad deathblade was the translator. a lesser one would not have been able to convey that kind of emotion.
I doubt it will be 5 times as that's just equivalent to his current level times his swords art factoring in flexibility and transitions into one move to the next but not including his jump in understanding his tier his insight or his break through in Heartforce or the Heartsword stance not to mention possible evolution in azure flower. I think he will experience an vast change especially since... he's presumptively the first of this realm-verse or even possible multi-verse who's merged so many supreme dao's perfectly into one dao.
Infusing his sword arts to me would be him keeping the individual stances and using them as he does normally and just improving the stances. Merging would be similar to a freeform or singular stance that keeps the essence of what those stances stood for. Ji Ning's dao is the "True Essence" of the sword a 'perfect dao'. Since all of his stances emphases one aspect of a sword then the last form should be no stance at all! A perfect sword stance isn't split into sections or has transitions nor is it swung haphazardly around it'd be something like Jeet kune do. This is the best way I can figure to explain what I'm thinking.
How ever strong he becomes and whatever multipliers IET puts on it, Ji Ning is going to become strong enough to threaten the life of an Archon which will be at or infinitely close to the Hegemon Level. He will essentially be another Emperor Heartsword (Whatever his name was) Plus it was hinted at in the past chapters... Brightshore said that no Daolord ever has been able to truly stand as equals amongst Archons and Hegemons. That is IMO clear foreshadowing telling us Ning is going to be strong enough to fuck with Archons and contend even if minimally with Hegemons. There are 2 known paths to become an Autuarch. Have your Dao resonate with the Prime Dao's of your Realmverse or train like Bolin did. While Ning is outrageously OP he is only as strong as Autuarchs who trained in the same way Ning did. While he may be the onlyone ever of his Realmverse he definitely isnt the only person ever in the Multi-Verse's.
The freeform stance you mentioned imo is already being used by Ji Ning. Multiple times Ji Ning has said how he is able to move between the stances at will, for example beginning with the blood drop stance to increase the speed of his blow then right before contact changing to his heavenbreaker for its destructive power. The 4th step shouldn't fundamentally change his style as its just another step in his path, I'm interested to see if any distinctive improvements are shown in one of the stances such as the shadowless stance allowing him to evade detection when it reached the third step. The biggest power increase I can see is that Ning will finally be able to create his own special techniques, special techniques are the main reason for the differences shown between supreme daolords as technically they are at the same level of understanding.
Moving between stances and there being only one stance is two totally different things what I'm talking about is free of all form not some 'freedom stance' there would be no stance at all. His moves would be filled with the pure primal essence of the Dao of the sword. There wouldn't be a need for a stance with penetrating power that transitions back and forth from a power stance or a assassination stance or defensive stance or domain Stance. it would all be one singular thing. I'm not expressing myself well so I'll just have to leave it at this.... I'm tired of him having to improve his stances separately in order to level up and I get the feeling IET was getting tired of it at this point as well cause he just glosses over all but the blood drops and heaven breakers advancements unless its the movement one but IET hasn't even been using that one recently when it comes to stronger cultivators since its such a cheat like ability to just disappear without conflict. Special techniques? I doubt he'll ever do that, he focuses only on the sword even his skill in alchemy only came about due to him needing a strong defensive tool. Star-seizer hand he gave up on upgrading that with no forewarning one minute he was upgrading it but never put it into action to never using it ever again. The azure mist doesn't activate divine abilities... not that he seems to rely on that much these days as well. Domain abilities? Right now he has a legacy full of them he'll most likely choose that one that required that Qi he and NineDust acquired on their first adventure. He may create one at the Hegemon or Autarch level... maybe...
