The hundreds of miles wide meteor plunged whistling down. In just less than two seconds, three Gold Immortals had wrapped it with thirty-six thousand layers of powerful spells. Earth, water, fire, wind, rain, thunder, lightning, poisonous fog… All kinds of strange spells swirled menacingly around the meteor as it pierced through layer after layer of celestial wind and flame, aurora and thunderclouds, brushing violently against the atmosphere and producing a blinding light that forced all eyes to turn away.
It was only when they pushed the meteor all the way to a height of fewer than three thousand miles from Ningbo City that the three Gold Immortals suddenly fled with a blink of their bodies. Since the moment they began the attack until now, only three seconds had passed.
As the three of them had expected after their discussion that took place in the outer space, the sudden appearance of the meteor and the blinding light had caught the attention of everyone down there. As a result, when they were fleeing from behind the meteor, they were not discovered or intercepted by anyone down below.
The black-clothed man sitting in the stone chair on the mountaintop might have been strong enough to intercept them, but he had already disappeared in a dark smoke when he heard the news about Liu Bang and his three heroes being the new Celestial Ambassadors sent to Liangzhu by the Heaven and lost his composure. As the enigmatic man was gone, his thirty-six generals failed to detect the trace of the three golden-robed Immortals, their attention caught by the strong light of the meteor.
Wu Qi gawked at the approaching meteor with unbelieving eyes. He felt that his entire body was stiffened; he wanted to flee, but his muscles were so tense that he could not move at all. All he could do was stare with wide eyes as the meteor closed in, bringing with it a wind that could wipe out everything.
The meteor, compressed from its original size of thirty thousand miles in diameter to just hundreds of miles as it hurled down from the outer space, it could kill all the living beings below the Gold Immortal realm in an instant with its sheer weight and force of impact! Even with his fleshly body as strong as a first tier Heaven Immortal, Wu Qi would never dare to face it head-on! Worst of all, the three Gold Immortals had supplied it with a total of thirty-six thousand layers of spells, which had consumed eighty percent of their immortal energy.
In other words, the meteor was attached with the full powered strikes of three Gold Immortals. Even a figure with a similar cultivation base as them would not want to face it head-on.
And, among the thirty-six thousand layers of spells, a few thousands of them were queer immortal spells that could absorb external energy. As the meteor fell from the outer space, these spells constantly absorbed the energy of the celestial wind and flame, the aurora and thunderclouds, the dark permafrost, and the magnetic force that lingered in the space. After absorbing a massive amount of energy, the meteor, which was already tens of times denser than mercury after the compression, had become harder than diamond, tougher than any ordinary upper-grade immortal item.
The aura of the Gold Immortals, combined with the destructive aura of the falling meteorite, had made Wu Qi, an expert whose fleshly body was as strong as a peak first tier Heaven Immortal, stiff and unable to move; and, it was even worse for the others. Yu He, along with the many officials, soldiers, and the common people in the city, were petrified and locked in their positions, all staring blankly at the rapidly approaching meteor.
Nine Oracles of Yu Clan with varying amounts of golden suns embroidered on their sleeves, up to seven at most, rushed out of a large hall by the side of the drill ground with Yu Huai, whose body had turned stiff and was sweating profusely. They lifted their heads at the same time and gave the falling meteor a quick glance, letting out a long, angry cry in unison.
The full powered strike of the three Gold Immortals had sent the nine Oracles strong enough to fight them into panic. The power of the Immortals lied within them, and with a flick of their hand, they could unleash powerful immortal spells capable of crumbling a mountain. Unlike them, the Oracles had to borrow power from the outside, from the ghosts and deities; and, they needed a certain amount of time before they could produce their strongest power.
Given the Oracles enough time, they could instantly kill Immortals of the same level with all kinds of bizarre curse spells. But, in the case of a close encounter, the Immortals could also instantly kill the defenseless Oracles!
Of the nine Oracles who had escorted Yu Huai out of the hall, the strongest of them, the Seven Suns Oracle, possessed a cultivation base equivalent to a fifth tier Gold Immortal. But, that was after he had made sufficient preparations to borrow the powers of the ghosts and deities he was worshiping. At the moment, he was only as strong as a seventh tier Gold Immortal, and his fleshly body was even weaker, which did not provide him the courage to stop the falling meteor.
But after all, he still had the overall strength of the lowest tier Gold Immortal. So, although he could not stop the meteor, he was strong enough to flee. Amidst Yu Huai's sharp cursing, nine Oracles surrounded him and transformed into a shadow, drifting up the city wall. Streams of black smoke shot out of their sleeves as they scaled the wall, coiling up Wu Qi, Yu He, the important officials of Hai Province, as well as the elites of the Yu Clan private guards. Then, they all merged into one gray shadow and sped away into the distance in the blink of an eye.
