“How should I know?!” Celestial Immortal Infatuation was frantic as well. “The last time we fought with him was just half a month ago. How could I have imagined that his power would suddenly rise by so much?!”

“Last time, he wasn’t even as strong as me.” Celestial Immortal Deadwood nodded. “But this time, he’s able to completely shut down even the Shaoyin Fiendtamer Formation. His power has already completely eclipsed that of myself and Goldclock.”

“Yes.” Although Celestial Immortal Goldclock didn’t wish to admit it, the reality of the matter was laid bare before them.

Although their clash had been brief, the five mighty Celestial Immortals had all discovered that Ji Ning’s power was much greater than they had anticipated.

The Shaoyin Fiendtamer Formation was indeed very well-suited for capturing foes! Back during the Fiendgod Era, it had been specially designed for capturing Fiendgods; it was indeed quite well-suited for dealing with Ji Ning. But to actually ‘capture’ him…that required the capturing party be able to completely suppress the target in terms of power.

Last time, if these five Celestial Immortals had known that Ji Ning trained in the [Eight-Nine Arcane Art], they would’ve invited Celestial Immortal Flamefish to come on that attempt as well. They would’ve succeeded long ago through their usage of the Shaoyin Fiendtamer Formation.

But this time…Ning had reached the Fifth Cycle of the [Eight-Nine Arcane Art] and the Fourth Cycle of the [Starseizing Hand]. His power was clearly on a significantly higher level! He had vaulted from being weaker than Celestial Immortals Deadwood and Goldclock to being more powerful than them! This sudden surge in strength made it so that the Shaoyin Fiendtamer Formation was completely unable to capture Ning.

“Break for me!” Ning was wildly assaulting the five-colored mountain peak. In turn, the five mighty Celestial Immortals were striving to maintain their defensive formation.

“We’re actually being completely held down and beaten upon by him.” Celestial Immortal Goldclock ground his teeth.

“He’s become even more powerful, and he has the [Eight-Nine Arcane Art] protecting him; he doesn’t even need to defend. All of us are merely Ki Refiners; once he strikes us with his body, we’ll transform into dust,” Celestial Immortal Deadwood said.

“Ugh.” Celestial Immortal Sunfish was enraged as well.

The [Eight-Nine Arcane Art] was truly a pain in the neck.

Generally speaking, Fiendgods didn’t dare to accept blows from magic treasures head-on. But those who trained in the [Eight-Nine Arcane Art] were absolutely able to do so!

“What should we do?” Celestial Immortal Flamefish looked at the other four. “What should we do? Just wait here?”

“How about…let’s leave for now, using a Greater Teleportation Dao-seal to depart,” Celestial Immortal Goldclock said. Although they were at a disadvantage, through working together, the five of them were indeed able to flee when they pleased.

“Flee?”

Celestial Immortal Infatuation snorted coldly, “Ji Ning is currently hiding within this great formation; if we want to deal with him, we’ll have to enter it. Since we’ve already entered it…why should we be in a rush to leave it? This time, Ji Ning has attacked the headquarters of our Youngflame clan…and so, the Youngflame clan absolutely must capture Ji Ning. This time, either our Youngflame clan lowers our heads to admit defeat, or Ji Ning admits defeat! From the moment that Ji Ning came to our headquarters, both our sides lost all other options; one side has to admit defeat!”

“We can’t admit defeat,” Celestial Immortal Sunfish said in a low voice. “There is no way our Youngflame clan can admit defeat to Ji Ning.”

“Thus…I am preparing to notify the Ancestor. I will let the Ancestor make the decision,” Celestial Immortal Infatuation sent mentally.

“You are notifying Master?” Celestial Immortal Flamefish was startled…but then he nodded lightly. “Given the current situation, the only option we have is to ask Master to decide.”

“Right.”

“Notify the Ancestor.”

“I concur.”

Celestial Immortals Goldclock, Sunfish, and Deadwood all nodded.

“I’ve already instructed my spirit-beast to go find Arcanum. Arcanum will immediately notify the Ancestor,” Celestial Immortal Infatuation said. Although they were very far away from each other, since he was a Celestial Immortal, he was similarly able to communicate spiritually with his spirit-beast at a tremendous distance.