By special techniques I was talking more about an individuals signature moves that utilise their individual dao in a way that strengthens them more than just baseline power. Examples of these would be the three killer attacks of the Radiant King that were each called Lumi-something ( still the worse technique name I've heard in this series to date) and Winesage's three moves as well with the best one called Awakening Dream. As an idea of the increase in power possible Ninedust when he broke through was only a match for the likes of Fiendqueen Dustrain and after improving his special techniques over this period could fight the top level daolords like Dawnstar. Ning should also spend time on creating some original heartforce techniques as he's probably the strongest heartforce practitioner in all the endless territories possibly even in history.
I feel like Ning is going to get around to it this book since it seems to be a training book. Also, Ning knows that only if he creates a technique can he use it to its maximum power... He knows he won't be able to use the same amount of power in one technique as the creator so he probably will create his own special moves this book or next one... Or at least before he becomes an EE.
Yea, this might technically be more masterful, if it were possible, but IET shouldn't do it for at least a couple reasons. 1. Ever since Ji Ning created and this sword art and named it after his daughter, way back in his home chaosworld, it's had five stances. He's already said that all sword techniques are included in those five stances. Changing the sword art would devalue much of its history. 2. With five stances, he can use one or another as needed, and by calling out the name, we get some feel for the enemies' characteristics and what kind of action he's taking in response. If Ji Ning merged all his sword arts into one form or freeform, fights would become more incomprehensible and boring. Well, Ji Ning's already put characteristics of the other stances into each stance.
The thing he wanted was for the 5 stances to represent the 5 true aspects of the dao of the sword he was searching for the true essence so a sword that represents that wont delude what he intended the BrightMoon Sword art to be at all. If he merged the he wouldn't need to change anything or change from one stance to another they would all be defensive and offensive. IET has been leading to this anyway as so I see it.
Ning loves to needlessly worry and string people along. Ning, "I'm going to go killed a super powerful foe that killed me once before. Why are you worrying? He only killed me once so I can totally contend against him. Also one of the major powers of the verse wants me dead, but it's all cool.". Just tell Solesky that you broke through and now you are powerful enough to fight archons; stop all the grandstanding in front of friends and sworn brothers.
Shit going to be getting good. I didn't get exactly what I wanted from what the hints have shown but I figured he'd get an invulnerable form based on Shadowless but I thought he'd invent a Sword body or something unique as well.
I hope he spends time now improving his insights and perfecting his dao. The dude's lived, like, a billionth or less of his 108,000 chaos cycle lifespan. He could master the heartsword technique and study the Hegemon-level sword daos he's encountered, and eventually reach or even surpass the Hegemon level before even trying his daomerge. He’d improve his foundation for when he travels outside the realmverse and increase his chances for the daomerge. Why rush? No one's said that time since death matters when attempting to reverse spacetime and resurrect a soul. He keeps saying how low his chances at the daomerge are. But he’s got all this time ahead of him to improve his understanding of the sword and other daos.
As far as him taking time and perfecting his dao through tempering I agree but letting even 1 chaos cycle go by as he travels would be too much honestly I think that ill happen only when he hits the verge and that's a big maybe. Ji Ning plans to spend those 108k CC with his woman after he resurrects her and (if) he fails his dao merge
Ah. Well, he should at least spend a few thousand chaos cycles, just a small fraction of his lifetime, improving himself! I don't believe the daomerge is an automatic thing. He can ignore its call. Verge-level daolords might feel when their chances are best, but that's probably after they've lived for thousands of chaos cycles already and have improved themselves about as much as they can. Ji Ning's still a baby among them, despite his power and insights.
Yeah he can ignore the call of the dao merge until the 108k Chaos Cycles are almost up I believe and he'll have a another 108k CCs on his belt I think, I'm not to sure, but Ning isn't at the Verge just yet so as far as we know. So as of yet there is no need to even try to ignore the call
Spoiler: This is a big one In fact he is the first in his Multiverse only not in the whole universe. When he suceeds in the dao-merge and becomes a hegemon he will become strong enough to contend with regular Autarchs
It's not just him, it's every xianxia MC, but the other characters are pretty dumb to annoy the MC who constantly breaks trough and knows about his opponent.