Chapter 625: Betrayal
Chen Qingdu glanced at Chen Ping'an.
Chen Ping'an immediately withdrew "that" unnamed flying sword. With a single thought, without any visible sword light, all the flying swords directly concealed themselves within key vital apertures, ultimately converging and merging into one sword.
This kind of flying sword travel that almost completely ignored the hindrance of the river of time was actually quite unreasonable.
This was thanks to this natal flying sword, which, being within the small world created by another natal flying sword, allowed both supernatural powers to stack, achieving this ghostly effect.
The natal-object flying swords that cultivators refined through serendipity were ultimately relics from other swordsmen. Compared to a swordsman's own natal flying sword, the two were as different in form and spirit as heaven and earth.
Even if the former had undergone great refinement, it still belonged to the realm of external objects to a certain extent, while the latter was truly a matter of life and death, possessing all sorts of unbelievable natal supernatural powers.
The Pine Needle Thundercough was a replica sword from Hatred Sword Mountain, needless to say. It was more used in conjunction with talisman methods, employed by the pure martial artist Chen Ping'an for escape or desperate struggle.
First Fifteen was a genuine relic of an ancient sword immortal, but even after Chen Ping'an's great refinement, it still couldn't unleash its supernatural powers. The subtlety of its sword strikes could only stagnate at the level of extreme speed, toughness, and sharpness. Truly a waste of heavenly treasure. Yet after exhausting all human effort and mental strength, still stopping at this point, Chen Ping'an wouldn't wallow in self-pity after so many years.
Chen Ping'an withdrew the mysterious supernatural power of his other natal flying sword. On the training ground, the small world that enveloped Chen Ping'an himself and the elder sword immortal Chen Qingdu dissipated completely.
Bai Lianshuang stood in the distant corridor. After the old woman confirmed her guess, she turned her head, raised the back of her hand, and wiped the corner of her eye.
In fact, when Chen Ping'an had earlier seemed sleepwalking, leaving the Ning Manor's secret chamber, the old matron had already sensed something unusual. But at that time, Chen Ping'an was dazed and not fully awake, completely unaware that he had not only nurtured a natal flying sword but also that this sword had already manifested and unleashed its natal supernatural power to protect its master. Hence, wherever Chen Ping'an walked, there was a nearly natural small world around him.
Old Madam Bai saw that old man, and her astonishment was no less than that of her young master finally nurturing a natal flying sword. She quickly bent at the waist, cupped her fists, and respectfully bowed to the elder sword immortal, then silently departed. On her way out, the old woman kept wiping her face with her hand.
Chen Ping'an took a deep breath. First, he cupped his fists toward the elder sword immortal, then made a deep bow, but without words.
All was in silence.
Chen Qingdu clasped his hands behind his back and slowly ascended the Dragon-Slaying Cliff, with Chen Ping'an following closely behind.
As he walked, Chen Qingdu said, "She was the first to show kindness to the human race. This old history, I still remember it, have remembered it for ten thousand years. When you first came to the Sword Qi Great Wall, I had already discovered the clues. Three acupoints, though her three strands of sword qi had long since dissipated and coiled there, that aura is the one I am most familiar with, after all, my sword technique was inherited from her previous master. However, aside from worrying that this was some scheme of someone behind the scenes, I also had a selfish motive. I, Chen Qingdu, repay debts as I see fit, when I see fit. So I pretended not to see her hints, neither personally reconstructing your Longevity Bridge nor putting any effort into nurturing a natal flying sword for you. All so that there could be a reunion after ten thousand years. I owed her a favor, not you, Chen Ping'an. If she is displeased, she can come to the Sword Qi Great Wall to find me."
Chen Qingdu sat on the long bench, facing south, where the parapet of the Sword Qi Great Wall was visible. The old man sighed, "So many ancients were my old friends, or even my juniors. So many ancient deities and barbaric great monsters were my enemies, or even souls beneath my sword. The great loneliness in this, you will not understand."
Chen Qingdu smiled, "It's been many years since I last looked at the wall from afar. I remember when it was first built, I stood at what is now Taixiang Street and joked with my two friends, Dragon Lord and Guan Zhao, saying that with such a high wall, we could defend it for ten thousand years. We truly achieved it."
