The Desolate Era

“Our Baxia Dragonturtle Formation can definitely defend against it,” Celestial Immortal Violetgrass sent frantically. “Let’s make our move as well. Fight back! Kill him!”

As Celestial Immortal Unity used his sword-art, the eighteen enemy Celestial Immortals all activated their own magic treasures as well. They had used the Baxia Dragonturtle Formation and had pooled their Immortal energy together, causing their strength to increase. Now, every single one of them was capable of exploding forth with power comparable to Ji Ning’s, back before Ji Ning suffered the descent of karmic sinflames.

All sorts of colors began to flash in the skies as many magic treasures and spells shot out like a meteor shower, slicing through the air and striking towards Unity.

“The Five Elements are the foundation, the Taiji serves as the guide...this is my Supreme Immortal Swordland.” Light flashed in Unity’s eyes, so dense as to seem almost material. His voice rang out loudly, and the enormous Supreme Immortal Sword within the skies began to come crashing downwards. As it pressed downwards...the enormous Taiji cloud above it, as well as the five pillars of light around it, all instantly connected to it.

An enormous sword-world that was a hundred kilometers in size had been created!

The Supreme Immortal Sword pressed downwards at high speed, and the size of the sword-world was rapidly shrinking as well, from a hundred kilometers to ten kilometers, as it clashed against the magic treasures and spells of those eighteen Celestial Immortals.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

A series of explosions could be heard. The Supreme Immortal Swordland trembled, seemingly growing weaker.

However, the distant Unity just pushed a little bit more of his Immortal energy into it. At the same time, those five roving Five Elements light pillars and the Taiji clouds once more filled the Supreme Immortal Swordland with energy, causing its power to once more be restored.

“Even joining forces, we still can’t break it? This supreme ability of Celestial Immortal Unity is actually a sword-world attack on this level. One can’t even flee from it; it truly is enough to cause one to feel despair. No wonder he is known as the Supreme Sword Immortal.” The faces of the eighteen Celestial Immortals changed. Although the power of each of their magic treasures and spells had increased dramatically, their attacks were scattered and not unified; there was no way to merge their attacks together, and so they were all blocked by the Supreme Immortal Swordland.

The Supreme Immortal Sword continued to press downwards!

The entire sword-world continued to rapidly shrink, quickly compressing down to the size of the enormous Baxia Turtledragon beneath it.

The eighteen Celestial Immortals frantically poured in more of their own Immortal energy to further stabilize the Baxia formation; this formation was extremely suited for defense, and the eighteen entrusted all of their hopes to it.

BOOM! An enormous explosion.

The Supreme Immortal Sword had stabbed straight into the shell of the Baxia Turtledragon, while runes flowed across the shell, striving to defend against the sword.

“....Eh?” Unity’s face changed slightly.

“Blocked it. Blocked it!”

“Haha, he’s just a single Celestial Immortal, after all; no matter how formidable his abilities are, he’s just ‘close to’ the power of a Pure Yang True Immortal.”

“Did you really think it would be so easy to break this Baxia Formation?”

The eighteen Celestial Immortals instantly felt complete confidence.

“Descend.” Unity waved his finger, once more executing the Supreme Immortal Swordland. He wanted to launch multiple attacks to break through the enemy’s defensive formation.

.......

The other three watched the battle from far. By using his Supreme Immortal Swordland, Unity had completely crushed the Seamless Gate’s forces; although the Seamless Gate’s forces had a strong defensive formation, their attacks were completely useless against Unity.

“Senior Unity is controlling the entire battle,” Immortal Diancai said with a laugh. “He truly is far too powerful. His sword not only includes the Grand Dao of Taiji, it also includes many of the profound mysteries of the Five Elements. He’s perfectly merged them all together into this sword-stroke...most likely, not even a real Pure Yang True Immortal would necessarily have such a powerful technique.”

Ning nodded.

For a Celestial Immortal to have close to a Pure Yang True Immortal’s power required the Celestial Immortal to be at a very high level of insight into the Dao, and have techniques that were even more powerful than a True Immortal’s. This Supreme Immortal Swordland was most likely the result of a fusion of multiple Grand Daos. Although none of these Grand Daos were fully mastered, this sort of perfect fusion was no weaker than a sword-art derived from the complete mastery of a full Grand Dao.

“Quick, look!” The nearby Yu Wei’s face suddenly changed.

“Eh?” Ning’s face changed as well.

The eighteen distant Celestial Immortals who originally formed into the Baxia Dragonturtle Formation had all retrieved their various magic treasures. The area around them began to manifest multiple azure runes. The eighteen Celestial Immortals gritted their teeth, using their full power as they generated countless strings of power to cover the entire Baxia Formation. Soon...from the shell of the Baxia Dragonturtle appeared the head of an enormous azure serpent. A Turtle-Snake had just been formed, and its power was clearly tremendous.

