“Never. So long as I, Dongfang, live a single day, you will never bring about any fate!”
“The weak are weak their whole lives. They will never see the day they turn the tables! Your luck may let you laugh for a while, but only wisdom shines to the very end! Only I, Dongfang, am worthy of claiming the final victory!”
Dongfang stood high above the ninth heaven, at ease and free as an immortal come down to earth, looking at the fierce battle below between the Heavenly Realm legions and the Longteng Continent’s Dragon Rider Legion and Dragon Blood Guard. He could not hear Fourth Mother’s call to the heart, but with his Game talent and his towering wisdom, he could easily see to the heart of things from every small change on the battlefield below.
The dozen-odd Longteng warriors who had been ready to fight to the death for glory — Yue Titan’s grandfather Elder Yuehai, the Great Xia Emperor Jun Wuyou, the heads of the Four Great Families and the rest — had all pulled back now, and begun, by some secret method, to take on some mysterious power.
Dongfang did not consider himself a man with eyes that could not see. But even a man with eyes that could not see could surely have read their minds.
These people meant to bear for Yue Titan some kind of power of fate he needed to get past a barrier. However much of a genius Yue Titan was, he was simply too young. With his wisdom and comprehension, he could never hold up the Sky Tower’s sinking fate on his own. If Yue Titan meant to change, to try to turn the tables, he had to take a risk — and these family and friends of his would surely want to stand behind him and back him to the death… Bear his fate? Could it really be that easy? Even setting aside that Dongfang himself would be there to snipe at it and stop it, the odds of success would be one in a thousand, one in ten thousand at best!
With talents like theirs, how much of the power of fate could these people hold up?
They had not even reached the divine envoy or divine general realms. They were mere Innate realm. Some were not even Innate.
And they dared to talk of bearing someone else’s fate? It was enough to make anyone laugh their head off!
Judging by a power of fate on this scale, bearing even a tenth of a meter would take divine envoy strength, and half a meter would be impossible short of the divine general realm! Could all of them put together scrape up even a single meter? Too funny. So Yue Titan’s so-called supporters were a bunch of dregs like this? They truly looked like trash fit to be swept into the garbage heap of history!
Thousands of them, tens of thousands, and it seemed they could not even hold up ten meters of the power of fate between them…
Weak as that, how could the Sky Tower not collapse and sink?
Of course, it was precisely because they were weak that abusing them was such a pleasure. It was the wise educating and purging the ignorant!
“Comrades-in-arms, whatever race you come from, whatever land, let’s join hands, stand together, and fight the Heavenly Realm’s invaders. I’m Yue Yang — Yue Titan — the one so many of you call the Yue family’s third young master. I’m your friend, and the new generation’s Prison Emperor and guardian of the Sky Tower. I know you can hear my voice. Every brave warrior with a heart full of hot blood, fighting for the Sky Tower, can hear my call… You didn’t hear wrong. It really is me calling out to you. Right now I need you all to do something for me, and it’s very simple. Everyone, just raise both your hands and silently say the words of resonance, ‘Heaven and earth the board, all things at my command,’ and you’ll help me hold back evil and defeat the Heavenly Realm’s invaders… Please believe me. It won’t cost you your lives, and you won’t lose any of your power. It only lets me command your summoned war beasts for a little while. I need your faith, and your war beasts’ strength. With your support and your help, I know I can win in the end. Our smiles and our cheers are going to come back to our faces. I’m willing to fight for you, my dear friends, my dear brothers and sisters — and I hope you’ll reach out your hands and help me succeed!” Dongfang suddenly spoke in Yue Yang’s voice, carrying it through his supreme divine power and his Game talent into the hearts of every Sky Tower warrior on the tenth floor, and even of ordinary people.
His meddling and his leading threw a great many people into confusion.
Hadn’t there been a secret method just a moment ago? Where had this new line, “Heaven and earth the board, all things at my command,” come from? And that secret method was no simple thing — far more complicated than silently saying a single line! Had the Yue family’s third young master seen that people couldn’t meet the requirements, and adjusted it on purpose?
