Chapter 507: The Lone General, A Hero Through the Ages (part 1)
The spinning vortex in the dome of heaven emitted rumbling sounds along with a frigid coldness so intense it turned the chains into ice. The coldness spat out by the vortex turned the sky into something like a black mirror.
The terrifying entity inside was slowly emerging.
In front of it hung the huge Dao Bell, which was covered in countless ancient magical symbols, all flickering as the bell emitted an invisible pressure. However, the aura coming from the vortex was so astonishing that not even the bell could suppress it. The bell held nothing back, yet eventually it reached its limit. Cracks started to spread out across its surface; clearly it couldn’t prevent the domain treasure from emerging.
A wind of extermination blew out from the vortex. It looked like a windmill, slowly spinning to send the icy cold out in all directions. More frost built up on the ground below, turning countless corpses and stretches of gore into ice that eventually shattered and became dust. Meanwhile, the black snow continued to fall, turning everything blurry.
A lone figure strode through it all, his cultivation base burning, causing everything around him to twist and contort.
All Sea-Sealing County cultivators saw him.
Xu Qing saw him, and only him.
He wore the pitch black armor of a soldier, and had long hair that was white because of how he was burning his own life force. The cold wind blew Palace Lord Kong’s cape to the side, making it look almost like a flag. Sand and frost swirled through the dark of evening, making the scene seem ancient.
“Palace Lord....” Waves of grief and indignation swept through Xu Qing.
As Palace Lord Kong walked away, his energy built. He wasn’t just the focus of the watching cultivators, but also seemed to attract the attention of heaven, earth, and the universe. In front of him was the massive Holytide army, and the two shocking emperors standing in front of the Heaventide Mountains. Those emperors seemed to block out the sun, sending out brutal and fiendish auras to cover everything. 30,000 meters behind Palace Lord Kong were the Second and Third Battalions, as well as tens of thousands of surviving swordsages.
He was making his stand alone! The sight caused all human cultivators to feel sorrow deep in their hearts. Their eyes were already bloodshot from all the fighting, but now they’d become more deeply bloodshot.
Kong Xianglong looked at that lone figure, and his somewhat glazed eyes suddenly lit up. He began trembling.
As waves of emotion swept through everyone, the deputy palace lord suddenly cried out, “Everyone. The time has come... to fall back!” The pain in his hoarse voice was there for everyone to hear, yet his words echoed like thunder. “That is what Palace Lord Kong commanded. Follow your orders!”
As the wind blew, the honor guards and grand elders shouted further instructions to get the army moving. Everyone kept looking over their shoulders. Unfortunately, there was nothing for them to see. That figure had melted into the darkness.
But then, a dazzling stream of light ripped through the gloom, rising high into the sky above the battlefield. The sky trembled and the lands shook. A boundless sword will drove away the darkness, turning the sky light again. It was a beam of sword light.
It was The Emperor’s Sword!
The Swordsage Palace of Sea-Sealing County had a total of nine composite Emperor’s Swords. They had previously used four in the fighting, and this was the fifth. The moment the sword appeared, it cast out blinding light that sliced apart the haziness. Everything rippled as it shot into the sky and headed toward the two Holytide emperors atop the Heaventide Mountains. Wherever the sword passed, it left a huge furrow in the ground, almost like a dragon. Deafening rumbling sounds echoed out. The light of the sword illuminated the faces of the countless Holytide cultivators, shocking them to the core.
“You’ve already lost this war, Kong Liangxiu,” Emperor Redspirit said. “What’s the point of burning away your own life force?”
He strode forward, and when his foot landed on the ground, everything shook. He lifted his right hand, and the tens of millions of minor worlds around him converged on his palm. Shrinking down, they turned into an illusory major world. That was a sign of the fourth stage of Void Returning. He gently pushed his hand down. Heaven and earth shook wildly, and everything blurred again. A violent storm sprang up, causing the frozen ground to shatter and turn into what looked like meteors. The Heaventide Mountains trembled, and rocks tumbled down.
