Chapter 1722 — The Sovereign Takes the Field
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 3 of 4
On that bleak field, if your heart softens for even an instant, if the fear inside your Dao heart shows its head, you will become a deserter and bring total defeat upon us! Can you shoulder that?
Can you bear that? Shen Wu, it is not too late to withdraw now! " The First Ancestor stood there as steadily as the center of the world. "I can," he said hoarsely.
"Words are empty proof! " The Southern Emperor's aura surged; suddenly her vital blood and Dao fire turned into the ferocious, twisted apparitions of the thirty-nine Army Lords of the Southern Heaven and shrieked down on the First Ancestor.
Those thirty-nine army lords were demigods of every form, and their leaders were still more hideous and vicious, misshapen and twisted in limb and monstrously cruel, bearing down on him like a sky-covering tide.
An ordinary man would have lost his Dao heart at such a vision; but the First Ancestor stood unmoved, hands moving, using himself as the center and weaving his vital blood into a formation that transformed into countless troops and horses, clashing head-on with the charge of the thirty-nine army lords and their numberless gods and demons. Limbs flew in all directions, a slaughter beyond description.
The Southern Emperor stared at his face, at his eyes, as if to see the terror in his heart. Then, suddenly, the visions over the sky vanished. The Southern Emperor swept her crimson robes open and shut and laughed. "Prince Shen Wu, I look forward to joining forces with you at the southern wilderness of Jingping!
" The First Ancestor clasped his fists and bowed.
"I await your arrival, Southern Emperor.
" The Southern Emperor returned the salute, made a slight bow to Shen Mu, Lang Wan, and the rest, and said, "The fighting in the Southern Sea is urgent. I am going back.
" With that, she turned into a streak of fire, flew into the distance, and vanished from the Carefree Land. Shen Mu rose and returned the courtesy. "First Ancestor, I entrust the interception of the Southern Heaven's routed army to you.
" The First Ancestor bowed. "I will not fail you. " Then he turned and left.
Shen Mu exhaled slowly and watched him recede.
Ling Yuxiu whispered anxiously, "The Southern Emperor struck so hard against the First Ancestor's Dao heart.
Will anything happen? " "No, it will only rouse his fighting spirit.
" Shen Mu smiled.
"This battle matters enormously, and the Southern Emperor cannot afford to be careless. But the First Ancestor is no longer the deserter from Jade Bright Palace in those years. He was already transformed when he led the many races on their long expedition at the end of the Kaihuang era.
If he looks melancholy, it is because he regrets that he could not save the people of Jade Bright Palace.
This campaign will be the best chance he will ever have to leave his remorse behind.
" The Hall of Human Sovereigns.
The Jade Bright Palace in the Jade Capital during the Kaihuang era.
The First Ancestor walked through the palace; it still preserved the scene from the day Jade Bright Palace was destroyed, unchanged.
It had been a place of teaching and learning in the Kaihuang era. At that celestial palace's height, countless earnest students came to study here; it had been the supreme academy and sacred ground of that age. When the catastrophe broke out, the Nether Heavenly Emperor cast his spell and, in an instant, took away the souls of nearly all the students, leaving nothing behind but their bodies. They still kept their living postures, as though they still dwelled here. The First Ancestor walked in silence through the crowd.
Before his eyes it was still the old Jade Bright Palace: students in their youth, countless bright lives leaping around him, voices of old classmates and teachers laughing in his ears.
He stopped, standing quietly.