Chapter 1705 — Flames of War in Carefree Village
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 3 of 4
Along with the great waters of the Celestial River rushed countless Dragon Kings of that River, and divine dragon after divine dragon rode the rolling flood, raising waves and calling up wind and rain!
Over the heartland of the Primordial Realm, storm clouds ten thousand miles wide appeared in the sky at once; thunder and lightning raged everywhere within them, countless divine dragons darted through the cloud-mist, and rain poured down in torrents, swelling the water still higher! The heartland of the Primordial Realm, Carefree Village included, fell entirely dark, and only the divine cities, here and there, gleamed with their own divine light in the darkness, sheltering their own stretches of land.
There were likewise Dukes of Thunder and Mothers of Lightning, ritual weapons in hand, who loosed thunderstorm after thunderstorm against the watery country below — bolts flashing, thunder pealing.
Through the heaven-filling rain and the towering floods, tower-ships of unknowable breadth at last appeared before Carefree Village, and sun after sun revolved around those tower-ships — each carried its own sun and moon!
From the opened holds of those tower-ships, warship after warship sailed out — a million warships, their banners streaming! The waterborne host of the Celestial River had come at last, and, seizing the initiative with a show of overmastering might, it used the Dragon Kings of the whole world and the Dukes of Thunder and Mothers of Lightning to deliver Carefree Village a fearsome first blow! Just as the Dragon Kings were running wild, the water of the Yong River suddenly surged in towering waves, and divine dragons rose one by one from the deep.
A voice, vast and clear beyond compare, rang out and shook the clouds: "When the Celestial River falls to earth, it becomes the Yong River — and it is no longer ruled by the Heavenly Court! The Yong River belongs to me, the Dragon-Keeper!
All Dragon Kings, hear my command! " In the Yong River, divine dragons great and small cried out in endless long notes and flew to him in swarms, and at their head was the Dragon-Keeper — dragon's head, man's body, his physical frame enormous, countless divine dragons twined about him!
The Dragon-Keeper's cultivation climbed rung by rung, and he grew into a giant that stood between heaven and earth, trident in hand; with that trident he split open waterways, drawing the flood and guiding it into the Yong River.
Countless Dragon Kings of the Heavenly Court hurled themselves at him from water and sky; the Dragon-Keeper shook his body, and the countless Yong River Dragon Emperors upon him flew out, and dragons fought dragons in a slaughter of appalling savagery. The Dragon-Keeper walked amid the deaths of countless divine dragons, driving the Scripture of Dragon-Rearing to its uttermost; no few Dragon Kings of the Heavenly Court were invaded by this Scripture of his and controlled outright.
In the darkness, countless great dragons, slick and slippery, turned rivers and seas upside down, killing with a ferocity beyond words!
The Dukes of Thunder and Mothers of Lightning of the Heavenly Court came in swarms, drumming monstrous war-drums and hammering lightning at the Dragon-Keeper without cease! Countless storm clouds spun; heaven's thunderbolts fell thick as rain, striking down at the Dragon-Keeper, and the light of the thunder made the source of the Yong River blaze bright as day.
Then, suddenly, new light appeared in the Taihuang Heaven.
Amid its towering mountains and ridges, range by range the mountains shook, and colossal sacred peaks slowly stood erect; chains linked ancient, fathomless spirit-wells, and within the wells the light was blinding as sun after sun rose, unhurried, into the air. Sun Wardens descended from the Kaihuang age and Sun Wardens of the bloodline of the Heavenly Duke of the Dark Capital drove those colossal sun-barges, scattering the darkness and lighting up the sky!