Volume One: The Turmoil of Yan and Yun Chapter Eighty-Seven: The Three-Way Battlefield, Part Two

The heavens lie ten thousand zhang above the earth; that much has been verified by several of the world’s foremost powerhouses.

But what lies ten thousand zhang below the ground is something very few can explain clearly. Even the Lofty Freedom Pavilion kept no definite record of it. Someone once inquired, yet the Pavilion quoted a price so absurd that no one could ever afford it, and many therefore suspected that even they did not know the truth.

The Abyss of the Dao lies amid the continuous mountains of Changbai. According to the Dao Canon, it sinks eight thousand zhang beneath the earth. Chaos-tinged currents often linger within it, and the cliff walls on either side are tougher than immortal-grade artifacts. Even when Wei Sanmu employed a strike that pierced to the marrow, or when Dugu Feiyun unleashed a single sword of heaven and earth, they could not inflict much damage upon its terrain. For this reason, most battles between the great ones who had merged with the Dao were fought here. If not for the sudden eruption of this matter, the Wind God Guard would not have chosen Shuntian as the place to fight Zisan Bushou.

When Xue Qianzhang arrived, he found two people inside the Abyss of the Dao.

One was the Dao Saint of Mount Taixuan. The other, standing opposite him... Zisan Bumo?

“You came,” the Dao Saint said, glancing at Xue Qianzhang. “I thought you would simply use the Ten-Thousand-Swords Grand Formation to cut him down.”

Xue Qianzhang shrugged. “I did think of that. Then I gave it up.”

“Why?”

Xue Qianzhang answered seriously, “In the path of the sword, both he and I have gone very far. Without a duel, my heart will not be at peace.”

The Dao Saint nodded. “You and he both entered the Dao through the sword. It is no bad thing to test one another.”

Xue Qianzhang asked, “And you? Why not use the Five Abyss Grand Formation to kill Zisan Bumo?”

The Dao Saint replied calmly, “Because I cannot be bothered.”

Xue Qianzhang felt this fellow was sneering at him somehow, though he could not quite tell where. Before he could think further, the Dao Saint said, “Humanity has very few who have merged with the Dao, and even those at the level of hidden divinity can be counted on one hand. Since we have cultivated to this point, perhaps force need not be the only answer.”

Xue Qianzhang raised an eyebrow.

Xue Wuyan did not bother to respond to that remark at all.

Zisan Bumo’s face remained expressionless. “Has the Dao Saint grown timid of battle?”

The Dao Saint said, “You are no match for me.”

Zisan Bumo answered bluntly, “Then come and try!”

Xue Qianzhang thought that the lineage of Wei Sanmu was indeed fierce, though he could also understand why the Dao Saint wished to quell the strife.

In the end, they stood at different heights and saw the world differently.

What did the Dugu family’s struggle for supremacy have to do with them?

No matter who ultimately ruled the world, the sects would not be mistreated... No dynasty could ever shake the sects’ position, because the sects’ existence was a shared necessity of the human race.

So the only thing they needed to consider was the survival of humankind. In other words, the divine dynasty might change hands, but humanity had to endure for ten thousand generations.

There were four great merged-Dao beings of the hidden-divinity realm here, and every one of them was a future pillar in the resistance against the demon race. If anything went wrong, it would be a loss for all humankind.

“Is anyone else coming?” Zisan Bumo asked quietly.

Xue Qianzhang replied, “That depends on what arrangements you still have on your side.”

Zisan Bumo asked, “I have only one question.”

“Go on,” Xue Qianzhang said.

Zisan Bumo asked, “When my master ascended back then, why did Sword Ultimate and the Dao Saint make their move?”

Xue Qianzhang paused, then exchanged a glance with Mingfa.

In truth, Wei Sanmu and Li Jianxing were both figures from the late Tang. Later historians forcibly split them apart, then filled the gaps with other stories and called it history.

In that stretch of history, those who besieged Wei Sanmu were the great merged-Dao beings of the previous generation. Among them, the strongest were the founding emperor of the divine dynasty, Dugu Changsi; the Snow-Listening True Lord of the Snowcloud Sect; and the Mingyuan True Lord of Mount Taixuan. In the end, the three great experts died in battle, and Wei Sanmu was suspected to have ascended.