Chen Qingdu turned his head to look at Chen Ping'an, gratified, "Today's fortune was not sought from others, nor was it given by anyone; it was earned by yourself."
Chen Ping'an stood up, cupped his fists, and said, "I still need to thank the elder sword immortal for transmitting and protecting the Dao."
Chen Qingdu said, "If you put it that way, it barely makes sense. But if you look at the process with a good outcome, you see kindness everywhere. If you look back at life with a bad ending, you see malice everywhere."
Chen Ping'an smiled, "This junior is just stating the facts, picking the good words to say. Many grudges, I don't dare to bother the elder sword immortal with."
This was the truth. Still speaking factually, if on his first visit to the Sword Qi Great Wall, he had successfully rebuilt the Longevity Bridge and become a swordsman with a sword immortal embryo, there would have been none of those unexpected events. He wouldn't have needed to carry a long-breath sword to Tongye Continent to find the Eastern Sea Contemplation Temple. There might not have been the subsequent battle at Old Dragon City, the heart-inquiry game on Book-Bamboo Lake where his realm was insufficient and he had to compensate with heart cultivation, the life-threatening situation on Bone Mudflat where Gao Cheng and He Xiaoliang jointly schemed with Jingguan City, or the thankless bearing of the heavenly tribulation afterward. All these would not have happened, and it would have been an entirely different landscape. Whether that kind of life was better or worse, there was no way to know.
And regarding the current predicament of the Sword Qi Great Wall, if he wanted to complain, Chen Ping'an could go on for several days with the elder sword immortal.
Chen Qingdu nodded, "You kid, aside from not saying much, you do have some luck with elders."
Chen Ping'an asked softly, "When can I reopen that Foot-Ruler Object of mine? Once the battle intensifies, I will definitely need to join Ning Yao and the others to leave the wall and fight."
He only said half of it.
The other half naturally was that without the Foot-Ruler Object, he couldn't pick up scraps and earn some righteous money. If he had to carry a big sack around, people like Gu Jianlong would have a basketful of fair words.
Chen Qingdu looked puzzled, "Such a trivial matter, why don't you ask Yan Ming? Why ask me?"
Chen Ping'an was initially skeptical, always feeling that with Uncle Yan's style of conduct, being appointed by the elder sword immortal to help him smuggle into the Sword Worship Pavilion of Inverted Mountain, how could a Foot-Ruler Object containing a sword immortal scroll have such a huge flaw? But Chen Ping'an quickly understood. He got it. It was indeed a trivial matter. He would just borrow a Foot-Ruler Object from the wealthy Uncle Yan later.
Chen Qingdu didn't care about Chen Ping'an's little scheme. He guessed that the kid would borrow it, but whether he would return it was another matter.
However, Chen Qingdu's comment about having good luck with elders was very accurate. Yan Ming, who had great expectations for his only son Yan Zhuo, would not be stingy with a Foot-Ruler Object, whether for public or private reasons.
Yan Ming's sword Dao attainment was not high, but he was good at generating income, so he would take a special liking to Chen Ping'an. This was quite different from Yue Qing's change of impression toward this young outsider. Yan Ming was a clan head who had thought highly of Chen Ping'an from the very beginning.
Chen Qingdu seemed to care about nothing, but in fact, every junior swordsman was in his heart.
Chen Qingdu suddenly said, "These two natal flying swords of yours are not just simply one for offense and one for defense. They are quite different from your peers like Qi Shou and Gao Yeye. Their few flying swords have considerable killing power and deep tricks, but as they go further, if we only talk about the possibilities of connecting multiple flying swords themselves, they will not be as good as yours."
It must be known that a Confucian sage governing a college, or a mountain lord or water god governing a landscape, could raise one realm.
As for whether Chen Ping'an's natal flying sword, praised by the old man as "good, a cage bird," possessed such a supreme supernatural power of raising one realm, it remained to be discovered and explored by Chen Ping'an himself.
As long as one became a swordsman and had a natal flying sword, surviving the most difficult hurdle of "creating something from nothing," the path of cultivation thereafter would have the confidence to talk about the heavens being high and the earth being far, and freedom of body and mind.
Chen Qingdu stood up, smiling, "Finally, you have some decent means."
About to return to the Sword Qi Great Wall, the old man turned to Chen Ping'an and asked, "How did it feel, being washed by sword intent along with the river of time, that bone-dissolving, body-wasting taste?"
