Chapter 132: The Crisis of Heaven Martial
Rumble, rumble...
The earth shook violently. Blue-gray stones filled the sky, and rows of walls exploded apart. One terrifying aura after another surged forth, while dazzling spiritual energy blazed all the more starkly against the dark night. The battle outside had reached its fiercest stage.
“Kill!”
A thunderous, perfectly synchronized battle cry rang out. The Golden Scale Guards moved once more.
All of them raised their spears toward the heavens at the same time, rapidly pouring their spiritual power into the enormous weapon.
Slowly, golden radiance nearly thirty feet long began to spurt from each spear. In the end, every spear was wreathed in dense golden spiritual energy, which streamed into the void and gathered together.
Buzz, buzz...
The air trembled ceaselessly, as though some mighty existence were struggling to emerge into the world.
Boom, boom... boom, boom... boom, boom...
The sound of hooves striking the ground rang out, and ripples spread through the void like waves upon a lake. In the next instant, a colossal golden horse, nearly one hundred and fifty feet tall, stepped out through a fissure in space.
“Mount!”
The command was simple, the movements perfectly uniform. Once the giant horse had devoured all the spiritual energy in the void, more than a hundred Golden Scale Guards leaped into the air and landed upon its back.
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh...
Like performers in a human pyramid, the Golden Scale Guards stacked themselves one atop another upon the horse’s back. At last, a gigantic golden figure appeared there.
The immense figure was clad in golden scale armor, hazy and unreal. Yet the enormous spear gripped in its hands was enough to make everyone present change color.
“Kill!”
Like an ancient ferocious beast emerging into the world, the golden horse trod upon the air. The colossal figure astride it thrust out its enormous spear.
Boom, boom, boom...
A scene of world-shattering destruction unfolded.
The spear had barely been thrust forward, and had not even reached its targets, when more than a dozen Holy Land cultivators below exploded with a deafening roar.
Clang!
But in the next instant, a sword gleam appeared and forcibly stopped the enormous spear.
“I never expected the Ye family to understand formations as well. Excellent... truly excellent. Today, I shall see for myself just how powerful your combined assault formation is!”
A handsome young man with black hair bound high atop his head appeared in the air, staring at the giant golden man and horse with keen interest.
“Ye Tianya, allow this old man to test your strength.”
At the same time, an old man whose features could not be seen appeared in the void.
The melee erupted once more. The young man held back the Ye family’s Golden Scale Guards single-handedly. The Holy Land cultivators, freed to act, immediately sought out the soldiers of the Tianwu Empire and engaged them in battle.
For a time, spiritual energy raged across hundreds of miles. Thunderous explosions sounded without pause. Amid the collapse of heaven and earth, house after house crumbled, awakening the bewildered commoners from their sleep.
Some had barely emerged in disheveled clothing when flying boulders struck them, killing them where they stood. Many others were crushed beneath collapsing houses in the midst of their dreams.
Throughout the imperial capital, wretched cries of grief rang out that night.
“Why? Why must this happen? During the upheaval fifteen years ago, I lost four of my five sons. Must the tragedy of fifteen years ago be repeated today?”
An old man wept bitterly, tears streaming down his weathered face as he stared toward the distant battlefield. His anguished sobs rose and fell like a mournful song.
To the powerless common people, this was a disaster of annihilation. Compared with them, the nobles who possessed even a little cultivation were far safer.
But that safety was only relative. More than a dozen Spirit Emperor-level experts were fighting in the void, and the force radiating from their battle was beyond the ability of princes and nobles at the Spirit King or Spirit Emperor level to withstand.
Rumble...
Battles raged everywhere. Terrifying pressure spread outward from time to time. Throughout the eastern city, scarcely a single large tree remained intact; all had been snapped beneath the dreadful clash.
Buzz, buzz, buzz...
When the battle reached midnight, layers of ripples once again spread through the void. Three red-robed envoys slowly stepped out from within them.
“This is bad. The Holy Land has received reinforcements!”
Emperor Tang Hen noticed the disturbance at once.
“Leave Duke Bilis to me. You go and stop them. Uncle Yuan, you go as well!”
Ye Tianya blasted back the old man before him with a single palm strike. At the same time, he swept his arm out, drawing Duke Bilis into the range of his attack.
Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom!
In the earlier battle, Ye Tianya and the others had all held back somewhat, fearing that they might inflict catastrophic damage upon the imperial capital. But after the arrival of the four red-robed envoys, no one had the leisure to worry about that any longer. All they could think of was eliminating the enemies before them as quickly as possible.
The pressure became even more terrifying. Vast blades and sword gleams, hundreds of feet long, spilled outward from time to time, destroying entire stretches of houses.
Some terrified commoners had gathered in what they believed to be a relatively safe place. But a dreadful giant palm descended from the heavens, instantly flattening the area.
That night, corpses lay scattered throughout the imperial capital, while blood flowed freely through the streets. Fine droplets of blood drifted everywhere in the air, shrouding the entire city in a hellish scene.
“Die!”
Ye Tianya’s hair and beard stood on end as he struck out dozens of enormous Dragon-Seizing Hands, engulfing Duke Bilis.
At the moment he attacked, the old man whose features could not be seen appeared behind him like a phantom and slammed a palm into his back.
Puff!
Having taken the full-force strike of a Spirit Emperor head-on, even Ye Tianya could not shrug it off. Spitting blood, he was hurled dozens of yards forward.
When the dust settled, Duke Bilis on the other side had already been reduced to a pool of mangled flesh beneath the bombardment of Ye Tianya’s dozens of Dragon-Seizing Hands. He was thoroughly dead.
“To trade injury for life—what a decisive young man.”
The old man looked toward the scene, his expression cold and severe.
“Old bastard, fight me one-on-one and I’ll tear you apart with my bare hands!”
His spiritual power erupted violently. Like a god of war, Ye Tianya rose into the air and unleashed several savage attacks toward the ground below.
The earth split open in cracks several yards wide, extending hundreds of yards into the distance. Soldiers and Holy Land cultivators caught in the melee cried out as they tumbled into the fissures.
“Roar... Sixth Brother!”
In the void, Yang Yi was covered in blood. He endured a punch from a giant ape and severed the head of one of them with a single stroke of his sword.
The remaining five giant apes immediately roared in fury and charged at Yang Yi with even greater ferocity.
Elsewhere, Emperor Tang Hen and Uncle Yuan were fighting four red-robed envoys together, yet they were clearly at a disadvantage. When one of the envoys saw that Yang Yi was beginning to falter, he abandoned Tang Hen directly and charged toward Yang Yi.
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh...
Palm strikes capable of destroying heaven and earth erupted, enveloping two of the five giant apes.
For a time, the already disadvantaged forces of the Tianwu Empire found themselves in an even more perilous position.
Everyone was locked in a bitter struggle. The golden man and horse formed by more than a hundred Golden Scale Guards fought desperately against the terrifying young man. Ye Tianya, badly wounded, battled the mysterious old man without yielding an inch.
Emperor Tang Hen and the giant apes fought with blood-soaked desperation. The six imperial elders besieging the two red-robed cardinals managed to kill one of them, but only at the cost of one death and two serious injuries. They no longer had the strength to send reinforcements to any of the other battlefields.