Chapter 1406 - Summon, Heavenly Mandate Battle Armor!

“Hurry and leave this place! It’s now very dangerous, and the formation’s core has been activated, sending even stronger attacks toward this place. In twelve seconds, a Stop Gate will be passing through the northwest. Once you enter there, your combined strength should be able to hold out while the formation gate takes you to the edge of the formation, allowing you to escape this disaster!”

Wang Chong’s voice resounded, and then, clap! Wang Chong pressed down his palm, sending a vast stream of Stellar Energy into the middle-aged martial artist, rapidly restoring his reserves.

“Here are a few pills to help you out. You’ll have to depend on yourself for the rest.”

Wang Chong threw over several white pills the size of pigeon eggs and turned to leave. Time was short, and Wang Chong was confident that he would have to face even greater dangers if he wanted to reach the core and break the formation.

Not only would more martial artists die, even he and his master would find it difficult to survive.

“Brother, wait a moment! What is Brother’s honored name?”

The middle-aged martial artist tried to stop Wang Chong, but in a flash of light, Wang Chong was gone into the next formation gate. The martial artist was left stunned and speechless.

“Big Bro, I recognize him…” said a whisper at his ear. “That man was the fake Young Master Qingyang, Zhang Wenfu’s disciple and also the Great Tang’s King of Foreign Lands, Wang Chong!”

“What? The King of Foreign Lands? That’s him?!”

The words of his sworn brother had Zhang Shangwu flabbergasted.

“The one that Freeman Wujin told us to go and join…”

“That’s him!” the unaffiliated martial artist firmly said.

The group became speechless, an eerie silence reigning.

……

Wang Chong continued on his way deeper into the core of the formation, but his steps gradually began to slow.

The closer he got to the core, the more dangerous it became, and the stronger the traps.

Boomboomboom!

Stone pillars struck the ground with a thunderous momentum.

This was no longer a simple physical attack. Wang Chong could sense intense ripples of energy from the stone pillars. The energy in the air was pouring endlessly into the pillars, massively boosting their offensive power.

“Aaaah!” With a scream, an unaffiliated martial artist was crushed into pulp by one of the stone pillars.

There were far too many martial artists coming under attack in the formation. Not even Wang Chong could worry about them all.

“Follow me!”

Wang Chong activated the Great Yinyang Heaven Creation Art and pulled on those martial artists caught in the formation, rescuing them from death and tossing them into nearby formation gates.

Wang Chong didn’t even have time to explain or treat their injuries. Every extra moment spent in these formation gates would increase the danger by that much.

I’ll just save who I can. They’ll have to depend on themselves for the rest, Wang Chong quietly said to himself.

On the way here, he had seen the corpses of far too many martial artists, and there were probably many more who were still struggling for their lives. The only thing Wang Chong could do was to get to the core as quickly as possible and destroy the formation.

On the way, Wang Chong could only save as many as he possibly could.

Keekee!

As Wang Chong stepped into the next formation gate, avoiding a rain of arrows and stones, he heard a metallic chirping.

The nearby golden beetles, as if attracted by something, threw aside their original opponents and flew at Wang Chong.

Unlike the golden beetles Wang Chong had first encountered, these ones had a golden glow around them while thick pulses of energy came from inside their bodies.

And they were clearly much larger.

They must have gotten this way from eating the Stellar Energy of martial artists, Wang Chong supposed.

These golden beetles could absorb a significant amount of Stellar Energy from each martial artist they killed, making them much stronger. The clearest manifestation of this was the glow around their bodies.

For these golden beetles to have such thick and dazzling glows, they had probably killed numerous martial artists.

Pa! Pa! Pa!

Wang Chong fired off three bolts of Sword Qi at one of the beetles, but to his consternation, this time, his attacks only tore apart the glow around the beetle, and the beetle itself continued to charge unabated.

Wang Chong’s heart shivered at this sight at how much stronger these golden beetles had become. He would now probably need five or six bolts of Sword Qi to kill one golden beetle.

Keekee!

The air resounded with sharp chirping as the numerous golden beetles charged in a frenzy at Wang Chong.

Even Wang Chong would find it hard to fend off this many of them.

Without the slightest hesitation, Wang Chong summoned a treasure from within his body.