Chen Ping'an also stood up, smiling bitterly, "Much more unbearable than when I used to practice boxing in my hometown. I absolutely do not want to experience it again."
Chen Qingdu smiled, "What a coincidence."
Sweat beaded on Chen Ping'an's forehead. He stiffened his face and shook his head, "Elder sword immortal, let's not have a coincidence."
Chen Qingdu said, "It is a coincidence."
Chen Ping'an resigned himself to fate and helplessly said, "Whatever the senior says."
Chen Qingdu chuckled, "This time, the process of bone dissolution and body melting will be much, much slower."
Chen Ping'an asked in a trembling voice, "I'm already a swordsman, why must I still go through this?"
Chen Qingdu gave an answer Chen Ping'an would never have imagined: "A young man's resentment is not acceptable."
After saying this, the old man vanished.
On the entire Dragon-Slaying Cliff and the small pavilion of the Ning Manor, a small world appeared out of thin air, one that even a sword immortal would find hard to break with a hundred years of sword strikes. Chen Ping'an was suppressed within it, sitting collapsed in the middle of the pavilion.
From the top of the pavilion, sword light cascaded like a strange, slow-flowing waterfall, slamming onto Chen Ping'an's head. His Golden Body Realm martial artist's physique first resembled a porcelain piece that had been struck but not shattered, on the verge of breaking but not broken, yet countless crack lines appeared. Especially the head and face, which were first to be "bathed" in the waterfall of sword intent, suffered the most. If Chen Ping'an could still send his yin spirit on a distant journey, he would find his true body's current scene more gruesome than the face of the wife of the master of the Flying Eagle Fort in Tongye Continent. Not only the skin, but even his eyeballs began to slowly crack. The most agonizing part was that this transformation spread bit by bit, like grass and trees growing, precisely the opposite of what Chen Ping'an had experienced earlier in the Ning Manor's secret chamber—one fast, one slow, two extremes.
And when the waterfall water touched the ground, it did not rush out of the small world of the Dragon-Slaying Cliff and the pavilion. Instead, like an ancient well receiving sweet rain from heaven, the well water gradually deepened, the water level slowly rising past Chen Ping'an's knees.
This was not just entrusting one's body to the blade; it was clearly like the grinding of heaven and earth touching inch by inch.
Sword washing, sword washing. It had always been swordsmen washing their swords. Never had a swordsman's own physical body served as a sword to be washed and refined.
The old woman in the distance sensed the celestial anomaly again and said with satisfaction, "Unexpectedly, our young master has become a swordsman and is training his sword even more diligently."
Back at the Sword Qi Great Wall, Zuo You asked, "How is it?"
Chen Qingdu smiled, "First, he held a long sword with its tip pointing at the old beast ancestor of the Barbaric Continent. Then, he used a natal flying sword to imprison Chen Qingdu. As his big brother, what more do you want from your junior brother?"
Zuo You put on a stern face and said earnestly, "It's 'great senior brother' and 'little junior brother.'"
Chen Qingdu clicked his tongue, "I beg your lineage to show some face."
Zuo You was in a great mood and truly didn't mind this time, but couldn't help frowning, "Since he has a natal flying sword, why doesn't he come to the battlefield immediately?"
Chen Qingdu said, "I begged him to come, but that kid, having become a swordsman, is putting on airs and won't come."
Zuo You laughed heartily, "The elder sword immortal is the one who cares about face."
Chen Qingdu suddenly said, "A war, after all, is not a fight. Your little junior brother understands this better than you do. But there are some things he said that I'll tell you later."
---
This time, the demon army's assault on the city quickly produced a very spectacular major accident.
On the battlefield, five towering mountain peaks materialized directly, lined up in a row, all extremely high peaks from the Barbaric Continent. This was the mountain-moving supernatural power of the great demon Chongguang, exerted at full force. After this battle, this Ascension Realm great demon directly damaged the foundation of its Dao, effectively withdrawing from subsequent city assaults, resting within the Jiazi tent to recuperate. Moving the five mountains cost the Barbaric Continent far more than just the diminishment of Great Demon Chongguang's cultivation.
For instance, the mountain gods originally stationed on these five peaks were all Upper Five Realm mountain lord deities from the Barbaric Continent. Now, along with their mountain shrines and golden bodies, they had all merged into the qi of the five mountains.
