Chapter 1408: The Lost Energy-Absorbing Stones!

Translated by: Hypersheep325

Edited by: Michyrr

In the bath of worldly Origin Energy, the Righteous Alliance experts began to rapidly recover their energy.

"What?!"

This abrupt sight stunned the leader and two subordinates hidden in the center of the formation. The disbelief on their faces was so strong that their eyes almost popped out of their sockets.

"How could this be? He can use the energy of the formation!"

The energy that Wang Chong had pulled on to assist Ouyang Changheng's group was none other than the worldly energy that this trio had unleashed to strengthen the attacks of the formation.

Even if they had been beaten to death, they would have never believed that such a thing was possible.

"This kid has to die no matter what! Release all the Stellar-Piercing Beetles! I'd like to see how he deals with that!" the leader furiously bellowed.

His original target was all the martial artists in the formation, but now, Wang Chong had jumped to the top of the kill list. In a flash, all the golden beetles were released to deal with Wang Chong.

……

Within the formation, after attracting the attention of all the golden beetles, Wang Chong plunged into the next formation gate. As he was leaving, Wang Chong sent out a burst of Sword Qi to blast down several golden beetles in the air.

Upon sensing this energy, the golden beetles went mad, all of them rushing at Wang Chong. Bzzzz! In a flash of light, Wang Chong disappeared together with the golden beetles.

Behind him, for a brief moment, there was an eerie silence. Everyone looked at each other in speechlessness. Those Righteous Alliance experts who had cursed and reviled him before were now red with shame, complicated expressions on their faces.

In the end, you still saved us yet again!

Ouyang Changheng looked in the direction Wang Chong had left and internally sighed.

"You all heard it, right? Everyone, get ready. In ten seconds, we'll leave this place!"

Ouyang Changheng took in a deep breath and quickly began to issue orders.

……

Although Wang Chong had seemed to save Ouyang Changheng and his group with just a few moves, it was not as it seemed. Every time Wang Chong used the Great Yinyang Heaven Creation Art, his body's condition would worsen, just as it had just now.

If one could see through the Heavenly Mandate Battle Armor, they would realize that Wang Chong's face was pale white.

Alarm Gate, Stop Gate, View Gate, Open Gate… Another two layers and I will reach the core! Wang Chong remarked to himself.

This time, Wang Chong encountered no more martial artists. No martial artist was capable of venturing so deep, as anyone who got this close to the core layers of the formation was essentially doomed.

As Wang Chong relied on his prodigious calculation ability to go deeper and deeper, the attacks around him became stronger, but Wang Chong managed to avoid the vast majority of them.

Boom!

The world groaned while space shuddered. In the blink of an eye, Wang Chong had broken through the layer and finally arrived at the second layer of the Origin Immortal Formation.

Blood-red light filled his vision, giving the surrounding space the appearance of red glass. And at the edge of this area, Wang Chong saw enormous slabs of dark red stone.

These slabs were more than one hundred feet high, and special characters had been drawn on them. Moreover, all these stone slabs were moving.

Energy-Absorbing Stones!

Wang Chong immediately recognized them. When he had been speaking with the Formation Elder, he had come to learn of these special inscribed stones used in formations. In ancient times, almost all powerful formations would use Energy-Absorbing Stones for the parts near the core of their formations.

In using these inscribed stones around the formation core, one could create a special region that would cause any martial artist who entered to rapidly lose Stellar Energy. This was a means of protecting the core.

But Wang Chong had only ever heard about such things. This was his first time seeing them.

In this era where the understanding of formations was on the decline, these things had essentially ceased to exist.

It seems like I was right. Up ahead is the core region of the formation, leading straight to the heart!

Wang Chong shot forward into the formation.

More and more golden beetles appeared around him, clicking and chirping. At a glance, there were thousands upon thousands, simply too many to count.

But unlike before, the golden beetles seemed to understand that Wang Chong's Heavenly Mandate Battle Armor would be difficult to breach, so they changed tactics and began to circle around him.

Yet even though they had given up on attacking, they only seemed more dangerous. These golden beetles were like lurking beasts, hungrily eyeing their prey. The moment they spotted a weakness, they would launch a fatal attack.

In addition, these golden beetles were constantly circling around Wang Chong, completely obscuring his vision so that he only saw a thick mass of insects. At a time like this, Wang Chong could only use his Psychic Energy to replace his eyes, but what one saw with Psychic Energy would inevitably differ somewhat from what one saw with one's eyes.

