Chapter 654: Summoning the Great Celestial Venerable, (15)

“Seven people?”

Hua Wanliang was startled. “Brother, you can’t be serious. Are you missing a ‘ten thousand’ in there? Or even a ‘thousand’ would do.”

Chen Shi shook his head. “This is everyone.”

Hua Wanliang was at a loss for words. Seven people were supposed to defend Siyuan Mountain Pass? Even the more than a thousand men of his Mu Character Battalion had nearly failed to hold it.

If Chen Shi and the others hadn’t arrived just now, Siyuan Mountain Pass would probably have fallen already!

Niu Qingqing said haltingly, “There were thirty-three of us to begin with. Twenty-six died as soon as we got here…”

Hua Wanliang was silent for a moment, then couldn’t help asking, “You offended King Li, didn’t you? Even if you offended him, you didn’t deserve this. King Li really is petty…”

He suddenly stopped, leaving the rest unsaid.

Everyone knew King Li was small-minded. If he had any of King Li’s spies nearby, those few words alone would be enough to get him in trouble.

“Forget seven people. Even seven thousand wouldn’t be enough to defend Siyuan Mountain Pass.”

Hua Wanliang said, “By all rights, I should stay and share life and death with you, resisting the demons. But I’m also responsible for the lives of the soldiers in the Mu Character Battalion. I can’t sacrifice them here just for the sake of honor. Farewell, everyone!”

He turned around, gathered his surviving troops, and led them away.

Chen Shi and the other six watched them go. Most of the heavenly soldiers and generals were wounded, many of them badly. Quite a few had lost an arm or a leg. Some had even had half their heads sliced off, and were barely clinging to life thanks to their powerful vitality.

Their tower ship had also been destroyed, leaving them no choice but to support one another as they flew toward the nearest camp. There, medicinal pills and miraculous medicines could treat their injuries, and a tower ship would take them to the rear to recuperate.

“How are the seven of us supposed to defend this pass?”

Ning Daoshan surveyed Siyuan Mountain Pass. Seeing that the vital stronghold had fallen, he felt utterly hopeless and murmured, “We can’t hold it. We can’t hold it. We’re going to die here…”

He suddenly shot into the sky and chased after Hua Wanliang.

Hua Wanliang noticed him and immediately turned around, bringing out an immortal artifact as he shouted, “Fellow Daoist, stop!”

Ning Daoshan pleaded, “Brother, take me with you! I don’t want to stay here and wait to die! Brother, I cultivated bitterly for eighteen hundred years before surviving the heavenly tribulation and attaining Dao Unification to become an immortal! How much hardship did I endure in this life to get this far? I can’t let it all end here! So many heavenly soldiers and generals have died. I can disguise myself as one of them and slip away unnoticed. Once we’re back in the Earth Immortal Realm, I’ll serve you like an ox or a horse to repay you!”

Hua Wanliang remained utterly calm and refused outright. “If you blend in with us and King Li discovers you, everyone will be charged with harboring a deserter. Fellow Daoist, a man born in this immortal age of gods should win new territory and secure more living space for our people. Otherwise, wouldn’t all this ability have gone to waste? Stay where you are!”

Ning Daoshan rushed forward, crying, “Brother, give me a chance to live!”

Before he had finished speaking, the heavenly soldiers and generals around Hua Wanliang each brought out a sword box. Sword auras flew forth, thick with killing intent. Hundreds of strands of sword aura unleashed the Primordial Chaos Sword Scripture, and the sword formation erupted. In an instant, Ning Daoshan was decapitated!

Hua Wanliang waved his hand. The heavenly soldiers and generals sheathed their swords in perfect unison, their military discipline impeccable.

Hua Wanliang clasped his hands and bowed, calling out, “Fellow Daoist Chen, forgive me for taking the liberty of killing a deserter!”

Chen Shi returned the bow. “Thank you, fellow Daoist. If you hadn’t slain the deserter, my divine blade would have finished him.”

Hua Wanliang led his troops away.

Inside the central army tent, a divine general bowed and said, “My lord, another heroic spirit has been summoned. Of the thirty-three Dao Gods of Heaven, twenty-seven have now taken their places!”

King Li exclaimed in surprise, “Six are still alive? How did those six survive the demons’ encirclement?”

“I don’t know. My lord, should we send troops to investigate?”

