Chapter 26 – The Deep Gorge

In front of the horned, human-shaped creature lay a massive aberration that was like a mountain-island…an armored insect-type aberration.. This bug had a triangular head which glowed with with a bronze light, making it look as though it was metallic. Its sharp fangs were clearly visible within its savage-looking mouth, and it also had sixteen knife-like legs.

This insect aberration had an aura of tremendous power, and surges of a gray aura were constantly wafting off of its body. It was simply too enormous; its body alone was nearly thirty thousand meters in length.

“Good boy.” The horned humanoid immediately opened his mouth.

Whoosh!

The utterly massive, terrifying insect actually began to shrink at a rapid pace, becoming a tiny little dot that flew straight into the mouth of the horned humanoid.

“Ancestor.”

“Master.”

Two figures instantly flew over; one a bald, black-robed man, the other a woman with dazzling golden hair. These two Celestial Immortals were acting extraordinarily subservient; they knew exactly how terrifyingly powerful this horned humanoid before them was! This was the true ancestor and patriarch of the entire Youngflame clan. The reason why the Youngflame clan had refused to bow their heads towards the Kindwater clan and instead fought with them for so many years, despite the fact that the Kindwater clan had an Empyrean God, was precisely because the Youngflame clan had the Ancestor behind them!

“Come. Accompany me on a trip to the Oldjade mountain range.” The horned humanoid had an ugly look on his face. “I want to see who it is that dares touch my things.”

“Yes,” the two Celestial Immortals said respectfully.

……

As Ji Ning was pulling up the fiery copper pillar, Patriarch Arcanum was quietly standing guard within a distant tower. He had been seated in the lotus position, but his face suddenly changed. He opened his eyes wide in terror and shock. “The Infinity Furnace…who dares disturb the Infinity Furnace? Can it be Ji Ning? But, but…”

……

Within the Oldjade mountain range. Within the massive, ten thousand kilometer formation which Uncle White had set up.

The five mighty Celestial Immortals trapped within were originally quite patient, but upon Ning beginning to uproot the fiery copper pillar…

“Not good!”

“The Infinity Furnace!”

“It must be Ji Ning!”

Celestial Immortals Infatuation, Goldclock, Sunfish, Deadwood, and Flamefish all had completely different looks on their faces now.

The copper Infinity Furnace was simply far too important to them. If Celestial Immortals were one of the pillars of the Youngflame clan, the Infinity Furnace would be one of the other pillars! The secrets of the Infinity Furnace…not even Loose Immortals or Earth Immortals knew about them. However, all of the Celestial Immortals within the clan did know, and all of them had left behind their own seals and runes upon it.

So long as anyone began to open the Infinity Furnace, they would immediately know!

“No wonder Ji Ning stopped attacking us. He discovered the Infinity Furnace! He must have found it when he was destroying that earlier area.”

“Quick, let’s go stop him.”

“We can’t let him open the Infinity Furnace.”

The five mighty Celestial Immortals didn’t hesitate at all; Celestial Immortal Infatuation waved his hand, and he instantly collected the other four Celestial Immortals. And then, he disappeared as well, leaving behind only a mobile Immortal estate in midair.

Although Uncle White’s formation-based attacks and Mu Northson’s Seven Ruinous Thunderwinds were all quite formidable, they weren’t able to destroy this mobile Immortal estate.

Rumble…

After the storm of attacks passed…the five mighty Celestial Immortals were gone. The mobile Immortal estate landed on the ground.

“Hmph.” Little Qing blinked forward, appearing before the mobile Immortal estate. Stretching out her hand, she grabbed it and immediately began to forcibly bind it to herself. She called out, “Those five Celestial Immortals slipped away…what should we do?”

“If they slipped away, they slipped away. We are here in the headquarters of the Youngflame clan; they won’t just sit and watch as we relax here. They’ll definitely come again.” Uncle White was quite calm.

Little Qing and Uncle White both immediately sent spiritual messages to Ning, alerting him of this.

……

Deep underground.

The enormous nine hundred meter tall Ji Ning was standing atop the fiery stone cliff while tugging out the giant copper pillar at rapid speed. Rumble…with each pull, the copper tube was lifted up nearly six hundred meters! Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! Ning continued to pull upwards rapidly, while more and more of the copper pillar began to emerge. “I want to see how damn long this copper pillar is, and what’s behind this fiery stone wall.”

