Chapter 468 — Thunder Shakes the Western Frontier
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 1 of 4
The great stone array shifted without cease, countless cubes arranging and recombining, transforming into a floating stone formation that charged madly into the battlefield.
Shen Mu stood upon the heaving, restless boulders, watching the blocks great and small before him endlessly change and recombine—now becoming ramparts, now scattering away swift as smoke and dust. He Yiyi's mastery of formations was exceedingly high; under her urging, Yuncheng cut into the battlefield, carving out a path for the He family's divine-power wielders behind.
Boom— A mountain giant came charging, its weapon most peculiar: a club thick as a mountain peak, hung all over with bronze bells great and small, though even the smallest of them was terrifyingly huge.
The mountain giant smashed its club down into Yuncheng's formation; the club spun, and at once the bronze bells hanging upon it clanged and tolled, dreadful sound waves battering Yuncheng, shaking stone after stone into powder.
He Yiyi immediately altered the formation; countless boulders clapped themselves onto that great club, and in an instant covered the fearsome weapon entirely—the bells went mute, unable to make a sound. The mountain giant heaved the club up with effort, only to see countless boulders rolling swiftly along it, crawling toward his arm.
He Yiyi drove the formation; its power erupted, and she snapped the mountain giant's arm. The mountain giant seemed not to notice; its other hand reached in, probing into the stone array, grasping for He Yiyi—and at once that palm was plastered with countless boulders, growing heavier and heavier.
"The He family's formations are indeed extraordinary!
" Shen Mu marveled, then suddenly leaped out of Yuncheng's array onto the mountain giant's arm, bounding like the wind, howling toward the summit.
At the summit lay another battlefield, where many divine-power wielders of the True Heaven Palace met those of the Gong family in battle, locked in a deadlock.
Shen Mu rushed to the summit and flung up a burst of silver light—his sword core, a two-foot orb that soared and spun, and from it countless swords burst forth, each flying sword becoming a streak of sword-light that wove among the combatants! Thrust, lift, cloud, chop, cleave, point, burst, hang, flick, wipe, sweep, block, intercept, flower, coil, twine, drill—seventeen sword forms, endlessly transforming; eight thousand swords, seventeen variations, drowning every woman on the summit.
Shen Mu's figure soared and plunged down the mountain; behind him the eight thousand swords followed like wind through grey clouds, coming to hover above his head, clashing ding-ding-ding, and once more becoming a two-foot sword core.
On the summit, True Heaven Palace wielders dropped one after another, dead where they stood, leaving only the Gong family's women.
Below, halfway down the slope, grass dragons danced and caught Shen Mu's falling figure; the Xi family patriarch, Xi Yuting, stood upon an enormous dragon head, green vines like serpents surging and howling ahead of her.
Countless green vines grew madly in midair, blossomed, fruited, and the fruit took root and sprouted in the air, bearing them through the mountain ranges. Numberless vines carried the Xi family's women up onto mountain giant after mountain giant, taking root among the rocks.
The women wielders drove their divine powers, making grass and vines sprout all over these mountain giants, dismembering them. Suddenly, a dreadful fluctuation came from the Vermilion Bird Pearl; the vast Vermilion Bird spread its wings, a sea of fire blazing, and charged at Xi Yuting amid the mountains.
Xi Yuting stood on the grass dragon's head working her art; countless green lights wrapped her round and round, becoming an enormous ball of grass that hurtled into the sea of fire.
In an instant the great grass ball was set alight; by the time it passed through the fire, only two or three zhang of it remained.