Chapter 466 — Sword Arts and Sword Scars

Shen Mu gazed up at the palaces in the sky, from which countless women were flying out to alight upon the peaks one after another. The True Heaven Palace must long since have received word that Shen Mu had rallied several great clans to come and wage war upon them; they had been prepared.

Boom!

A great mountain suddenly burst apart, its rocks exploding, countless boulders flying and tumbling from its slopes. The mountain's transformation was terrifying to behold—from a peak it became a towering mountain giant.

The mountain giant crouched, then abruptly tore its massive legs and feet up from beneath the earth, shaking the ground until it quaked without cease.

The formation master He Yiyi raised her hand, and the vast Yun City gently halted, coming to a stop.

Amid the mountain range, that mountain giant slowly rose to its feet. Its enormous palm, a hundred mu or more across, swept through the air, stirring up a howling gale, and suddenly seized a sword-shaped peak.

A piercing sound rang out—that sword-shaped peak was actually wrenched from the earth by the mountain giant!

As the giant pulled, the stone upon the sword-shaped peak fell away piece by piece; by the time it had lifted the peak aloft, the stone had sloughed off entirely, revealing a body covered in rust.

A great sword the size of a mountain!

Shen Mu's expression turned grave as he raised his head to gaze at the mountain giant and that great sword amid the drifting mist and clouds.

The True Heaven Palace's foundations were too vast and towering, surpassing even the holy lands of the Central Plains. Neither the Daoist sects, nor the Great Thunderclap Monastery, nor even the Dark Demon Cult possessed such fearsome reserves.

Boom, boom.

One thunderous report after another rang out as peak after peak began to transform. The mountain forests became giants a thousand zhang, several thousand zhang tall, each seizing weapons of unimaginable vastness!

These were the guardians of the True Heaven Palace.

Countless female disciples of the True Heaven Palace stood upon the shoulders or the heads of the mountain giants, their figures rising and falling with the giants' movements, their killing intent seething.

Shen Mu glanced at Mu Yingxue. Had she not poisoned the Xiong family back then, it would have been very difficult for the Yu family to seize the True Heaven Palace and wrest power from the Xiong.

These mountain giants alone constituted a force of unspeakable terror, surpassing a million-strong army!

"Form the formation—"

He Yiyi cried out in a loud voice, and the women of the He family within the city came pouring out, each producing a host of formation banners and waving them in the wind. At once, great and small formation elemental soldiers descended from the banners.

The He family women assembled them with astonishing speed, and Shen Mu witnessed a scene of utter shock: the He family's divine ability users were using the formation elemental soldiers to rapidly assemble catapult after catapult a hundred zhang tall. The catapults stood arrayed behind Yun City, their winches cranked taut!

One after another, the Fang family's female divine ability users roused their powers, and from the mountain giants that walked behind them, stone kept tumbling down, contracting into great boulders that rolled of their own accord into the catapults' baskets.

Countless female divine ability users of the Xi family scattered seeds, and grass and trees grew wildly across the hills and fields, forming a green ocean behind them. The ocean surged without cease, and one tree giant after another came striding out with thunderous steps.

The Luo family's sword master Luo Yinyu laid her hand upon her sword—shing, shing, shing—and behind her, tens of thousands of Luo family women laid hands upon their swords as one, their heroic spirit blazing forth.

"Sister Fu!" Mu Yingxue suddenly called out in a loud voice.

At a single command from Fu Yunxi, the Fu family's divine ability users summoned dark clouds. The dense, black clouds linked into a sea of cloud that shrouded a thousand li, with lightning flashing and thunder rolling. One after another, incomparably thick tornadoes descended from the cloud layer. The tornadoes twisted and writhed, yet did not advance—they were held in check by the Fu family's divine ability users.

Mu Yingxue, meanwhile, led the divine ability users of the Mu family from Thunder Mountain City forward, casting the various virulent poisons she had refined into the wind. The tornadoes drew the poisons up into the dark clouds, and soon the clouds changed hue, turning a monstrous green.

Even the ceaselessly flashing thunderbolts gave off a green glow.

The entire cloud layer was saturated with the Mu family's virulent poisons.

Gust after gust of wild wind surged up from behind Shen Mu, setting the young man's robes atop the city tower streaming forward, flapping and rustling.

The wind was cool, carrying away the excess heat from his body.

His blood ran too hot.

The Western Lands' female divine ability users displayed before him a bearing in battle wholly different from Jingping's, yet no less stirring to the blood!

Women yield nothing to men. Though these women might appear charming and alluring in men's eyes, upon the battlefield they were the mightiest of warriors!

A killing stillness.

Before the True Heaven Palace at this moment hung a deep, murderous pall. Black clouds pressed upon the city as though to crush it; there was only the sound of wind, and no other sound at all. The oppression was enough to drive one mad.

Just then, a figure flew out from the cluster of palaces within the sea of clouds, passing straight by one mountain giant after another—and those mountain giants paid the figure no heed at all.

"Bago!"

He Yiyi, Mu Yingxue, Fu Yunxi, and the others' expressions shifted slightly. Even facing the mountain giants that guarded the True Heaven Palace, they had shown no trace of fear—yet facing that figure flying toward them, their expressions could not help but change.

He Yiyi gave a soft cry, and the whole of Yun City underwent a sudden transformation. The city split apart, countless stones floating into the air and swiftly assembling into a great defensive formation, shielding the He family's juniors behind them.

Her own figure was borne up by a great stone, drifting toward the front of the formation.

Suddenly, a person appeared at her side. He Yiyi turned her head and saw that it was Shen Mu; warmth welled up in her heart.

"Sword Spirits, Array the Heavenly Soldiers!"

Luo Yinyu cried out, and the tens of thousands of Luo family female divine ability users all rode their flying swords upon qi. Countless flying swords chimed and rang, floating in the air and transforming into a vast sword formation. The countless swords wove and flew through the air, and though numerous, they were not the least bit disordered.

Luo Yinyu floated amid the sword formation, gripping her sword hilt backhanded, her gaze incomparably sharp as she looked at the newcomer.

"Eight Pillars of Heaven!"

Fang Caidie cried out fiercely, and behind her the mountain giants abruptly collided, transforming into massive pillars that propped up the heavens and stood upon the earth, round and rolling. Eight mountain giants stepped forward, pulled up the pillars, and shouldered them, their killing intent seething.

The other families likewise brought forth their own means, watching the newcomer in great alarm. Even the Liu family's mother and daughter, Liu Ruyin and Liu Zhenqing, were deeply anxious, coming before the golden divine coffin and ready at any moment to break the seal and release the divine corpse.

Shen Mu's heart was shaken. This Bago had come alone, yet had nearly forced the great clans of the Western Lands to bring out their hidden trump cards. It had to be said—this Bago was magnificent in his majesty!