Desolate Era Book 18, Chapter 12 - Countless Casualties

The countless Immortals of the Loachwater Army…felt nothing but despair!
Although they were fairly strong, without a supreme combination formation like the Heaven Punisher Formation, there was no way they were even remotely qualified to exchange blows with a terrifying primordial Terrorbeast like the White-Faced Flood Dragon! And the White-Faced Flood Dragon before them was even more powerful than the other three Terrorbeasts!
“Sssssss.” The White-Faced Flood Dragon hissed with cold laughter, its enormous claws once more sweeping forward.
“Stop!”
“Vile creature.”
Two furious roars rang out.
Two additional towering Fiendgods suddenly appeared out of nowhere. One was the old man with a fiery red beard, his entire body surging with flames. The other was a rather willowy maiden; although she was an Empyrean God, at this moment she chose to use a magic spell instead. With a rumbling sound, a large amount of black water came pouring out, tying down her foe and pulling away the surviving Loose Immortals and Celestial Immortals.
“Hahaha…members of the Primordial Imperial Clan?” The Terrorbeast roared with laughter. Its draconic tail lashed outwards as its claws ripped forward, moving to massacre the Celestial Immortals and Loose Immortals. The survivors all used whatever methods they had available, be it hiding within their Immortal estates or using evasive abilities. In short, they were trying to buy as much time as they could…but alas, compared to the White-Faced Flood Dragon, they were far too weak and slow.
BOOM!
The red-bearded elder, wreathed in blazing flames that soared through the heavens, chopped downwards towards the Terrorbeast with a massive warblade.
The Terrorbeast, in turn, brandished a single claw to block.
The two exchanged a blow that could cause mountain ranges to shake. The red-bearded elder was knocked flying backwards, and at even greater speed than the Loachwater Heaven Punisher had been. The female Empyrean God who had been next to him hurriedly moved forward to take over for him.
……
Within the Eight Dragons Cloudcity.
The levitating image was still displaying the results of the battle.
The Xia Emperor, True Immortal Dongyan, True Immortal Skyfarmer, and the extremely muscular Empyrean God all had ugly looks on their faces.
A cold light flashed through the eyes of the Xia Emperor. “That White-Faced Flood Dragon is far more powerful than the other three.” He mused silently to himself, “Can it be that it is formed with even more Celestial Immortals and Loose Immortals and the others? Or is the commander of the White-Faced Flood Dragon Formation an Empyrean God or a True Immortal?”
There were many possible explanations as to why the Terrorbeast was so powerful.
The same was true for the Heaven Punishers; if it was comprised of thousands of Celestial Immortals and many hundreds of thousands of Loose Immortals, its power would naturally increase dramatically. If a Pure Yang True Immortal commanded it, it would also grow more powerful…and if a monster like Ji Ning was in command, it would similarly become very mighty.
And yet…
Because of how powerful the physical body of the White-Faced Flood Dragon was, and because it was formed from an ancient formation, coresense couldn’t be used to penetrate through it. There was no way to see inside of it at all, and so no one could be certain as to how many Celestial Immortals and Loose Immortals it held, or who the commander was. Although the White-Faced Flood Dragons all had difference faces, the Xia Emperor knew too little about the Empyrean Gods and True Immortals who battled alongside the Seamless Gate!
The Seamless Gate, however, knew almost everything about the Grand Xia’s side. This disparity in information was one of the reasons that something like this had happened. If the Xia Emperor’s side had arranged for a Pure Yang True Immortal to take charge of a Heaven Punisher Formation, the enemy would’ve been able to find out right away from the chest-face of the Heaven Punisher.
There was no way to disguise or change the faces on the chests, because they were naturally formed by the formation itself.
……
Within the black citadel hovering above Whitepole City. Countless illusory chains continued to fill the area around the black citadel. True Immortal Whitepole and his comrades on top of the walls of the citadel all had smiles on their faces.
“Hahaha…only when you know your enemy and know yourself shall you gain victory in all your battles. The Xia Emperor knows far too little regarding our Seamless Gate. Very few know about Empyrean God Venomsong; they weren’t able to tell from the appearance of that White-Faced Flood Dragon that it was being commanded by an Empyrean God.” The Hallmaster of Bloodcloud Hall sent mentally, “Azurefox, your idea of having Empyrean God Venomsong personally command a squad was a stroke of brilliance.”
“Something like this can only be used once. Next time, they’ll know and be prepared for Venomsong’s power,” Gatemaster Azurefox sent back. “However…once is enough. We’ve already caused them to suffer a tremendous loss.”
How many Celestial Immortals and Loose Immortals did each side possess?
Both the Heaven Punishers and the White-Faced Flood Dragons…the ‘death’ of a single one represented an utterly staggering amount of casualties.
Generally speaking, battles amongst Immortals could last for extremely long periods of time. This first clash, however, had already resulted in such major losses for the enemy; it could be considered a tremendous victory. And so, the Empyrean Gods and True Immortals on the walls of the Seamless City all had smiles on their faces.
“Mm.” True Immortal Whitepole had a smile on his face as well…but suddenly, his face changed.
The faces of the Hallmaster, the Gatemaster, the Cavemaster, and the others all changed as well.
“Not good!”
One of the few Celestial Immortals alongside the True Immortals, Immortal Venomfreak, stared unblinkingly at the distant battle scene.
……
On the field of battle, no one could predict exactly how things would turn out.
This was because sometimes, new variables would appear so suddenly that neither side would be able to react in time. For example, just now the Loachwater Heaven Punisher was suddenly defeated and its body was torn apart, resulting in the entire Immortal army being defeated and in countless casualties. This was simply too sudden, as was the Xia Emperor’s decision to suddenly send out two Empyrean Gods to slow down the enemy!
