Chapter 653: Siyuan Mountain Pass

A divine general stepped forward and said in a low voice, “Heavenly King, Chen Shi is among those who came this time. He has Eastern Prince behind him, and I hear he’s also Houtu Huangdiqi’s godson...”

King Li smiled. “Chen Shi certainly has powerful backing, but this concerns the future of the Celestial Court. Eastern Prince and Houtu Huangdiqi will understand. Besides, it’s a good thing that Chen Shi has become a deity. He’s even more firmly on our side now and could never betray us. When he was alive, though, he was an immortal, two-faced and keeping several boats afloat at once. I’m more worried he’ll play both sides, currying favor with both the Immortal Court and the Celestial Court while acting as a spy for each.”

“Is Your Majesty not afraid that Eastern Prince and Houtu Huangdiqi will make things difficult for you?”

King Li smiled as he gazed toward Siyuan Mountain Pass, perfectly at ease. “Make things difficult for me? Do you think I alone was so brilliant that I foresaw the destruction of the Celestial Way magic treasures and chose thirty-three Bearers of the Heavenly Dao? Do you think I alone mobilized all those Bearers of the Heavenly Dao and sent them to the great Ni Li World? Do you think I came up with the plan to seize control of the Heavenly Dao? I’m not capable of that.”

He smiled faintly. “There are fifty great figures above me, each more formidable than I am. They are the ones who devised this plan. Houtu Huangdiqi is among them.”

He hesitated. He wasn’t sure whether Eastern Prince had been involved, either.

After all, Eastern Prince was an immortal.

“Houtu Huangdiqi didn’t save Chen Shi, either. No matter what, Chen Shi is doomed this time!”

King Li said quietly, “His only choice is to stand with the Celestial Court!”

Above Siyuan Mountain Pass, all was clamor and chaos. The din filled their ears, and scenes of disorder rushed toward them.

The tower ship was in turmoil. Niu Jingjing dodged a sudden divine ability, only to see it pierce through another Bearer of the Heavenly Dao.

The instant the man was struck, his body rapidly turned to mud, transforming into a clay figure. He hurriedly raised his hands to inspect himself, horrified and terrified.

At that moment, a long-limbed demon soldier leaped onto the tower ship, seized the man’s head, and crushed it with a wet smack!

The demon soldier let out a strange, rolling cry and lunged at Niu Jingjing.

Panicking, Niu Jingjing summoned an immortal artifact to defend herself. At the same time, the other two Bearers of the Heavenly Dao steadied themselves and immediately attacked from either side.

The demon soldier raised a hand to meet Niu Jingjing’s immortal artifact head-on. It was knocked backward, skidding away. Niu Jingjing was delighted, but then she realized that her magic treasure had been invaded by the external Dao. The Great Dao patterns inscribed within the immortal artifact were rapidly disintegrating. She cried out, “Watch out for external Dao pollution!”

“Thump! Thump!”

Two muffled impacts sounded. The attacks of the other two Bearers of the Heavenly Dao struck the demon soldier without hindrance. It took both attacks, its body shifting slightly, yet it emerged completely unharmed.

The instant the two men’s hands touched the demon soldier, they sensed the external Dao invading them. The Dao patterns they had cultivated could not resist it at all, and they both began turning to mud.

In the blink of an eye, they became two clay figures. The demon soldier grabbed one in each hand and crushed them to pieces.

“How are we supposed to fight this?”

Seeing the demon soldier charge at her, with external Dao abilities and magic treasures closing in from behind, Niu Jingjing saw nowhere to dodge. She could only steel herself and unleash her divine ability against it.

At the very same moment, Chen Shi, standing not far away, activated his Dao Field. It spread outward, enveloping the entire tower ship in an instant.

His Dao Field was unlike any other. It seemed to possess no particular Great Dao quality at all, just an endless expanse. Once it spread over them, it became difficult to sense.

Niu Jingjing and the demon soldier met, and their divine abilities erupted. The demon soldier’s bones snapped and tendons tore. It spat blood as it was sent flying, crashing against the tower ship’s wall. It looked as though it wouldn’t survive.

Niu Jingjing had thought she was as good as dead. She hadn’t expected her opponent to be the one to die, and she was still shaken.

