The Dragon Abyss Sword trembled with a ringing cry, and golden light pierced through the storm clouds.
Chen Sanshi, clad in white, gazed at the soldiers. He did not shout at the top of his lungs, yet his voice still rang through the heavens.
"Soldiers!
"Do you see Daze Main Peak ahead?
"Right there—those people are the very ones who want to destroy our Great Han and the peaceful world bought with the lives of tens of thousands, even hundreds of thousands, of our brothers!
"They want to seize the realm, to reduce most people to second-class citizens. They want to seize the land and once again fill the fields with spiritual grain. They want to possess the power over life and death, the power to take everything at will. Will you allow it?!"
"We will not!"
More than 5,000 voices answered as one, each word like thunder.
They had no spiritual roots. Most of them were merely martial men of mediocre talent. Toward those lofty immortals, they naturally harbored resistance from the depths of their hearts.
"Today shall be the first battle in which our Great Han Immortal Court delivers its mighty prestige and the order of Heavenly Dao to the bandit sects of Heavenly Water Isle!
"This battle also concerns the life and death of our Divine Continent!"
Boom!
Chen Sanshi raised the Dragon Gall Bright Silver Spear in his hand toward the sky. It was like a dragon's head charging into the firmament, every word carrying imperial majesty.
"I shall serve as the vanguard myself. Heavenly Assault Army, hear my command!
"Take the field.
"Kill the enemy!!!"
"Kill—"
That single word, kill, shook Heaven and Earth!
In the eyes of the cultivators, all they saw were murderous armored divine soldiers driving surging black clouds, accompanied by booming war drums and fluttering battle banners, charging mightily toward Daze Main Peak like heavenly troops sent down to subdue fiends!
"Ants acting arrogantly!"
Peng Rui's voice rang out again. "What are you afraid of? They are only bluffing. Open your eyes and look carefully!
"These mortals' mounts are nothing more than the lowest-grade Dunhu and Lushu!"
Only then did everyone notice that their mounts truly were low-tier spirit beasts. They merely looked ferocious, but in truth had no real combat strength.
They immediately felt humiliated and enraged, each unleashing their strongest abilities as they charged one after another toward the armored soldiers.
Just as the two sides drew ever closer, the white-robed leader suddenly shouted, "Heavenly Assault Army, form ranks!
"Eighteen Nether Ding Rolling Thunder Formation—
"Form ranks!"
Within the cascading rain, the armored soldiers received the command. Their warhorses began neighing, and their banners began to turn.
They shifted formation atop the clouds, faintly resonating with the Great Dao of Heaven and Earth, blending with the thunderstorm and torrential rain.
For one instant, the cultivators floating in midair seemed no longer to see the enemy army ahead of them.
All they saw was the storm and lightning!
"They're..."
"Setting up a formation?"
The crowd looked at one another, suddenly becoming hesitant.
If it was truly a formation, why were there no spirit stones or formation plates to be seen?
"This is?"
Peng Rui narrowed his eyes. "A Heavenly Book formation?"
Rumor had it that Chen Lei of Eastern Divine Continent possessed a supreme treasure that allowed him to use the intangible national destiny to deploy special formations, and that he had even once controlled a meteor from beyond the heavens.
But to cultivators, such a thing sounded just as vague and illusory as immortality sounded to mortals.
"Attack!"
Peng Rui shouted sharply. "The first to kill one of them will be reported to the sect and rewarded with pills and spirit stones. I will personally recommend him, and he may even have a chance to become an inner sect true inheritance disciple!"
The words of the sole surviving bloodline of the current Supreme Elder naturally carried weight.
Outer sect disciple Zhu Qingfeng was immediately shaken. Gritting his teeth, he poured all the mana in his dantian into his sword edge, then led the fellow disciples around him straight toward the vanguard army.
As he chanted under his breath, he sneered mockingly, "Mortal ants daring to play gods and ghosts—die!"
Boom!
Before his words had even finished, the war drum sounded.
A scene was reflected in Zhu Qingfeng's pupils.