“This is easy — ha! I can feel my summoned war beast’s power being drawn off, but my body feels light. That crushing weight from before is gone, and the splitting headache that came with it has been swept clean away. Feels great!” Someone gave it a try and immediately felt that silently saying “Heaven and earth the board, all things at my command” was working. He could not help shouting about it — and strangely, his shout instantly carried clearly over a range of a dozen-odd kilometers around him, so that every warrior within that range could hear his voice plainly.
“Hey, it really is easy — it worked for me too!” More and more people tried it, and a thunder of cheering went up.
“Let’s all shout it together — ‘Heaven and earth the board, all things at my command!’ The enemy will tremble at our shout, and our might will sweep all before it… The roar of justice is the key that opens the gate of victory, the sign on the road to success! Let’s roar it out — roar it out!” Dongfang, still disguising his voice as Yue Yang’s, kept stirring them up with his bewitching words.
At his call, and with countless comrades around them trying it and succeeding, more and more mercenaries and warriors joined in.
At first the shouts were ragged. But more and more people joined, the swell grew greater and greater, until at last it became one shout after another, ringing to the clouds: “Heaven and earth the board, all things at my command!” “Heaven and earth the board, all things at my command!”…
Amid the shouting, the power of countless war beasts was drawn out. Under the control of Dongfang’s divine power, the collective will even burst out into a gigantic barrier that shoved the Heavenly Realm legions out beyond it. As the Sky Tower warriors taking part shouted in wave after wave, the sound they made shook heaven and earth, and the Heavenly Realm legions fell back step by step, unable to withstand it, their will on the verge of collapse.
The sight drove the Sky Tower warriors even wilder.
They threw themselves into it in a fervor, and countless people were moved by the power they themselves had given.
The Heavenly Realm legions, who had held firm against brutal fighting before, were now falling back — driven off by the power of their own faith… This was the miracle their faith had made. This was the power of their faith!
Over and over they shouted the line, “Heaven and earth the board, all things at my command.” However much they roared, their throats never seemed to tire.
No swords needed. No more bloodshed and sacrifice. Just shout after shout, and the enemy fled in disarray. What glory! What honor!
“That Yue Yang kid sure knows how to get things done!” The Eastern Heavenly King was a big rough-and-ready type. He had found bearing the power of fate by the secret method painful beyond words, and this “Heaven and earth the board, all things at my command,” which drew straight on a war beast’s power, was far simpler. If he had known it would be like this, he would never have put himself through the agony of a mountain pressing down on his head.
“Let’s shout it too!”
The Western Heavenly King liked a bit of excitement as well. He watched the boys of the Dragon Rider Legion and the Dragon Blood Guard join Yue Yang’s call one after another, shout after shout, and saw how mighty it was — a barrier a thousand meters high, its pressure sending the Heavenly Realm legions’ rank-and-file running for their lives, scared out of their wits — and his blood warmed and his throat itched to join in.
Of course, neither he nor the Eastern Heavenly King was a fool. Rough as they were, they had a careful streak. They knew to glance first at Jun Wuyou, Old Fox and Elder Nangong — the real “brain trust,” the ones who held the strategic course.
What they saw gave them a terrible fright. Jun Wuyou was shaking from head to foot and could not stop. Old Fox’s face was white as paper. And even Elder Nangong, always the calmest of them all, had a trembling hand on his grimoire…
“What’s going on?” The Eastern Heavenly King traded a stunned look with the Western Heavenly King, and each saw a flicker of dread in the other’s eyes.
“S-s-someone’s st-st-stealing his name!” Old Fox could not even get the words out whole.
“It is that traitor Dongfang!” Elder Nangong’s face was grim, and he let out a long sigh. “That man is frightening. He has outmaneuvered us. He may well have calculated this very step long ago.”
“That wasn’t Yue Yang just now?” Fengkuang, Xiahou Weijie and the others had gone cold to their fingertips and toes.
