At the center of the grand formation, that pair of dark yellow eyes blinked, gazing at the surroundings with slight bewilderment. Then, a figure slowly rose from beneath the earth and stood at the heart of the formation.
Standing roughly a hundred zhang tall, she was formed entirely of condensed earth-yellow light, her form as ethereal as smoke. Her facial features were indistinct, yet the contours of her limbs were clear as she stood at the center of the formation with her hands at her sides. The quintessential essence of Earth Qi slowly circulated around her; with every fraction it turned, the ground sank an inch deeper.
She slowly raised her head and looked toward the west, catching sight of that pair of eyes harboring crimson light tens of thousands of li away.
She pondered for a moment, then cast her gaze upward. Her sight pierced through the firmament, first beholding a surging tide of crimson light rushing forward like ocean waters.
The moment that tide of light met her gaze, it actually slowed its advance.
She then looked toward the depths of the firmament. In an exceedingly distant realm beneath the Great Dao Tree, the towering figure seated cross-legged also sensed her presence and turned his head to look. Seeing her, the figure gave a slight nod before closing his eyes once more.
From that brief convergence of gazes, nebulous impressions and threads of cause and effect bridged the void, flowing directly into her consciousness.
Clarity surfaced in her expression, and she murmured, "So that is how it is... To think that several hundred thousand years later, I could be reborn in such a manner.
"I am... Houtu."
On the battlefield ahead, Fifth High Mountain caught sight of the woman ten thousand li away, and his expression changed drastically as ancient memories surfaced from his bloodline.
He drew a deep breath, his dharma body expanding, and unleashed a ferocious roar!
The roar reverberated across ten thousand li, audible to every one of the Mountain Folk, yet only cultivators at or above the dharma idol realm could comprehend the complex orders embedded in the cry. Across the ten-thousand-li front, all plans were moved forward. Countless reserve legions were thrust to the vanguard, initiating an all-out assault against the humans. In an instant, the Qingming front lines were thrown into turmoil, teetering like a ship in a tempest.
Fifth High Mountain shouted again, "There are still nine days before she reaches full maturity! We cannot allow her to complete this growth! She must be slain before then!!"
Several Mountain Folk Immortal Monarchs launched furious assaults at once. Even the two Mountain Folk Immortal Monarchs hounded by the immortal bone puppets joined together: one took on the siege of both puppets, while the other seized the chance to break away and sprinted toward the rear of the grand formation at full speed.
The Mountain Folk Immortal Monarch besieged by the bone puppets immediately fell into dire peril, forced to continually self-detonate parts of his dharma body to fend off lethal strikes. Massive though his form was, he could not hold out for long under such strain. Fortunately, the immortal bone puppets possessed limited intellect; they simply hammered away at the target before them, neither peeling away to pursue the fleeing monarch.
In the direction of the Liao domain, multiple colossal vortexes suddenly formed in the Immortal Heaven. Within each vortex, a stone giant slowly rose.
Beams of diverse Dao arts constantly erupted from their bodies; evidently, they were enduring an onslaught of ferocious spells.
Yet these Mountain Folk Immortal Monarchs paid no heed. Their sole objective was to disengage from the battlefield and ascend into the Immortal Heaven, sparing no cost to do so.
Soon, the two largest stone giants had over half their bodies inside the Immortal Heaven, on the verge of breaking away from the Liao domain. But their dharma bodies were covered in grievous wounds; to pull away, each had weathered at least a dozen direct strikes from the Liao immortals, leaving them heavily injured.
Catching sight of the woman rising from the earth in the distant mountain domain, every Mountain Folk Immortal Monarch went mad, determined to rush back to the mountain domain at all costs. Even those who had pushed deep into the Liao domain abandoned their objectives to return.
Yet their opponents were the immortals of the Liao domain, who naturally seized this golden opportunity to batter the Mountain Folk without mercy.
After paying a heavy price, the Mountain Folk Immortal Monarchs finally carved out an opportunity to escape, ascending into the Immortal Heaven one after another.
Yet right at that moment, an immense, boundless hand manifested in the Immortal Heaven, descending softly. The giant hand was ethereal and formless, transforming upon falling into tens of thousands of cords that wrapped tightly around the Mountain Folk Immortal Monarchs. With this single hand latching onto over a dozen monarchs, it dragged them bodily back toward the Liao domain!
High in the Immortal Heaven, two exceptionally colossal stone giants suddenly appeared, so massive that ordinary Mountain Folk immortals did not even reach their shins.
