Chapter 1656 1649: The Beginnings of a Wonderful Thing
Chapter 1656 1649: The Beginnings of a Wonderful Thing
Stormy Rain Major Region.
The No-Name Galaxy was divided into twelve Major Regions and twenty-two Minor Regions. Except for the twelve Major Regions, the twenty-two Minor Regions were divided and contested by various forces, while the Major Regions were dominated by Mystic Overlord-led alliances or the eight preeminent Sages.
Each Sage had a respective Major Region and their natives were instilled with an abundant, boisterous sense of pride that rivaled the heavy nationalism of mortal kingdoms. They referred to the entire galaxy as theirs, with Major Regions such as the Hidden Desert Major Region, the Yin Grain Major Region, and the Yang Grain Major Region's citizens declaring themselves as the Hidden Desert Galaxy, the Yin Grain Galaxy, and the Yang Grain Galaxy, and that their regions were the 'capital' of an entire galaxy.
The eight Major Regions led by Sages were: Hidden Desert ruled by Sage Imentet, Yin Grain ruled by Sage Nepri, Yang Grain ruled by Sage Nepit, Stormy Rain ruled by Sage Pakhet, Descending-Lunar Wanderer ruled by Sage Khonshu, Rising-Solar Scarab ruled by Sage Khepri, Prosperous Union ruled by Sage Hathor, and lastly, Shrouded Eye ruled by Sage Amunet.
Each of these Sages, four females and four males, acted simultaneously against a single foe-Zhan Jiangwen. Within the God Cage of Eight Directions, they drew tremendous power from their regions and gained support from the other four Major and many Minor Regions, all for the sake of a single goal. This activity had unintentionally unified the entire galaxy against a single target.
While the battle was waged, planets were shielded from shockwaves created by their clashes. The color of the skies changed repeatedly, either tainted a flaming white or a myriad of other colors as fists and Heavenly Treasures were thrown about.
Boosh!
Zhan Jiangwen launched his sixth fist at four Sages. They guarded together in a united effort as Sage Imentet used her shield and Sage Khonshu used a Crescent-shaped Mirror. While none of the Sages had grasped a Minor Authority over a Law of the heavens, they had each refined and produced, through extensive effort and cultivation, Heavenly Treasures that perfectly synergies with their respective cultivation bases.
Sage Khonshu, a beautifully handsome young man with silvery white short-length hair and glistening violet irises with crescent moon-like pupils, was blown away by Zhan Jiangwen's sixth fist spewing silvery white blood despite the protection of numerous layers of Mystic Wards generated by the external power of Minor and Major Regions. He was severely injured.
Sage Imentet's gorgeous body was disgustingly broken. Her bones had been shattered and maintained by pure mystic power, if not she might have toppled into nothing but crumbled bones and saggy flesh. The others weren't doing so well either.
Zhan Jiangwen hadn't just thrown this sixth fist once. He had cycled through fists repeatedly, beginning at first and rising continuously into sixth, and while his rhythm was predictable, his power was atrocious. Not a single Sage was injured.
Sage Pakhet was missing her left arm.
Sage Nepit's fleshy body was turned into bloody mush. He conjured a Spiritual Body to house his fleshy remnants while maintaining his cultivation base in full. He was using only Spiritual Power fueling his spells and arts as his other forms of power such as pure Mystic Power and Physical Power would be either too slow or impossible to exert without his physical body.
He stayed far, far away while under thousands of layers of protection. His defenses resembled a semi-transparent crystal sphere, and he kept mobile as he launched spells at mind-boggling rates. It was his extensive usage of spells that kept disrupting Zhan Jiangwen's focus, preventing him from throwing that seventh fist!
Fortunately, that seventh fist of his needed a degree of focus that drew upon his entire cultivation base to unleash. They all came to the simultaneous conclusion that the seventh fist would be unblockable for them unless they sacrificed themselves.
Zhan Jiangwen maintained the Neo-Dawn Visualization Method to dispel the Spiritual Spells launched by Sage Nepit and Sage Hathor. With a low roar, he unleashed a blast of clear light that shattered the spatial fetters swirling around him like invisible chains.
"I hate fighting Sages!"
