Chapter 1764 — Triumph at Xuandu

Zaifu and the Divine Blade Camp had scarce charged into the great camp of the Heavenly Court when the armies of Tianlei City came surging endlessly to meet them, barring their way.

The armies of Tianlei City were famed for their formations, and were hailed as the bronze wall and iron rampart of the Heavenly Court; the commander who held Tianlei City was the Star-Dipper Proper God of the Upper Terrace, Xie Jin'an, and beneath his banner were no few masters of the Emperor Throne realm. Tianlei City's charge was to hold the walls, but Jing Ping's onslaught had been too fierce, and under Granny Zhu's command the army had crushed its ramparts; yet when Zaifu led the Divine Blade Camp into the city, they bore the first brunt, and Tianlei City's forces closed in upon them.

"The Green Annals Mirror the Crimson Heart! " Zaifu roared, and his blade-intent joined with that of Luo Wushuang, Zhe Huali, and Bashan; at once the Dao-realm of the Way of the Blade ran through them all and became one.

Yet this formation, which fuses blade-realm into one, required that those who worked it be tempered upon the God-Slaying Terrace before their blade-intent and blade-way could melt into a single whole and lift the cultivation of their Dao-realm.

In the battle of Xuandu of old, it had been worked by five together — Shen Mu, Zaifu, Luo Wushuang, Zhe Huali, and Tian Shu, the Five Ancestors of the Blade Dao — raising the Dao-realm of the blade to the thirty-first heaven, scarce touching the level of a Heavenly Venerable. But now the Five Ancestors of the Blade Dao lacked Shen Mu and Tian Shu. Bashan's cultivation in the blade was by no means weak, yet beside Shen Mu and Tian Shu he fell far short.

Fortunately, in the decades since the battle of Xuandu, Zaifu, Zhe Huali, and Luo Wushuang had advanced in the Way of the Blade with wondrous speed, making up for what Bashan lacked. The four shifted their steps, and the thirtieth heaven of the Blade Dao burst forth.

Unstoppable as a splitting bamboo, they cut their way into the armies of Tianlei City and drove straight for Xie Jin'an. Xie Jin'an knew no fear, and came straight at the four.

His body shook and he became a xiezhi.

Of the four, all but Luo Wushuang were nameless folk; yet as their forms crossed, Xie Jin'an's head fell to the ground.

His primordial spirit left its shell at once and sought to flee, but a blade-light flashed past, and his primordial spirit too was slain. The four spent every ounce of their strength, leading the Divine Blade Camp in a charge toward the battlefield where the Woodcutter and the others fought. The Divine Blade Camp was unstoppable as a splitting bamboo, yet the officers and men of Tianlei City before them were truly too many, and their advance was hard-won.

Granny Zhu came charging up on a colossal beast at the head of her army, guarding their flanks and helping them hold off the Heavenly Court's troops that poured in from either wing. Behind Granny Zhu, a Primal Tree rose slowly.

Gongsun Yan came striding forward, and the Primal Tree grew ever more lush.

She raised her hand, and the primal magnetic divine power thundered, pressing the officers and men of the Heavenly Court's many armies and divisions who surged in from all sides flat to the ground, unable to stir. With a lift of her hand Gongsun Yan swept the sky, clearing a great expanse of it. "Sacrifice your primordial spirits!

" The officers and men pinned to the ground roared, and their primordial spirits flew out one after another, hurling themselves at Gongsun Yan; for against a primordial spirit, the earth's magnetic power could do nothing.

Suddenly dragon-cries shook the heavens.

Emperor Yanfeng stood upon his tower-ship, driving his mystic arts; one after another the Ancestral Dragon Heavenly Palaces floated forth, ten thousand dragons dancing, and they slew toward the primordial spirits of those Heavenly Court officers and men. At once countless black soul-sands howled through the air; one primordial spirit after another was shattered, turning into rolling black sand.

Just then the Divine Might armies of left and right came charging in, rushing at Emperor Yanfeng. The hundred-odd divine cities of Jing Ping that followed behind the tower-ship blazed with cannon-light, and a volley of that light burst forth, holding the two Divine Might armies at bay.

The Moon Heavenly Venerable sat upon the city tower, head bowed over her qin.

The music rose, and of a sudden the hundred thousand officers and men of the Two Divine Might Guards were each spun head over heels and vanished in an instant — banished by her arts of space to some place none could say. The Two Divine Might Guards at once formed their formations, becoming the Fire Sage Demon-Breaking Formation.

Within those two formations, two phantom images of the Fire Heavenly Venerable rose slowly, wheels upon wheels of Dao-fire behind their heads, for the Two Divine Might Guards had spent their own mana to re-enact the Fire Heavenly Venerable's Daoist arts and divine powers. This Fire Sage Demon-Breaking Formation too had been devised by the Heavenly Master Meng Yungui, and mastered by the Two Divine Might Guards; it was made to break the Moon Heavenly Venerable's Zaiji Void.

The Moon Heavenly Venerable raised her brows; her form flew up from the tower of the divine city, and the next moment she pressed in among the great formations of the Two Divine Might Guards. At the same time Lady Tianyin lifted her hand and flung out the hourglass. It flew into the two great formations and burst of a sudden; rolling black soul-sand poured out, and darkness spread.

The Dao-fire of the two great formations could not melt the black soul-sand, and at once both formations sank into darkness.

Gongsun Yan's form flew up, became a Primal Tree, and cast herself into the two darkened formations. The formations stirred; the Primal Tree burst into furious flame, yet it held the two Fire Sage Demon-Breaking Formations back for a moment at least. In that moment, music came through the darkness; the next, the two great formations split apart, breaking into several hundred pieces.

The music grew ever more urgent. The Moon Heavenly Venerable plucked her strings and suddenly drove her mana; space spun, and tens of thousands of the Two Divine Might Guards' officers and men were stretched long and flattened thin to the music, until of a sudden a rift in space opened, revealing the Void of Chaos.

The Moon Heavenly Venerable swept her sleeve and plucked her qin; the music swelled, and those tens of thousands of officers and men went howling away, banished into the depths of the Void of Chaos.

Yet the strength of those tens of thousands of the Two Divine Might Guards was truly great.

A single Divine Might Guard was no match for the Moon Heavenly Venerable, but the leaders who held the formation charts were among the Heavenly Court's foremost beings of the Emperor Throne realm. They drove the charts, drawing one Divine Might Guard after another into them; the charts stirred once more, and twisted layer upon layer of space, seeking to escape from the Moon Heavenly Venerable's divine power.

The Moon Heavenly Venerable's ten fingers flew as though she had grown countless arms, her finger-shadows like phantoms, spending all she had to contend with the Fire Sage Demon-Breaking Formation and drive those Two Divine Might Guards little by little into the depths of the Void of Chaos.