Chapter 2848: The Artifact Spirit of the Hundred Saint City
The subsequent process of the great ceremony was as Jian Chen had expected. The droplet of Grand Exalt’s essence blood finally drifted slowly towards Sacredfeather under the Virtuous Sage of Heaven’s guidance; this essence blood was something that would be regarded as an ultimate treasure even in the Saints’ World filled with experts.
The Grand Exalt’s essence blood merged with Sacredfeather’s body successfully.
However, the merging of the essence blood was a tremendous test of life and death to Sacredfeather. It was a horrific torture.
The strengthened flesh from merging with the blood of the myriad earlier ruptured again.
The power of the Grand Exalt’s essence blood was far too great. Even when the strength of Sacredfeather’s body had already increased drastically, even when he had already been converted to the bloodline of the Darkstar race, greatly reducing the rejection of the Grand Exalt’s essence blood, death was still certain if he wanted to absorb the Grand Exalt’s essence blood with such weak strength. He would be forcefully blown up by the power of the essence blood, destroying both his body and his soul.
And this time, the severity of Sacredfeather’s wounds were clearly several times or even several dozen times worse than when he merged with the blood of the myriad.
Not only did his flesh constantly rupture, but great chunks of it would rupture at the same time. Entire pieces of his flesh and blood would vanish, reduced to the smallest of atoms.
Even his soul faced severe damage, as not only did the essence blood contain great energy and power of bloodlines, it was also filled with the three vital energies—essence, qi, and spirit.
TL: The three vital energies, commonly translated as vital energies in Chaotic Sword God, is different from vital energy. One’s plural and the other’s singular. The vital energies are also known as the three treasures in Chinese medicine, which you can learn more about here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Treasures_(traditional_Chinese_medicine)
Even though these vital energies were very weak, they had still been left behind by a Grand Exalt after all. They had reached an extremely terrifying level in terms of quality.
Grand Exalts, also known as heavenly ways, were embodiments of “ways”. They could set down their own laws, so everything they left behind would be at supremely high levels.
As a result, Sacredfeather’s soul also faced attacks from the power of the small amount of “spirit” in the essence blood. His soul was on the verge of collapse.
Sacredfeather began to shake violently. Currently, both his body and soul endured unimaginable damage. If this continued, the only fate awaiting him was destruction to both his soul and body.
The Virtuous Sage of Heaven had clearly been expecting all of this. At this moment, the various powers and energies that the Darkstar race had absorbed from countless outsiders finally came into use.
The power of bloodlines, the power of vital energies, the power of souls, and the power of cultivations had already gathered into a great ocean of energy above the capital city.
Now, the sea of energy shining with various colours raged into Sacredfeather’s body like a flood that had breached a dam, so wildly that it could even be described as violent.
The tremendous life force healed Sacredfeather’s wounds, while the power of bloodlines further strengthened Sacredfeather’s bloodline, also allowing Sacredfeather’s bloodline to absorb the power of the essence blood strand by strand.
The power of souls rapidly repaired his soul that was on the brink of collapse. At the same time, the power of cultivations consolidated his cultivation while a fraction of it merged with his body, tempering it further and nourishing it.
The essence blood of a Grand Exalt could not be absorbed so easily. The reason why Sacredfeather had managed to progress so smoothly was not just because of the various powers and energies drained from the outsiders. The huge furnace conjured from space also played a critical role.
The furnace seemed to gather the power of the entire Darkstar race, as well as the power of ways and laws of the Darkstar World to refine Sacredfeather, prompting his absorption of the various energies.
Sacredfeather’s body was rapidly destroyed by the essence blood, yet it also immediately recovered due to the tremendous life force collected from countless cultivators. As he underwent this cycle of constant destruction and recovery, his body, bloodline, and soul strengthened at a highly visible rate.
With each cycle of destruction and recovery, the energy inside the Grand Exalt’s essence blood would be absorbed strand by strand.
As the energy in the essence blood was gradually absorbed, it obviously became weaker and weaker, while the damage that Sacredfeather sustained diminished too, as every single aspect of him was soaring and leaping up qualitatively.
