荒墟牧神 - 第1731章 遠赴元界盡豪傑 - 墨香閣

Haotian's face darkened. The two primordial spirits fought with utmost ferocity, while the assault upon their bodies was dazzling to behold. Haotian could plainly see Shen Mu's wounds widening and the havoc wrought by the Dao-wounds growing fiercer, and yet Shen Mu's Divine Treasury never once collapsed into nothingness as he had foreseen!

Shen Mu's World Tree forced itself to hold up the Thirty-Three Heavens of his Dao-realm; his Heavenly Court and the other heavens and myriad worlds still tottered, but had not crumbled to dust.

The World Tree remained the crux of this war between Haotian and Shen Mu. Unless it were severed, Shen Mu could not be laid low!

Yet as Shen Mu's Dao-wounds erupted, the World Tree had to bear up the myriad heavens and worlds and the Thirty-Three Heavens, and the pressure upon it mounted ever higher, which let Haotian see hope!

Had Shen Mu been at his height and Haotian likewise, Haotian could not have withstood ten moves at Shen Mu's hands. But now Shen Mu, gravely wounded by the Third Young Master, had only one or two tenths of his strength left, and Haotian too was not at his height, so for a time the two of them could not decide the issue between them.

At the same moment that Shen Mu withdrew his Divine Treasury domain, the army of the Land of No Sorrow found itself encircled. Without Shen Mu's treasury domain and World Tree, that army was a lone leaf adrift on a vast ocean, able only to huddle together and meet the foes surging in from every side, and in that short while its losses were grievous.

As for Jing Ping's hosts, whether it was the Village Headman, the Steward, the Deaf Elder, or the First Ancestor and Granny Zhu, none had yet fought their way to the Heavenly Court's main camp. Wei Suifeng's Feathered Forest Guard and the Northern Emperor Xuanwu's army were pinned down by the Heavenly River Navy, while the Western Emperor White Tiger and Dragon Qilin's host had only now reached the rear of the Heavenly Court's camp, and there, face to face with the Divine Division, foremost of the Heavenly Court's three divisions, they were locked in bitter fighting!

Within the Nether Capital, the Nether Heavenly Venerable and Shen Fengqing each attended to their own tasks, hunting down and slaughtering the Dragon and Martial Guards, and had no hands free either.

Around the Woodcutter Wen Tiange the officers and men grew fewer and fewer; even the Woodcutter Sage now took up his axe and went into the line himself. In this battle there were almost no soldiers left for him to command; most had already died in the fighting!

Now, sage though he was, he must go to the front himself and kill his enemies with his own hands!

Around them the enemy surged in like the tide, enough to drive one to despair, and yet the Woodcutter and the others had eyes shining bright, for what they saw was hope.

The longer they held out, the greater their hope of victory in this battle!

The Woodcutter looked about him. Blood flowed without cease from Di Yiyue's severed arm; this generation's Opening Emperor too had come to the hour when the lamp falters for want of oil. The ribbon that bound Yan Yunxi's hair had at some point snapped; her black tresses fell loose, revealing a woman's face. The old farmer Zhuo Cha leaned at her back, plainly having recognized the sweetheart he had secretly loved so long.

Tian Shu's Imperial Gate Divine Saber was broken halfway up; he was cradling a cracked wine jar and trying to pour out a single drop, but the wine had long since run dry.

Yama's Fengdu had shattered too; the last divine city had been stormed, and the ghosts and gods killed or wounded beyond counting.

Old Man Qinghuang lay on the ground, alive or dead none could say; a demon-god weapon was lodged in Indra's chest, and he dared not draw it out.

The Land of No Sorrow could hold out no longer.

Suddenly the army of the Shence Right Guard came surging in. With this host's arrival, the last hope of the Land of No Sorrow was cut away.