But the merged-Dao beings, whose lifespans could exceed a thousand years, naturally knew that such matters were seven parts true and three parts false.

What was true was the power, the causes and consequences, and the factions involved in the siege of Wei Sanmu.

What was false was the real names of the experts who took part.

For example, Xue Qianzhang and Mingfa in the present hall.

“I say, when Dugu Feiyun was around, why didn’t you seek revenge? Now that he’s only just gone, you’re already this impatient. It makes me think I’m far inferior to him,” Xue Qianzhang said, dissatisfied. “Besides, the Demon Lord and the dragon clan’s patriarch are both still alive. Yet you come only for us... Isn’t that just bullying your own nest?”

He had not answered Zisan Bumo’s question directly.

Because he did not know the answer either. He only knew that if they had not done so back then, countless lives on the Abyssal Continent would have perished, whether human, barbarian, beast, or demon.

“Everyone who took part in besieging my master will die,” Zisan Bumo said softly. “First I’ll kill the two of you, then the fellow on Wolong Isle, then march north to annihilate the demons, and finally ascend to kill Dugu Feiyun.”

Xue Qianzhang raised his brows, thinking that this man might well be delusional.

The Dao Saint was not one to talk much. After his first proposal was rejected, he had remained silent until now.

“You are no match for me,” Mingfa said. “I do not know where your confidence comes from, but none of that matters.”

Zisan Bumo did not yield an inch. “I’ll say it again: if you think I am beneath you, then come and fight. Let us see who is stronger and who is weaker.”

This time Mingfa did not evade the matter further. Too much evasion would indeed make him seem timid of battle.

He had never feared fighting anyone. Even if the Demon Lord had come back then, it would have been the same.

Sensing the change in his aura, the other three fell silent.

Within the Abyss of the Dao, several surges of vital energy rose, enough to drain the color from heaven and earth.

A gale passed through.

And then the figures of all four vanished.

The wind raged, the thunder raged, the snow raged, the sword raged.

One cry after another of fury.

...

...

From any perspective, the crisis Yanbei now faced might well be the greatest in its history.

Even during the unification in the Great Xia era, or the demon race’s two southern invasions, Yanbei had never suffered such a devastating blow. Enemies came from all directions, and the flames of war nearly spread to every corner of Yanbei. The eastern front was still manageable; the Bohai Azure Wave Pillar had only broken through the pass and seldom harmed ordinary folk. But the cultists on the western line and the barbarians in the north had no such scruples. Along the way, they had already massacred several great cities in succession. Though Feng Muyun had issued evacuation orders, gathering all the people of Yanbei into a few heavily fortified cities, the capacity of those cities and the pace of evacuation were still limited. Thus many civilians on the northern and western fronts died in the slaughter of cities.

Yan Yun received countless urgent pleas for aid every day, but the Yanbei Prince’s Manor was already overwhelmed. How could it spare any hands?

“Report! The Strange Stone Forest has fallen!”

“Report! Purple Sand has fallen!”

“Report! Wind Pass has fallen!”

“Report! The Second Young Master has joined forces with the Third Lord and encountered Su Yuzhe’s cavalry at Honghuai. Great victory at Honghuai! Su Yuzhe escaped severely wounded!”

Listening to the torrent of reports from the scouts, Feng Muyun’s brows remained tightly locked, yet his face was unnervingly calm.

“After blasting through the eight-pass formation of Yanbei, we still failed to stop the barbarians’ southward advance. Now that we are trapped in Yan Yun, this battle will not be easy,” the lord of Divine Might Fortress said softly beside him.

“To think Bohai could unite so many powers. It was not the Yanbei Prince’s miscalculation alone,” Liang Zhiyin said, offering an explanation for Feng Muyun after Windward Pass fell.

“Bohai?” Feng Muyun lifted his head to look at her. “Bohai does not have that ability. At most, it is a pawn used to balance the various sects. The true chess player... I can only imagine it is Yang Wanli.”