Within the ink-black rolling storm clouds, the murderous soldiers clad in cold heavy armor waved their battle banners. At that very moment, lightning split the vault of heaven, then was drawn down and guided onto the banner surfaces before crashing straight into his face.
Thunder...
Tribulation!
Heavenly thunder descending upon the head!
Crack!
The lightning arrived first, the thunder following after. A heavenly bolt like an azure divine dragon came screaming down in an instant!
"Ahhh—"
A shrill scream rang out. The flying sword in Zhu Qingfeng's hand snapped on the spot. His entire body, robes and all, was instantly turned into blackened charcoal. He died on the spot, his Dao extinguished, and his stiffened corpse fell straight down, smashing heavily into the mud.
Heavenly thunder!
These mortals could actually summon heavenly thunder!
Cultivators struggled against heaven and earth for creation and fortune. Once they reached a certain realm, they had to survive heavenly tribulation before they could break through.
And among heavenly tribulations, the most dangerous by far was lightning tribulation.
Who knew how many favored sons of heaven had died beneath endless bolts of heavenly lightning?
Thus, to cultivators, the words heavenly thunder were a terror carved into their very bones, much like how beasts of the mountains feared the tiger king.
After witnessing with their own eyes the Great Han Heavenly Assault Army summon lightning and kill one of their fellow disciples, every cultivator present was horrified.
"Th-they're not mortals!"
"Divine soldiers!"
"They're heavenly troops and generals who can summon divine lightning!"
Crack!
At the same time came the second bolt, then the third, the fourth—
One azure heavenly bolt after another, under the command of those awe-inspiring heavenly soldiers, struck toward the cultivators of Daze Market!
Any cultivator who failed to dodge in time died on the spot!
For a moment, extreme fear spread among the cultivators at Daze Main Peak. Who would still dare press forward? Wailing miserably, they fled in all directions.
"What a joke. This old man refuses to believe in such nonsense!"
Li Sheng let out a cold laugh and rose directly into the air, blocking the cultivators at the very front. Forming hand seals with both hands, he cast a spell and summoned a round, glass-like shield before him. He neither dodged nor avoided it, allowing the lightning to crash directly onto the shield.
A harsh crackling sound rang out. The shield formed by the spell shattered on the spot, but it also neutralized the lightning at the same time.
Standing upon the black clouds, Li Sheng was completely unharmed.
His voice rang out loudly in the ears of the cultivators:
"Did you all see that?! This is not heavenly tribulation lightning. Its power is only equivalent to lightning spells!
"The more you panic, the more you will die for no reason!
"If you respond normally and remain cautious, what is there to fear from such low-grade lightning techniques?!"
This Heavenly Book formation was indeed extremely strange. It could actually borrow the momentum of Heaven and Earth to draw down the power of heavenly lightning.
Although restricted by certain limitations, making its power incomparable to true lightning tribulation, it could still pose a lethal threat to cultivators of lower realms.
No wonder that mortal emperor dared to challenge the cultivation world of Heavenly Water Isle. So he possessed such a treasure in his hands!
Since matters had come to this, they had no choice but to fight to the death.
"Anyone who flees the battlefield will be executed without mercy!"
In the end, after confirming that it was not "heavenly tribulation lightning" but merely spell lightning, the cultivators finally rekindled their fighting spirit. Each displayed their signature abilities and charged into the military formation, beginning a fierce melee.
At the same time, some captains from Tianyong City who had escaped from Dafeng Mountain took the opportunity to arrive at the main battlefield and immediately merged into the formation.
"Brothers!"
Zhao Kang shouted loudly, "Did you see that? These so-called 'immortal masters' are nothing special. We nearly scared them into wetting their pants! This is the perfect chance to wipe them out in one stroke. Kill them!"
The cries of battle shook Heaven and Earth.
The two armies collided and began fighting head-on.
Ever since the founding of the Great Han, the mysterious qi of the people's will within the Mystic Pearl had officially transformed into national destiny, and the power contained within it had undergone a qualitative transformation.
