Chapter 5: Chaos Metal and Stone

Outside the sealing grand formation, the Xia Emperor and a million immortals watched.

Inside the formation.

The rather famous Beichen Celestial Immortal, clad in a starry Daoist robe, said to the thousand Celestial Immortals and a hundred thousand loose immortals within the formation, “I trouble all fellow Daoists.”

“Form the formation.” Beichen Celestial Immortal then gave the order.

Swoosh, swoosh, swoosh!!! The thousand Celestial Immortals and a hundred thousand loose immortals all flew up. The Xia Emperor had selected them and naturally had already determined each person’s position within the formation. In fact, it was very simple: each Celestial Immortal commanded a hundred loose immortals, and those hundred loose immortals were to always follow that Celestial Immortal. The thousand Celestial Immortals took Beichen Celestial Immortal as their leader, so the entire Punishment Heaven Formation could naturally be stabilized.

The immortals hovered in midair.

Then, blood-colored rune patterns began to float out from each of their bodies, and a shocking battle intent rapidly coalesced.

“Boom!”

A blood-red aura shot straight out of the sealing grand formation, yet did not harm the formation in the slightest.

Countless blood-colored rays of light converged, vaguely forming a dark red giant.

Then heaven and earth changed color!

A huge vortex appeared above the entire Great Xia royal capital, frantically sucking in the power of heaven and earth from a range of over a million li. In an instant, a vacuum formed over a million li, and all the power of heaven and earth gathered into the blurry giant within the sealing grand formation. The blurry giant quickly began to solidify.

The dark red giant, ten thousand zhang tall, at first glance seemed to have a huge head, strong arms, and legs. But upon closer inspection… one discovered that the huge head was actually the upper body! The breasts were the eyes, and the navel was the mouth. The entire upper half resembled a huge face, ferocious in appearance, vaguely discernible as resembling ‘Beichen Celestial Immortal’.

“Is this Punishment Heaven?”

Ji Ning and the others watched in amazement.

One thousand and one Celestial Immortals and a hundred thousand loose immortals were all inside this ‘Punishment Heaven Great God’. The Punishment Heaven Great God, formed by gathering the endless power of heaven and earth from a million li, had an aura so strong that it surpassed even many Heavenly Gods and True Immortals.

“Looks formidable, but in reality it’s somewhat insubstantial,” Tonghe Celestial Immortal commented from the side. “Clearly, this vast power of heaven and earth is not perfectly mobilized; some is dissipating.”

“To perfectly mobilize such vast power of heaven and earth is too difficult. No matter how powerful a Celestial Immortal, they can only mobilize as much as possible.” Ji Ning also felt the strength of that power. If anyone could absolutely and perfectly control this terrifying power, even Heavenly Gods and True Immortals would flee at the sight! Unfortunately, even with a Pure Yang True Immortal as the core of the formation, perfect control was impossible.

“Fellow Daoist Beichen.”

At this moment, the Xia Emperor outside the formation spoke.

Whoosh.

A white-robed Xia Emperor appeared out of thin air. This white-robed Xia Emperor walked toward the sealing grand formation, which did not obstruct him at all and allowed him to enter.

“Your Majesty.”

The Punishment Heaven God ‘Beichen’ said respectfully.

The dark red Punishment Heaven God, with only an animal skin around its waist, had a surging blood-red battle aura above its body—a materialized battle intent.

“First get a little familiar with it,” the white-robed Xia Emperor said.

“Yes.” The Punishment Heaven God Beichen replied respectfully. The power of heaven and earth on the surface of the Punishment Heaven God kept surging, gradually stabilizing, and the body became more solid. The aura it emitted actually retracted somewhat, but then it could not improve any further.

The white-robed Xia Emperor nodded and said, “Prepare.” With a wave of his hand, a pile of huge black rocks appeared out of thin air, stacked layer upon layer like a small hill. The black rocks had specks of golden light, giving them a mysterious aura.

“This is Chaos Metal and Stone,” the white-robed Xia Emperor said. “This pile has ten pieces. In a moment, you will strike this Chaos Metal and Stone with all your strength using a palm strike. The more pieces you split, the greater the power with which you command the Punishment Heaven Formation. Later, when other fellow Daoists command the Punishment Heaven Formation, they will also strike this Chaos Metal and Stone.”

“Strike Chaos Metal and Stone? We don’t yet have the key techniques of the Punishment Heaven Formation; can we break it?” Tonghe Celestial Immortal outside the formation was worried.

“Hard to say.” Ji Ning was also uncertain.

He was very familiar with Chaos Metal and Stone, because among the five elements treasures needed for the fifth turn of the Picking Star Art, the metal element treasure could be ‘Chaos Metal and Stone’.

This Chaos Metal and Stone was mined from the endless chaos by True God Patriarchs. It was extremely hard; only Heavenly Gods and True Immortals could damage it. But for True God Patriarchs… the real use of Chaos Metal and Stone was to refine and extract the ‘Chaos Metal Essence’ from it. The Chaos Metal and Stone was black overall, with faint golden specks on the surface. Those golden specks were the ‘Chaos Metal Essence’.

The ten pieces of Chaos Metal and Stone, each a thousand zhang long, placed there, would probably yield only a fingernail-sized amount of Chaos Metal Essence after refinement.

Chaos Metal Essence was so hard that even True God Patriarchs could hardly damage it. It could only be melted and refined using special methods like artifact forging. It was a truly top-grade refining material. Generally, a Pure Yang top-grade magic treasure… with a little Chaos Metal Essence mixed in, would become indestructible.

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

The million immortals outside the formation all watched.

The Punishment Heaven God Beichen immediately raised its hand. The thick hand was like a giant axe, the palm vertical like a blade, and it chopped downward! The chop caused ripples in the surrounding space, spreading outward. But clearly, the power was contained. If released, it would have torn space apart.

