Their sacred art practiced at their level was impeccable, it was impenetrable.
Even some of the formations in the solar system were taken down!
But the foundation where the Village of Dao sits upon was steady as a rock!
More formations were activated and reconstructed when these were broken.
They were hard to see but extremely powerful and defensive. The formations were glowing softly, one must concentrate to see them clearly.
Only when the massive statues approached them would they light up a brilliant yellow, dazzling the eyes of everyone around them. Numerous cultivation symbols flew out from there too!
These symbols were even more powerful than the cultivation energy in the formations.
It was a more advanced type of constitution!
All the destructive forces backed up to a barrier of these symbols like a dammed wall!
And then the forces were dissipated magically!
"Those are… primal formations?" Ming Hui was muttering to himself.
The old priest from Neptune furrowed his eyebrows and took a long hard stare at the formations before replying, "Who knew… these primal formations are still around!".
Many other ancient beings let out a face of relief as they watched the formations do their jobs. They looked moved but their eyes seemed to be melancholic.
It reminded them of the glorious past.
When all lands were prosperous and fertile!
Back then, this place was the center of the universe, the center of it all!
There were earnest seekers, sincere practitioners who headed here to further their Dao journey. The goal was sainthood!
"Past glory…" the red-caped alien said in nostalgia.
Boom boom boom!
A loud noise halted all the reminiscing.
All eyes were back on the battlefield.
Chu Yu had taken a blow from the sacred art from all the ten great statues and his shadow could be seen thrown off into the distance!
He resembled a crashing meteor!
Enwrapped in a fire, the bystanders were worried.
But he could be seen regaining his composure swiftly as he charged back!
It was the Immortal Crane Furnace, it took the hit for him.
"One of the Nine Cauldrons," one of the statue's eyes were glimmering, there was a subtle ripple in the peaceful lake of his pupil.
Suddenly, a marvelous domineering energy erupted from him!
"Oh no!"
Many ancient saints were anxious, they looked at the active statue in terror.
He was using the forbidden power!
The Great Sainthood!
Was he mad?
Many people were startled.
In the vast galaxy, there were bright dots resembling small stars. Only a spirit of the saint level could see it clearly for what they were… every dot was nurturing a vast universe by itself!
They were suppressing the magical statue who had infringed the sacred laws that governed the universe.
But the magical statue had already taken these into consideration when he broke the rule.
Before the bright dots could fully mature, he slapped Chu Yu with his palm
The space around Chu Yu collapsed instantaneously.
The formations of the solar system could only protect the planets from becoming collateral damage, but they were no help to Chu Yu.
The magical statue let out a bellow, "Remember to leave me the Cauldron!".
Bang!
His form was eroded by the various coalescing bright dots.
He was shattered into pieces.
It was quick destruction.
It was the law of heaven and earth, nobody could defy against it, not even a great saint.
But all eyes were on the debris that the statue had just created.
Chu Yu had disappeared!
"Chu Yu!" Lin Shi was yelling in desperation.
"Ah!"
Xu Xiao Xian let out a blood-curdling shriek.
Her silver hair was let loose and she looked manic.
Who could pit themselves against a Great Saint?
An angry bellow resounded from earth.
"Darn you guys!"
Bzzzz!
A large figure rose from Earth.
Yi's demeanor was wild as usual and he arrived quickly with his magnificent bow.
Sss!
He pulled out his bow and arrow swiftly!
A bright light consolidated from cultivation energy was aimed at one of the statues.
Bang!
It pierced straight through the body.
Then, numerous rays of light were emitted from the statue's form as he plastered on a face of horror.
Then, he exploded, his entire form was disintegrated!
The next one…
Yi was lightning fast.
And his arrows were vicious and accurate!
He shot bull's eye every single time.
In the blink of an eye, he had already killed six of the magical statues!
All they left behind were spiteful curses and angry howls.
"Nooooo!"
"Stop courting death!"
"You are exhausting your own vitality!"
Eventually, there was nothing left of them.
Although they could gang up against Chu Yu, they were helpless in front of Yi. Yi was like an Ancient Deity, he was the ultimate power.
There were three of them left.
They were all busy activating the forbidden power.
A horrifying energy enveloped the entire solar system.
Many practitioners standing at the boundaries were flung out of the galaxy.
Without Yi towering over the floating city, they would have taken devastating losses as well.
"Return to your own planets!"
Yi commanded everyone with his telepathic powers.
He was going to face these three Great Saints by himself.
"A bunch of ignorant fools, your true forms and physical bodies would be eroded if you activated the forbidden power!" Yi warned them coldly.
One of them laughed pathetically, "Like we would have made it back alive if we didn't use it!".
"Very well, go die all of you!"
This time, the force he utilized was even more domineering!
To face the three of them, the force he commanded was the equivalence of two clashing galaxies!
The explosion emitted such powerful radiation that it could turn a saint into ashes instantly.
It was a catastrophic release of energy.
Beyond the capacity of an Ancient Deity.