Whoosh!

A moment later, a pure black flame imbued with destructive energy seethed out of Wang Chong's body. The previously fearless golden beetles, upon encountering the black Fire of Mara, immediately hissed and popped and began to fall to the ground.

Even their spotted wings of gold were scorched black.

"Mm?"

Wang Chong was greatly surprised by this sight. He had just wanted to scatter these insects with fire, but he had never expected the Fire of Mara used by the mysterious men in black to be so effective against the golden beetles.

The Fire of Mara appearing on Wang Chong seemingly frightened all the beetles, and they began to scatter. Wang Chong used this rare chance to rush forward, heading toward the core of the formation through poison mist, arrows, stones, and pillars.

Behind him, the golden beetles began to reconverge, once more pursuing Wang Chong as closely as maggots clung to a bone.

Boom!

The air shuddered as Wang Chong passed through another layer and reached the first layer of the formation.

The pulses of worldly Origin Energy around him were intensifying, the sense of danger multiplying.

Wang Chong continued to press toward the formation's heart.

Buzz!

As he was on the verge of reaching the core, all the golden beetles pursuing him suddenly shivered. As if they had encountered something extremely terrifying, they began to retreat, and in just a few seconds, they were all gone.

"Mm?"

Wang Chong's brow creased in surprise. He had witnessed the savagery of these golden beetles, and not even the Fire of Mara had been capable of completely driving them away. Their pressing and constant attacks were enough to make any martial artist shiver in fear.

But now, these golden beetles had chosen to retreat. This was not their usual habit at all.

But this is fine. At least I can save some of my Stellar Energy.

With a thought, Wang Chong dispelled the Heavenly Mandate Battle Armor. This suit of armor possessed impressive defense, but it consumed an equally astonishing amount of Stellar Energy. Now that he wasn't threatened by the golden beetles, Wang Chong could endure in the formation for a little longer.

Wang Chong suppressed the stray thoughts in his mind and continued toward the center.

A few moments later, he passed through the final formation gate, and his surroundings suddenly fell silent. Wang Chong was finally at the center of the formation.

At a glance, Wang Chong could see large stone pillars at the edge of the formation space, which soared to the sky like the ribs of some massive beast. These were crystalline and transparent, tapering to a point like daggerheads aimed at the sky.

He could see that mysterious black characters had been drawn on these pillars.

"This should be the energy source for the formation! Through these pillars, the formation guides energy into its surroundings, causing all the formation gates to constantly shift and be fraught with danger."

These pillars were extremely important to the formation, but reaching here was not easy. Purely the immense number of calculations required would keep out the vast majority of martial artists.

Wang Chong charged forward without hesitation.

The core of the formation is like the eye of the storm. Although there are fierce storms ravaging the outside, the danger here is much less, Wang Chong thought.

The area around the stone pillars was calm and quiet, so Wang Chong quickly passed through and was soon surrounded by rows upon rows of stone pillars. As he passed his eyes over the characters on these pillars, he raised his eyebrows in recognition.

"Bird Seal!"

Wang Chong looked in shock at the black characters on the pillars.

Wang Chong had encountered these characters of the Spring and Autumn Period when investigating the Confucian Sect. However, these characters seemed both like and unlike the ones Wang Chong had seen in those books. They were like Bird Seal Script, but they were even older.

Wang Chong did not understand the meaning of these characters, but he could tell that vast power flowed through them.

As he continued to look, he saw several other characters and symbols on these stone pillars. Suddenly, he spotted a special symbol at the base of a stone pillar, and his pupils constricted and his face paled.

"How could this be?! Why… why is it that symbol!?"

Wang Chong's body trembled in shock. This was the image of an ancient beast, though its head had long ago disappeared, leaving behind only two savagely curled fangs and a lower jaw. On the lower jaw were several tadpole-like characters. They seemed extremely old, and even more bizarre was that there were actually black wisps of smoke seeping out of the tops of those fangs, exuding an air of mystery.

Why would the symbols from the Doomsday Altar appear here? Just what's going on here? What connection do the Origin Immortal Formation and Origin Immortal Lord have with all this?

Thoughts surged through Wang Chong's mind, stirring up turbulent waves, and the way he looked at these stone pillars immediately changed.