The power of a Gold Immortal was by no means insignificant. Carrying several hundred people with them, the nine Oracles cried out furiously and traversed tens of thousands of miles in just a flash.
A moment later, the meteor hit Ningbo City, sending a loud and dull boom across the void. The world flashed with a strong blue-and-purple light, and everybody felt as though their bodies had become transparent. The blinding flash had penetrated their bodies and brought a stabbing pain to their internal organs.
With the exception of Wu Qi, whose fleshly body was strong enough to resist the power of the flash, everyone was coughing up blood, including Yu Huai and the Oracles. Their blood vaporized into smoke as soon as it got out of their mouths, and their body fluids were boiling. If they did not have the power of the ghosts and deities protecting them, the strong flash would have killed everyone except Wu Qi.
Even the nine formidable Oracles could not withstand the attack of the strong flash. As Oracles, they still had a mortal flesh, and their powers came only from the ghosts and deities. They were very old, and their flesh was decaying. When the strong flash penetrated their bodies, it caused a terrible damage to their root, and even took decades to centuries of life from them.
If truth be told, these Oracles did not have much time left in their lives, and were relying on various life-extending spirit herbs to sustain the vitality of their bodies. The sudden loss of so much life force made them curse in unison. Their towering resentment turned into black ghostly shadows and rushed out of their bodies, pushing them into the distance with greater speed.
Merely a second after the first wave of strong flash swept past them, a fearsome blue-and-purple shockwave came washing over the void with countless destructive natural forces such as thunder, dark ice, celestial flame, aurora, and magnetic force. The land where the shockwave passed turned into a desert, the mountains were razed to the ground, rivers and lakes were all dried up, the living beings were pulverized, and even their souls were turned into nothingness by the natural forces.
Within a second, Wu Qi and the others had fled another hundred thousand miles, and the Oracles had finished intoning some mantra. Immediately, huge celestial fiends emerged from the void and loomed over each of the Oracles, all emanating a horrible aura. As they made their appearances, they raised their hands and let out a blood curdling howl. In the blink of an eye, sets of armor made of different materials such as bone, stone, and scales, emerged and wrapped the bodies of Wu Qi and the others.
Blotting out the sky and the land, the shockwave came from behind and swept up Wu Qi and the others, making them spin and tumble in the air like weak dandelions in a raging storm. Their bodies were constantly hit and smote by countless giant stones and thunderbolts, surrounded by fierce flame and biting cold air, washed by magnetic force and colorful aurora, and all kinds of other destructive forces. But, even though the brutal beating had made their heads swim and their eyes get blurred, they did not suffer any real harm with the protection of the armors conjured by the celestial fiends.
For the time to finish a pot of tea, they tumbled in the dreadful shockwave, feeling as long as ten thousand years to Wu Qi and the others. Under the protection of the nine celestial fiends, the company rushed out of the shockwave safely, but was immediately engulfed by a boundless light and heat. A crimson flame burned fiercely around them, so hot that their armors began to crackle and crack.
All of a sudden, the Seven Suns Oracle let out a loud cry, and his old, shriveled body began to swell up like a balloon. In the blink of an eye, he was young again, with his muscles bulging and his bent back straightened. Young, vigorous, and standing eight feet tall, the Oracle abruptly thrust one palm towards the sky and the other towards the ground. The void vibrated as he shouted, "No flame in the world should have such a high temperature!"
With the loud shout of the old Oracle, the law within thousands of miles in diameter was slightly distorted. Although the crimson flame was still there, its temperature had reduced to only thirty to forty degree Celsius, and could no longer hurt Wu Qi and the others.
Distorting the law was the power only Gold Immortal experts could have possessed.
The other eight Oracles had also acted in various ways. With the protection of the nine Oracles, Wu Qi and the others finally escaped the fatal blow caused by the meteor.
Two hours later, the gray-faced Wu Qi and his company returned to Ningbo City.
But, there was no Ningbo City in the world anymore.
Where the city was originally situated was now a huge crater, with a depth of three thousand miles and a diameter of over fifty thousand miles. The water from the ocean was gushing into the crater along a huge gap that measured ten thousand miles in width. Everything in Ningbo City was gone; the hundreds of thousands of common people, thirty thousand new recruits, Yu He's three thousand private guards, and the middle and lower-ranked officials, as well as all the armaments which Wu Qi and Yu He had purchased with a lot of money!
Fortunately, the five counties of Hai Province were tens of thousands of miles away from Ningbo City. Although the impact of the meteor had caused some damage to them, there were not many casualties.
But, Ningbo City was completely wiped out!
His eyes flashing with anger, Wu Qi let out a wrathful roar and gave the crater a heavy punch. The water splashed and towered into the sky, turning into a great white curtain that glinted brilliantly in the air.
"Myriad Immortal Alliance… I'll definitely uproot you and annihilate all your allies!"