Bang!

The giant hand directly struck the stacked ten huge pieces of Chaos Metal and Stone. The entire palace square shook violently, but the imperial palace, being the most stable place in the Great Xia dynasty, was unharmed.

“How is it?”

“It broke.”

“It broke!”

“It seems four pieces broke!”

The millions of immortals all watched, each one marveling endlessly.

The might of the Chaos Metal could be shattered into four pieces. It could be said that even without the crucial techniques, the strength of this Xingtian God was definitely at the level of a Heavenly God or True Immortal. Ji Ning also admitted that this Xingtian God was considerably stronger than his true body, which barely crossed into the Heavenly God and True Immortal level. And this was without having obtained the crucial techniques.

"Four pieces shattered, the fifth has some cracks." The white-robed Xia Emperor glanced and nodded. "Good, next is Daoist Zhenbi."

The sealing grand formation was temporarily withdrawn.

The Xingtian formation dispersed, revealing one hundred thousand loose immortals and one thousand and one Celestial Immortals. The Northern Dipper Immortal first bowed to the white-robed Xia Emperor, then walked out of the sealing grand formation. Meanwhile, another tall, thin, gray-faced old man walked in.

...

Three hundred and fifty-nine Celestial Immortals each came to try.

The first to try, the Northern Dipper Celestial Immortal, was already considered quite formidable; the average level afterward was shattering three pieces.

"Daoist Tonghe." The white-robed Xia Emperor looked outside.

"I'll go first." Tonghe Celestial Immortal smiled at Ji Ning, then walked toward the sealing grand formation.

Ji Ning also watched.

Now it was the one hundred and ninety-second. The strongest Celestial Immortal so far had astonishingly shattered six pieces of Chaos Metal; it was a female immortal, 'Feiyu Celestial Immortal' of the Tiannong clan, a renowned alchemy expert. No one had ever heard that she was particularly skilled in battle, yet she was currently the strongest.

"I wonder how Tonghe Celestial Immortal will fare?" Yu Wei said from the side.

"Senior Tonghe's strength is remarkable," Ji Ning said. "I believe he will certainly be extraordinary."

Boom!

Inside the formation, another Xingtian God had formed.

After a brief familiarization, the Xingtian God 'Tonghe', upon the white-robed Xia Emperor's instruction, also raised his right hand and struck down toward the Chaos Metal below.

Bang~~~ Another familiar loud noise; it was believed that all residents of the Grand Xia capital would be familiar with this intense vibration by now, as it had nearly reached two hundred times.

Ji Ning quickly looked carefully. Of the ten pieces of Chaos Metal struck, only four remained intact.

"Six pieces!" Ji Ning exclaimed in delight.

"Truly formidable, on par with Feiyu Celestial Immortal," Yu Wei also rejoiced.

"Truly remarkable, impressive," the Hallmaster Celestial Immortal also said excitedly. After all, the Celestial Immortals gathered this time were too numerous, and many were nearly at the level of Pure Yang True Immortals. To control the entire Xingtian formation... who could unleash greater power was indeed hard to say.

The millions of immortals were also filled with countless praises.

Inside the formation.

The white-robed Xia Emperor also nodded: "Six pieces shattered, the seventh has a few cracks. Very close to Daoist Feiyu, slightly inferior by a hair. Among the one hundred and ninety-two immortals, it ranks second."

The grand formation dispersed, and Tonghe Celestial Immortal landed on the ground, joy in his eyes.

Being ranked second among one hundred and ninety-two Celestial Immortals meant a very high chance of being in the top nine among all three hundred and fifty-nine. Of course, if luck was bad and the ones after were too strong, there was nothing to be done.

...

One Celestial Immortal after another went to try.

"Why hasn't it reached Junior Martial Brother yet?" Yu Wei was somewhat anxious.

"No hurry, there are always those before and after," Ji Ning said. The Xia Emperor probably valued him highly, so he was placed toward the end as the finale.

By the time the number of Celestial Immortals who had tried exceeded three hundred, those who shattered six pieces had reached five.

"Daoist Ji Ning, please." The white-robed Xia Emperor spoke.

"Ji Ning?"

"Ji Ning is going."

"Northern Dipper Immortal Ji Ning? It's said that when his true body was at the Void Return stage, he could resist nine great Celestial Immortals. He is a disciple of a Dao Ancestor. It seems his second avatar has also transcended the tribulation and become a Celestial Immortal."

"I saw Ji Ning at the Immortal Fortune Convention; indeed, his talent is monstrous. But Daoist Ji Ning's cultivation time is relatively short after all. I wonder if he can control the Xingtian formation well." Immediately, discussions arose. To these tens of thousands of Celestial Immortals, Ji Ning's reputation was indeed great. In their view, Ji Ning's current strength was on par with theirs, but in the future, he would likely far surpass them.

...

Inside the formation.

"Fellow Daoists, please." Ji Ning addressed the one thousand Celestial Immortals and one hundred thousand loose immortals.

"Deploy the formation."

Ji Ning immediately soared into the air, flying to a high altitude. The one thousand Celestial Immortals followed him, dispersing in all directions around him, while the one hundred thousand loose immortals each followed their respective Celestial Immortals. At the same time, a large number of blood-colored runes appeared, and endless blood-colored light condensed, forming a blurry dark red giant. The power of heaven and earth also began to surge wildly, soon coalescing into a ten-thousand-zhang Xingtian God. The face on the belly of this Xingtian God closely resembled Ji Ning.

"What a powerful feeling." Ji Ning marveled.

That surging power even exceeded his control limit. All he could do was... control as much as possible.

"Daoist Ji Ning, familiarize yourself first." Outside, the white-robed Xia Emperor smiled.