Then more than ten demon soldiers charged onto the tower ship. The moment they stepped into Chen Shi’s Wuji Dao Field, they felt all their external Dao transformed into the immortal path.

They had no idea how to cultivate the immortal path, and Longyuan Ling, Xiahou Feng, and the others promptly cut them down.

After killing the demon soldiers, everyone was just as bewildered, unsure why they had become so powerful.

Niu Jingjing was the first to come to her senses. She hurriedly looked toward Chen Shi and asked, “Young Master Chen, why did their external Dao stop working?”

Chen Shi walked toward the bow of the ship as he explained, “I only turned their external Dao into the immortal path. They simply don’t know how to cultivate it. Likewise, external Dao pollution only turns the immortal path into external Dao. They don’t know how to cultivate that, either.”

Everyone frowned. “How does that make sense?”

In a mere moment, only fourteen of the tower ship’s thirty-three Bearers of the Heavenly Dao remained. The others had died in this sudden battle.

They looked at one another. They had believed that receiving the imprints of Celestial Way magic treasures made them Heaven’s favored children, blessed with great fortune. They hadn’t expected to lose more than half their number as soon as they arrived in the great Ni Li World!

The horrific sight left everyone deeply uneasy.

Ning Daoshan suddenly said, “Fellow Daoist Chen, could this be the miraculous effect of your Celestial Strategy Heavenly Dao imprint? Have you already figured out how to use the Celestial Strategy?”

Everyone turned to look at Chen Shi, their eyes burning with hope.

If that Dao Field was the Celestial Strategy’s miraculous effect, didn’t that mean they could wield such incredible power, enough to stand against the demons?

Chen Shi ignored Ning Daoshan’s question and continued to maintain his Wuji Dao Field as he looked down toward Siyuan Mountain Pass.

Siyuan Mountain Pass could hardly be called a formidable fortress. This frontline outpost was only half-built, with more than half its fortifications still unfinished.

Celestial Court outposts had strict construction standards.

Take the black iron immortal city guarding western Penglai, for example. In addition to its inner city, outer city, and barbican, it had battlements, corner towers, an officiating Heaven platform, a Star-Gathering Platform, a treasure-forging workshop, a medical hall, and other facilities. The outer walls were painted with defensive formations using the blood of god-demons, and densely covered with defensive Dao patterns. The inner walls bore formations of the Five Elements, yin and yang, the Four Images, and the Eight Trigrams.

On the walls, a commander was stationed every few miles, each in charge of a killing formation diagram. The moment the enemy attacked the city, they would activate the diagram, drawing all the soldiers into it and using the formation to fight back.

Each corner tower held dozens of defensive magic treasures, while grindstone crossbows stood at the battlements.

The Star-Gathering Platform summoned the starlight of the Heavenly Cycle and formed Heavenly Cycle star-sand, which encircled the inner and outer cities, making them easy to defend and difficult to attack.

Most important of all was the sacrificial platform. Sacrifices could be offered there to summon the manifestations of divine beings from the Dipper Ministry, Thunder Ministry, Plague Ministry, and other ministries of the Celestial Court to descend and sweep away the enemy forces.

Siyuan Mountain Pass had none of these things. This outpost had only just managed to build its inner and outer cities. The officiating Heaven platform was finished, but its Dao patterns and talismans had yet to be inscribed. Construction of the Star-Gathering Platform had only just begun, and most of the other fortifications were incomplete, too.

This was the Siyuan Mountain Pass they had been ordered to defend.

Most absurdly, Siyuan Mountain Pass had already fallen!

Chen Shi looked down from above. Siyuan Mountain Pass was small, with only one battalion of soldiers, just over a thousand heavenly soldiers and generals, guarding it. The commander had activated the Seventy-Two Earthly Fiends Formation, a Star Lord formation made up of seventy-two separate arrays. Each array could gather starlight and summon the manifestation of an Earthly Fiend Star Lord, possessing terrifying combat strength.

But under the attack of the demons from the great Ni Li World, the seventy-two Earthly Fiend formations had been scattered, and many of them had been broken through. The demons who charged inside slaughtered the soldiers in the formations. Blood filled the air.

More than half of the thousand-strong heavenly soldier battalion had already been killed or wounded. Siyuan Mountain Pass was on the verge of falling!