Had it not been so, even if the great demons of the Barbaric Continent could carry the five mountains, they could not have broken through that torrent of sword qi and absolutely could not have moved them to this battlefield.
Although these five peaks, compared to the Sword Qi Great Wall, seemed only at its halfway point, for all the swordsmen on the Great Wall, they were a huge problem.
Not only did the demons advance faster and more steadily on the battlefield, but on each of the five suddenly appearing mountains, there was a protective mountain array with flowing treasures. Within the arrays were great cultivators from the Barbaric Continent who had long ago set up the arrays in the mountains, each having effectively given up half their lives. That Great Demon Chongguang could successfully toss the five mountains here required not only his own cultivation but also the secret deployments of the demons during the first opening battle, forming changes in the battlefield's geography. Additionally, with the techniques and treasures of the mountain cultivators cooperating, the mountain roots and water veins were severed early on. Finally, they jointly refined the five mountains and handed them to the Ascension Realm Great Demon Chongguang, enabling such a grand move.
Thus, the cost was enormous. But once it succeeded, it was the swordsmen of the Sword Qi Great Wall who would have to pay back with their lives and flying swords.
Beyond this, a throne-level great demon who had once been the master of the Yaluo River domain, a dragon-robed woman with an imperial crown, seemed to have taken the place of the previous bone-dry great demon Bai Ying, responsible for the latest phase of the siege.
She went by the pseudonym Yang Zhi. In the Barbaric Continent, not everyone knew her true natal name, but those qualified to know were all ancient beings who knew each other's roots. Knowing or not, calling out the true name made little difference; they would not truly fight to the death. She had already transferred all the rivers and lakes under her jurisdiction, including the Yaluo River, to another great demon. But before handing over her assets, she naturally kept some, cutting off the flow of several great rivers and storing them in her natal object.
Now, with the five mountains standing on the land, she personally sat in one of the peaks. She did not reveal her massive true body but appeared like a noble lady touring the mountains. At the foot of one of the great mountains, she smiled sweetly, lightly bent over, and from her dragon robe sleeve, she produced five greenish water droplets, saying with a smile, "Go forth. The mountain does not move, but water flows. Become a moat for the city."
Eventually, at the foot of each of the five mountains, a surging river appeared, just surrounding the mountains. The water was extremely fierce, with a murderous aura soaring to the sky. Many lingering ghosts that had barely survived on the battlefield, originally insignificant and destined to be refined by sword qi over time, would become vengeful spirits upon throwing themselves into the water, swimming erratically in the great rivers.
In fact, before the mountains and water were united, many sword immortals performing their respective duties had almost simultaneously decisively struck their swords, both to split the mountains and to rescue the natal flying swords of many Middle Five Realm swordsmen who had failed to retreat in time.
Even though the sword immortals struck extremely fast, over a hundred natal flying swords of swordsmen were instantly suppressed and shattered by the five abruptly appearing mountains.
If not for a sword immortal not renowned for great killing power, who used his natal flying sword to transform into a golden-bodied deity, using his shoulders to bear the mountain and successfully delaying its rooting for a moment, the losses on that battlefield where many Middle Five Realm swordsmen were striking would have been unimaginable.
This time, even Nalanshaowei did not hold back. She delivered a sword strike, and her slender, reed-like crimson natal sword flickered and vanished, transforming into an extremely long crimson flood dragon covered in flames. When it wrapped around a great mountain and sank into it, not only did rocks tumble and countless plants shatter, but the entire mountain began to shake.
Nalanshaowei's flying sword flood dragon and the peak great demon Yang Zhi's great river tangled and killed each other. The flood dragon raised countless huge waves, slapping against the mountain.
Lu Zhi almost simultaneously struck a sword to split a mountain. Yue Qing, Yao Lianyun, and Li Tuimi also each struck their swords.
Indeed, this move by the Barbaric Continent was too fraught with endless consequences.
Its impact on the subsequent battlefield trend was extremely profound. With one careless move, they had given the enemy footholds like five cities. With the endless means of the other great demons, it would be easy to spread from points to the entire area, turning the original ground battlefield into a dangerous situation of mountains versus the city wall.