“Heavenly Mandate Battle Armor!”

In a flash, Wang Chong equipped a dark red suit of armor.

The helmet, mask, vambraces, gauntlets…

The suit of armor completely enclosed Wang Chong, leaving only a few chinks between the individual pieces.

With a thought from Wang Chong, these chinks closed together as well, leaving no gap for his enemy to exploit.

Thudthudthud!

Collisions rained down on the armor.

The golden beetles battered against Wang Chong’s body, but failed to make any headway.

“What is that?!”

In the center of the formation, the three figures who had been watching Wang Chong this entire time saw that savage dark red armor appear abruptly on Wang Chong’s body. Their leader instantly raised an eyebrow and scowled.

The two subordinates also appeared greatly alarmed.

The golden beetles were not ordinary beings, but an ancient species that could break through Stellar Energy barriers and feed on energy. Moreover, they were also powerful enough to eat through iron and steel. Ordinary armor was simply useless against them.

But the suit of armor that Wang Chong was wearing seemed to be impervious to them.

“Milord, such a treasure couldn’t possibly exist in the martial arts world, and he’s never put on that suit of armor before. He must be together with those people!” one of the subordinates said.

A dark look appeared on their three faces, and the eyes of the leader began to surge with killing intent.

“Any treasure consumes Stellar Energy. I’d like to see how long he can endure the attacks of the Golden Armor Stellar-Piercing Beetle!

“Keep an eye on that kid and increase the strength of the attacks against him! We can’t let him get close to the formation core!”

The leader’s expression was extremely grave.

“Yes!”

The two subordinates assented.

At this moment, Wang Chong had no idea of these events, nor did he have the time to care. The golden beetles were crashing in and being forced back, completely incapable of dealing with the Heavenly Mandate Battle Armor.

But Wang Chong was by no means happy.

The Heavenly Mandate Battle Armor consumed large amounts of Stellar Energy, and using it was no different from attacking with Stellar Energy. For the Wang Chong whose Stellar Energy was in disarray and at risk of triggering his cultivation defect at any moment, using it was an extreme risk.

This was also why Wang Chong had not previously used the Heavenly Mandate Battle Armor.

Not only that, even if the Heavenly Mandate Battle Armor could block the attacks of the golden beetles, it had yet another critical flaw: the time limit.

The Heavenly Mandate Battle Armor can’t be used for more than an hour, but in my current condition, it won’t even last ten minutes. No matter what, I have to reach the formation core and destroy the formation before this limit is up! His face within the Heavenly Mandate Battle Armor was ghastly pale.

Starting from now, Wang Chong’s Stellar Energy would be constantly drained and his meridians thrown into increasing disarray. For the first time, Wang Chong felt an intense danger. Those hidden schemers had clearly strengthened their attacks in order to kill everyone. Even his master and the Formation Elder were probably not safe.

He had to destroy the formation.

I’ve already reached the third layer of the formation. Once I get through this layer, I should reach the core, Wang Chong said to himself, continuing to operate the Origin Immortal Formation model in his mind. This formation was more massive and complicated than Wang Chong had imagined, and his Psychic Energy was also rapidly being consumed. Moreover, the closer he got to the core, the more calculations he had to perform.

The Formation Elder was right. The Origin Immortal Formation truly did have too many variables, making the calculations far too complex. Probably only the original architect of the formation was capable of calculating a way to undo the formation. If he hadn’t created the model of the Origin Immortal Formation and had instead chosen to rely solely on calculation, the number of calculations needed to reach the core would have reached an astronomical number that was simply impossible to calculate.

And the effort was still taxing even with the model.

Rumble!

As he was calculating, another rumble came from the core. Wang Chong raised his head and saw through the world of energy that yet another vast wave of energy was sweeping toward his location.

These scoundrels are up to their tricks again!

Wang Chong squinted, a sharp and vicious light in his eyes.

He had already experienced six or seven rumblings like this. With each rumble, the energy of the formation would strengthen and the attacks would become more powerful. Everyone’s circumstances were only continuing to worsen and become more dangerous.

I have to move faster! Wang Chong urged himself.

Keekee!

The golden beetles continued to attack him, metallically chirping, as Wang Chong swiftly made his way into the next formation gate.