“This is the pass we’re supposed to take over?”

Niu Jingjing came to Chen Shi’s side and looked down. Her scalp prickled, and she murmured, “Taking over means the soldiers guarding the pass withdraw and we replace them. There are only thirty-three of us...”

Longyuan Ling’s voice came from behind her. “Now only fourteen are left.”

Niu Jingjing felt a chill in her heart. She murmured, “We should turn back, leave the great Ni Li World, and return to the Earth Immortal Realm...”

“Turning back would make us deserters. We’d be sent to the Immortal Execution Platform.”

A voice came from behind them. “Besides, the Dark Sea lies outside the great Ni Li World. Who knows how to get out?”

Their words chilled everyone to the bone.

Their only chance of survival was to enter Siyuan Mountain Pass and defend it!

But that path to survival was clearly a path to certain death!

“Could we survive somewhere else in the great Ni Li World?”

Ning Daoshan’s voice was hoarse as he looked into the distance. “If we don’t defend Siyuan Mountain Pass, we could find a safe place in this world and spend the rest of our lives there...”

He stopped abruptly and said no more.

In the distance, the sky of the great Ni Li World looked like a forest growing downward from above. Enormous vines took root in the sky and grew downward, twisting and crawling along.

The vines resembled tentacles. Some coiled around enormous skeletons suspended in midair, the remains of creatures whose identities were unknown.

The skeletons were tightly wrapped in vines. Some tendrils had even burrowed into the bones, splitting the bone where they had taken root.

Strange plants like water weeds grew in every direction, too.

This clearly wasn’t a place where people could survive.

Several dozen miles away, a troop of demon soldiers surrounded a towering White Bone Altar, beating drums and gongs and dancing wildly as if performing some mysterious rite.

Suddenly, the sky burst open, and an enormous flower bud emerged from the void. It was wet and slick, covered in mud and slime that dripped down from above.

Then countless vines grew from behind the flower and took root in the sky.

One vine shot out and coiled around a demon soldier.

The demon soldier spun as he was lifted into the sky. Delight showed on his face as he cried out in a rolling voice.

The demonic flower quickly bloomed and bore fruit, producing a seed with a sharp tip. It stabbed toward the demon soldier. With a soft pop, it pierced his skull.

The demon soldier’s skull burst open, and a new vine rapidly grew from inside it, spreading toward Siyuan Mountain Pass at incredible speed!

The vine roots soon drained the demon soldier dry, leaving behind a skeleton wrapped in vines.

“They’re cultivating these strange plants in the sky.” Chen Shi was astonished.

Although he too lived in the Dark Sea, he had never seen such a bizarre method of cultivation.

However, he could feel that the external Dao was flourishing wherever the vines spread, greatly increasing the demon soldiers’ cultivation and strength!

Suddenly, a streak of fire shot over and struck the tower ship. Boundless demonic flame power was contained in the fire. It erupted, blowing the tower ship into pieces!

The distant demon troop unleashed divine abilities and magic treasures, bombarding them.

Below, at Siyuan Mountain Pass, many demon soldiers spotted them as well and attacked the tower ship’s position.

Suspended in midair, everyone did everything they could to dodge the magic treasures and divine abilities whistling in every direction as they charged toward Siyuan Mountain Pass below.

“Get inside the pass! Hurry! We’ll only have a chance of survival once we reach Siyuan Mountain Pass!”

Chaos reigned in the air, with magic treasures and divine abilities flying everywhere. Suddenly, someone screamed as several streaks of demonic light struck them, killing them on the spot.

“We can’t block their divine abilities!” someone cried in terror.

Cold sweat drenched Niu Jingjing’s forehead. She had forgotten all about being a Bearer of the Heavenly Dao, about the Celestial Court’s training.

She had only one thought now: survive!

She looked beyond the pass, where countless demons covered the mountains and plains, surging toward Siyuan Mountain Pass like a tide as they charged.

“Stay with Chen Shi. We’ll have a chance of survival if we stay with him!”

The thought flashed through her mind. She immediately moved to Chen Shi’s side.

Chen Shi’s Dao Field spread as he charged downward. Any demonic divine ability, Dao technique, or magic treasure that entered his Dao Field was steadily weakened. Even if one reached him, it posed no threat.