Around the five peaks appeared countless apsaras with colorful ribbons and carrying pipas, as tall as mortal women, but numbering in the tens of thousands, forming yet another additional protective mountain array.
Each played their pipa, producing various celestial sounds, both soft and charming, and also majestic like a general disarming. Strands of water-moving spiritual energy were drawn by the pipa sounds. Water mist rose and eventually turned into greenish threads that flew into the sky, connecting with their fluttering colorful long ribbons, like draping a greenish gauze over the five peaks.
Li Tuimi directly challenged the central mountain with his sword. The woman with the imperial crown manifested a pitch-black dharma form, grabbing Li Tuimi's giant flying sword with her hand.
That flying sword was originally meant to kill some demon cultivators on the mountaintop. After being personally blocked by Great Demon Yang Zhi, Li Tuimi, as the first guest of the Yan family, instead of worrying that his flying sword would be taken and damage his sword immortal foundation, became even more ferocious. Not only did he sacrifice his second natal flying sword, "Silver Thread," but he also pulled out a long silver sword light between the mountain and the city wall, stabbing directly at the brow of the dharma form. Li Tuimi himself even rode the wind, holding a long sword, flying in a straight line like a rainbow across the sky.
How massive the dharma form was, how tiny the sword immortal. He was truly an ant trying to shake a tree.
Li Tuimi's divine spouse and three direct disciples had all died at the hands of the vassal great demons of the Yaluo River.
He was alone anyway.
If not now, when?!
The woman smiled seductively. "Great Sword Immortal, your courage is indeed a bit too much. Let me make you lose that courage."
Five peaks, two protective arrays, thousands of demon cultivators specializing in talisman methods, over a thousand accumulated treasures, plus Yang Zhi personally guarding one.
Even if a group of sword immortals joined forces with full force, how could they easily shake its foundation?
Zuo You didn't care about any of that. He knew that Li Tuimi, having killed his way to a red-eyed state, had already resolved to die, intending to blow up his own body and twin sword pills to destroy most of the central mountain, buying a chance for the Sword Qi Great Wall, which had lost the initiative, and for his fellow sword immortals behind him to break the mountain. If the five mountains were allowed to firmly root themselves on the ground battlefield, continuously forming more stable mountain roots and water veins, the war would only become more troublesome in the future.
Complete five mountains, or the remaining four with one damaged.
In a great battle, if not a single of our sword immortals dies, are we all supposed to just watch from the wall while the younger generation like Fatty Yan die first?
For ten thousand years, the Sword Qi Great Wall had never had such a saying.
Zuo You split that pitch-black dharma form in two with a single sword.
Li Tuimi, instead of taking the opportunity to retreat to the wall, let his entire body blaze with brilliant sword light, crashing into the middle of the central mountaintop along with his two flying swords.
"Everyone, Li Tuimi goes first."
Yang Zhi frowned. The ink-colored dragon robe on her suddenly floated away from her body, like cloth covering a miniature garden, instantly enveloping the entire mountain, preventing the suicidal sword immortal from completely destroying the mountain's arrays and roots. If that happened, she wouldn't be able to withstand the relentless attacks of the enemy sword immortals and would cause their hidden plans to surface early. If the mountains gathered on the battlefield and the Sword Qi Great Wall's attack was not strong enough, then they would firmly establish a foothold, effectively advancing the battlefield hundreds of miles toward the Great Wall. If the sword immortals were unwilling to give up but not too decisive in their strikes, then even better. It would be like adding fuel to a fire, each time investing troops and each time falling short, with mutual attrition. This was exactly the situation the Barbaric Continent wanted most, because those qualified to "add fuel" on the Great Wall's side would surely be Jade Purity Realm sword cultivators at the very least.
In the opening battle, the Barbaric Continent had deliberately fought listlessly, but in this second battle, they would directly break the Sword Qi Great Wall's bones and sinews! Directly kill a batch of sword immortals!
But Li Tuimi's determination to die had already greatly angered the former mistress of the Yaluo River.
Yang Zhi communicated mind-to-mind with the other four peak great demons hidden in the remaining four mountains, telling them not to rush, especially the old man in the central mountain. Yang Zhi firmly forbade him from acting without permission.
