Desolate Era (Book 16 - Book 18)

The Immortals all sighed in amazement. In their hearts, Ji Ning truly was a peerless monster. They had thought that he wouldn’t necessarily be that impressive in commanding the Heaven Punisher Formation, but who would’ve thought that he had most likely surpassed all of the Celestial Immortals who had come before him?

They all took a careful look.

The shockwaves dispersed. Only now could they see…that the mountain of chaos goldstone was an absolute mess. There were so many shattered pieces of stone that they couldn’t even tell how many were broken.

“Is that…eight pieces?”

“Maybe nine?”

The million-plus Immortals tried their best to discern how many pieces there were, but found it hard because so many shattered bits of rocks were obstructing their view.

The white-robed Xia Emperor waved his hand, and instantly all of the shattered bits flew to one side, revealing a completely undamaged piece of chaos goldstone as well as a second piece that was covered with cracks.

“Eight pieces shattered, the ninth piece nearly completely shattered.” The white-robed Xia Emperor revealed a smile. “Fellow Immortal Ji Ning truly is formidable; you’ve already become number one amongst the 330 Immortals who have tested thus far.”

In his heart, the white-robed Xia Emperor sighed to himself. “Ji Ning truly is incredible. For Celestial Immortals, using the Heaven Punisher Formation to break six pieces of chaos goldstone should be their limit. Only an inconceivable monster like Ji Ning could release such extraordinary power.”

From six pieces to eight pieces…there was ‘only’ an increase of two pieces, true, but the power of the palm-blow was being ablated with each layer. This meant that Ning’s Heaven Punisher’s power was two entire levels above that of the other Heaven Punishers. This…was because of heartforce! His powerful heartforce allowed him to control more of the natural energy of Heaven and Earth. If he had fully mastered heartforce and applied it to his soul, he would’ve been able to control an even more astonishing amount of power.

Rumble…

The Darknorth Heaven Punisher completely vanished, revealing a thousand and one Celestial Immortals and a hundred thousand Loose Immortals. Ning immediately flew out then said with a smile, “Thank you, fellow Daoists.”

“Ji Ning,” the white-robed Xia Emperor laughed, “Unless something unexpected happens, you’ll be one of the nine generals. But of course…if nine of the remaining twenty-nine are more powerful than you, then there’s nothing for it.”

“If that really is the case, it would be a blessing for our Grand Xia,” Ning said.

The Xia Emperor laughed loudly, then said, “Alright. Next is fellow Immortal Dustfloat.”

……

The person who came after Ning, Immortal Dustfloat, actually startled everyone quite badly…because he was able to just barely succeed in smashing the seventh piece of chaos goldstone. This caused many Immortals to feel shocked; could it be that there really was a group of incredibly powerful Celestial Immortals located at the end, some of whom would surpass Ji Ning?

However…as time passed and the tests proceeded, they quickly saw that although the Xia Emperor had indeed arranged for some of the particularly famous and powerful Celestial Immortals to be placed towards the end, none of them were more powerful than Ji Ning. In fact, none of them were even as powerful as Celestial Immortal Dustfloat.

The trials for the 359 Celestial Immortals took a total of two days, ending by nightfall of the second day.

The ranking was:

1 – Celestial Immortal Darknorth, Ji Ning

2 – Celestial Immortal Dustfloat

3 – Celestial Immortal Loachwater

4 – Celestial Immortal Rainsoar

5 – Celestial Immortal Allbeasts

6 – Celestial Immortal Unity

7 – Celestial Immortal Rainbow

8 – Celestial Immortal Thousand Needles

9 – Celestial Immortal Whacko

It was actually quite strange. Ning had shattered eight plates of chaos goldstone, while Celestial Immortal Dustfloat had shattered seven. The rest of the nine had shattered six pieces, while the tenth had shattered five pieces.

“These thousand Celestial Immortals and hundred thousand Loose Immortals shall be commanded by fellow Immortal Whacko; they shall be the ‘Whacko Army’.” The Xia Emperor began to assign responsibilities. Upon hearing the name, quite a few of Immortals were unable to control their laughter; this army’s name didn’t have any hint of an Immortal’s aura at all.

“These next thousand Celestial Immortals and hundred thousand Loose Immortals shall be commanded by fellow Immortal Thousand Needles; they shall be the Thousand Needles Army.”

……

“These next thousand Celestial Immortals and hundred thousand Loose Immortals shall be commanded by fellow Immortal Darknorth; they shall be the Darknorth Army. Alright; the nine armies have been set. The remaining Celestial Immortals and Loose Immortals shall be under my command,” the Xia Emperor said. “Nine generals, come with me. All other Immortals, you can go rest with your fellows in the same army.”

The Xia Emperor immediately flew away on a cloud towards the Skylight Palace.

The five True Immortals followed him, as did Ning and the rest of the nine.

Within a graceful hall inside the Skylight Palace.

“Sit, all of you.” The Xia Emperor sat down with a smile. Everyone else sat down as well.

The five True Immortals were naturally seated closest to the Xia Emperor. Next was Ji Ning and the rest of the nine, who seated themselves in accordance with their ranking.

“These are the critical parts to the Heaven Punisher Formation. Hurry up and learn them. Meditate well.” The Xia Emperor waved his hand, and instantly nine dark-red medallions flew towards Ning and the other eight. “True God Xingtian personally forged these, imprinting his technique within them.”

These medallions were the size of a palm. They were dark red, and covered with a savage-looking diagram.

The nine medallions hovered in the air in front of Ning and the rest of the nine. They naturally reached out to grab them, then filled them with their coresense. Soon, they completely memorized all of the information contained within it.

“You can keep the medallions.” The Xia Emperor sighed. “All of you have fearlessly volunteered to command my many Immortals to do battle against the Seamless Gate…if you manage to survive, you can use the medallion to go visit True God Xingtian, and pick a single technique of your choice from his Dao Repository. Alternately, you can choose any Pure Yang treasure or Protocosmic spirit-treasure from his treasury.”

Ning remained quite calm, but the other Celestial Immortals began to feel the fires of desire blaze in their hearts. After all, none of them were a Daofather’s disciple; there were many divine abilities and secret arts which they did not have access to.

“Meditate well,” the Xia Emperor repeated, his gaze dark and gloomy. “I fear that not too long from now, the Seamless Gate will launch the war.”

……

The world of the Grand Xia. Whitepole Commandery was a very remote commandery. Generally speaking, the more remote a feof was, the larger in size it was.

It was nightfall.

An enormous, towering black citadel was hovering in the air above Whitepole City. The levitating black citadel was a full size larger than even Whitepole City itself. It was completely black, and around it hovered a large number of chains. These countless chains filled the space around it, seeming to lock the citadel here as an anchor kept a ship locked in place in the sea.

The walls of the black citadel were filled with many roving black-armored soldiers.

Within the citadel itself, there was a tightly-patrolled military headquarters, as well as some towering palaces.

The largest open area within the black citadel was covered with a veritable sea of Immortals, all seated in the lotus position. These were Loose Immortals, and one could see no end to them.

At the very front of the plaza, there were three enormous, fog-shrouded caverns that were three hundred meters tall. The dark cavern entrances led to a mysterious, terrifying location.