The other Bearers of the Heavenly Dao noticed this as well and hurried toward Chen Shi. In a short while, six of them had gathered at his side.

The other seven fought on their own, charging toward Siyuan Mountain Pass below. Before they could reach the mountain, they were killed.

Chen Shi led the six toward Siyuan Mountain Pass. The soldiers inside spotted them and immediately sent a squad of more than ten heavenly soldiers to meet them. But before the squad could draw near, a savage maw, several miles across, suddenly appeared out of nowhere in midair and swallowed all of them in one bite!

Chen Shi abruptly turned around. Instead of charging toward Siyuan Mountain Pass, he headed straight for the vine in the sky.

“Fellow Daoist Chen!”

Xiahou Feng, Niu Jingjing, and the others were horrified. But they dared not leave Chen Shi’s Dao Field, so they could only grit their teeth and follow him, charging toward the vine.

The demon soldiers guarding the vine immediately soared into the sky to intercept them.

The two sides met. Chen Shi did not attack. Xiahou Feng and the other five fought the demon soldiers. The moment they clashed, they realized the demons’ cultivation and strength were not as formidable as they had seemed. They immediately understood that Chen Shi was suppressing their external Dao.

However, they were too close to the vine. Its power was strengthening the external Dao between heaven and earth, making it difficult for Chen Shi to transform their external Dao completely into the immortal path.

The group fought desperately, protecting Chen Shi as they charged toward the vine. For a time, both sides suffered casualties.

Chen Shi reached a point just over a hundred yards from the vine and summoned the Tianluo Blood-Transforming Divine Blade. As he swung the blade, the First Law of the Western Ox New Continent flowed into it, unleashing the eighth form of the Blood-Transforming Divine Blade.

The Heavenly Pillar Crumbles, The Earth’s Axis Splits!

The blade light swept out, splitting the sky like a spiderweb and severing countless vines. Even as countless tentacles from the vine lashed toward him, they were all shattered.

“Clang! Clang! Clang!”

The skeleton of the demon soldier where the vine had taken root cracked apart. The enormous vine’s roots fell from the sky one after another.

The demon soldiers sheltered by the vine lost much of their strength and cultivation. Niu Jingjing, Xiahou Feng, and the others killed them one after another.

Chen Shi pressed his advantage and charged toward the mother vine.

The mother vine had grown out of the void, and it was also the strongest.

The instant Chen Shi swung his blade, the void behind the mother vine suddenly burst open, revealing the skeleton of a demon a hundred thousand feet tall. It had eight arms and was wrapped in the mother vine. As if brought back to life, it danced in midair and met Chen Shi’s dazzling blade light!

“Boom!”

The Blood-Transforming Divine Blade collided with the demon skeleton. The blade light vanished. Chen Shi’s body shook violently, his Dao Field contracted, and he was sent flying backward.

Xiahou Feng and the others were horrified and hurried after him.

The next moment, Chen Shi landed on the city tower of Siyuan Mountain Pass. He held the blade in his right hand and looked up. The web between his thumb and forefinger had split open and was bleeding.

Ahead of him, the demon soldiers attacking Siyuan Mountain Pass seemed to receive an order. They all stopped and withdrew like a tide. The demons who had broken into Siyuan Mountain Pass also stopped fighting and retreated.

The heavenly soldiers and generals guarding Siyuan Mountain Pass had thought they were doomed, but they never expected this to happen.

“Brave warrior!”

The Commander guarding Siyuan Mountain Pass hurried over and bowed. “I serve under King Li. I am Hua Wanliang of the Mu Character Battalion, Shen Character Company, Jia Character Guard. May I ask who you are?”

Chen Shi sheathed his blade, turned around, and said gently, “We were ordered to come take over the defense. My surname is Chen, my given name is Shi. I’m also from the heavenly soldier camps.”

Hua Wanliang was both surprised and delighted. He smiled. “Wonderful! Our Mu Character Battalion was about to be overwhelmed. At last, the relief force has arrived! Brother Chen, how many of you came?”

Chen Shi’s gaze passed over Xiahou Feng, Longyuan Ling, and the others. “Seven, counting me.”