Desolate Era (Book 11 - Book 15)

Rumble…


The waves of the river bellowed forth, sweeping across the entire region. The twelve white-robed members that made up squad ‘Earthnine’, hidden deep within the body of the Ba-Serpent, were all shocked. As the waters of the primordial river known as the Nightriver crushed upon them, and as the river water outside the body of the Ba-Serpent ground down upon it, their Ba-Serpent Formation began to creak and crack.

“Don’t panic. This is the power of a formation-diagram of an Immortal sword; it only has the power to constrict and suppress. A single formation-diagram won’t be able to do anything to the Ba-Serpent!” The leading white-haired man immediately sent mentally to the others.

……

The outside world.

The Scion of the Blood God had been trapped within the formation. Although he could see the distant Immortal Diancai and Whitewater Hound, he wasn’t able to draw any closer to them!”

“That whitewater hound is merely using the Fuxi Staff Formation; how is it that his formations are this powerful?! I’ve trained for hundreds of thousands of years, and I have some insight into the art of formations, but I haven’t been able to find a single flaw in this formation at all.” The Scion of the Blood God was completely stymied.

Right at this moment, the sound of massive explosions could be heard from afar.

The Scion turned to look in that direction. He could still see the giant Ba-Serpent in the outside world; he was simply unable to fly over there.

“The Ba-Serpent?”

“A river?”

Uncle White and Immortal Fivecraze turned to look as well.

From afar, a three kilometer Ba-Serpent had been completely swept up into an enormous, awe-inspiring river that was more than ten thousand kilometers long. The waters of the river were furiously churning around the body of the Ba-Serpent.

And then, the massive river began to rapidly shrink, from ten thousand kilometers to a hundred kilometers, then down to ten kilometers.

The ten kilometer river was now roughly comparable in size to the three kilometer Ba-Serpent. The power of the river grew as it shrank, and it continued to coil and churn around the Ba-Serpent. There was even water flowing in and out of the Ba-Serpent’s body, nose, and mouth.

ROAR!!! The Ba-Serpent raised its head, letting out a furious growl as it twisted and turned, struggling to free itself. But the river didn’t budge in the slightest.

……

“Captain, the pressure from the waters of the river is too great, and it has covered every single part of the Ba-Serpent’s body. We’re using up far too much elemental ki in maintaining this Ba-Serpent Formation.”

“Captain, what should we do?”

They were beginning to grow nervous. Normally speaking, once a foe entered the body of the Ba-Serpent, there was no way the foe would be able to find the twelve of them. They could attack as they pleased at a close distance from the ‘flesh’ and ‘bones’ of the Ba-Serpent, with attacks that would be very difficult to defend against. Thus, the enemies would usually be quickly dominated and destroyed! However, despite being trapped within the Ba-Serpent, this Ji Ning actually had a method to deal with the entire creature at once!

“A formation-diagram? A formation-diagram?! Generally speaking, only Pure Yang treasures have formation-diagrams. Even if this Ji Ning does have a Pure Yang treasure…logically speaking, he has to be at the Celestial Immortal level to use it. How could a formation-diagram have appeared?!” The captain was puzzled and frantic as well.

The Nightriver Painting of the past was something which required one to first draw the enemy into painting before being able to use the river to suppress and weaken the enemy.

However, after the countless years of refining by the spirit of the underwater estate, the Nightriver Painting had already become the formation-diagram of the Thousandbull Sword. Once the formation-diagram was activated, the Nightriver would instantly appear.

This was what made formation-diagrams so special! And this was also the reason why the Thousandbull Sword could be described as comparable to a Pure Yang treasure!

“This Ji Ning definitely has some sort of powerful treasure on him. However…following that principle, once we kill him, that treasure will become ours,” the captain sent mentally. “We must kill Ji Ning at all costs. Activate the forbidden technique!”

“The forbidden technique?”

“But…”

“Captain, do we really have to activate it?” These were Immortal cultivators, not Deathsworn; they naturally felt a degree of self-interest.

The captain shouted mentally towards them, “This treasure is capable of allowing a Void-level Earth Immortal to command the power of a formation-diagram, which means that it is no less valuable than a Pure Yang treasure in might! Ji Ning definitely has many treasures on him; once we acquire them, then hmph…all of us will benefit from it. Even if you suffer harm to your foundations, it will be worth it. Don’t hesitate; the more time we waste, the more elemental ki we will have wasted. If you continue to hesitate…don’t blame me for being merciless!”

“Fine. Let’s do this!”

“Kill Ji Ning!”

Upon hearing their captain’s threat, they no longer hesitated. They simultaneously executed the forbidden technique.

The ‘Ba-Serpent Formation’ was an ancient, powerful formation which had been passed down by the Bloodcloud Hall that required twelve Immortals to execute. Aside from normal attacks, it also possessed three levels of forbidden techniques.

These three levels of techniques were extremely complicated; given the insights into the Dao which the members of squad ‘Earthnine’ possessed, only the activation of the first level was possible.

However, this first level already possessed nigh-limitless power.

The twelve white-robed men, hidden within the body of the Ba-Serpent, all used the same forbidden technique simultaneously. The runic formations that had been hovering in the air around them slowly began to turn a bloody color, and additional blood-colored runes began to appear as well. These bloody runes hung there in the air, and once the forbidden technique was activated…

“Ba-Serpent Hell – Godslayer!” The white-robed leader with the bloody scar let out a low growl, his voice echoing within every part of the Ba-Serpent’s body.

All of the bloody light and the bloody runes began to suddenly move about at high speed. They flowed forth from those twelve locations within the Ba-Serpent, moving towards the direction of the Ba-Serpent’s abdomen. Immediately afterwards, within the dark abyss of the abdomen of the Ba-Serpent, a region of blood suddenly appeared. The bloody light and the bloody runes all swirled around each other within this region.

Whoosh.

Ning’s three-headed, six-armed form was gripping a total of six mighty swords as he strove to block the suddenly attacking magic treasures. “I have to come up with a way to flee from the Ba-Serpent’s body. If I’m unable to escape…I’ll be like fish meat on the chopping board.”

“Eh? Why have the attacks stopped?” Ning found out to his amazement that the weapons and arts that had been attacking him had suddenly disappeared.

But suddenly afterwards…the devouring force increased dramatically in power, and with a swoosh, Ning once more sank downwards.

Plonk. Ning fell straight into a bloody lake.

This was a lake of blood located within the abdomen of the Ba-Serpent. Above the lake of blood were bloody runic symbols which hovered and shimmered. Upon falling into the lake, Ning immediately struggled to try and fly out, but the sucking power of the lake was simply too great. Ning was firmly trapped within it, completely unable to escape. At the same time…Ning could sense a powerful corrosive force begin to be applied to every single part of his body.