When things became clear again, Xu Qing and all the other Sea-Sealing County cultivators could see a 30,000-meter gap in the Heaventide Mountains! A shocking crevice had been hewn from the battlefield and through the Heaventide Mountains. It was hundreds of kilometers long and completely shocking in appearance.
Emperor Redspirit was staggering backward toward the mountains.
All Holytide cultivators looked on with shock and fear.
In front of them, the air rippled as Palace Lord Kong walked out of the haze. His entire body burned with the power of his life force and cultivation base. As he walked, his hoarse voice echoed out along with the sound of his footsteps.
“As long as Sea-Sealing County lives, I won’t hesitate to sacrifice myself for it.”
As his words rang into the hearts of the cultivators from Sea-Sealing County, a second radiant beam of sword light appeared.
It was the sixth Emperor’s Sword. The moment it appeared, the battlefield shattered. Blinding light spread out into what seemed like the Nine Serenities itself, and it shot right toward Emperor Redspirit.
Things weren’t over yet. As Palace Lord Kong continued to move forward, burning his own life force, he unleashed the seventh and eighth swords.
This time, Emperor Moonmist gravely stepped to Emperor Redspirit’s side and thrust out his hand. The dome of heaven seemed to tilt, and the ground collapsed outward. Everything blurred again.
This time, the cause of the blur wasn’t the rippling air, or the collapse of the frost, or any other such thing. It was that the cultivation bases of the cultivators in the area were too low, and that made it impossible for them to see clearly.
Even Xu Qing saw nothing but a blur, within which three figures fought a battle to the death. Every time they clashed, booms rang out that surpassed the intensity of heavenly thunder. The deafening shockwaves slammed into the hearts and minds of the observers, forcing them to back away. It was the same among the Holytides.
Sword energy swept back and forth, wreaking havoc on the lands. This lasted until there was one more boom, accompanied by shattering sounds as the countless bits of floating earth in the air collapsed.
The three battling figures parted.
Once again, everything became clear to the observers. Palace Lord Kong’s advance had finally been halted. He looked up into the sky.
Behind Emperor Redspirit and Emperor Moonmist, the Heaventide Mountains were half collapsed. Massive gullies had been slashed through them. The two emperors were also looking up into the sky.
All cultivators, including Holytides and those from Sea-Sealing County, likewise inclined their heads and looked into the dome of heaven, their hearts pounding.
“The portal to the Nightshades’ Nine Serenities is about to open,” said Emperor Redspirit in a hoarse voice. His face was now ashen after his fight with Palace Lord Kong.
Intense rumbling sounds echoed out from the dome of heaven, specifically, from the massive vortex. The frigid power emanating from it was like an icy seal on life force. Even the vortex itself seemed frozen. And then, the razor-sharp tip of a weapon emerged from within! It was pitch black and full of a consummate killing intent, as well as an intense aura of death.
Even Void Returning experts would tremble because of the terrifying cold.
The Dao Bell trembled as cracks spread further across its surface. Despite being a gift from the imperial capital, it was crumbling. And that was because it was now facing a precious treasure designed for warfare. The mysterious materials used in its construction had been a gift given by the red moon. According to the stories, it was made from the weapon of a god that the red moon had exterminated. The cold that it emanated could turn the world into a wasteland.
It was a domain treasure. Domain treasures were the ultimate reserve powers of entire major species, and were so powerful they defied imagination. They could even cause gods to tremble. They existed on a higher level than the taboo treasures of the sects in Revered Ancient. Domain treasures were the foundation of why a species could become strong.
The Holytide species did not have a domain treasure. Most species did not have domain treasures. Humans had one in the past, but not anymore. Any species who had a domain treasure could ensure that their position in the Revered Ancient mainland was secure; they wouldn’t have to worry about invasion, and could even wage war on other major species.
What was emerging, however, wasn’t the actual domain treasure of the Nightshades. It was a projection of the domain treasure. That said, the power within it was such that Void Returning cultivators couldn’t resist it. It could wipe out heaven and earth. Its unparalleled coldness could eradicate anything and everything, reducing it to pure dust.
The countless spirit automatons in the distant golden net howled in anguish. They wanted to fight back, but simply couldn’t, and were being wiped out one by one.