Each struck out, seizing a corner of the corded net and pulling back with all their might.
Yet even with the combined might of the Mountain Folk's Second High Mountain and Third High Mountain, they could not halt the giant net. They could only watch helplessly as the Mountain Folk Immortal Monarchs were hauled out of the Immortal Heaven one by one, plunging back down into the Liao domain.
"Liao Ancestor!!" Third High Mountain roared in sheer fury. But he could not fathom how this was possible. Shouldn't the Liao Ancestor be fighting tooth and nail against the Ancestral Shaman right now? How could he still have strength to spare to intervene here?
The Immortal Heaven was dead silent; the Ancestral Shaman gave no response whatsoever.
"Shamans, are you all blind?!" Third High Mountain bellowed once more.
Second High Mountain held him back, saying coldly, "They may be engaged in a bloody war, but that doesn't stop them from calling a temporary truce to hand us a crushing blow first. Once that's done, they can go back to killing each other."
Third High Mountain fell silent. Several thousand years ago, the figure standing here would have been vastly taller, fully capable of forcefully repelling that weakened strike from the Liao Ancestor.
Only now, that figure was gone. Yet compared to the plight facing their people, ensuring that towering figure could never re-emerge was far more important in the minds of these two stone giants.
Second High Mountain said, "If the Liao Clan and Shaman Clan can be friends for a moment, we have friends of our own."
Third High Mountain frowned. "Guiche? Those beasts are utterly untrustworthy and share a blood feud with us as deep as the sea. The Sea Clan isn't much better, and besides, they cannot reach the mountain domain."
Second High Mountain replied, "Not them. This time, our friend... is human."
***
High above in the Immortal Heaven, a sword light streaked across the sky, crossing a thousand li in an instant.
Feng Hanzhou flew along, his face livid, cursing as he went: "What a load of rubbish! For something this massive, not a single whisper was leaked beforehand! Old Bai was sent, yet no one bothered to tell me! Are they fucking looking down on me, Feng Hanzhou?! Now that crisis hits and you bastards can't handle it, only then do you remember to call on me, making me bust my balls rushing over here! No need to even guess—this is definitely that old thief Chunqiu's doing!"
In the midst of rushing at full tilt, Feng Hanzhou suddenly twisted his body, barely dodging a pitch-black folding fan. The fan hovered in the Immortal Heaven, right in Feng Hanzhou's path. Had his divine sense not been exceptionally sharp as a sword immortal, this ambush would have wounded him.
Uncharacteristically, Feng Hanzhou did not curse. Hovering in midair, he stared at the cultivator of graceful bearing before him and said in a heavy voice, "Li Daoyan, with this one move, our eight centuries of friendship are done!"
This cultivator was none other than the Immortal Ancestor of the Southern Qi Li family. Currently clad not in royal vestments but in plain everyday robes, he carried an air of carefree immortality.
Gently waving his folding fan, he remarked, "How could personal friendship ever weigh against the great cause of state and clan? Knowing full well that going there means aiding my enemy, you still insist on going. In your heart, is our eight-hundred-year friendship worth a single coin?"
"Where righteousness lies, I, Feng, must naturally go!"
"If righteousness lies over there, does that make my side unrighteous? I would like to ask you: how exactly do you define righteousness? And who gets to define what is righteous?"
Feng Hanzhou retorted coldly, "Under Wei Yuan's rule, national power thrives day by day, and the common people do far more than merely live and work in peace! Your Li family claims to be a mighty power, yet the people within your borders remain destitute and wretched, frequently freezing or starving to death. Look at Qingming—they've already made losing weight a major priority! If you want to know how to define righteousness, that is the definition!"
Li Daoyan snapped furiously, "Before Qingming ever existed, my Southern Qi stood unrivaled among the nine nations, richer than all under heaven! Even when that old scamp Li Fugui exhausted all his cunning and entered the fray in secret, Zhao still lagged a tier behind Southern Qi! What did you say back then? You claimed I was the light of humanity, the hope of our prosperity! You said that if not for the Martial Ancestor meddling, my achievements would have put me in reach of becoming an Immortal Lord!
"Back then, you even claimed that of all the immortals under heaven, I was the only one who met your eye!"
Feng Hanzhou's expression remained unmoved. "The past was the past; the present is the present. There is nothing I can do about it now—Qingming truly is better than you."
Li Daoyan's face turned livid. "Sword cultivators, my ass! None of your lot are any damn good!"
Chapter 1492