King Li shook his head. “No. They’re defending Siyuan Mountain Pass. They won’t last long, and will soon perish under the demons’ assault. If we send troops there and then stand by without saving them, wouldn’t that tarnish my good name?”

He smiled faintly and said leisurely, “There’s no need to worry about them escaping, either. Their names are already on the Investiture of the Gods. They’re destined to become divine beings of the Heavenly Dao. From now on, they’ll govern the Heavenly Dao and command respect from all immortals. They’ll be the most powerful weapons of our Celestial Court! Keep waving the soul-summoning banner until their heroic spirits have all been summoned!”

Only six people remained inside Siyuan Mountain Pass.

Chen Shi looked around, his eyes lighting up as he walked toward the Star-Gathering Platform.

The other five stared at the corpses covering the ground, some immortals and some demonic soldiers, and felt their scalps prickle. They were completely at a loss.

“So there are only five of us left.”

Longyuan Ling’s voice was hoarse. “We can’t hold it. There’s no way we can hold it… Could we escape back to our Dao Realms?”

Her Dao Heart was close to crumbling. Then her eyes suddenly lit up, and her breathing quickened. “That’s right! We can flee back to our own Dao Realms! It’s just a matter of returning to the mortal world, isn’t it? We don’t need to be immortals anymore! At least we’ll survive if we go back to the mortal world! We can change our appearances and hide our identities. The Celestial Court will never find us! They’ll surely think we died here long ago!”

She gave a somewhat crazed giggle. “That’s it! The Celestial Way magic treasures are all destroyed! The Celestial Strategy is with Fellow Daoist Chen, so the Celestial Court has no way of knowing whether we’re dead or alive! We have a chance to survive!”

Xiahou Feng said coldly, “Fellow Daoist Long, we can’t return to our Dao Realms.”

Longyuan Ling was a little angry. “Why can’t we go back to our Dao Realms? Our Dao Realms are in the mortal world, out on the mysterious yellow sea. We could return without anyone knowing…”

“We can’t go back, Fellow Daoist Long. This is the Dark Sea. We’d bring the external Dao back with us.”

Xiahou Feng walked past her, his expression bleak. “We’d kill everyone in our homeland.”

Longyuan Ling froze.

This was the great Ni Li World of the Dark Sea, a world filled with the external Dao. Even immortals like them couldn’t withstand the external Dao here. If they stayed too long, they would be polluted by it.

Opening their Dao Realms would let the external Dao invade their worlds. Once this pollution of the Great Dao infected the heavens and earth of their worlds, it would grow stronger and stronger until it turned every living thing in the entire world into mud!

Chen Shi arrived beside the Star-Gathering Platform and brought out his Primordial Spirit. It grew and shrank as he measured the platform.

Niu Jingjing came to his side and shook her head. “The Star-Gathering Platform won’t work. I just inspected it. It wasn’t fully built, and it has no inscriptions, so it can’t form a protective formation.”

“We’ll build it ourselves,” Chen Shi said. “I used to be a talisman master where I’m from. This is what I’m best at.”

Niu Jingjing asked curiously, “What’s a talisman master?”

Chen Shi thought for a moment. It wasn’t easy to explain, so he said, “A great mage. We specialize in dealing with difficult problems involving the external Dao. It’s not safe where I’m from, either. Pollution caused by the external Dao is everywhere. My grandfather and I gradually developed these skills.”

Another Bearer of the Heavenly Dao stepped forward. His name was Guo Liang. He shook his head and said, “We can’t build a Star-Gathering Platform. To do that, you need to understand the arrangement of the Heavenly Cycle’s stars. The stars of the Heavenly Cycle are divided into five great regions: east, south, west, north, and center. The eastern Azure Dragon constellations, the western White Tiger constellations, the northern Black Tortoise constellations, the southern Vermilion Sparrow constellations, and the central Purple Micro constellations. Different constellations represent different deities, and different deities contain different Dao techniques. Their Dao patterns are all different.”

Chen Shi brought out the sword-nurturing gourd. Strands of mysterious yellow sword qi flew out of it, cutting stone and carving the forms of different deities as he built the Star-Gathering Platform.

Xiahou Feng stepped forward to help him build it. “Rather than discussing all that, we should prepare our defenses first. We might have a chance to survive.”

The others joined in to help.

