Chapter 1760 — Counterattack on the Heavenly Palace

The Crimson Emperor Qi Xiayu's phoenix ship beat its wings and flew out of the divine city, the army of the Phoenix Clan behind it, though upon the back of every phoenix stood a dozen or more Jingping soldiers, each carrying a war blade longer than a man.

At their waists they also wore blade pouches, within which were hidden blade pellets. The Steward, huge of frame, stood upon a phoenix's back; two phoenixes flew up beside him, Divine Blade Luo Wushuang appearing at his left, Demon Blade Zhe Huali at his right, while Bashan the Libationer came pelting after them. Behind the Four Great Blade Gods of Jingping came the younger generation who cultivated blade arts and the blade dao.

"What is he doing here too? " Zhe Huali glanced back at Bashan the Libationer and said with a frown: "He is not one of our Divine Blade Camp; he walks the path of fusing battle and technique.

Traitor!

" Bashan the Libationer flew into a rage: "You little brat, if you have the guts, stop right there!

" "Pay him no mind," said the Steward without looking back.

"The more you answer him, the happier he is, and the louder he bellows. With Shen'er and Tian Shu absent, we had no choice but to drag him out to make up the numbers.

" Bashan the Libationer's face went green, and he shouted: "Master, does your elbow not ache, turning outward like that?

I am your own disciple, after all! " The Steward's face turned ashen.

Luo Wushuang was bewildered, thinking: "What bold spirit and grand passion the Heavenly Blade had, a belly full of learning, words flowing into verse at a word; how is his disciple such a lout?

" A stretch of heavenly river flew forth, growing longer and longer, surging and roaring; the Dark Emperor and the Martial Emperor became an enormous Xuanwu, like a continent within the river, swimming along that heavenly river.

And behind the Dark Tortoise and the Soaring Serpent trailed an even vaster Great Marsh, the ancestral land of those two Xuanwu Emperors. Within that ancestral land, the demigods of the Xuan Clan and the Wu Clan were in high spirits, each finding their own partner, always one man and one woman, pairing off to form formations.

In the sky Wei Suifeng flew through the air, his great sleeves fluttering, and behind him tens of thousands of the Feather Forest Guard beat their wings in flight.

The thousand-winged Soaring Serpent that was the Martial Emperor raised its head and laughed: "Emperor Yunluo, be careful in this war, and take care that your name does not prove true!

" "Bah! " Wei Suifeng laughed heartily.

"I am one of the few under heaven who can wield the Immutable divine art.

Mine is flawed, true, but it is enough to keep me alive!

It is you two, husband and wife, who had best be careful! " "Great fortune, great profit," said the Dark Tortoise that was the Dark Emperor, lifting its head with a laugh.

"I am skilled in divination. I cast a hexagram: this expedition will meet with great fortune!

" The divine cities of Lanfeng Valley gradually picked up speed.

In the valley, the Silent Artisan led tens of thousands of heavenly craftsmen in opening the newly built supervising workshops, forging divine weapons against the attrition to come.

At the same time, many other wielders of divine arts came and went, hauling miraculous elixirs and divine metals and ores from Jingping.

In the sky, a hundred-odd divine cities advanced toward the Heavenly Court's main camp in the glow of the setting sun.

Below the divine cities, Granny Zhu led Jingping's ground army; as the soldiers of Jingping marched, they roused their summoning divine arts, and the sky beneath the cities split open again and again, revealing the boundless world of the Beast Realm.

One ancient behemoth after another poked its head out from that other world and dropped down out of the sky. Granny Zhu led thousands upon thousands of soldiers onto the broad backs of the behemoths; the beasts pounded along until the earth trembled, faster and faster.

Granny Zhu glanced to one side and saw the young Patriarch Wenyuan and Hua Xuanxiu standing on the back of a behemoth.

She said hastily: "Wenyuan, look after your junior sister!

She is the Holy Maiden of our Heavenly Sage Cult! " Patriarch Wenyuan felt somewhat aggrieved, thinking: "An old phoenix is worse than a chicken, and my standing has taken a sharp turn downhill as well; can it be that, like Shen'er, I have grown old and faded?

" Still uneasy about Hua Xuanxiu's safety, Granny Zhu said to Jiang Yunjian: "Yunjian, your cultivation is high, so look after your junior sister Hua!

" Jiang Yunjian nodded gravely.

The army he led this time was the army of the Four Emperors' Divine Weapons, every officer and soldier bearing one upon his person, the Five Thunder Gourd and the like. Behind Patriarch Wenyuan and Hua Xuanxiu came an army made up of the scholars of the Heavenly Sage Academy and the Imperial Academy together with its Libationers, men who had mostly come from the Heavenly Sage Cult of old, elders such as Heavenly Kings and Dharma Protectors.

After Shen Mu became its cult leader, he reformed the Heavenly Sage Cult into the Heavenly Sage Academy; the Heavenly Sage Cult had once borne an ill name, being called the Youmo Cult, and now it had more or less washed itself clean.

Patriarch Wenyuan was the cult leader of this generation, though it was a title in name only.

Every army of Jingping set out. After two days' march, the Heavenly Court's main camp came into view, and at that very moment the army of Wuyou Township had already clashed head-on with the forces of the Heavenly Court's camp!

The first battle of Jingping's counterattack had begun!