Desolate Era (Book 16 - Book 18)

The Xia Emperor looked towards Ning, then nodded. “Right. You are still quite weak; your main goal right now is to train to prepare for the Empyrean Tribulation and become an Empyrean God. Thus, there are many things which your master has probably not informed you about. Once you do become an Empyrean God, you’ll know all these things. The Seamless Gate…their abilities are beyond what you can imagine. The Seamless Gate, the Seamless Gate…in terms of their intelligence abilities and their infiltrating abilities…they truly do leave no seam untouched!”


Ning shivered. Puzzled, he asked, “But why is it that they can violate oaths to the Dao of the Heavens? That makes no sense.”

“Why doesn’t it make sense? Daofathers have all mastered Heavenly Daos and are in control of them; oaths to the Dao of the Heavens are useless when made by them,” the Xia Emperor said. “Since oaths to the Dao of the Heavens are useless when made by Daofathers…naturally, there are others for whom they are useless as well. However, not just anyone is capable of this…but clearly, the Seamless Gate is!”

“They are able to know of every single Celestial Tribulation.”

“They are able to ignore oaths to the Dao of the Heavens.”

“They even number amongst their ranks disciples of the leaders of the Daoist Path and the Buddhist Sangha!” The Xia Emperor sighed. “The two leaders of the Daoist Path and the Buddhist Sangha possess unfathomable abilities; they were able to detect some flaws and identify some traitors. However…those ones they found most likely only make up a tiny fraction of the total number of traitors.”

The Xia Emperor sighed again. “Thus…this is a true ‘tribulation’ for the Three Realms!”

Ning nodded.

Right.

Even people like his master, Subhuti, were behaving with the utmost caution. The Seamless Gate…it was far too mysterious, and its abilities were far too unfathomable. In fact, Ning had the feeling that it was as though the Seamless Gate was in control of the laws of Heaven and Earth! They were able to locate any Celestial Tribulation, and oaths to the Dao of the Heavens was useless to them…

“I will naturally be very, very cautious in choosing the nine commanders,” the Xia Emperor said. “No matter what, I cannot let one of those positions enter the hands of a traitor. However…although there might be a few traitors amongst the eleven thousand, the chances of one of them becoming the top nine are quite low. I’ll be extremely careful in my investigations, and if I detect anything out-of-place at all, I’ll immediately apprehend them.”

……

Soon, the fifteen days given to the Celestial Immortals to meditate on the Heaven Punisher Formation came to an end.

The Skylight Palace. The main hall.

The Xia Emperor was seated high up on his throne, staring down at his subjects. Smiling, he said, “Fellow Immortals, the fifteen days have passed. I trust that you have all mastered at least the ‘advanced scroll’ of the Heaven Punisher Formation.”

All the Celestial Immortals present laughed.

The Heaven Punisher Formation was divided into the ‘basic’ level, the ‘advanced’ level, and the ‘complete’ level.

The basic level was for Loose Immortals to learn. It was very simple, and even Loose Immortals would only need a single day to learn it.

Learning the ‘advanced’ level was a bit tougher, but for Celestial Immortals…even the slowest of them would only need two days to master it.

Mastering the complete Heaven Punisher Formation, however, was thousands of times more difficult.

“Those of you who have mastered the complete Heaven Punisher Formation, come to the center of the palace,” the Xia Emperor said.

One person after another began to rise to their feet.

Ji Ning and Celestial Immortal Unity rose to their feet as well, walking to the center. An entire group of Celestial Immortals now stood at the heart of the palace.

“A total of 359.” The Xia Emperor laughed. “If there was one more, we would have a perfect 360 degree circle. Still…perfection is rare in this world. My 359 fellow Immortals…I’d like to ask you to make your preparations now. In two hours, I will have each of you attempt to command a thousand Celestial Immortals and a hundred thousand Loose Immortals in assuming the Heaven Punisher Formation. I’ll test the power of the Heaven Punisher Formations you command, and the most powerful nine will become the nine commanders.”

……

A short while later.

The imperial plaza below the palace. More than a million Loose Immortals were gathered here; one truly could see no end to them.

By now, the Loose Immortals had all parted, allowing for an empty area with a circumference of a thousand kilometers appear amongst them. At the edges around this empty area, there stood more than eleven thousand Celestial Immortals as well as the Xia Emperor.

“One thousand Celestial Immortals, a hundred thousand Loose Immortals, enter the field!” The Xia Emperor ordered.

The pre-selected Celestial Immortals and Loose Immortals flew into the empty field in an awe-inspiring manner.

“Fellow Immortal Northstar shall be the first one,” the Xia Emperor said.

Celestial Immortal Northstar immediately said respectfully, “Yes.” He stepped into the empty region, and as he did, a blurry aura of light instantly covered the field, forming into an enormous grand sealing formation.





* * *





Book 18, Chapter 5 - Chaos Goldstone


The Xia Emperor and the million Loose Immortals watched from outside the grand sealing formation.

Within the formation, this quite famous Immortal Northstar, dressed in stellar Daoist robes, gave an order to the thousand Celestial Immortals and hundred thousand Loose Immortals next to him: “I’ll have to trouble you all, fellow Daoists…assemble the formation!”

Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!!! A thousand Celestial Immortals and a hundred thousand Loose Immortals all flew into the air in unison. When the Xia Emperor had selected them, he had also assigned them each a location within the grand formation. In truth, it was quite simple; each Celestial Immortal controlled a hundred Loose Immortals, who would do whatever the Celestial Immortal ordered. The thousand Celestial Immortals, in turn, followed the lead of Immortal Northstar; thus, the Heaven Punisher Formation was quite stable.

The Immortals all hovered there in midair…and then bloody runes began to emerge from their bodies, causing a shockingly powerful warlike aura to emerge.

BOOM!

A blood-red aura suddenly burst out of the grand sealing formation, but it didn’t damage it in the slightest.

Countless lines of bloody red light began to converge, merging together to form a dark-red giant.

And then…the colors of the world seemed to change!

An enormous whirlpool appeared in the air above the entire imperial capital. It spread more than a million kilometers, ravenously drawing in all of the surrounding natural energy. In almost the blink of an eye, a completely void of a million kilometers was created; all of the energy in that region had been drawn into the sealing formation, into the blurry giant’s body. Instantly, the blurry form of the giant began to stabilize.

The giant was thirty thousand meters tall, and he looked like he had an absolutely enormous head, as well as a pair of muscular arms and powerful legs! However…if one took a careful look, one would see that the massive head was actually the giant’s entire upper torso! The nipples were the eyes, while the belly button was the mouth. The entire upper body was like a giant, savage, snarling face that had a vague resemblance to Celestial Immortal Northstar’s.

“So this is Xingtian, the Heaven Punisher?”

Ning and the others all sighed in amazement.

A thousand and one Celestial Immortals, along with a hundred thousand Loose Immortals, were all located within the body of this Heaven Punisher. The enormous Heaven Punisher, formed from the energy of the surrounding area, had an aura of such power that it surpassed the aura of most Empyrean Gods and True Immortals.