Now, Western Qi, Southern Xu, and even Eastern Qing had all been incorporated into the territory of Great Han. The national destiny had become even more vast!
The strength of the Heavenly Book formations depended on how much national destiny mysterious qi was infused into them.
The Eighteen Nether Ding Rolling Thunder Formation had not been used for the first time.
Nearly 20 years earlier, outside Silver Pine Cliff at Hulao Pass, Chen Sanshi had once fought alongside Fang Qingyun using this formation.
But at that time, the lightning they could summon numbered only two or three bolts at most, and its power was extremely weak.
Now, however, with the vast national destiny of the expansive Great Han territory, the heavenly lightning drawn down through the formation was powerful enough to inflict fatal damage on Qi Refining cultivators in the early and middle stages. Even those in the late stage of Qi Refining would absolutely not dare to resist it head-on!
It should be known that among cultivators in the cultivation world, the most numerous were neither Golden Core nor Nascent Soul cultivators, nor even Foundation Establishment cultivators.
They were Qi Refining cultivators—and those in the early stage of Qi Refining made up the overwhelming majority!
In other words, through such a formation, mortal bodies could stand against a multitude of cultivators!
"Draw lightning into the formation!"
At the very center of the Heavenly Assault Army, Xu Wencai stood upon the clouds and raised the feather fan in his hand high, issuing a new command for the formation.
"Rumble—"
Dense bolts of lightning fell once again, then quickly dispersed, transforming into strands of azure lightning like small snakes that merged into the soldiers' armor and weapons. Each time they swung their weapons, they carried the power of lightning with them.
Under such conditions, they could often sacrifice a certain number of men to kill a single cultivator.
Simply put, they possessed lethal attack power, but insufficient defense.
If they could land a hit on low-realm cultivators, they could inflict fatal damage. But because they themselves were weak, they were also extremely easy to kill.
Fortunately, the Heavenly Assault Army greatly outnumbered the cultivators—more than ten times their number. Combined with effects such as [Backbone of the Army] and [War Frenzy], they truly resembled heavenly soldiers and generals, quickly gaining a massive advantage.
The battlefield descended into brutal slaughter.
Meanwhile, Peng Rui and Li Sheng planned to capture the king by first capturing the leader. One from the front and one from behind, they rushed straight toward the white-robed figure riding a warhorse.
"Fellow Daoist Peng!"
Li Sheng released his flying sword and said in a somewhat flattering tone, "Using a probing technique, this old man has observed that this person is only at the middle stage of Foundation Establishment. I alone am enough to deal with him. Step back and do not risk injuring yourself!"
"Heh, what do I have to fear?"
Peng Rui said as he accelerated instead, charging forward.
Whoever killed Chen Lei would gain enormous resources, not to mention that he also possessed the core treasure of the Heavenly Book formation!
How could Peng Rui possibly hand over such an opportunity to someone else?
Li Sheng's expression darkened slightly, but it was inconvenient for him to say anything further.
"Chen Lei, take my sword!"
Peng Rui completed the empowerment of his hand seals. The long sword in his hand burst with golden light, piercing through the dark clouds and transforming into a heaven-cleaving sword radiance more than ten zhang long, slashing directly toward the white-robed figure.
Amid the roaring thunder and the raging wind and rain, Chen Sanshi sat astride the White Swan horse, standing motionless upon the surging black clouds.
Only when the heaven-cleaving sword qi came within mere inches of him did a world-burning flame suddenly illuminate the sky!
"Roar—!"
Accompanied by a dragon's roar that shook the five organs and six bowels, a crimson flame dragon suddenly appeared across the sky, opening its jaws and tearing the seemingly powerful sword qi to pieces.
"Mm…"
Peng Rui only felt that he had lost his connection to his natal flying sword. His chest tightened, his vision darkened, and he nearly spat out a mouthful of blood. His body was sent drifting backward more than 100 zhang. Before he could steady himself, he felt the temperature in the gloomy sky around him suddenly soar—first like the height of summer, then as if he had been thrown into a mountain of flames.