Zhan Jiangwen cursed in his heart as he felt the God Cage of Eight Directions being controlled by Sage Nepri and several Mystic Overlords trying to confine him and restrain his movement. While Zhan Jiangwen kept fighting, the Sages and Mystic Overlords, including the cultivators at the Heavenly Saint, Worldly Saint, and Earthly Saint who contributed however they could, kept suffering continuous shocks of disbelief and despair embedded within their hearts. The fear of Zhan Jiangwen burrowed into their hearts.
While he was clashing with them, releasing fist after fist, the others felt that his feats were stupendously monstrous! Not only was he reacting to every attack, over and covert, blocking any spells and shattering any restraints, but he was exerting tremendous levels of power without any signs of exhaustion! This was a true monster!
No wonder he was brazen enough to steal from them! That strength must represent the very peak of the Mystic Ascendant Realm!
Their fear was elevated as time continued and the status of each Sage was getting increasingly bad. However, it was easy to ride a tiger, but once ridden, there was no way to get off easily! Moreover, they couldn't just surrender! While their galaxy was prosperous to the point of excessive, in just under two months, the severe depletion of resources so suddenly drastically changed their society.
Additionally, their cultivations had all but halted in terms of progression as the time for new resources to develop was becoming increasingly apparent. Who could wait ten years? A hundred years? thousand years?! TEN THOUSAND YEARS! Some of the treasures they kept in their vaults had been once-in-a-lifetime for Mystic Overlords, unlikely to be born without extraordinary circumstances once every quarter million years!
If they let Teng Jiangwen go, they would be left helpless! Just a taste of their drought was enough to understand that the coming days would be dark...darker than they could imagine. This was why the constant conflicts with each other were all put to the side as they acted in unprecedented unity against a single person!
They had to!
The Sages were safe; their vaults were untouched and the Alchemist-centric Organizations across the world similarly remained, but so what? For the Alchemists sold their products at stupidly high prices and given the subsequent depletion of concoction material, each product would only rise in price rather than decrease! And the Sages would almost certainly demand obedience to enjoy their stored resources, and they would be restrictive to the limits!
The resulting society would change drastically. They had to reclaim their treasures!
Unbeknownst to them, their hopes and dreams were entirely impossible. Zhan Jiangwen wasn't just fighting, he was holding back considerably. Seventh fist? He felt that with Wei Wuyin's seemingly endless infusion of energy, using the Minor Law of Momentum, he could unleash an eighth, Ninth, perhaps even a tenth fist!
The feeling was exhilarating!
However, he wasn't supposed to kill! Yet temptation shrouded his heart. Even before, he had only used his Seventh Fist against other Sages to fight for fortune and each time had been exhausting to the Utmost. What would it feel like now?!
His mind was illuminated by the Law of Momentum and Wei Wuyin's enhanced senses. He really, really wanted to know! Moreover, as his will blazed to a new limit, he received a direct transmission through his soul!
After throwing his sixth fist, his silvery eyes unleashed radiant rays of vibrant, blinding light that resembled Solar Stars in the night sky. Clenching his fist, the Asura within his mind ROARED! The Neo-Dawn Visualization Method had fused with his Six-Fists Asura Visualization Method, transforming wondrously with flawless integration into his Spirit of War's soul quintessence.
Enlightened, the Neo-Dawn Asura-Soul War-Fist Visualization Method was created! While a mouthful, the resulting power shielded him against all Spiritual Spells as a boundless, infinite momentum began to rise! His fist which was formed of white flames faintly transformed into a silvery flame that caused everything within ten million miles to lose their sense of momentum.
Every Sage within range, incoming spatial chains, Ascension Art, or transmission of energies, felt it all stop, struggling to move a single inch forward as if their momentum was stunted. This wasn't halting time, but blocking the profound aspects of progression! They simply couldn't take that step forward to complete their task!
Sage Imentet was barely hanging on by a thread. She became the target of the attack. Her beauty served her in no way against the brutal fist of an Asura War God! Her eyes widened, her pupils constricted, and her heart came to a stop as beating became almost impossible! She wanted to screech out for assistance yet her spiritual voice was unable to gather the momentum to project.
Zhan Jiangwen's fist was pulled back in what seemed to be in slow motion.
SEVENTH FIST!!!!!!!
The Law of Momentum infused the aura of the Law of War, Wei Wuyin's Stellar-Paragon Energies, and the Lord of Stars' Defiant Solar Energy into this fist. A harsh, fiery flash appeared. The entire world was drawn into its beauty, yet its might was unsurpassed!
