Chapter 1760 — Counterattack on the Heavenly Palace

At Lanfeng Valley, the first reinforcements to arrive were, unexpectedly, the Silent Artisan and a host of Jingping's heavenly craftsmen; scarce had they come before they threw themselves into their work, and by the next day teleportation portal after teleportation portal stood erected. The second batch to arrive were Dao Lord Lin Xuan, the Dao Ancestor, and other masters of the esoteric arts from the Daoist sects; no sooner had they arrived than they adjusted the numerology of every portal, linking each to the portals of Jingping's other divine cities.

The many alchemists who stepped out of those portals made up the third wave of reinforcements, and these, once arrived, at once drew out their own pill furnaces and refined the elixirs needed to sustain the portals. When all this was done, the portals of Lanfeng Valley were joined to Jingping's many divine cities, and the armies of gods and demons of every great city began to march through them in perfect order.

A teleportation portal is a treasure devised from the teleportation divine art; to transmit across such vast distances by that art drains mana to a fearful degree, a drain even Shen Mu could not withstand when he assassinated the avatar of the Spirit Official. The portals, by contrast, consumed elixirs.

Moving troops on Jingping's scale devoured an immense quantity of them, and so portals were seldom used to convey armies, unless the situation was desperate. Now was the most desperate hour of all!

When Heavenly Venerable Yue and God King Langwan rushed back, the Woodcutter Wen Tiange knew that Jiang Baigui had already reached the Xuandu battlefield; only so did those two have the chance to come. "Wuyou Township!

March out!

" The gates of the divine cities of Lanfeng Valley opened one after another; the surviving officers and men of Wuyou Township went forth to war. Di Yiyue, the Azure Emperor, Indra, Tian Shu, Yan Yunxi, Zhuo Cha, the Fisherman, and the veteran generals who had survived out of the Kaihuang Heavenly Court each led their armies out of Lanfeng Valley and on toward the Heavenly Court's main camp.

A host of heavenly deities and mighty warriors heaved Shen Mu's coffin onto their shoulders and bore it at the very front.

Ling Yuxiu and the officers and soldiers of every army of Jingping stood upon the city towers, watching the army of Wuyou Township leave Lanfeng Valley behind. The army of Wuyou Township was the vanguard, and a vanguard is a keen blade, made to tear the enemy open; if it cannot tear the enemy open, then the keen blade is snapped in two!

On this march the army of Wuyou Township would face a hard fight such as none had known before, and how many of those riding out today would live to come back was a number no one could tell.

Ever since the Heavenly Court's invasion began, Jingping and Wuyou Township alike had stood on the defensive: the Heavenly Court came to attack, and Jingping and Wuyou Township stayed to hold. Now, for the first time, they struck first; one could well imagine how terrible the Heavenly Court's fury and its counterblow would be! Yet if this battle was to be won, that keen blade, Wuyou Township, had to thrust deep and pierce the hide of the Heavenly Court's seeming invincibility!

"Li Youran!

" The Crimson Emperor Qi Xiayu went out from the city alone, halted Indra, and said, "You are Li Youran!

" Indra shook his head: "Benefactor, do not cling to name and form. I am a wrathful Buddha; the Buddha is the Tathagata, who regards all living beings as equal, without form and without name.

" He led his army away. The Crimson Emperor Qi Xiayu urged her phoenix ship into flight, stood upon its deck, and asked down at him: "Have you forgotten the past?

" Indra raised his head and gazed long at her lovely face.

"Benefactor, you still have the Phoenix Clan; there is no need to cling to the feelings of one heart.

If you believe me to be Li Youran, then Li Youran I am; the Tathagata's great love knows no bounds, and loves all living beings, and loves you too.

Go back.

" Qi Xiayu stared wide-eyed, watching him go.

Upon the city tower of Lanfeng Valley, Emperor Yanfeng walked over, took his place at Ling Yuxiu's side, and said in a low voice: "In this first battle we must tear an opening in the Heavenly Court's main camp. Wuyou Township rides into peril upon peril.

" Ling Yuxiu looked at her father.

Emperor Yanfeng showed a touch of age now, far more weathered than the middle-aged sovereign who had once pressed reform and driven the new laws through with such keen resolve; yet his spirit was still abundant, his bearing vigorous. "Father, you command this battle," said Ling Yuxiu. Emperor Yanfeng shook his head and laughed: "You are already a fit leader.

Had you not set your heart on marrying that fellow Shen, I would not have wanted to take up Jingping's burden either.

In daring you are not my equal, but you are more meticulous than I, more patient, and you know better how to hide your clumsiness and conceal your edge. This battle, you will direct.

I mean to take the field myself and kill the enemy! " Ling Yuxiu nodded, turned, and said, "Blind Grandpa, in the mastery of formations none in Jingping can surpass you, and your holy eyes have no equal.

From this moment you are Jingping's Heavenly Master of Formations.

Stay by my side. " The blind old man clapped his hands, and many of Jingping's young cultivators of formations came forward. He said: "One man's wits are short.

In this age, knowledge and the arts of the Dao grow like an explosion; a single person can scarcely master a whole field alone. I need these youngsters to lend me an arm.

" Ling Yuxiu bowed. "I must trouble you, Blind Grandpa. " She straightened up and gave the order; in Youdu, countless paper boats set forth, and from their bows paper horses leapt without cease, racing through the darkness of Youdu.

Upon the backs of those paper horses were the gods and demons who had fallen in this catastrophe; dead yet still fighting, their will to battle flooding the heavens, they charged in vast array toward the Heavenly Court's ranks.

Aboard each of those paper boats, one Heavenly Venerable You after another lifted his lantern to light the road ahead. Above hundreds of millions of paper boats, the Earth Lord's Book of Life and Death shone with a brilliant golden light, like a sheet of gold leaf without thickness, pouring its radiance down.

And behind the army of Heavenly Venerable You's clones, Shen Fengqing had three heads and six arms, each head bearing three eyes and twin horns upon its crown; behind Shen Fengqing spun the howling Six Paths Heavenly Wheel, its six paths revolving in different directions as it followed him. Boom!

In Lanfeng Valley, one divine city after another spat out long plumes of flame, slowly stirred to life, and set off toward the Heavenly Court's main camp.

Within those cities, tower ships and great vessels rose into the air, far swifter than the divine cities, and sailed out of them in perfect order; upon their decks stood rows upon rows of flying chariots, and aboard the great chariots alchemists from Jingping hurried to tune the pill furnaces, while other soldiers swiftly loaded divine weapons and keen blades onto them.

When all was in order, the commanding officers aboard the tower ships gave the word, the pill furnaces of the flying chariots ignited, and they flew out from the ships at a speed much greater still, the army of chariots screaming away. The Village Head roused his vital essence until he seemed a youth again, a divine sword at his waist, standing against the wind.

He stood upon the foremost flying chariot; the chariot army was made up mostly of Jingping's heroes who cultivated swordsmanship, sword techniques, and the sword dao.

Whoosh!