In truth, in terms of raw strength, both Empyrean Gods were slightly weaker than the Heaven Punishers and the White-Faced Flood Dragons. The Heaven Punishers and the White-Faced Flood Dragons were formed from an enormous amount of natural energy, after all, and so possessed enormous amounts of strength; they could be considered as having reached the very apex of power possible for Empyrean Gods.
However, their fatal flaw was that once their defenses were breached, they would be finished.
By contrast, Empyrean Gods could rapidly heal from even the most devastating of wounds. This was because their physical bodies were the bodies of Fiendgods! In addition, they were also comparatively more nimble. When two joined forces and used magic treasures and magic spells to support each other, they would still be able to fight evenly.
……
As the strongest White-Faced Flood Dragon battled against the Loachwater Heaven Punisher, Ning and the other seven Heaven Punishers were assaulting the other three Terrorbeasts. Of the eight towering Heaven Punishers, it was obvious that the one Ning led was the strongest one. He was able to unleash more power from the Heaven Punisher Formations than the others, and so his speed was naturally the fastest as well. His Heaven Punisher ran forward with great galloping steps, and was the first to reach the White-Faced Flood Dragon, not giving it a chance to join forces with the other two.
“Stop him!”
“Hold on!”
The other two White-Faced Flood Dragons shouted out furiously in the human tongue.
Multiple towering figures suddenly appeared out of nowhere. They were all black aberrations that were thirty thousand meters tall, but their auras were clearly weaker than the auras of the White-Faced Flood Dragons. These nine Fiendgods appeared out of nowhere next to the other two White-Faced Flood Dragons, because they had previously been hiding within the minor world magic treasure which was being carried by the White-Faced Flood Dragon which the Unity Heaven Punisher had been battling.
“Die!” Ning’s Darknorth Heaven Punisher noticed the nine figures appear, but he still moved with lightning speed as he bounded through the wild landscape. With a flying pounce, he struck out with his right arm, which had taken the form of a sharp longsword, and stabbed towards the head of the White-Faced Flood Dragon in front of him.
The White-Faced Flood Dragon hurriedly retreated while waving its claws to block.
Clang!
It managed to block the sword-attack, but it stumbled several steps backwards upon doing soon. Ning’s Heaven Punisher, however, continued to fly forwards, taking a second leap and once more arriving next to his opponent.
Clang! Clang! The initial clash between Ning’s Heaven Punisher and the enemy caused the enemy to feel shock, because Ning’s attack power was clearly lower. This made no sense at all…the earlier sword-strike from Ning had been incredibly powerful! In addition, they all knew that of the nine Heaven Punishers, the one controlled by Sword Immortal Darknorth, Ji Ning, was the most powerful one.
“Fly.” As Ning’s hands collided with the opponent…his right knee suddenly came flying upwards!
There were differences between the Heaven Punishers and actual Empyrean Gods. The Heaven Punishers were stronger, but if commanders were unable to control the full power of the Heaven Punishers, they would be unable to unleash its full might, to say nothing of wielding every part of its body perfectly. The arms of the Heaven Punisher were significantly weaker than its legs. Ning had been pondering on his Heaven Punisher, and he had slowly gained insights on the best ways to use it.
It was very risky to incorporate the legs into his attack patterns; if he was to lose his balance, it would be easy for the opponents to break through his defenses and finish him.
However, the power of his earlier sword-strike was clearly superior to the power of his foe; this meant he could take the risk! Risk-taking could result in major rewards, as the power of his mighty legs was definitely enough to break apart his foe.
BOOM!
Ning’s powerful Heaven Punisher sent its right knee flying upwards, smashing viciously against the face of the White-Faced Flood Dragon!
CRUNCH!
One could hear the sound of ‘bones’ shattering. The pale, humanoid face of the White-Faced Flood Dragon instantly twisted into unrecognizable shape as it stumbled and fell backwards.
A longsword suddenly appeared in each of Ning’s Heaven Punisher’s hands. The two longswords were actually just long, sharp spikes; they had a sharp tips, but no blades!
Ning wielded a longsword in each of his two hands. After his earlier knee-strike, he delivered a pair of blows with the swords towards the head of the fallen White-Faced Flood Dragon!
As the White-Faced Flood Dragon fell, it knew that things were looking dire and so it hurriedly brandished its claws, seeking to block…but it was only able to block one of the longswords.
As for the other longsword…
PIERCE!
The sharp tip of the longsword carried the full, unfathomable power of the Heaven Punisher, and it forcibly punched its way through the twisted, mangled neck of the White-Faced Flood Dragon.
And as it penetrated in…it began to grind away at the innards of the White-Faced Flood Dragon’s body!
“AHH!”
“NO!!!!”
An enormous amount of baleful energy began to flood towards Ning. Clearly, many Celestial Immortals and Loose Immortals had just died, resulting in the creation of so much baleful energy. As Ning was the commander of the entire formation, the baleful energy naturally ignored everyone else and swirled straight towards Ning, being absorbed by the three Darknorth swords that were located within the Jindan region inside Ning’s body.
The entire White-Faced Flood Dragon instantly collapsed, revealing the countless Celestial Immortals and Loose Immortals inside of it! These Loose Immortals and Celestial Immortals all fled in panic, trying to use any idea they could come up with to escape, hide, or flee.
Ning’s Heaven Punisher, however, swung both hands towards them in a savage blow. His hands were like massive stormclouds, covering the entire area where the countless ant-like Immortals were.
BANG! BANG! The cloud-like palms descended, causing countless Immortals to perish!
An even greater flood of baleful energy poured into Ning’s Jindan region, and his three Darknorth swords greedily drank in all of it.