What surprised her even more was that Zuo You, failing to rescue him, made an unimaginable sword strike. After Li Tuimi resolved to simultaneously destroy his golden core, nascent soul, all souls, and twin sword pills, the momentum had actually been suppressed by Yang Zhi's immortal-article dharma robe. If nothing unexpected happened, only half of the protective mountain array would be destroyed, with little impact on the mountain roots. But Zuo You directly delivered a sword, using his profound sword intent to break through the ink-black dragon robe covering the mountain, and struck Li Tuimi!
Li Tuimi, whose sword light was half restrained by the ink dragon robe, laughed silently, then completely left the human world.
After this strike, Li Tuimi perished, his Dao vanished, his two natal flying swords exploded with thunderous force. A Celestial Immortal Realm swordsman left not even a trace of his soul, causing the entire mountaintop to explode. Not only that, but over a hundred demon talisman cultivators near the mountaintop, whose lives and fortunes were directly tied to the protective mountain array, died instantly below the nascent soul realm. One thread moves the whole net, causing the entire great mountain's slowly spreading and stabilizing roots to tremble violently.
After Zuo You delivered that sword strike that was destined to cause endless criticism in the Bright World, he did not stop at a good result and retreat to safety. Instead, his sword qi surged, landing on the much-shortened central mountaintop, holding his sword with both hands and driving it into the peak.
A mountain, no matter how big, can only be so big. Can it truly withstand my sword qi?!
Great Demon Yang Zhi was filled with rage and resentment, but she was decisive. She abandoned her immortal-article dharma robe to stabilize the mountain's qi and luck, and also made sure that the other peak great demon, who was also a throne-level and her half Dao companion, still did not act. Killing Zuo You was too difficult. Let her entangle him personally. For the remaining four mountains, they must kill a few great sword immortals like Li Tuimi; otherwise, wouldn't this second-stage plan become a huge joke?
She revealed her true form, her massive body instantly swimming and climbing to the mountaintop. As for whether she would crush innocent demon talisman cultivators along the way, Yang Zhi couldn't care less.
Apart from this heavily active central mountain, the other four were relatively stable, but only relatively so.
The Hidden Official, who had been fiddling with her braid, saw this scene and became radiant with excitement. Exciting, exciting.
She turned her head and looked at Chen Qingdu from afar.
The old man said, "Go play on your own."
The Hidden Official slightly bent her knees, and a violent tremor came from the city wall. The young girl-like Hidden Official left the wall, heading far away.
She directly collided through a mountain.
That extremely slender and short little girl landed, patted some dust off her head, and then began running back and forth on the ground, repeatedly using her head to bore through entire mountains.
Each time the little girl split a mountain, she was a bit dusty, but she freely roamed around, looking very happy.
The two sworn friends from the Aiai Continent, Zhang Shao and Li Ding, who looked more like a fisherman and a woodcutter than sword immortals, exchanged smiles.
If it were just the usual routine attack and defense battles, that would be one thing. They could live a little longer, kill a few more beasts, and wouldn't feel guilty or have a troubled conscience. But since the enemy had just used this landscape method, how could they let a bunch of beasts without a single book in their entire continent win the momentum and outshine them?
No, no.
So without a word, the two sword immortals almost simultaneously left the Sword Qi Great Wall on their swords, like two meteors falling rapidly. They chose a mountain, one landing at the foot, the other halfway up.
Fishermen in the world love to boat, and Zhang Shao, who was naturally close to water, was no exception. But for his last trip to the mountains and waters, he didn't need to deliberately pretend to be elegant.
Sword Immortal Zhang Shao walked directly into one of the Yaluo River vassal rivers, smiling, "Zhang Shao, sword cultivator from Aiai Continent."
And Li Ding, who slowly climbed the mountain and walked back-to-back with Zhang Shao, released sword light from his seven orifices and hundred bones, smiling knowingly, "What a coincidence. I am also a sword cultivator from Aiai Continent."
The two sword immortals went to their deaths calmly, directly destroying the mountain roots and water veins of the entire mountain.
On the city wall, the elder sword immortal narrowed his eyes, staring at a certain place, then took a step forward.
The gray-robed old man standing at the northern entrance of the Jiazi tent smiled, "No rush. You and I are responsible for the final move. As long as you don't act, I certainly won't. After all, Chen Qingdu's greatest skill now is just watching his juniors die before his eyes."
The gray-robed old man looked at Great Demon Yang Zhi on the central mountain and instructed her.