Ning continued to attack wildly, but was unable to break through the defenses of the five Celestial Immortals. The Seven Ruinous Thunderwinds were wildly attacking as well, and Uncle White even summoned the power of the formation to generate rays of magnetic lances of light to attack…but they were still unable to break the defenses.

“It’s like a turtle-shell.” Ning was forced to temporarily give up, unwilling though he was.

Swoosh.

Ning returned to Uncle White, Little Qing, and Northson’s sides.

“Master, the defenses of these five Celestial Immortals are far too powerful. There’s no way to break through at all. What should we do next?” Little Qing asked with worry.

“What can we do? Wait.” Ning shook his head and sighed. “Celestial Immortals are Celestial Immortals, after all; last time, when they attacked me en masse, I was at a disadvantage. This time, I’ve grown stronger and have the upper hand…but when faced with all five of them, I still find it extremely hard to actually defeat them. To kill a Celestial Immortal is no easy task.”

Ning then laughed. “However, I never believed that I had the power to simply dominate Celestial Immortals.”

“Senior apprentice-brother, you…?” Northson was puzzled.

“Junior apprentice-brother.” Ning laughed. “The situation for us, compared to the situation for the Youngflame clan, is completely different. We’ve attacked their headquarters, and have even erected a massive, mighty formation within their headquarters. We’re resting and relaxing here, completely carefree! Given how widespread the intelligence networks of the world of the Grand Xia are, the various major powers will quickly learn of this matter.”

“Every day we spend here is a day where the Youngflame clan will be losing face.”

“If we can spend half a year or a year relaxing here, with the Youngflame clan completely unable to do anything to us, and being forced to just watch us leave at our leisure eventually…the Youngflame clan will turn into a huge joke for the rest of the world!” Ning said, “The Youngflame clan definitely won’t permit this to happen. They’ll definitely come up with a method to deal with me.”

“If they want to continue hiding like a turtle in its shell, there’s nothing I can do about that, of course.”

“But if they want to kill me…they’ll have to take some risks. They’ll have to enter the formation and actively attack me.”

“By attacking me, they’ll be taking risks…and if I can seize the right opportunity, I can kill one of their Celestial Immortals,” Ning said with a laugh. “Once I kill the first one, I’ll have an even better chance of killing the second one.”

“This time…I intend to drag this out with the Youngflame clan as long as I can.”

Battles at the Celestial Immortal level could drag on for many, many years.

Ning had that intention as well; to drag this out as long as possible. If he could drag this out for a year, he would cause the clansmen of the Youngflame clan to all feel nervous and restless. So long as the Youngflame clan made a single misstep, or so long as a single Celestial Immortal overextended himself…then Ning’s chance would come.

……

“Uncle White, every so often, use the formation to assault them. Keep them nervous and force them to keep their formations activated,” Ning suddenly said.

“Ji Ning, you are…?” Uncle White was startled. “Are you planning to take a rest?”

“No.” Ning shook his head and smiled. “I just thought of a big rod.”

“A rod?” They were all puzzled.

“I’m going to leave the formation to take a look. I’ll be back soon,” Ning said with a laugh. “Uncle White, you must be careful.”

“Don’t worry.” Uncle White nodded.

“Master, what sort of a rod are you going to go look at?” Little Qing asked.

“A copper one.” After speaking, Ning quickly departed. He stealthily slipped out of the grand formation, then used a void blink to go deep underground.

Ning knew very well that this battle with the Youngflame clan would most likely be an extremely long once. Since he wouldn’t be able to kill those five Celestial Immortals for now…he might as well make a trip to check out that mysterious underground copper ‘rod’! That enormous copper pillar…immediately after Ning had discovered it, the five mighty Celestial Immortals had arrived, preventing him from investigating it in detail.

Now that the five Celestial Immortals were trapped, there was no one else who could disturb him.

Crackle crackle crackle…

Ning’s divine power agitated the surrounding land, pushing aside the nearby mud and rocks. He stared at the enormous, fiery copper pillar before him. This copper pillar had been here for who-knows how long…but it hadn’t rusted in the slightest. It was covered with runes, and ripples of power were emanating from it.

“Doesn’t seem to be a magic treasure.” Ning came to this private conclusion after investigating it a bit. “Let me try divine sense.”

