Chapter 172 — The Insect Tide of Gua Prefecture

"The Imperial Preceptor's wound has already healed, and yet he used the occasion of the sword lecture at the Grand Academy to make the world believe he is still gravely hurt, scheming to make those who wish to rebel but dare not rise up. Such calculation is truly appalling.

" The Imperial Preceptor's sword lecture at the Grand Academy had been three months ago. In three months the times had grown ever more disordered, sects rebelling everywhere, officials rebelling everywhere, and Shen Mu felt he understood the Imperial Preceptor less and less, could see through him less and less.

The Imperial Preceptor had churned the times into such a state that they were nearly past managing; even if he could quell the rebellions, the Kingdom of Jingping would be gravely wounded in its vital essence. And Jingping had foreign enemies besides: the Mandi Kingdom on the western frontier, the Langjuxu Kingdom on the northern frontier.

Trouble within, threats without. "Could the Imperial Preceptor be plotting to usurp the throne? " Suspicion showed on his face.

Court and rebels would tear at each other and both be broken, and the Imperial Preceptor would seize the moment to usurp the throne and make himself emperor. Yet though Shen Mu did not truly know the Imperial Preceptor, he did not think a man of such breadth of mind and bearing would seize the throne by such means. Suddenly the tower ship lurched violently.

Shen Mu's heart jumped; he hurried to the rail and peered out.

The ship had sailed into the midst of a battlefield. This battlefield was in the air. Besides tower ships and warships one after another, there were flying chariots, flying clouds, flying riders, and all manner of strange flying treasures and mounts.

Fortunately the tower ship they were aboard was at the battlefield's edge. The boatman saw the danger, put the helm hard aport, and the tower ship heeled almost over, dodging a warship by a hair and sliding past the edge of the fight. Shen Mu steadied himself to keep from falling.

Suddenly a troop of cavalry riding golden-winged condors came charging in, and from afar he saw, behind the riders, sword cases from which flying swords shot skyward, tracing arcs as they came to kill everyone aboard. The boat master cried out in a panic, "We are merchants passing through, not soldiers!

" The cavalry paid no heed. Sharp swords flew up onto the deck and killed at the people there, and several more slashed at the sails and sheared their ropes, and the tower ship's speed fell at once. Everyone aboard went numb with dread. This was a battle between regular armies; plainly one side was Jingping's rebel-suppression army and the other local rebels.

This was no simple sect uprising. In a sect uprising, apart from sects of colossal scale like the Three Great Holy Lands, few other sects could muster strength to stand against a nation's regular army. The Imperial Preceptor's reforms had remade not only the primary schools, the higher schools, and the Grand Academy, but the military as well.

The soldiers and officers of the army carried standard-issue primal weapons. One against one, they might not match a sect disciple; but in numbers, with the same qi-guided flying swords, many soldiers joining forces could loose ten thousand swords at once, a terrifying power. Beyond joining forces, the army had ground-and-air combinations, linked spell formations, and many other ways of fighting.

Ten soldiers of the Five Luminaries realm, fighting as one, could easily cut down a divine-ability expert of the Six Harmonies realm. Even sects of great fame in the jianghu, when the court came to exterminate them, had no strength to resist the army's methods. In the history of Jingping's swallowing of the other kingdoms, no few sects were destroyed in just this way.

On the tower ship, Shen Mu steadied his mind.

He was about to rouse his sword case when he suddenly remembered that every flying sword in it had been destroyed in the Loulan Golden Palace, and that he had thrown the case away. "The Chubao Sword, then! " Shen Mu twisted aside from the thrusting flying swords, drove his primal essence into the Taotie Pouch, and with a ringing chime the Chubao Sword left its sheath and flew from the pouch. The Cloud Sword Form made one light circuit, and every sword stabbing at him from all sides was cut through; the blades dropped to the deck, leaving only hilts.

His swordsmanship was profound, and with the Chubao Sword's keenness besides, he could go anywhere and prevail.

Shen Mu let out a breath. Then he saw, on the backs of those golden-winged condors, the soldiers open the cloth pouches at their waists, and at once a humming rose. Countless insects flew out of the pouches, gleaming with golden light.

"The insect army!

" The other passengers on the tower ship turned ashen and cried out, "The Three Wonders Fort's insect army!

" The soldiers pointed, and the countless flying insects formed ranks and rushed the ship like a venomous dragon, burrowing into anyone they met, biting anyone they met. Not far from Shen Mu, a pot-bellied merchant of no weak cultivation had the insects bore into his body through eyes, ears, mouth and nose, and the next moment the fat merchant seemed to deflate, leaving only a sheet of human skin sprawled on the deck. Beneath the skin, countless insects writhed and crawled out from his eyes, ears, mouth and nose, then spread their wings and rose buzzing into the air.