When the cultivators of Sea-Sealing County saw what was happening, they were despondent. Xu Qing’s mind was a complete blank. Their entire world was being replaced with cold.
Meanwhile, Emperor Redspirit and Emperor Moonmist looked at Palace Lord Kong as the frost built up.
“Soldiers and officers, heed my command,” Emperor Redspirit said. “Our target is the county capital. We’ll rendezvous with Heavengale and Earthsoil there!”
In response, millions upon millions of voices joined together to shout, “Yes, sir!”
The massive army of Holytides and other species began to flow like the tide. Then Emperor Redspirit and Emperor Moonmist headed in the direction of Palace Lord Kong.
They closed in.
Palace Lord Kong stood in front of the massive army. Looking up at the vortex, he threw his right hand over his shoulder. A dazzling Emperor’s Sword appeared, which was the ninth. It was also Palace Lord Kong’s personal sword.
“I have a sword!” he said. As the words left his mouth, the countless bronze coffins that were still floating in the air... opened!
Voices echoed out.
“I have a sword!”
“I have a sword!!”
“I have a sword!!!”
One voice after another emerged from the coffins as numerous figures appeared out in the open.
They were people from ancient times until modern whose cultivation bases had reached the limit. They had lived in times of peace, and had ultimately chosen to enter a state of suspended animation in which their lives were fused with The Emperor’s Sword. They chose to be sealed until great need arose in Sea-Sealing County, whereupon they could unleash their deadly sword. They were... swordsages!
Light erupted from the awoken swordsages! Hundreds of thousands of beams of sword light converged in the dome of heaven, becoming a river of swords that rushed to Palace Lord Kong. The swordsages’ bodies withered rapidly, until they simply vanished from existence.
In their last moments, all of them looked in the direction of their home, Sea-Sealing County. They were reluctant to part ways with it. They wished it well. They felt relief, but at the same time reminiscence. And there was something that none of them had: regrets.
“I have a sword.” Palace Lord Kong looked up as hundreds of thousands of streams of sword light swept around his hand, fusing with his Emperor’s Sword. The light became blinding, to the point where even the coldness in the air had to shy away from it. The sword shook heaven, and its sound crushed the ages.
“I will defend my home!” Palace Lord Kong said, and he swept the sword out from behind him toward Emperors Redspirit and Moonmist.
It was an earth-quaking, sky-felling sword that could wipe out entire armies. It was a sword that could cause the weapons of gods to turn dark, whose intense cold could repudiate all transformations.
The two emperors were visibly taken aback. The convergence of hundreds of thousands of swordsage swords was something that could crush anything in its path. It could supersede heavenly daos, transform magical laws, slaughter villainous wills, and punish all invaders.
Emperor Redspirit fell back, summoned his red bird imperial carriage, and shoved it out in front of himself as a defense.
The sword energy screamed as it pierced right into the forehead of the red bird. It sliced it in half!
Looking shocked, Emperor Redspirit summoned his major world. When The Emperor’s Sword hit it, a deafening noise rang out as the major world once again turned illusory, then collapsed. Blood sprayed out of Redspirit’s mouth. His cultivation base was teetering, and as fury filled his eyes, the sword slashed through his forehead!
Moonmist was next to him to provide support, yet couldn’t even protect his own fleshly body. He was able to defend his soul, except he ended up being cut in half at the waist. Flustered, he could only watch as his imperial robe was shredded into nothing, and his imperial crown was destroyed. Looking completely bedraggled, he fell back.
The might of the sword dissipated. Heaven became peaceful, and the earth went silent.
Palace Lord Kong stood in place, his hand empty of any sword. Blood oozed out of his mouth, becoming like a rain of blood that fell toward the ground. However, that blood rain wasn’t destined to reach the earth. As the might of the sword faded, the coldness from the vortex erupted again, sweeping across everything. Wherever it reached, heaven and earth iced over and turned into nothing.
The Dao Bell that had been gifted to Sea-Sealing County when it was founded... tolled for the last time.
The bell collapsed.