Ning immediately released his divine sense, attempting to carefully ascertain what the real face of this fiery copper pillar was.

Last time, his divine sense had been unleashed from midair, and so he had only been able to scan a small part of the copper pillar. This time, he was right next to it, deep underground.

“This is…” Ning took a deep breath.

Good heavens!

This fiery copper pillar was nearly three hundred meters wide, but it stretched extremely deep down underground…and at the very bottom of it was an unfathomably massive fire-red stone wall! This fiery stone wall stretched out over ten thousand kilometers in the deep subterranean. There was a limit to how far Ning’s divine sense could stretch. He was only able to scan a portion of this fiery stone wall. As to how large it was exactly…there was no way Ning could find out as well.

As for the giant copper pillar, it was planted firmly into the fiery stone wall!

More than three thousand kilometers of the giant copper pillar jutted out from above the stone wall! As for how deep it was beyond the wall…there was no way to know! This was because Ning’s divine sense was completely unable to penetrate through the fiery stone wall at all.

“This stone wall…” Ning immediately used yet another void blink, teleporting three thousand kilometers downwards. He quickly arrived next to the fiery stone wall.

Ning used his divine power to force aside all the nearby mud, creating an empty region deep underground.

Beneath Ning’s feet was the fiery stone wall. Next to him was the fiery copper pillar.

“What is this thing? Divine sense is unable to see through this fiery stone wall, and elemental ki is unable to bind it.” Ning was completely puzzled. He immediately gave it a hard stomp.

BOOM…

How powerful were Ning’s feet by now? It must be understood that Ning’s hands were comparable to supreme Pure Yang treasures. As for the rest of his body, every other part was comparable to at least a high-grade Immortal-ranked magic treasure. The power of his kicks would be able to effortlessly cause mountains to crumble. The enormous, fiery stone wall beneath him, however, just let out a booming sound…and was completely undamaged.

“Weird.” Ning suddenly struck down with a palm as well.

The power of the activated [Starseizing Hand] was incredibly terrifying…but the only result was yet another, deeper booming sound.

“Still nothing?” Ning was truly confused now. “Even Heaven-ranked magic treasures would be completely shattered by my palm blows, yet this fiery stone wall is completely undamaged?”

Ning walked to the enormous copper pillar that was planted firmly into the fiery stone wall.

“So the copper pillar is planted into the stone wall?” Ning carefully made a circle around the giant copper pillar, inspecting it. He pushed aside all of the mud surrounding the three hundred meter thick pillar, only to discover…that this fiery stone wall really did seem to have a three hundred meter opening here. The copper pillar was stuck into the opening and tightly locked to it!

Ning’s divine sense was unable to find the tiniest of seams to penetrate into!

“The copper pillar was planted here…I wonder if it can be pulled out?” Ning mumbled to himself for a moment as he pondered. Screw it. The Youngflame clan hid it here. Ning wasn’t afraid of anything. His body flickered, and with a whoosh, he instantly transformed into a nine hundred meter tall giant.

As a Fiendgod Body Refiner at the Void level, upon using the Heavenly Transformation divine ability, Ning’s maximum size was actually three thousand meters.

As a nine hundred meter tall giant, his two hands were able to effortlessly clasp around the enormous copper pillar.

“Come OUT!” Ning pulled, hard.

How much power did this pull have, coming from a nine hundred meter tall giant?

Alas…it didn’t budge at all!

“[Starseizing Hand]!” Ning stared for a moment, then the divine tattoos of the [Starseizing Hand] began to flow across his hands. His power exploded dramatically, and his pulling strength increased greatly as well. He now had what felt like limitless strength, capable of uprooting mountains and rivers…

Rumble…

Accompanied by a thunderous sound, the enormous copper pillar actually began to rise slightly. When it did, all sorts of grinding sounds could be heard from deep below the stone wall, at the points where the stone wall and the copper pillar were joined together. In fact, a rumbling sound that sounded like the heavens were breaking apart could be heard as well.

……

In a very distant world.

A man-shaped creature with scales on his face, a single horn on his forehead, and a body covered by azure flames suddenly opened his eyes. Boundless rage could be seen in his gaze.

“Who?”

“Who dares…WHO DARES TOUCH MY INFINITY FURNACE?!”