Chapter 1705 — Flames of War in Carefree Village
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 1 of 4
At the great cliff of the Primordial Realm, all was grim and forbidding.
The four Heavenly Masters of Carefree Village — the Woodcutter, the Scholar, the Old Farmer, and the Fisherman — stood atop the gate tower of Yulei City, gazing into the distance.
The cliff rose sheer and unbroken for who knew how many tens of thousands of miles, like a natural moat splitting the Primordial Realm into an eastern half and a western half.
This had once been the source of the Yong River; the Heaven-Shadow Realm kept an entrance here, and many cracks still linked the countless heavens and worlds to this cliff.
Later, when the seal of the Primordial Realm was broken, the Celestial River soared into the void, and all the heavens and worlds rose with it, so that this place became a natural fastness of peril.
One of the heavens of the cosmos, the Taihuang Heaven, had fallen here on the eastern side of the cliff — a seat from which one might defend by holding the vantage point.
The Thirty-Three Heavens of Carefree Village had come down in this very spot; they floated above the Taihuang Heaven, spread out at a slant in battle array, seizing the natural choke point.
The Four Heavenly Kings of the Kaihuang Heavenly Court, Di Yiyue, Qinghuang, Di Shitian, and Tian Shu, each encamped his troops, and Di Yiyue, though he was the second Kaihuang, had likewise donned his armor and taken command in person.
Lang Wan led one army on her own, made up entirely of Creators — few in number, but overwhelming in strength.
The Netherworld Heavenly Venerate was also stationed here, his primordial spirit boundless, holding fast the Netherworld Capital of the Primordial Realm; and not far away, at the center of that realm, the Heavenly Duke drove the supreme treasure of the Heavenly Dao, guarding its Dark Capital. The central route of the Heavenly Court's great army came from the west, and to attack Jingping it would have to pass through this place.
If it went around instead, Carefree Village would fall upon it en route, and so the Heavenly Court had to take this ground at all costs.
By this time Carefree Village had built more than ten great fortresses in succession here, and over a hundred divine cities, and had massed armies of gods and demons within them; heavy weapons from Jingping were ferried over in an unending stream, for they meant to fight the decisive battle against the main forces of the Heavenly Court on this very ground.
Divine cities, great and small, dotted the highlands west of the cliff. In the days that had passed, not a few advance units of the Heavenly Court had already arrived and hurled themselves at those cities; small-scale battles had been fought in great number, with victories and defeats on either side.
The main army of Carefree Village, through it all, did not move a single man, waiting in silence for the decisive clash. The Woodcutter Sage lifted his head, and saw the Celestial River churning restlessly in the sky, its waters running faster than before and mounting ever higher — the omen that the waterborne host of the River was about to arrive.
"The Heavenly Court comes bearing down in full fury, and yet all the heavens and worlds have fallen silent," the Woodcutter Sage said, his gaze shadowed and deep.
"They have suffered the Heavenly Court for a very long time. But the reason they sit still is that they are all watching to see which way the balance tips.
If Carefree Village and Jingping shatter at the first touch, they will not rise against the Heavenly Court; they will go on bowing their heads and calling themselves vassals, letting the Heavenly Court exploit and squeeze them dry. But if Carefree Village and Jingping can hold, they will waver, and heavens without number will side with us.