Chapter 1720 — The Heavenly Gate's Divine Fire Burns My Soul
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 4 of 5
The raging dao fire came surging at her face, and the five Bai Yuqiongs blocked it before them; the dao fire, as though meeting an invisible wall, struck again and again, quaked again and again, trying to break through that wall.
Before the wall stood Bai Yuqiong's figure; behind Bai Yuqiong were all the living souls aboard the ship. The bodies of the five Bai Yuqiongs were scorched; her snow-white arms turned black as charcoal; suddenly one Bai Yuqiong became ash, swallowed by the dao fire; then a second Bai Yuqiong was consumed by the dao fire; then the third, the fourth!
Soon only a single Bai Yuqiong remained on the ship, her body shuddering, no longer able to hold on.
Yiluo Heavenly King's primal spirit cried shrilly: "Burn her to death for me!
Burn those maggots on the ship to death! " Beset by fury and humiliation, he summoned the other armies and ordered the tens of thousands of Heavenly Court gods and demons to join in driving the Ancestral Southern Heavenly Gate.
The Ancestral Southern Heavenly Gate is a gate of the Great Dao born of heaven and earth, holding within it the most sacred dao fire; even the twenty thousand experts of the two Shenwu Guards, at the Jade Capital, Lingxiao, and even Imperial Throne ranks, could not drive this gate's power to its utmost.
Now, with tens of thousands more gods and demons of every host added, the might of the Ancestral Southern Heavenly Gate rose sharply once more! Bai Yuqiong was pressed back and back, her body shuddering more and more; she had retreated to where the people of Southern Heaven stood on the ship, her foot already treading on the hem of Meng Yungui's corpse.
Bai Yuqiong wept aloud; one hand seized the Reincarnation Jade Pendant at her breast; her heart quivered, and she abruptly exerted her strength.
"I am Bai Yuqiong! " The dao fire of the Ancestral Southern Heavenly Gate swallowed her, and from the flames came her voice: "I am Bai Yuqiong of the human race—" The cry was clear and soaring, somewhat like the call of a phoenix, yet not quite the same.
Though the dao fire swallowed her, it could advance no further; Yiluo Heavenly King and countless Heavenly Court gods and demons saw that within the dao fire Bai Yuqiong's figure stood erect, still not burned to ash.
The woman bathed in the dao fire; from within her came an unbelievable heat, an unbelievable flame, joined to and mingling with the dao fire of the Ancestral Southern Heavenly Gate.
Within her, something seemed to awaken all at once, to be about to tear her shell apart, tear her flesh apart, grow out of her body, escape from it.
Then the gods of the Heavenly Court saw Bai Yuqiong's body begin to change: piece after piece of incomparably gorgeous feather drilled out from within her, beautiful beyond measure even in the Southern Heavenly Gate's dao fire. "It is a phoenix!
" a general cried aloud.
"It is no phoenix! A phoenix is flesh and blood!
" Yiluo Heavenly King, feeling the dread that a natural enemy brings, cried shrilly: "It is the Vermilion Bird—quick!
Recall the Southern Heavenly Gate!
The dao fire cannot harm her; it only strengthens her!
" At that very moment, all the gods and demons saw a Vermilion Bird of incomparable splendor soar up from within Bai Yuqiong in the dao fire, break free of the shackles of her flesh, and spread wings of peerless magnificence in the flames.
In that instant, all the Heavenly Court gods and demons controlling the Southern Heavenly Gate felt at once that they had lost their grip on it; the might of the dao fire in the Southern Heavenly Gate was greater than before, yet those who controlled this gate of the Great Dao were no longer them. "Retreat—" Yiluo Heavenly King roared, beat his wings, and rose, bearing his heavenly palaces away!
On a tower ship in the distance, Shang Pingyin, who had been raving mad all this while, suddenly came to his senses at the sight and cried shrilly: "You must not retreat! Form ranks at once and fight!