Chapter 428 - Slaughter the Tower (4) (1/2)
Translator: GE_Team Editor: GE_Team
The group of cultivators were all shocked. The grand formation that was taking away their life force was something literally no one had ever heard of!
Taking away someone’s life force was a technique of the Great Dao. Even a True Immortal Realm immortal might not necessarily be able to display that kind of technique. This Immortal Void Realm grand formation, however, could imitate the functions of that technique!
Within the grand formation under the lightning flashes and falling rain, the life force of all of the undead spirits regardless of whether they were allies or enemies were decreasing rapidly. Their hair turned white and their faces gradually aged.
A few experts whose lifespans were about to run out lost their final trace of life force and died after being affected by this grand formation.
It was only a matter of time before the other experts who were also trapped inside this formation lost their life force completely.
What a strange grand formation!
Lei Shiyi and the other experts were trying to break the formation light with all of their strength.
However, this formation light was an Immortal Void Realm grand formation in the first place. After it absorbed the life force of the experts within it, its defense increased to a terrifying level. How would Lei Shiyi and his group be able to break it?
“Are we really going to die right here with this Zhu Feng?!” Hopelessness filled the faces of countless experts.
Now, Zhu Feng was already in an indestructible state after he chose to sacrifice his life.
The grand formation could not be broken. The entire mountain range of the Zhong Mountain was the grand formation and each drop of rain was a spirit that seizes one’s soul.
Looking at everyone’s nervous expressions, Zhu Feng’s mouth formed into a satisfied smile.
Yes. This is it. This is what it should be!
He wanted to let these people feel the same hopelessness he had felt before!
To Zhu Feng who faced certain death after sacrificing himself, the hopeless expressions of each of his enemies was the biggest consolation before he would finally kick the bucket.
However, when Zhu Feng’s gaze shifted to Ning Fan, he was suddenly enraged.
“Why is he still calm? This is impossible!”
Zhu Feng’s heart was filled with rage. The culprit who made him end up like this today was none other than Ning Fan.
What he wanted to see the most was the hopeless expression on Ning Fan’s face. Only then would he feel pleased.
However, Ning Fan did not reveal the slightest trace of fear while being trapped inside the formation. Instead, he kept a straight face and behaved calmly. A brief moment later, he even gently closed his eyes and left his three puppets and one refined corpse by his side to protect him.
Even though his black hair turned white strand after strand, his skin turned dry and wrinkled bit by bit, his back became more and more crooked and his lifespan shortened little by little, he did not show any resistance at all. He just allowed the grand formation to seize his life force away.
Life force was the upper limit of a cultivator’s lifespan. When one loses their life force, it would not affect their bone age.
The reason why some cultivators were able to still maintain their appearance even though they had lived for tens of thousands of years was because they still had a sufficient amount of life force.
As their life force slowly seeps away, they would gradually get closer to the end of their lifespan. Only then would cultivators begin to age. Of course, there were also cultivators who preferred having an elderly appearance and thus it was normal for some cultivators to deliberately make their faces look older.
From the day Ning Fan entered the cultivation world up until today, his bone age was just around 500 years old by using the time distortion effect to aid in his cultivation several times. As a Divine Transformation Realm cultivator, he could live up to five or six thousand years. Since he had plenty of life force, he would naturally not look old.
However, as he gradually lost his life force to the grand formation which kept on draining it away from him, even he could not avoid becoming old.
Although this Immortal Void Grand Formation was strong, Ning Fan was absolutely capable of creating a crack on the formation using his Wind Mist Finger and leave. However, he did not choose to do that.
Of course, he had his own reasons for choosing to stay inside the formation without breaking it or escaping.
As he connected his heart with this formation, he seemed to have comprehended something but that insight faded away like indiscernible mist.
The Blood of Time that was formed inside of him because he had devoured the time crystal slowly increased at this moment.
“Time, huh… If I can control this trace of Blood of Time as I wish, not only can I prevent the formation light from draining my life force but I can also seize the life force of the grand formation instead”
“I haven’t aged before. How do I comprehend what time is…? Thus, to me, letting myself age while the grand formation is taking my life force away is the best opportunity to comprehend the Blood of Time.”
Ning Fan had made up his mind to dismiss all of his protective measures and let the formation light seize his life force.
Besides, he had even attempted to use the power of time in reverse to send his life force to the grand formation. Thus, his aging speed was nearly tens of times faster than the others.
Thinking that Ning Fan was just pretending to be calm, Zhu Feng’s expression was filled with contempt while he was down on the ground on one knee.
From his perspective, Ning Fan was just trying to make things look unnecessarily mysterious by pretending to be calm.
He certainly did not think that Ning Fan would be able to break this dignified Immortal Void Realm grand formation!
No one was able to kill Zhu Feng. Zhu Feng, on the other hand, had also become so weak that he could not even use half a trace of his magic power, causing him to be unable to attack anyone.
He just wished to die together with all his enemies right here. As such, he could still taste the pleasure of revenge.