When his vision finally cleared again, he saw that the fire dragon had, at some point, already arrived right before him. It opened a gigantic maw like a volcano, as if it meant to devour him together with this entire world!
Peng Rui was horrified.
In the span of a hare's leap and a falcon's descent, a huge bronze mirror abruptly rose up in front of him, blocking the fire dragon surging toward him.
Crash—
The two collided, producing the sound of glazed glass shattering, and the bronze mirror barely blocked the fire dragon's fatal strike.
"Little Friend Peng, please fall back!"
Li Sheng's voice rang out.
Naturally, he disliked Peng Rui's attitude, but there was no helping it—this boy was the only bloodline of Shengyun Sect's Supreme Elder. If he died here, then even if nothing was said openly, the Li family would definitely have no good days ahead.
Peng Rui turned his head and saw the Li family's old ancestor arrive behind him.
In the other party's hand was an extremely peculiar flying sword. The hilt was plain and unremarkable, but the blade looked like an incomparably clear mirror surface. It reflected the surrounding scenery in full, as if a mirror had been cut into the shape of a sword blade.
Mirror Moon Sword Art!
This was the Li family's untransmitted secret art!
It was said that once unleashed, its sword qi resembled flowers in a mirror and the moon in water—visible, yet untouchable—dazzling and impossible to guard against.
Many years ago, the Li family's founding ancestor had relied on the Mirror Moon Sword Art to establish a foothold in the region and create the Li family's several-hundred-year foundation.
Even now, within Northern Yang Dao, when it came to sword cultivators, the Li family's old ancestor was unquestionably the number one sword cultivator!
"Brat surnamed Chen!"
Li Sheng stared at the Tianwu Emperor ahead and said in a deep voice, "Do you still remember the lives of my Li family clansmen that you owe?!"
"Old thing, why are you spouting so much nonsense?"
Chen Sanshi looked down at him calmly. At the same time, the world-burning fire covering his body burned more and more fiercely. "Today, since I have personally come here, it is precisely to exterminate your Li family, root and branch."
"Heh, world-burning fire?"
Li Sheng noticed the special Five Elements True Force wrapped around the other man's body and could not help but sneer. "No wonder you're so arrogant. So you're relying on a special breathing method. But unfortunately, today, you are no match for this old man. Hand over your life!"
Before his words had even finished, he suddenly made his move, thrusting the Mystic Mirror Flying Sword into the void.
Though the two were clearly over 100 paces apart, and though no trajectory of sword qi could be seen, a shard-like sword qi with a mirrored surface still abruptly appeared right before Chen Sanshi. He raised his spear to block it, and the mirror surface shattered into dozens of fragments—but those fragments immediately launched a second wave of attacks.
Every fragment of mirror displayed scenes from the battlefield. Reality and illusion were impossible to distinguish.
Chen Sanshi seemed to be surrounded by countless enemies. Among them were even his own subordinates, as though every last one of them were peerless sword cultivators attacking him from all directions.
Moreover, throughout the entire exchange, the two of them never came into direct contact, so the world-burning fire could not take effect.
This was a pure clash of raw strength!
For a time, illusory, razor-sharp sword qi danced across the sky, and there was not the slightest flaw to be found!
"Brat surnamed Chen!"
Though Li Sheng was speaking, he was not distracted in the slightest, and his attacks became even fiercer. "This old man is different from those trash. Like you, I cultivate not only spells—my attainments in the martial path are also first-rate!"
Many sword cultivators specialized in mana and sword qi, yet had pitifully little to say for their actual swordsmanship. Thus, when they encountered martial cultivators, they would still expose a great many weaknesses.
But he also possessed swordsmanship at the level of a Sword Saint, and had absolutely no need to fear any martial cultivator!
If he ever succeeded in forming his Golden Core, then even within the Golden Core realm, there would be very few people at the same realm who could match him!
As the Mirror Moon Sword Art unfolded, hundreds upon thousands of Mirror Moon sword qi layers surrounded the white-robed figure, until a calm, contemptuous remark came from within.
"You want to compare martial skill with me? At your age, you really are childlike at heart."