Spirit Sword Mountain, Blue River Region
The siege of Spirit Sword Mountain by the Fallen Immortals had lasted for ten days.
Before this, no one had imagined that Spirit Sword Mountain could hold on for such a long time. In the face of the siege from dozens of Immortals and many Senior Immortals that joined hands together, it was a miracle for a lower realm sect to persist for half a day.
And this miracle had actually been performed twenty times.
To be sure, this was, more or less, a gift from Senior Immortal Xiaoyao. If he hadn’t asked Fengyun and the others to not be in a rush, which dispersed the power of the Immortals, the mountain protection array of Spirit Sword Mountain would definitely not be able to withstand the full force attack of the Immortals.
However, the true creator of miracles was the Nine Regions itself, which included the land and the people on it.
In ten days, Spirit Sword Mountain experienced countless life and death situations, and the tenacious cultivators exploded with amazing cohesion. They let go of all the hatred and grudges and united as one to fight for survival.
On the battlefield, one could see the demon slayer guards fighting side by side with the big evil cultivators who once slaughtered thousands of people. One could see that the medic team of Kunlun Sect was doing their beast to treat the loose cultivator who once left the sect. It could also be seen that the five super sects had made their own methods and skills open to the public, so that others could learn from them.
This was like the world’s great community (TL Note: Datong or Great community in neo-Confucian philosophy), which had not been realized even in the 15 years of Wang Lu’s rule over the Nine Regions. However, in the past ten days, it really happened. People couldn’t help but feel that only when the doomsday came could they see morality rose to another greater level.
However, sharpening one’s own weapon right before the battle seemed to be too late. In ten days, it was not enough to read the Immortal level skills and methods such as the Stellar Sword Manual, let alone to understand and learn from it. The tense battle situation in the front line often made the seriously wounded cultivators unable to leave the battlefield. There was no time for them to learn and comprehend.
However, at this time, the deepest seal of the Nine Regions Great Array was activated by chance. Thereupon, as if its autonomous consciousness was suddenly awakened, the continent began to save itself at all costs.
On the one hand, Nine Regions cut off the connection with the Immortals, so that they could no longer easily influence Nine Regions’ providence. On the other hand, Nine Regions completely abandoned the principle of equivalent exchange, and began to bless its cultivators at all costs. The chosen ones who were supposed to only appeared once every hundreds or thousands of years actually sprung up like bamboo after the rain. The cultivators of Nine Regions found that they could make multiple breakthroughs while they were in a life and death situation, not to mention those who were stuck at the peak of their stages. Even many Middle level Jindan Stage became Yuanying Stage cultivators. What’s more, some even broke through Jindan Stage all the way to Peak Deity Stage in just three days. Although these stages were illusory and hid many great dangers, the progress was so fast that even Ancestor Desheng and Emperor Qin couldn’t compare…
All kinds of factors combined, Spirit Sword Mountain finally survived the indiscriminate bombardment of the Immortals until the tenth day.
Then, the battle finally reached an irretrievable situation. More than half of the Twelve Peaks of Spirit Sword Mountain fell. Misty Peak, Stellar Peak, Sword Tomb… Together they constituted the last line of defense. But in the end, it was just a dying struggle, an arrow at the end of its flight.
The elite forces of the Union of Ten Thousand Immortals assembled on the mountain suffered heavy casualties. Almost the entire new Red Guards army was destroyed. All but a few remaining Earth Immortals were killed in the battle. The reinforcements from Western Continent were trapped in the remains of Clear Sky Peak. The Golden King himself was seriously injured, and while Aya stubbornly resisted, it was without the possibility of breakthrough. The Death to Immortal Sword Array was smashed twice by Senior Immortal Xiaoyao himself and two of the four Immortal Swords were broken into pieces. Supreme Hetu, who presided over the great array, was directly knocked down from Mahayana Stage to Yuanying Stage… Even the Nine Regions Map was nearly taken away.
The Zaku army of the Red Sea Underwater Workshop was in a slightly better condition. After Golden King was seriously injured, the Nine-Tailed Fox took over the baton. The fox was cunning and astute. She was once a servant of the Immortal World, so she knew the enemy well. She led the resistance in a guerilla war, which was very intense. She successfully killed several Immortals and even wounded Senior Immortal Liefeng, achieving one of the biggest results since the beginning of the war. However, due to such a huge disparity in strength, the Zakus were unable to recover. After more than half of the Zakus were destroyed and the main force Xian Liang and Qiong Hua were seriously injured, the Nine-Tailed Fox had to give up the initiative and retreat to the back of the final defense line.
At this point, Spirit Sword Mountain had no power to fight anymore. There were only a group of people waiting for death, hiding behind the crumbling defense line, and pinning their ultimate hope on that high tower.
“Wang Lu… Could he actually return or not?”
Five days ago, when the battle situation turned for the worse, Stellar Peak lost contact with Wang Lu. No matter what the call was, there was no response. The channel opened by the Sky Tower was still there, and the two-worlds passage had not disappeared, but no sound could be heard again.
