Chapter 1474 — A Fair Silhouette Stands at the Water's Edge
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 2 of 3
Along the way they saw more divine cities: Xuandu's larger divine cities numbered forty-nine, named for the forty-nine Heavenly Daos. In the ancient age these divine cities had been built around the Heavenly River, and were exceedingly ancient.
In the Longhan era, when the Heavenly Court was founded, the Heavenly River was constrained to flow through the Southern Heavenly Gate, and its channel shifted little.
But by the middle and late Longhan era, the Heavenly Court migrated out of the Yuan Realm, causing the Heavenly River to change its course; no trace of the river remained in Xuandu, leaving only these forty-nine divine cities and the ancient channel of the Heavenly River.
Now the Heavenly River had returned to its place, and surging, seething waters once more rushed through the ancient channel, gleaming in answer to Xuandu's starlight — a dazzling, beguiling sight. Yet this time what it brought was the intent to kill!
The grandest of them all, Tianfang City, had already been destroyed, for that was the gate that held back the Heavenly Court's armies, the place where the Heavenly River flowed into Xuandu; Tianfang City was as the very gate of Xuandu.
It was precisely because Tianfang City was so vital that Di Qing had led his host there to block the Heavenly Court's army.
Tianfang City had gathered Xuandu's greatest strength, and the other divine cities were far weaker for it. The Heavenly Court's army had already come this far, and along the way Shen Mu and the others saw divine city after divine city destroyed, smashed to pieces.
Those cities had gathered fewer troops, nothing to compare with Tianfang City, and so were broken with ease, without a Heavenly Venerable needing to lift a hand.
Along the way they saw many of Xuandu's deities captured and caged — spoils of war for the Heavenly Court's army marquises. As for the mangled corpses floating in the starry void, they were beyond counting; among the dead were gods and demons, but more were the living beings of Xuandu.
They were demigods, yet among demigods there are also utterly ordinary beings, unable to cultivate, or hard-pressed to cultivate to the realm of the divine.
Countless Xuandu beings had been captured as well, held in the holds of tower ship after tower ship; these people, and the captured deities of Xuandu, would all become slaves of the army marquises, shipped out to every corner, or sold to the mines of the great heavens. "Who would ever have imagined that Xuandu, once so high and exalted, would see a day like this?
" Tian Shu sighed with deep feeling.
Their speed grew greater and greater as they avoided the Heavenly Court's armies and made for the Heavenly Duke of Xuandu.
The baleful aura of the Heavenly Dao grew ever denser and fiercer; so violent was the heavenly balefulness that the God-Slaying Terraces in their heavenly palaces grew ever stronger as well, the baleful qi turning to blades that howled and raged across the terraces. Though their cultivation rose, all five were heavy of heart.
The stronger the heavenly balefulness, the more of Xuandu's gods and living beings had perished.
"Will the baleful qi gather and form the fiftieth Dao Soldier of the Heavenly Dao?
" Zaifu murmured. "It won't.
Heavenly Consort Qiang will bring the God-Slaying Terrace of the Ancestral Court's holy land and sweep the baleful qi of the Heavenly Dao clean away.
" Shen Mu's gaze flickered.
"The Great Emperor will not let slip this chance to let the God-Slaying Mystic Saber come to maturity!
" Suddenly the sound of a zither came, and space leapt and trembled.
Shen Mu's heart stirred; following the sound, he saw the figure of a beauty flash past beside the Heavenly River, and behind her the form of the Fire Heavenly Venerable.