Ning Fan’s life force was quickly being drained away. From having the appearance of a twenty-year-old young man, his face gradually turned into that of a middle-aged man thirty to forty years of age. Then, his face continued to age and resembled that of an old man who was around sixty to seventy years old.
Within his heart, his comprehension towards time became more in-depth as time went by.
One should be independent at the age of thirty, be wise at forty, understand the biddings of heaven at fifty, accept everything obediently at sixty, follow what their hearts dictate without overstepping the boundaries of righteousness at seventy…
As his appearance changed, his heart and thoughts had also grown more mature.
His hair had turned completely white and his face was now full of wrinkles. His movements were slow and his breathing was heavy, just like that of an old man. He opened his turbid eyes and indifferently glanced at the grand formation of the storm. His eyes, however, did not reveal a hint of joy or sadness.
He had already reached a point where he was no longer affected by gains or losses!
Just within this short period of time where he had artificially gone into his later years, his state of mind had a great improvement!
“What is time? The poem of cultivators says, ‘Time is just a passing traveler of one hundred generations’… The lifetime of a cultivator is as long as one hundred generations to a mortal. To cultivators, time is the years that have passed by. In other words, time is life. To mountains, time is the cracks that are left on the stones. Time is the marks that are left by weathering and erosions. To flowing streams, lakes and the seas, time is the transformation of the deep-blue seas into vast mulberry fields…”
Ning Fan muttered inwardly. Inside his dantian, the trace of Blood of Time was gradually separated from his blood veins. His primordial spirit which was clad in a suit of golden armor opened his mouth and swallowed that drop of blood.
In the past, he could not devour the Blood of Time as he pleased.
Now, after turning old in a single night, he managed to comprehend the profound meaning of time through the maturity of his heart and the aging of his physical body.
There are some things in this world that you won’t be able to understand in your entire life by being subjective and separating yourself from reality without experiencing it personally.
For example, the flowing current of water or time.
Ning Fan’s old and turbid eyes suddenly flashed with a hint of clarity. He had discovered the flowing course of time!
“I’ve now understood time. But I still can’t manipulate time at will. All of this is because my cultivation realm is too low and I cannot learn an Immortal Realm technique of that level…”
“However, I have discovered a technique to control time from this grand formation. Seizing one’s life force could make them age. Seizing the life force of heaven and earth could make it grow old. As for the method of seizing the life force, it is by taking away their ‘time’ and replenishing one’s own ‘time’ that has already passed. This will maintain the balance…”
“Because this grand formation is infused with a trace of power of time, it can seize one’s life force. Since I also have a trace of the power of time, I can also… take away one’s life force!”
Ning Fan’s hair was white like snow. He looked calmly at Zhu Feng and said indifferently.
“Thank you for giving me such a great gift!”
“A great gift? Humph! What nonsense are you talking about? When did I give you a gift? What I have given to you is a great tribulation of life and death to take your lives!” Zhu Feng sneered. He thought that Ning Fan must be close to death already. Thus, he became muddle-headed and started to talk nonsense.
“…”
Ning Fan did not give him an answer. He wanted to use concrete actions to tell Zhu Feng that the grand formation that he had activated by sacrificing his own life was a great gift to him!
“Break!”
Ning Fan’s old hoarse voice resounded clearly across the Zhong Mountain. His eyes suddenly shot out a fine ray of golden light.
That golden light was not sword qi or golden lightning. Instead, it was a strange and unknown power.
That kind of power was not as profound and mysterious as Samsara. However, when it appeared, both Lei Shiyi and Zhu Feng could not understand what it was.
Especially Zhu Feng who exclaimed in surprise.
“What is this?! Such frightening power! However, no matter how terrifying this power is, it’s only just a fine ray of light. It certainly can’t break this grand formation…”
When he was halfway through speaking, he suddenly choked on his words.
Above the night sky, that ray of pure golden light which was as fine as thread pierced through the formation light as easy as piercing tofu with a needle.
*Chi*
At the next moment, the grand formation gave out a bang and became chaotic. It was because Ning Fan had seized the trace of power of time that was originally blessing the formation light!
That trace of power of time was not much different from the power of Ning Fan’s Blood of Time. However, the power of time that was left by the grandmaster who created this formation was still slightly inferior after all.
If the power of time that he left in this formation was not benefitting Ning Fan, what else could it be?
“Devour!”
After sending his Blood of Time into the formation light, Ning Fan assumed control over the blood with his will and began to absorb all the power of time within the formation light.
The effect of draining the life force of cultivators from the grand formation on Zhong Mountain was diminishing gradually. In the end, it actually could no longer seize anyone’s life force at all.
Ning Fan clawed at the formation light with his five fingers and it shattered and collapsed. He recalled the trace of golden thread into his hand and swallowed it into his abdomen to assimilate into his primordial spirit. Within his primordial spirit, a trace of golden thread separated into two traces of Blood of Time.
There is one more trace!
This additional trace was naturally obtained from the formation light!