This was simply the worst news. Thus, except for a few people, the information was kept strictly confidential to everyone else. However, when everyone was concentrated on Stellar Peak, the so-called secrecy was basically believing in one’s own lies.
——
On the other hand, the mood of the Immortals was not good, either.
They thought this would be a one-sided massacre, but the lower realm actually persisted for ten days. They even launched several sharp counterattacks, which caused considerable casualties–from the beginning till now, more than ten Immortals were killed, while the rest were injured. Among the Senior Immortals, Liefeng’s injury was the heaviest, and it could be said that his cultivation base was knocked down by five hundred years. Senior Immortal Fengyun rushed too hard, although he was essentially not injured, the opponent found out about his Immortal Path law. So, it could be considered as a big loss too.
Such a result was simply a bone-breaking injury for a withered Immortal World. At present there were not many Immortals alive, so they really couldn’t afford such a loss. However, in the end, no one wanted to admit that the people of Nine Regions were too powerful and could actually compete with the Immortals. Thus, this result could only be attributed to the poor command of the war.
Senior Immortal Fengyun was the first to raise the difficult question. As the number one unruly person among the Senior Immortals, he finally, without any misgivings, opened his mouth and opened fire at Senior Immortal Xiaoyao, “I already said long ago that to deal with these scums we should use the thunderclap force to finish them at once. They are like a ***, the longer they entangle us, the dirtier our hands are… Instead, you want to spread the so-called panic and despair, so we have to bind our hands and feet, but as a result, all of us are injured instead! Strange, we don’t need them as captives, so what’s the use of spreading panic and despair to a group of mortals? Could that make us happy? When we fought the other worlds, didn’t we already see everything? Do we still need this kind of low-level excitement? Has the Majesty Immortal King ever said that he wanted to fight like this? Xiaoyao, what on earth are you trying to do?”
Senior Immortal Fengyun’s remark aroused many people’s sympathy. Other people would not be so direct and blatant like Fengyun, but they also expected Xiaoyao to give an answer to that.
“What I’m trying to do has nothing to do with you.” Senior Immortal Xiaoyao was still calm and collected, and his handsome face was not wavering in the slightest, “I have no obligation to explain to you about what I did.”
“You!”
Fengyun was so angry, but there was no way for him to refute it. Senior Immortal Xiaoyao was the first among the Senior Immortals, a respected figure in the Immortal World. He was deeply trusted by the Immortal King, and thus, he was only responsible for the Immortal King. No matter how absurd he was, there was no need for him to explain it to others.
“So, do you or do you not have the obligation to explain it to me? Xiaoyao.”
At this moment, all the people present instantly changed their expression. Even Xiaoyao couldn’t restrain himself and stood up.
“Immortal King… Your Majesty.”
What appeared at this time was not the body of the Immortal King, but his voice. However, even if only his voice was present, the Immortal King simply could not be ignored.
“Xiaoyao, come and see me in the Palace of Three Purities.”
Senior Immortal Xiaoyao hesitated for a moment and then said, “Your Majesty, the situation here is not completely clear yet. I’m afraid it’s appropriate for me to be away…”
“Not clear yet? Those bastards only have one last breath. What’s unclear about the situation?”
“Your Majesty…”
“Hmph, I think it’s you who want the situation to be more confusing. If it weren’t for you behaving arbitrarily, with this group of lowly bastards, how could you guys not be able to finish them quickly?”
The remark of the Immortal King made the eyes of Senior Immortal Fengyun lit up. However, no matter how unruly he was, the Immortal King was talking to Xiaoyao at this time, and he would never dare to intervene halfway.
Senior Immortal Xiaoyao was silent for a moment and said, “Your Majesty, I can swear that I have never done anything that harms the interests of the Immortal World. My layout in Spirit Sword Mountain is definitely not for personal gain.”
“Of course I know that your layout is not for personal gain. And although there are many doubts about what you did, it is indeed for the sake of the Immortal World. If not, how could I allow you to live to this day?”
Senior Immortal Xiaoyao said, “Your Majesty is aware.”
“So I give you a chance to come to the Palace of Three Purities and explain all this to me.”
Senior Immortal Xiaoyao pondered for a moment. His heart hesitated.
Of course, he didn’t want to go to the Palace of Three Purities, but how could he disobey the order of the Immortal King? In fact, with Xia Yu’s temperament, even if one had a reasonable explanation, once one went against his order, it would still be a dead end. So…
Just when Xiaoyao was about to speak about this matter, suddenly, a certain mechanism embedded in a remote place was triggered.
A strange smile appeared on Senior Immortal Xiaoyao’s face.
“Your Majesty, forgive me for not being able to obey your order.”
“Very good, then I’ll come and see you.”
The next moment, the sky of Nine Regions was torn apart.
A huge figure, under the distortion of light and shadow, slowly descended to Nine Regions.
The real body of the Immortal King Xia Yu finally appeared!