"Yi, you won't survive this as well!" another magical statue bellowed angrily.
Even with the forbidden power, he was no match against Yi.
There was nothing left of him.
Yi used an even stronger force against him, the rules of the heaven and earth didn't spare him just because he was the good guy.
The merciless reality!
An ominous aura surrounded Yi as the universe dealt out its punishments.
"Scram!"
Yi was emitting an aura that could upheave the heavenly courts!
It was a mystical strange aura that overpowered all kinds of cultivation power.
All the bright dots around Yi dispersed themselves.
The remaining two magical statues were still targets of the bright dots.
They were easily suppressed by the hefty punishments.
They weren't as lucky as Yi; their bodies were shattered and they were turning into smoke and ashes.
"Immortal powers… this is the true power of the Immortals!" one of them remarked before they were gone with the wind.
"That's what I wanted, that's… what I wanted! Ahhhh!"
Bang! The other statue was blown up before he could finish his sentence.
Yi's face looked ashen gray, he reached into the pile of debris Chu Yu was in.
He picked out a furnace.
His eyes were twinkling with the powers of the cultivation symbols.
Finally, he sighed in relief.
He tossed the furnace in the direction of the floating city.
Then, without a further word, he disappeared from the battlefield.
"Senior…"
Everyone was crying out to him.
But Yi had disappeared from their line of vision, he had vanished.
And so, this was the last time they ever saw his shadow again.
…
Deep within the solar system, Zhou Xu's vast piece of land was parked in the region stealthily.
He was surrounded by numerous asteroids, it was a deathly quiet place.
The magnetic field around him was alarming, radiation levels were way off the charts.
It was a secluded place.
But it was one of his safehouses.
Zhou Xu was in recluse, practicing and honing his skills. He wanted to surpass himself, he needed to get close to the level of the Great Sainthood. He had to get close, as close as possible.
Then, he could easily attain the Great Sainthood once he entered the Bastion of Stars!
His old ancestor Zhou Ge had also shut himself in.
Over a couple of days, he had been ingesting numerous saintly spirits to regain the vitality he had lost.
He was calculating… estimating the time the solar system was going to come under siege.
He could finally watch the spectacle as a bystander.
With no stakes.
Suddenly, alarm bells went off deep in his mind!
He transported himself rapidly out from the vessel and into the coldness of the space.
Then, his pupils constricted rapidly.
A bright light was flying towards him from a faraway land.
It was faster than the speed of light, ten times faster!
He could sense the malicious intent harbored in this oncoming threat.
It was after his life!
His opponent was accurate and decisive.
If he hadn't left the vessel, the light would have wrapped around the walls of the vessels before seeking him out.
But now he was out, out in the open!
As if he was confronting the light head on.
"Yi… you tricked me?"
Zhou Ge yelled as he frantically conjured defensive shields around him.
But all his effort was fruitless.
Too fast!
Too strong!
Yi pierced through all the defenses and aimed for Zhou Ge's forehead.
Time stood still.
It was wondrous!
It was the consolidation of a massive amount of cultivation powers.
Time and space were distorted!
Zhou Ge had to tap into his core energy.
He swerved his head just by a bit.
Yi had just missed the critical spot on his forehead.
Pfft!
But the light had taken away half of his skull.
Zhou Ge let out a spine-chilling scream.
"I won't let you go, Yi!"
What greeted him was a series of cold and vicious attacks.
Every spotlight piercing through him compromised a significant amount of Zhou Ge's cultivation.
His wound was rotting, his body was decaying…
Zhou Ge looked fearful.
He was afraid!
His physical body was the manifestation of his divine will.
Most of the beings from his time existed in this form now.
A divine will that refused to dissipate, after the culmination over many years, it had morphed into a physical body that acted like a duplicate.
This form of physical body was constructed purely from energy and cultivation forces, enhanced by a shred of… divine will.
What would be commonly known as a soul?
In this mortal realm, even the most powerful of spirits won't be able to properly explain the concept of souls.
Reincarnation was an even more mysterious puzzle to be solved.
Even if a spirit was tarnished and battered to particles, no one could guarantee that that would be the last of it.
In the previous era, the Yellow Emperor once said that the soul was a peculiar matter.
Of course, no one dared to call themselves the reincarnation of anybody.
Even with traces of old memories from the past life, no one could announce that with certainty.
Because it was an unsolved mystery!
No one knew the truth, no one could explain it!
The decay of time had left Zhou Ge's original body worn and battered.
Perhaps it had vanished a long time ago.
He wouldn't even know himself!
It was a different case for everyone.
When Zhou Ge's divine soul was awakened, it was centuries after his last living memory.
He was afraid of death.
That he would really vanish from the face of the universe.
Facing Yi who reigned in the same era as he did, he was… nervous.
"I think, we can negotiate. There're no hatchets that can't be buried, especially for people like us," he proposed.
Yi chuckled mockingly, "Scram!".
An iron arrow was released from his bow.