Niu Jingjing muttered, “The Star-Gathering Platform needs to coordinate the starlight of the Heavenly Cycle’s constellations. The heavenly soldier camps need at least three thousand six hundred heavenly soldiers, the forces of three battalions. Each battalion studies the Dao techniques of different constellations. They even have to travel to different star systems to observe the forms of the Star Lords before they can lay out a complete Star-Gathering Platform. No one can master that many different Dao techniques at once…”

Though she kept muttering, she still worked together with the others, cutting stone and assembling the Star-Gathering Platform.

The Star-Gathering Platform was laid out according to the One Emperor, Four Sovereigns, Five Elders, Nine Celestials, Three Officials, Six Ministries, all the stars of heaven, and the twenty-eight Heavenly Palaces, making it a massive undertaking.

More than ten star platforms shaped like Heavenly Palaces had already been laid out here. They only needed to follow their specifications.

Chen Shi brought out his Primordial Spirit and helped them build. His Primordial Spirit was tall and powerfully built, and it moved and stacked the stones with ease, saving them a great deal of trouble.

Strangely, after the demonic soldiers withdrew, they did not attack again. They gathered around an ancient vine in the distance.

“The vine seems to be like their Dao Realm,” Niu Jingjing said, bringing out her Primordial Spirit to survey the distance. “The demons are strong within the area sheltered by the vine. Without its shelter, they’re weak. So to deal with the demons, we have to deal with the vines first.”

Even so, she had no idea how they could do that.

The demons’ cultivation was weak only when they were outside the vine’s protection. Under its shelter, they could kill these immortals with a single move!

“There are powerful beings among the demons,” Xiahou Feng said. “That enormous skeleton in the sky is definitely one of them.”

Niu Jingjing shuddered. Chen Shi had tried to cut down the vine just moments ago, only for the giant skeleton controlled by the vine to force him back with a single move.

Even the skeleton alone was so powerful. One could only imagine how strong it had been in life!

“That must be the skeleton of a great demon,” Xiahou Feng guessed, gazing at the distant vine.

Soon, night fell and the sun set. Two moons hung in the sky, their light pure and bright.

Yet this sacred moonlight was filled with the power of the external Dao, which silently seeped into their bodies. The six of them were still working hard to build the Star-Gathering Platform when Longyuan Ling felt an itch on her face. She raised a hand to scratch it, only to find it wet. She looked down and couldn’t help crying out.

Her hand was covered in muddy water!

Muddy water was seeping out through the pores of her skin!

“Don’t worry. You’ve been infected,” Xiahou Feng said, glancing at her. “You need to keep circulating your magic power and refine away the external Dao that has entered your body.”

Longyuan Ling hurriedly circulated her magic power to refine away the external Dao in her body, then suddenly turned pale. “I can’t get rid of it! What do we do?”

Xiahou Feng was about to help when he felt an itch on his own neck. He raised a hand to touch it and found it covered in muddy water as well. He, too, had failed to refine away the external Dao in his body.

“How did the heavenly soldiers and generals who defended this place before drive away the external Dao?” he asked, deeply puzzled.

Chen Shi’s voice came from nearby. “I have a friend named Chu Xiangxiu. He entered the Dark Sea alone, found the great Ni Li World, survived here, and attained Dao Unification to become the first immortal here. He’s in King Li’s camp now. I imagine he came up with some method to prevent the external Dao from invading.”

Hope appeared on their faces. “Fellow Daoist Chen, do you know how?”

Chen Shi shook his head. “I don’t.”

Their faces fell, and they continued building the Star-Gathering Platform.

By the time the two moons had dropped toward opposite horizons, the Star-Gathering Platform was finally complete. The group stood on it, filled with joy.

They looked around, and their hearts turned cold again. At some point, vines had appeared throughout the sky around Siyuan Mountain Pass, hanging down from above and already stretching dozens of miles.

The vines had surrounded them. They were only a mile or two away!

Where the vines hung, demonic soldiers hid behind them, their figures appearing and disappearing as they watched the group.

“We’re finished,” Niu Jingjing said with a laugh, her voice full of grief.

With death upon them, Longyuan Ling instead grew calm. “There’s no such thing as Bearers of the Heavenly Dao. We’re just miserable pawns manipulated by others.”

Xiahou Feng said, “If killing a Bearer of the Heavenly Dao really let you take control of their power, I’d hope that were true. Unfortunately, it isn’t.”