The difference that existed between him and the essence blood was being rapidly closed.
On the altar, the Virtuous Sage of Heaven’s presence seemed to merge with the world of the Darkstar race completely. He stood below the Grand Exalt’s statue with his hands down as he stared at Sacredfeather with his eyes seemingly hidden behind mist. His lips gradually curled into a mysterious smile as he said with a voice that only he could hear, “It’s about time. Hundred Saint City, it’s time for you to carry out your true role.”
With that, an invisible seal within the Hundred Saint City that no one had discovered over all these years vanished silently.
With the disappearance of the seal, the entire city changed slightly in that exact moment. The entire city seemed to go from the dead city of the past to a special city that possessed its own life.
Within the Hundred Saint City, everyone from the fifty-two remaining organisations were all pale-faced as they laid on the ground feebly. Their faces were filled with deep fear.
As well as surging fury.
The teleportation formation had already been destroyed, and as much as seventy percent of their powers had been drained. All the prodigies there were filled with despair.
All the major cities had been sealed off in the current Darkstar World. Without the teleportation formation of the Hundred Saint City, they were no longer able to leave the Darkstar World anymore.
As for leaving the city, even if they managed to bypass the ten armies of the Darkstar race stationed outside to prevent them from leaving, so what if they managed to escape?
Were they supposed to cross the Two World Mountains again?
They truly lacked the courage to.
At this moment, some of the prodigies who gasped for air on the ground, having left their lives up to fate, raised their heads and looked at the sky subconsciously. A sliver of suspicion appeared in their eyes.
But in the next moment, the suspicion immediately turned into surprise and joy.
“Have you sensed it? It’s the artifact spirit. It’s the artifact spirit of the Hundred Saint City…”
“The artifact spirit of the Hundred Saint City has finally been born. Fantastic, fantastic! We’ve waited all these years and attempted countless different things, but it’s finally been born…”
“Rumor has it that the Hundred Saint City doesn’t only possess defensive formations, but also an offensive formation. However, in order to prevent the Darkstar race from noticing, which would make them go out of their way to work against us, the offensive formation was not engraved in the city. Instead, it was left on the artifact spirit of the Hundred Saint City…”
“If an artifact spirit doesn’t exist, then the offensive formation obviously won’t exist, but once an artifact spirit is born, the city will possess these methods of attack…”
In that moment, the records regarding the Hundred Saint City from their clans all flashed through the prodigies’ heads. All of their eyes lit up slightly.
At the same time, the soul sense from the artifact spirit of the Hundred Saint City echoed through the heads of the prodigies.
“Gather everyone’s powers and deplete all the energy gathered in the reserve below the Hundred Saint City over the years in one go. After amplifying it with the formation, launch a strike equivalent to a Chaotic Prime’s…” Hearing the artifact spirit’s voice, hope filled the eyes of the prodigies.
Of course, some people were still worried and hesitant.
“No, we can’t. Once we deplete the entire energy reserve below the city, we won’t be able to use any of the defensive formations anymore. We won’t have enough divine crystals either…”
“It’s already come to a matter of life or death. We can’t worry about too much anymore. Quick, let’s gather our greatest power and send it towards the Two World Mountains so that we open a safe path to the exit…”
“A Chaotic Prime’s strike should be able to pierce the entire Two World Mountains and escort us out, right? There won’t be any Life-devouring Beasts stopping us…”
The prodigies all made up their minds. Afterwards, everyone began to channel their powers into the city.
They had never considered attacking the Darkstar race, as the Darkstar race had the Darkstar Emperor. The Darkstar Emperor was an expert on par with a Chaotic Prime, and he had countless techniques and treasures available to him. A Chaotic Prime’s strike really might not be enough to kill the Darkstar Emperor.
The first thing they thought of was escaping from the Darkstar World. After all, given the scale of the event that had happened in the Darkstar World, it would definitely rock the entire Saints’ World. If the peak organisations banded together and put forth a petition, they might truly be able to make a Grand Exalt take action.
At a time like this, whether they could keep the Hundred Saint City or not no longer mattered.