As Ning saw it, once he pulled out the copper pillar, he would be able to use his divine sense to investigate the enormous hole that would be left behind.

“Eh?” Ning suddenly frowned. He could sense a spatial ripple, an extremely powerful spatial ripple.

“Greater Teleportation.” Ning immediately recognized it.

Just a few dozen kilmeters away from Ning, amidst the earth and rubble, Celestial Immortals Infatuation, Deadwood, Flamefish, and the other two all simultaneously appeared. They were all utterly enraged. Around them circled that enormous five-colored mountain peak, and with a boom, they quickly began to charge towards Ning, the five-colored mountain peak crushing through all obstacles before them.

Just as they got close to Ning…

“Attack!” Celestial Immortal Infatuation gave the order. Whoosh whoosh whoosh…instantly, the five enormous chains shot out like Flood Dragons, tearing through all obstacles as they swept towards Ji Ning, who was still pulling at the fiery copper pillar.

“Hmph.” Ning just smirked. “Three Heads, Six Arms! Thousandbull Sword, let the Nightriver emerge!”

Instantly, two more arms grew out from Ning’s body, to join the two arms that were being used to pull at the copper pillar. The Thousandbull Sword appeared above his head as well, and the awe-inspiring Nightriver also emerged. The Nightriver instantly and completely submerged everything nearby, causing the five dragon-like chains to seem to have become mired in quicksand. At the same time, Ning’s four arms demonstrated tremendous power as he completely suppressed the assaults of the chains.

“Kill him!”

“Stop him!”

The five Celestial Immortals, upon seeing that the Shaoyin Demontamer Formation wasn’t powerful enough, temporarily gave up that idea for now. After all, their current goal wasn’t to trap him; it was to prevent him from pulling out the pillar! Thus, they all used various spells, magic treasures, and other abilities to that effect.

One tendril after another appeared, slithering towards Ning like giant serpents!

An enormous fiery phoenix appeared, charging towards Ning.

A golden greatclock appeared in midair, ringing out and sending waves of power towards Ning.

“Is that all you have?”

Ning completely ignored these attacks; in fact, he actually grew even more excited. “As soon as I started tugging at this copper pillar, those five Celestial Immortals immediately teleported over here. They were clearly trapped within the formation; how did they know that I was here pulling the pillar? This pillar must be covered with various seals, runes, and restrictive spells, causing them to immediately know about this.”

“For them to attack me in such a berserk manner shows that they are truly unwilling for the copper pillar to be uprooted,” Ning guessed to himself.

The more his enemies feared an action, the more insistent he could be on carrying it out!

Many magic spells and treasures flew towards Ning, but Ning allowed all of the attacks to land on his body.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

The surrounding earth and rocks were all blasted apart as a wave of power spread out towards every direction. Everything within a thousand kilometers was instantly transformed into ash, while the ground within ten thousand kilometers began to crack and shatter. In fact, the cracks spread all the way from the underground area to the surface, forming an enormously deep gorge that was nearly ten thousand kilometers deep! The earth and rocks here were quite ordinary, after all; how could they withstand the frenzied attacks of five mighty Celestial Immortals?

This was the power of Celestial Immortals!

Just the collateral damage from a battle between the five Celestial Immortals and Ji Ning would generate a gorge that was ten thousand kilometers deep!

Ning, however, just let the attacks land; he even allowed those vines to coil around his body. Ning felt nothing but disdain for it all!

His body now had the power of the Fifth Cycle of the Eight-Nine Arcane Art; these attacks did nothing but tickle him! If he wasn’t currently holding onto that copper pillar, then he’d have to spend some of his energy in dealing with the vines and ripping them apart. Even before Ning made his breakthrough, he was capable of breaking apart those vines, to say nothing of now, when his strength had vastly increased.

And since he actually WAS holding onto the copper pillar…if they wanted to pull them away, they’d have to pull the copper pillar away along with him!

“Get in here!” Patriarch Goldclock let out an angry roar. The golden greatclock was giving birth to unearthly ripples of attractive power, attempting to draw Ning inside it.

