Desolate Era (Book 16 - Book 18)

“It looks strong, but it’s power is rather hollow,” Celestial Immortal Unity evaluated. “Clearly, the enormous amount of natural energy hasn’t been applied perfectly; a bit is leaking out.”


“To be able to perfectly control such an enormous amount of natural energy is too difficult. Even the most powerful of Celestial Immortals can only do their best.” Ning could see and sense how massive this concentration of power was. If someone was capable of controlling all of this power with absolute perfection…even Empyrean Gods and True Immortals would have no choice but to flee in the face of it! Alas, even a Pure Yang True Immortal controlling the formation wouldn’t be able to perfectly control it.

“Fellow Immortal Northstar.”

The Xia Emperor, located outside the formation, spoke out.

Swish.

A white-robed Xia Emperor appeared out of nowhere. The white-robed Xia Emperor walked towards the grand sealing formation, which didn’t impede him in the slightest, allowing him to enter.

“Imperial Majesty.”

The massive Northstar Heaven Punisher called out respectfully to him.

The Heaven Punisher’s entire body was dark-red. He was only clad in furs which covered his waist and his groin. A blood-red aura radiated from his entire massive body; it was the manifestation of his warlike intent, made corporeal.

“First familiarize yourself a bit first,” the white-robed Xia Emperor said.

“Yes,” the Northstar Heaven Punisher said respectfully. Natural energy continued to ripple over the body of the massive Heaven Punisher, slowly stabilizing as the Heaven Punisher’s form grew more solid. The aura emanating from it, however, actually shrank considerably…but then, everything came to a halt. Clearly, this Heaven Punisher was unable to strengthen any further.

The white-robed Xia Emperor nodded. “Prepare.” He waved his hand, and an enormous pile of black rocks suddenly appeared, stacked up on each other in neat layers like a small mountain. However, hints of golden light could be seen from within the black rocks, causing them to have a mysterious aura.

“This is chaos goldstone,” the white-robed Xia Emperor said. “There are a total of ten pieces piled up here. Use your full power to chop down upon the stones here with your palm. The more power your Heaven Punisher is able to split open, the more stones you will be able to split open. The other fellow Immortals who command the Heaven Punisher Formation will also be assigned the task of splitting these stones open.”

“Chaos goldstones? But we haven’t been taught the critical components to the Heaven Punisher Formation yet; will we be able to break them open?” Celestial Immortal Unity, located outside the formation, was a bit worried now.

“Hard to say.” Ning wasn’t certain either.

He naturally knew a bit about chaos goldstones. The Fifth Cycle of the [Starseizing Hand] required many Five Elements treasures, and chaos goldstones could be used to satisfy the ‘metal’ element requirements.

True Gods and Daofathers harvested them from the infinite primordial chaos. They were incredibly tough, and generally speaking only Empyrean Gods or True Immortals were capable of damaging them. For Empyrean Gods and True Immortals, the value of chaos goldstones lay in the fact that if one refined them, one would be able to extract chaos gold essence from them. The stones were completely black, but their surface glimmered with faint dots of golden light. These dots of golden light were ‘chaos gold essence’.

These ten enormous pieces of chaos goldstone, nearly three thousand meters long…if one refined and smelted them, the amount of chaos gold essence that would be produced would most likely be the size of a human fingernail.

Chaos gold essence was something which even True Gods and Daofathers would find hard to damage. It could only be used in smelting and forging if one had very special forging equipment and special techniques to melt them. They were truly top-grade ingredients, generally used in the most top-grade of Pure Yang artifacts. If one mixed in just a little chaos gold essence into those artifacts, they would become nigh indestructible.

“Begin,” the white-robed Xia Emperor ordered.

A million Immortals outside the formation watched as the Northstar Heaven Punisher raised his enormous palm. That massive palm was like a giant axe, the edge becoming the axe-blade as it chopped straight downwards! Ripples in space appeared in the area around his palm, pushing out in two opposite directions. However, his power was clearly still being held back; otherwise, space would’ve been torn apart long ago.

BOOM!

The enormous palm hacked straight down against the ten massive pieces of chaos goldstone. Instantly, the entire imperial plaza trembled. However, since this was the most stable and secure location in the entire Grand Xia Dynasty, it wasn’t damaged in the slightest.

“How’d he do?”

“He broke it.”

“He broke it!”

“He seems to have broken four pieces!”

The million Immortals stared, all sighing in disbelief.

To be able to shatter four pieces of chaos goldstone, despite how tough they were…it could be said that even without knowing the critical parts to the formation, the Northstar Heaven Punisher was definitely at the power level of an Empyrean God or True Immortal. Ning had to admit; this Heaven Punisher was considerably stronger than his own true body, which had just barely reached the minimum level of power for Empyrean Gods or True Immortals. And this was without knowing the most important parts to the formation!

“Four pieces shattered, some damage to the fifth piece.” The white-robed Xia Emperor nodded. “Alright. Next shall be fellow Immortal Alltruth.”

The grand sealing formation was temporarily dispelled.

The Heaven Punisher Formation disassembled. The hundred thousand Loose Immortals and one thousand and one Celestial Immortals all appeared. Celestial Immortal Northstar first bowed towards the white-robed Xia Emperor, then walked out of the grand sealing formation. As he did, a tall, skinny, ashen-faced elder walked into the formation.

……

Each of the 359 Celestial Immortals had a chance to test themselves.

The first testee, Celestial Immortal Northstar, was actually quite formidable; most of those who came after him were only able to break three pieces.

“Fellow Immortal Unity.” The white-robed Xia Emperor glanced outside.

“I’m going to give it a try.” Unity gave Ning a smile, then walked towards the grand sealing formation.

Ning watched closely.

Unity was the 192nd testee. The most powerful Celestial Immortal to date had, amazingly enough, been able to shatter six pieces of chaos goldstone. She was a female Immortal, Celestial Immortal Rainsoar of the Skyfarmer clan. She was a tremendously famous pill-refining expert, but she wasn’t particularly well-known for her combat abilities. And yet, till now she was the most powerful person to be tested.

“I wonder how Celestial Immortal Unity will do?” Yu Wei wondered.

“Senior Unity’s power is formidable,” Ning said. “I trust his results shall be extraordinary.”

Rumble…

A Heaven Punisher once more took form within the formation.

After familiarizing himself with the technique, the Unity Heaven Punisher was given the nod by the white-robed Xia Emperor. He, too, lifted up his massive right palm, then hacked downwards towards the pile of chaos goldstone.

BOOM! Yet another, now-familiar exploding sound. By now, most likely all of the dwellers within the imperial capital of the grand Xia had gotten used to this sort of explosion…because there had been nearly two hundred of them by now.

Ning took a careful look, only to see that only four pieces of the ten chaos goldstones remained undamaged.

“Six pieces!” Ning called out in delight.