“A Turtle-Snake?”

“Xuanwu!”

The faces of Ji Ning, Yu Wei, Immortal Diancai, and even Celestial Immortal Unity changed.

The Turtle-Snake had an extremely unique status within the Three Realms. Every single Ki Refiner, upon reaching the Primal-level, would manifest a Primal Turtle-Snake soul. As for Xuanwu the Turtle-Snake...he was a truly powerful figure who had lived since the days of the primordial Pangu’s World, and who was honored by everyone with the awe-inspiring title of Grand Emperor. This Turtle-Snake Formation was unfathomably more profound and complicated than the previous Baxia Formation.

“The Baxia Formation was extremely strong defensively to begin with, while this Turtle-Snake Formation was built atop the Baxia Formation, using it as a base and further perfecting it.” Upon seeing the enormous Turtle-Snake appear, Unity immediately knew what was happening. “This Turtle-Snake formation...it has the defensive power of the Baxia Dragonturtle Formation, but also has an incredibly strong attack.”

Suddenly...

Whoosh!

The titanic azure serpent, previously coiled, suddenly opened its giant, bloody maw. The body of the azure serpent suddenly increased explosively in size as its head transformed to become a hundred kilometers long, seemingly capable of swallowing the universe itself. Unity hurriedly used his Supreme Immortal Sword to block, but the serpent head seemed to be illusory, biting down and swallowing Unity within it. Unity hurriedly controlled the Supreme Immortal Sword to transform back into six streaks of sword-light that returned to his side, protecting him.

“What?!”

“But, but...” Immortal Diancai and Yu Wei were both stunned.

“Heaven Swallower?” Ning frowned. This was an ability which Grand Emperor Xuanwu was born with...and this Turtle-Snake Formation was actually capable of replicating it? Clearly, the creator of this formation had perfected this formation to a level where it was nearly identical to an actual Turtle-Snake.

“In our Turtle-Snake Formation, the turtle focuses on defense while the snake focuses on attack.” Violetgrass and the rest of her Celestial Immortals were quite delighted; this Turtle-Snake Formation had just as strong a defense as the earlier Baxia Formation had. This was indeed quite a flawless formation with astonishing power. However, it was extremely hard to execute; these eighteen supreme Celestial Immortals were only able to just barely set it up with tremendous effort.

“Kill!”

Unity was completely trapped within the body of the azure serpent. He once more executed his Supreme Immortal Swordland from inside the body, but as he did yet another serpent head appeared, beginning to wildly assault him. The serpent head would appear and disappear at random in an unpredictable manner, causing Unity to be an extremely difficult situation. From the looks of it, he wouldn’t be able to hold on for too long.

“Once the Turtle-Snake Formation appears, it dominates anyone below the Empyrean God or True Immortal level.” Violetgrass and the others were all completely confident.

......

“It’s over.”

“Not even Celestial Immortal Unity can break this Turtle-Snake Formation, and the attacks of that azure serpent are unpredictable and unfathomable.” Immortal Diancai, standing at the walls of Stillwater City, revealed a look of despair. Yu Wei’s face was ashen as well. Neither of them were in a position to help. In the face of the power of the Turtle-Snake Formation...they both knew that they were far too weak.

Most likely, only a true Empyrean God or True Immortal would be able to break this formation.

“Damn.” Ning’s face changed when he saw this. He could tell that Unity wasn’t going to be able to hold on for much longer.

Swoosh!

Ning immediately executed the [Obscuring Wind of the Nine Heavens] and charged out.

“Ji Ning!” Immortal Diancai’s face instantly changed dramatically. “Ji Ning, don’t go! STOP!”

“JUNIOR APPRENTICE-BROTHER!” Yu Wei began to panick as well. She hurriedly moved to use the formation to impact Ning and prevent him from going out.

However...all three of them, Ji Ning, Yu Wei, and Immortal Diancai, were very familiar with this formation. In fact, each of them had left their own runic imprints upon the core of the formation; any of the four were capable of taking control over it! The formation might be able to block others, but there was no way it could block Ji Ning.

“Junior apprentice-brother, that formation is too powerful. Not even Celestial Immortal Unity is a match for it. Don’t be a fool!” Yu Wei sent frantically with her coresense.

“Disciple, as your master, I order you to come back RIGHT NOW!” Immortal Diancai grew even more frantic.

Swoosh! Swoosh!

The two were so frantic that they flew out from the city walls, chasing after Ning.

