Chapter 1008 — The Sword Realm of Thirty-Three Heavens
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 3 of 4
The Taiming Heaven-Aligning Sword! This was the sword Kaihuang had forged along the road to suppressing the revolt of gods and demons, when the bold heroism in his breast swelled into towering ambition, and he swore to stand level with heaven itself and transform this unjust world!
The wrongness of this world had not been brought about by the revolt of gods and demons; the demonic upheaval in the latter phase of the Supreme Sovereign Calamity was only the outward show—the true injustice was heaven!
He would match the height of heaven and remake this world of unfairness!
This sword clarified the heart and illumined the will, lifting the two fighters into the sky like twin peaks rising out of the earth, higher and higher still—soaring to the heavens, through the clouds, beyond the firmament!
And at that moment, Yan Rinuang, the Sun Warden of the second heaven of the Worry-Free Land, could no longer restrain himself.
Hot tears burst from his eyes and turned into two fire-dragons that flew out of his sockets.
He had no tears to weep.
He was the Sun Warden, his whole body refined into pure yang sacred flame; even when moved to the point of tears flooding his eyes, moved beyond all bearing, what flowed from him was still raging fire.
What this sword awakened was not Kaihuang—it was him.
It awakened them—all who had once fought shoulder to shoulder with Kaihuang, sworn to change this world of unfairness!
In those days they had been young and green, burning with inexhaustible vigor, chests full of burning blood, loyal-hearted and true—not one atom of worry in the lot of them!
Not like today, when they grumbled all day long, cursed heaven and blamed earth, their bellies stuffed with complaints!
Amid those scathing, fiery tears, sword cries rang out from the sword case on his back: the Great Sun Divine Swords sang out one after another, clangorous and bright, their hilts vibrating endlessly—rust flaking away, keenness restored.
At the summit of the heavens, the sword light burst apart, transforming into the third-heaven sword path: the Qingming Heart-Reckoning Sword, the sword of self-reflection, mirroring the mind's true foundation and bidding one never forget the original purpose.
By then, Kaihuang had earned some renown in the shattered Primal World.
Flush with success, he forgot himself and suffered a shattering defeat; of the many comrades who had followed him, some died and some were wounded.
Green hills buried loyal bones; broken swords carried off the souls of the righteous.
This was a sword of self-admonition.
Its light shone down out of the sky, as clear and translucent as a cloudless bright day, illuminating the upturned faces of everyone within Kaihuang's heavenly court.
Many people saw themselves in that mirror of sword light: one saw his own dejection, one his own rancor, one his own unwillingness, one his own corruption. In that moment, they looked straight into their hearts and beheld Dao hearts covered in wounds and ruin.
It seemed that what was colliding was not Shen Mu and Kaihuang at all, but their Dao hearts—colliding, and learning to know themselves.
Junior Guardian Fang Youji wiped at his old tears, but no matter how he wiped, he could never dry the tears that flowed from his eyes. Shen Mu and Kaihuang brought forth the fourth-heaven sword path, the Xuantai Heaven-Suppressing Sword—the sword of rebirth from catastrophe, the sword by which, after losses too bitter to bear, they had reordered their ranks, regathered their banners, and rebuilt their Dao hearts!
The martyrs and vanguards of the Kaihuang Era had rekindled their fighting spirit after that, contending with heaven, wrestling with gods and demons, refusing to accept defeat—reborn from the mysterious womb, they fought another battle.