Ning, however, just tightly clutched the copper pillar, continuing to pull ilt upwards!

You want to pull me away? Then you’ll have to pull out the copper pillar along with me! The attractive power of the golden clock actually just slightly hastened the rate at which the copper pillar was being pulled out.

“I can’t stop him.”

“He’s completely ignoring our attacks. He’s even able to ignore the vines! All of his attention is focused on pulling out the copper pillar.” Celestial Immortal Goldclock sent frantically, “What should we do?!”

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! The copper pillar was still being pulled up at a fast, rhythmic pace. With each pull, another six hundred meters of it was pulled out. Ning’s pulling speed was incredibly fast; in just this short exchange of attacks, Ning had already pulled out another thirty thousand meters. But this pillar was simply too enormously long!

“Don’t attack him,” Celestial Immortal hurriedly ordered mentally. “Let’s bind the pillar. Let’s attack the pillar and use all our might to prevent it from going up any further.”

“Alright.”

“Right, we only need to stop the copper pillar from being pulled out.”

Earlier, the Celestial Immortals had been in a panic; upon seeing Ning rapidly pull out the copper pillar, they had only thought to attack him. They had forgotten that preventing the pillar from coming out would serve the same effect.

The five Celestial Immortals now completely ignored Ning as they hurriedly flew towards the top of the copper pillar. They wanted to use a spatial teleportation to go there faster, but the surrounding area, within the range of Ning’s divine sense, had long ago been completely spacelocked. They had no choice but to fly upwards, but flying didn’t take significantly more time than using a Greater Teleportation.

In that tiny bit of extra time, however…Ning was able to pull out another thirty thousand meters of the pillar. This copper pillar was simply too massive; before he had started to pull, Ning had already seen three thousand kilometers of it!

“STOP!” Celestial Immortal Deadwood unleashed his many vines, which rapidly began to wrap around the copper pillar, generating an astonishing repulsive force.

“STOP!” Celestial Immortal Goldclock controlled his divine greatclock, sending waves of power smashing downwards on the very top of the copper pillar.

“STOP!” Celestial Immortals Flamefish, Infatuation, and Sunfish all wildly launched attacks against the top of the tower, seeking to press it downwards.

“Hahaha…” Although Ning could sense the waves of pressure slamming down from above, he began to laugh even more happily. This was because, now that the five Celestial Immortals were no longer attacking him, all six of Ning’s arms were temporarily freed up to focus on uprooting the copper pillar.

Ning’s physical strength was simply too enormous. With six arms pulling together at the same time…not even the combined efforts of the five Celestial Immortals were able to keep the pillar down.

In the blink of an eye, Ning had pulled out yet another thirty thousand meters.

Thud! Thud! Thud! The fiery stone wall beneath Ning’s feet actually began to rumble and shudder, as though something was slamming against it. At the same time, the countless runes that were covering the fiery stone wall began to flicker and flash.

“Not good. Ji Ning has pulled out too much of the copper pillar; the suppressive runes are beginning to destabilize.” Celestial Immortal Infatuation and the other four Celestial Immortals began to grow frantic.

“This Ji Ning’s strength is too great; the five of us are actually unable to suppress him.”

In terms of raw strength…once the Fourth Cycle of the Starseizing Hand was completely unleashed, Ning’s raw physical strength vastly outstretched the strength of the five Celestial Immortals.

In terms of comparing magic treasures…Ning’s six hands were comparable to supreme Pure Yang treasures.

How could the five of them possibly suppress the pillar?

“What should we do? If this continues, there will be a huge problem.” Celestial Immortal Goldclock was beginning to panic.

“Hahaha, I knew something was strange here. The more afraid you are, the more I want to pull this thing out.” Upon seeing the countless runes flashing and flickering atop the enormous fiery stone wall beneath his feet, and upon hearing the series of thudding sounds, Ning grew even more eager to see what would happen.

“Eh?” Suddenly, all five of the Celestial Immortals, as well as the pillar-uprooting Ji Ning, could sense a spatial ripple come from up above them.

It was Greater Teleportation!

“The Ancestor has arrived.” The five Celestial Immortals revealed looks of delight and joy.