Although they had faith in Ning’s power...they had just personally witnessed the utterly terrifying might of the Turtle-Snake Formation. In terms of defensive strength, not even the most powerful sword attack of Celestial Immortal Unity could break it. In terms of offensive strength, that azure serpent was unfathomable and mysterious in its movements, and it could even seemingly swallow the heavens themselves. Even Unity was at the brink of death! If Ji Ning became trapped in the azure serpent as well...that would mean he, too, would be doomed!

Swoosh! Ning didn’t slow down at all.

“Ji Ning, that Turtle-Snake Formation’s azure serpent is clearly perfect for binding and restricting the movements of foes. Although your body is unbreakable as a magic treasure, this formation is a perfect counter for you. If you go, you’ll die!” Yu Wei frantically flew towards Ning’s direction, but Ning had the [Obscuring Wind of the Nine Heavens] divine ability; given his speed, how could Yu Wei possibly catch up to him?

And...by now, Ning had already reached the Turtle-Snake Formation.

The eighteen Celestial Immortals of the Seamless Gate were using their full power to have the Turtle-Snake Formation kill Unity. Now, however, they saw Ji Ning flying towards them.

“Ji Ning?”

“He actually dares to come after seeing the power of our Turtle-Snake Formation?” The eighteen Celestial Immortals were shocked.

“Perfect. We’ll first use our full power to have the formation kill Unity, and after Unity dies we will kill Ji Ning! We’ll break them apart one by one, then kill them all! As for Ji Ning...just let the turtle part of the formation block his attacks,” Violetgrass sent mentally.

“Right.” The other seventeen agreed with here.

After all...if they had to simultaneously deal with both Ji Ning and Unity, it would be quite taxing, even for them. Thus, it was better to first ignore Ji Ning and focus on killing Unity, then dealing with Ji Ning next. The defense of the Turtle-Snake Formation was comparable to the Baxia Formation, so he wouldn’t be an issue anyways.

Whoosh!

As Ning appeared, the fingers of his right hand suddenly formed into sword-fingers. Swish! His sword-fingers instantly expanded to become more than three thousand meters long. They were like an enormous sword that filled the entire sky, and at the tip of the sword-fingers there was a silvery-white aura. In this instant, Ning activated the Fourth Cycle of the [Starseizing Hand], and also poured his heartforce into his sword-fingers.

The [Starseizing Hand]...swordforce...and heartforce. All together!

“Junior apprentice-brother!”

“Ji Ning!” Yu Wei and Immortal Diancai, paying attention to nothing else, flew over towards Ning, panicking as they watched this all happen.

Whooooosh.

The utterly enormous sword-fingers descended with unfathomable power.

Only when the sword-fingers actually slammed against the Turtle-Snake Formation did the faces of the eighteen Celestial Immortals suddenly change, and change dramatically at that. However...it was too late. SLASH! The Turtle-Snake Formation was completely unable to withstand this terrifying sword-finger attack of Ning’s. It was instantly ripped apart!

As the three thousand meter long sword-fingers broke through the Turtle-Snake Formation, it sliced sideways as well. The Celestial Immortals all felt as though mountains were slamming against them...and in an instant, six Celestial Immortals died!

“But...” Violetgrass and the other surviving Celestial Immortals were stunned. “Impossible. This Turtle-Snake Formation is invincible against anyone below the Empyrean God or True Immortal level.”

Yes. Normally speaking, this Turtle-Snake Formation they used truly was invincible against anyone below the Empyrean God or True Immortal level.

But Ji Ning...was different.

When he fought against the Youngflame clan, he was already very close to being at the very peak of power possible for a Celestial Immortal. Afterwards, in the Nihilum Zone, had had broken through to the seventeenth stage of the [Crimsonbright Diagram of the Nine Heavens]; this breakthrough in divine power alone had put him very close to a Pure Yang True Immortal in terms of combat power, comparable to Celestial Immortal Unity!

In addition to that...Ning’s heartforce had reached the third stage, and he had gained swordforce as well.

He was now able to instantly use up a fifteenth of his third-stage heartforce in a single blow. This represented an utterly astonishing amount of power! And now, swordforce was added into the mix as well! Ji Ning, who had already been close to a Pure Yang True Immortal in power, had instantly leapt past that gap. In terms of attack power, he already had truly reached the level of an Empyrean God or True Immortal!

“Can it be that he’s actually an Empyrean God or a True Immortal?!” Violetgrass and the others stared in terror at the distant Ji Ning. All of them began to move to flee, no longer even thinking about fighting back...but Ning let out a savage roar:

“THREE HEADS, SIX ARMS!”

Whooooooosh.

That single set of sword-fingers...had suddenly transformed into six sets of sword-fingers, slashing through the skies towards them.