Weakly in her mind, Sage Imentet could only watch as the flash approached her in seemingly slow motion. Her life's memories from birth to now flashed before her eyes. She was going to die.
This was what she knew as the absolute truth. Her Soulguard would shatter, and her soul would be obliterated. There was no going back from this.
"IMENTET!!!"
Sage Pakhet and Sage Hathor both screamed in fear. The former was caught within the momentumless zone while the latter was outside, trying to breach the edge with ferocious power. Unfortunately, besides their words by sheer fortitude of will, nothing else was able to get through.
The other Sages were wide-eyed and helpless. All the strength of a galaxy and they couldn't defeat a single Teng Jiangwen! How pathetic! And now...they were going to watch one of their sisters die!!
"YOU DARE?!"
Suddenly, a slender figure appeared before Sage Imentet in a swirl of stellar radiance. With a wave of her hand, they all saw a cauldron appear before the figure and Sage Imentet protectively. A rich alchemical aura permeated through a tenth of the galaxy instantly! The sheer quantity and quality of the Utmost Purity Mist present was heart-pounding and soul-stimulating!
The cauldron was a milky, pristine, and gorgeous white with the bewitching beauty of ethereal majesty that was difficult to fathom, and within this milky white was the continuous formation and eruption of Solar Stars, granting it a stellar beauty that was impossible to replicate without countless years. The mouth of the cauldron leaked a seven-colored mist that was indescribably pure.
When it was summoned, the mist erupted with gentle power, slowly exerting the principles of the Alchemic Dao-Containment and Refinement. All that abundant power was slowly drawn into the mist and then refined into a less volatile power. πreeπ ππnoveπ.com
Then, the slender, elegant, and beautiful figure formed a hand-seal that all the Sages saw with shaken hearts. The silvery fiery light was sucked into the cauldron entirely, vanishing without the slightest trace. Even the imposing power of the Law of Momentum was drawn in as well, allowing the world to resume.
"WHAT?!"
Zhan Jiangwen was flabbergasted, visibly so, and he wasn't the only one! They all were!
Cloaked in the alchemical robes of the Neo-Dawn Alchemic Corps, Luo Ning cut an extraordinary figure as her dominance flowed smoothly outwards alongside her cold, sharp, and beautiful features.
Zhan Jiangwen didn't hesitate; he launched his-
EIGHTH FIST!!!!!!!!
Breaking his past limits, the entire galaxy trembled as the God Cage of Eight Directions began to experience instability. Sage Nepri held on desperately as blood profusely leaked from her eyes, nose, and ears. The murderous intent directed at Luo Ning was vicious and full of ill intent. It was as if he was going to destroy her and the entire galaxy if he could!
Sage Imentet's dread that had been dissipated by the shock of this newcomer returned instantly! If this fist force impacted anything, large swathes of the galaxy would be destroyed! The chaos that would ensue would be unpredictable!
Yet Luo Ning gave a cold harrumph, her body exuding a strength that was similar to an Enlightened Sage! If one inspected closely, her aura was clearly the result of an external source-burrowed power! But none of that mattered! Wielding the Neo-Dawn Ascension Cauldron, before the eyes of all the Sages and Mystic Overlords, Luo Ning formed a hand-seal and once again drew in the godly might of that fist into the cauldron.
After doing so, her body began to sweat and faint wisps of blood escaped her pores as the burrowed Enlightened Sage's aura was pushing her Mystic Physique to its limits.
"...!"
They all watched as Luo Ning defused that disastrous, calamity-inducing attack in awe!
Who in the heavens was this person?!
"His energy isn't limitless!"
Luo Ning shouted as veins throbbed on her neck and forehead. Her Enlightened Sage's aura was waning but she held on.
The Sages were only stunned for a picosecond before they returned to their senses.
"I can block two more attacks!"
Luo Ning said as her will to fight raged with unforgettable determination.
"Kill!"
Sage Nepri shouted through the trembling God Cage of Eight Directions. The eight Sages and numerous Ascended beings all roared in unity within their hearts.
Zhan Jiangwen deeply frowned and glared at Luo Ning before, without another word, fleeing with a kick that sent him blasting toward the nearest galactic layer! He was fleeing!
-----
Shrouded Eye Major Realm.
"And that's the last one..."
Wei Wuyin dusted his hands off with a satisfied smile. In the blink of an Enlightened Sage's eye, Wei Wuyin departed from the last vault of the eight Sages.