The greatest trump cards hidden in each of the five mountains no longer concealed themselves. Either Ascension Realm great demons or Celestial Immortal Realm sword cultivators, they all left their original hidden spots in the mountains. Whether the mountains could continue to root on the battlefield, the life and death of the thousands of demon talisman cultivators, and how long the protective arrays could withstand the sword immortals' attacks, no longer mattered.
Four great demons all rushed toward the central mountain to join forces with Yang Zhi, who had revealed her true form there.
Surround and kill Zuo You!
On the central mountain region, a short old man appeared, hovering on his sword. He suddenly became over ten zhang tall, with white eyebrows and hair, carrying a long staff on his shoulder, slowly ascending on his sword. During this time, each time he opened his mouth and sucked, dozens of pipa-playing women were swallowed into his mouth, like chewing soybeans.
Dong San'geng laughed loudly, "That little bastard."
Chen Xi and Qi Tingji wanted to leave the city wall to follow Dong San'geng.
These three old sword immortals had each carved a large character on the Sword Qi Great Wall.
But Chen Qingdu said, "Let Zuo You use life and death to refine his sword. There are no fights in the Bright World; there are plenty here. If one's life goes too smoothly and one is too solitary, one's sword art cannot reach a high level."
Dong San'geng, rushing to the battlefield, the Hidden Official still playing on the battlefield, and Zuo You.
They needed to confront Yang Zhi, the staff-carrying old man—two of the Barbaric Continent's most peak great demons—and the other four great demons.
On the city wall, Yan Zhuo bit his lip, silent.
Elsewhere, Cheng Quan and Qi Shou were fully focused on the battlefield and did not notice that Chen Ping'an was motionless, his face full of struggle.
By the time Chen Ping'an's out-of-body yin spirit could move freely, it was already too late.
On the battlefield, an even greater surprise than the sudden appearance of the mountains occurred.
The Hidden Official broke through the sword qi with a single punch, directly piercing through Zuo You's abdomen.
If Zuo You hadn't dodged at the critical moment of life and death, that punch would have shattered his heart aperture.
Zuo You, who had already retreated several li, was grabbed by the shoulder by Dong San'geng. Dong San'geng even endured a full-force strike from the staff-carrying old man, taking Zuo You away from the battlefield.
Except for a very few swordsmen, the entire Sword Qi Great Wall was stunned, shaken beyond words.
The Hidden Official spat out a mouthful of blood, then tilted her head, looking at Chen Qingdu, raising her middle finger, "The old undying one deserves to die the most. Go to hell!"
Chen Qingdu was expressionless, only glancing at the Hidden Official, then his gaze fell on Dong San'geng and Zuo You. He muttered to himself, "Zuo You, your little junior brother already told me earlier to be careful with that Hidden Official."
Besides Dong San'geng, even Chen Xi and Qi Tingji needed to be careful. Because Chen Xi had too much resentment, and Qi Tingji had too much ambition. Most importantly, these two old sword immortals with brilliant military achievements felt they had nothing to be ashamed of toward the Sword Qi Great Wall, but they harbored deep, bone-deep hatred for the entire Bright World. However, regarding the past of these two old sword immortals, Chen Ping'an had only compiled thirty-seven major and minor events and six key phrases, and still could not determine whether they would definitely defect to the Barbaric Continent. That decision was left for the elder sword immortal himself to make.
On the ground, the Hidden Official waved her hand. The two sword immortals Zhu An and Luoshan, who had been attacking a nearby mountain, immediately stopped their swords and came to her side, turning their backs on the Sword Qi Great Wall and heading toward the Barbaric Continent.
Over on the Sword Qi Great Wall, Pang Yuanji stumbled and eventually collapsed onto the city wall. This young swordsman's face was unknowingly covered in tears.
He couldn't understand why this had happened.
Now that the oppressive force of heaven and earth was gone, Chen Ping'an could finally move freely. But he neither went to curse Chen Qingdu for deliberately hiding the truth nor went to visit his severely wounded senior brother Zuo You. In this world, right and wrong, good and bad, were ever-changing and not simple. So Chen Ping'an just sat where he was, opened his folding fan to cover most of his face, only revealing a pair of eyes, staring fixedly at the southern battlefield. He said slowly, "We can still fight."