“Bearing the power of fate means suffering the same pain as the one it belongs to — otherwise it doesn’t count at all! Dongfang’s move plays on people’s natural fear of pain. He’s fooled those young people with a simpler talent ability. The Dragon Riders, the Dragon Blood Guard, and countless mercenaries who came to fight of their own free will have all been taken in. They’re blinded by the illusion, and they’ve fallen into a frenzy…” Elder Wuteng shook her head and sighed as well. Dongfang’s move had been placed with deadly accuracy. No wonder he was hailed as the first strategist of the Central Divine Hall.
“Heaven and earth the board, all things at my command!” Tens of thousands of mercenaries, and Dragon Riders and Dragon Blood Guards by the thousands, all shouted it together, every face burning with fervor, roaring it over and over in a voice like thunder that shook heaven and earth.
“We have to stop them, fast!” Fengkuang and the others were frantic.
“It is no use. They cannot hear our voices anymore. Those barriers are what Dongfang is using to cut us off from them. They are not there to resist the Heavenly Realm legions’ attacks at all… He has had the Heavenly Realm legions put on this little show of throwing down their armor and running, and it has already led everyone’s minds astray into that twisted faith. There is nothing we can do. Besides, we have to make the most of our time and keep bearing the power of fate for Yue Yang. We do not have time to stop this frenzy, and trying would play right into his hands — Dongfang is hoping we will step in to stop it… We cannot turn our will aside. We have to keep going, unmoved by anything outside, and bear as much of the power of fate for Yue Yang as we can in the time we have. Otherwise the ones who fail in the end will surely be us!” Elder Nangong held Fengkuang and the others back.
What mattered most now was not waking up the Dragon Rider and Dragon Blood Guard legions who had fallen into the frenzy. It was bearing the power of fate for Yue Yang.
Elder Yuehai slammed a fist hard into the ground, tears streaming down his old face.
On one side were the hot-blooded legions he had trained with his own hands. On the other was his own grandson, in desperate need of support. Watching either one go under would cut him like a knife.
Tens of thousands of Dragon Riders and Dragon Blood Guards, or his proud grandson — he had to make a choice. And there was only one choice he could make.
Whether he stood in the place of commander or of grandfather, he had to choose his grandson — because his grandson was the Sky Tower’s only hope now!
“If we hesitate any longer, the whole Sky Tower will be lost in our own hands!” Jun Wuyou truly was a man born to be emperor. He gritted his teeth and made the decision. “Whether the Dragon Riders and the Dragon Blood Guard can still turn back or not, there is only one thing we can do now: sacrifice everything and bear his fate. We will carry the Sky Tower on our shoulders. We will let that boy Yue Yang know that he is not the only one carrying the Sky Tower — that we old-timers will always stand behind him! Come on, let us act like elders worth the name!”
“Bear it — I am willing to bear this fate, for him, and for the future of the Sky Tower…” Old Fox’s eyes reddened.
Two utterly different sights had formed on the battlefield.
On one side were a great many people. Above their heads hung golden barriers hundreds of meters high, some up to a thousand. Their raised arms stood thick as a forest, their eyes were full of fervor, and they shouted in unison.
On the other side were very few. They were braced on the ground in pain, struggling to hold up that invisible, crushing power of fate. Until they reached their limits, until Yue Yang succeeded in ascending, they could not let up for a single moment.
Because what they bore was not only the power of fate. It was the hope and the future of the Sky Tower!
Dongfang saw all of this, and did not move to stop it.
Of course not. The bearing of the power of fate could not be stopped either. Any attempt to break it would bring down the power of fate’s terrifying backlash, and Dongfang was certainly not going to put his own safety and his larger plans at risk over a dozen-odd of Yue Yang’s family, friends, teachers and elders bearing it.
“How much can you bear for him? Ten meters at the very most — hahahahaha! Without ten thousand meters or more, he can forget about becoming a Sacred Sovereign. You were doomed to fail from the start! Go on, hold it up in agony. The sinking Sky Tower is not something human strength can hold up — and this is only the beginning. The real fun is still to come!” Dongfang gave a cold laugh, broke open the void with his divine power, and in an instant transported himself out of the Sky Tower’s tenth floor, heading straight for his next target.
(End of Chapter 1292)