Chen Shi said seriously, “If it were true, you’d already be dead.”

Just then, a ray of dawn pierced the thick canopy of vines between heaven and earth, falling across Siyuan Mountain Pass.

Shouts like the collapse of heaven and earth rang out all around them. The demons were charging, their roars deafening!

The group looked in every direction. Demonic soldiers surged toward Siyuan Mountain Pass like a tide, from all sides, from the sky and from the earth!

Their faces turned pale. Each of them brought out an immortal artifact, but none knew how to fight.

The demonic soldiers were like an enormous wave rising all around them, about to swallow them and Siyuan Mountain Pass whole!

Just then, three thousand six hundred kinds of talismans flew out from the Star-Gathering Platform and imprinted themselves on the Heavenly Palace star platforms, forming a Universal Sacrificial Rite.

Chen Shi swallowed a Fulou Village medicinal pill, bringing his intelligence to its peak. He chuckled softly. “All you great figures of the Celestial Court, come help me conquer the world!”

Standing on the Star-Gathering Platform, he activated the Primordial Chaos Infinite Innate Art. His Dao Field spread out, drawing upon the Heavenly Cycle’s starlight from the Ancient Star Region.

The divine abilities in the Great Wilderness Ming Dao Collection activated the Small Heavenly Cycle Tribulation Formation. The starlight of the Ancient Star Region surged in, and talismans transformed from flat shapes into three-dimensional forms, taking on the shapes of deities amid the surging starlight.

The twenty-eight Heavenly Palaces gradually lit up, and the chief gods began to appear through Chen Shi’s divine abilities.

The first to appear was the avatar of Houtu Huangdiqi, manifesting inside the Heavenly Palace of a star platform, surrounded by the gods.

The avatar of Houtu Huangdiqi had no self-awareness, retaining only a single thought. With a shout, a wheel of reincarnation revolved around her, and the power of the reincarnation divine path twisted space and time, reversing life and death.

The Ladyship’s avatar held the Mysterious and Yellow Swords in her hands, one heavy and one light, their power boundless.

Next came the Great Southern Pole Longevity Emperor, the Heavenly Lord of Universal Transformation of Thunder Sounds Responding to the Origin of the Nine Heavens, the Purple Micro Emperor of the North Pole, the Great Emperor Gouchen of the Upper Palace and Celestial Sovereign, and one celestial deity after another.

When the twenty-seven chief gods had descended, accompanied by the resounding chants of divine hymns, a strand of the Jade Emperor’s avatar finally descended upon the Star-Gathering Platform.

In an instant, divine power surged inside and outside Siyuan Mountain Pass. Rays of radiant light shot into the sky, sweeping away the clouds and mist above and reaching Beyond the Heavens!

Niu Jingjing, Xiahou Feng, and the others stared blankly at the scene.

“King Li’s Star-Gathering Platform is actually this powerful?”

Longyuan Ling murmured, “I’d heard long ago that a demon had swallowed a hundred thousand heavenly soldiers under his command in one bite. I thought his formation skills weren’t very impressive. I guess I underestimated him.”

In the distance, King Li commanded the various armies of the heavenly soldier camps. He was laying out layer upon layer of fortified passes and barriers, planning the campaign, when he suddenly sensed something and looked up.

Amid the layers of demonic miasma and vines, an overwhelming divine power suddenly surged forth, breaking through the external Dao’s blockade and blasting into the sky. The heavens lit up with radiant light in every color!

King Li was stunned, then quickly came to his senses.

“Quick! Send troops to find out what happened over there!”

He sent out an elite force straight toward Siyuan Mountain Pass, where Chen Shi and the others were. The force hurried all the way there, and after making a quick inspection, a scout immediately returned by the same route to report to King Li. “The six immortals at Siyuan Mountain Pass summoned avatars of the emperors and Celestial Venerables among the Four Sovereigns, Five Elders, Nine Celestials, Three Officials, and Six Ministries to guard the pass.”

King Li stared dumbfounded, then suddenly understood and shouted angrily, “Who did this? Who dares to do such a thing? This is outrageous!”

The scout hesitated, then said quietly, “This lowly immortal saw that a strand of the Great Celestial Venerable’s avatar had also been summoned. He’s fighting the demons outside the pass…”