Neither Muxiu nor Xuhai was something Bohai could truly control.

By rights, they should be sects on par with Snowcloud and Taixuan. How could they be subject to the mortal world? Added to the changes among the barbarians, Feng Muyun quickly identified the hand behind it all.

Yang Wanli.

If Li Jianxing did not appear in person, then he was the sole spokesman of the Wisdom Immortal in the world. Though that would not be enough to make these merged-Dao beings bow their heads, it at least made alliance possible.

“Yang Wanli?” Liang Zhiyin frowned. “Li Jianxing’s third disciple?”

Feng Muyun said, “That is the only explanation.”

“Why can it not be Li Jianxing himself?” Liang Zhiyin asked again.

Feng Muyun thought that if Li Jianxing had come personally, how could he ever have had the chance to use the formations of the Eighteen Passes to trap and kill so many barbarian soldiers? They would likely have collapsed like a mountain in defeat long ago.

Yet from another angle, if it really were Li Jianxing himself, perhaps Yanbei would not have fallen into such a crisis.

The brilliance of this trap was precisely that everyone knew it was inseparably connected to Li Jianxing, yet everyone also knew Li Jianxing had not done anything personally.

Thus experts like Sword Ultimate of Snowcloud, Dao Saint of Taixuan, and the Divine Emperor Dugu could not descend at will, because if they did, the situation might only escalate.

Even if Yanbei were wiped out completely, it would not alter the grand plan to resist the demons a century later. But if matters escalated, then Li Jianxing’s old warning to Emperor Zhaozong of Tang might truly come to pass.

“What should we do next?” The lord of Divine Might Fortress also found Liang Zhiyin’s question absurd, and thus steered the discussion back to the present.

Feng Muyun said, “At present, we can only rely on the Wind-Sand Grand Formation. Yan Yun City has high walls and deep moats, with abundant supplies. When the demons came south, it held out for several months. Though these rebels are now formidable in momentum, their front line is too long, and they have not yet threatened the very foundation of the divine dynasty. Once the divine emperors free their hands, that will be the moment of their defeat!”

He spoke with absolute certainty, but how many among those present were fools?

When the demons came south back then, there were no fewer than fifteen merged-Dao beings within Yan Yun City. In terms of top-tier experts, they were at least nearly equal to the demons.

But now Yan Yun had only two merged-Dao beings, while the rebels had at least five!

No matter how strong the Wind-Sand Grand Formation was, it could not possibly hold back three merged-Dao beings.

So Feng Muyun’s words could not be trusted.

But the purpose of those words was never to win their trust.

He was speaking to the common people of Yan Yun.

Thus, even knowing that the words were not wholly true, none of the experts present pointed that out.

With war imminent, nothing was more taboo than confusion.

If the true situation were known to all, Yan Yun might even collapse without being attacked.

Once the scouts conveyed Feng Muyun’s orders, all eyes in the hall turned toward him.

Only then did his words truly become binding commands.

“Wuming, lead the Flat Sand Battalion and the Gathered Sand Battalion to Yan Yun’s south gate. No matter what happens, do not retreat even half a step.”

“Yundan, lead the Windward Battalion and the Suppression-North Battalion to Yan Yun’s west gate. No matter how much the Azure Wave Pillar provokes you, do not sally out of the city to engage. If he launches a full assault, you may draw upon one-tenth of the Wind-Sand power.”

“Feng Qinghua, lead the Iron Guard Battalion and the Sharp Blade Battalion to Yan Yun’s east gate. All Divine Might Fortress disciples are to be placed under your command. You may mobilize any of them except the fortress lord. There is only one condition: as long as you still live, you must not allow a single cult disciple into Yan Yun.”

“...”

He issued more than a dozen commands in succession. At last, he said, “Aside from the north gate, the other three gates will not face attacks from merged-Dao experts. But that does not mean your burdens are lighter. It only means your responsibilities are heavier!”

After a pause, he said in a low voice, “Our country is already collapsing before our eyes. Whether right or wrong, victory or defeat, I entrust all of this to your care.”

...

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