The fifth sword, Yellow Dragon Abyss, was complete, and Yue Yang was very pleased.
The first time he had let out Yellow Dragon Abyss, it had not carried this kind of power, and he had not been able to control it — it had just slipped out, unintentionally.
But even so, it had helped Princess Qianqian devour, transform, and evolve the once-untractable Prison Emperor’s Divine Sword into the Tiger-Prison Divine Sword. Now, after Sword Spirit’s silent encouragement, Yue Yang could truly release Yellow Dragon Abyss. And, of course, Yellow Dragon Abyss surprised him again: one sword devouring ten thousand meters of the God-Slaying Mystic Realm and birthing a hundred Yinglong dragon-scales.
With this sword in hand, Yue Yang’s confidence — in the coming challenge to the pseudo-gods, and in slaying that fox-cunning Ji Wuri —
Grew even stronger.
After a good rest inside Grimoire World, when he next awoke he found that his cultivation, which had been stalled for some time, now vaguely showed signs of breakthrough. All it needed was one more spark, or perhaps a great battle, and it might well emerge and break through into a whole new tier. Yue Yang’s breakthroughs had always come fast — especially in the early days, a thousand miles a day. But as his cultivation and tiers grew, the gaps between tiers stretched far apart, and each higher tier was harder to break through than the one below. Later on, though Yue Yang’s cultivation pace had not slowed, the tiers had grown taller and slower — that was certain.
Now, with the fifth sword — Yellow Dragon Abyss — complete, and a very good breakthrough-omen showing, how could Yue Yang not feel refreshed and full of joy?
Half a month later, with Yue Yang and Princess Qianqian and the others finished with all their preparations —
They officially departed the God-Slaying Mystic Realm.
They set out for the Eastern Divine Nation’s Storm Fortress, to rendezvous with Wind Ear Marshal, Griffin Marshal, Golden Eagle General, and the Star Pirates — Winged Tiger, Wind Hawk, Flamingo — as previously arranged. Whether or not the Divine War in Mountain Beyond the Mountain would be the trigger for his breakthrough, Yue Yang would absolutely not miss it…
Frozen Earth City.
Yue Yang made his way from the God-Slaying Mystic Realm toward the Eastern Divine Nation, and en route, passing the border between the Northeast Divine Nation and the Eastern Divine Nation, he found a small city gathering a large number of mercenary-style martial cultivators. The overwhelming majority of them moved in groups, packs on their backs and weapons in hand, marching from the Northeast Divine Nation on toward the Eastern Divine Nation’s Frozen Earth City in a great tide.
“Has the Northeast Divine Sovereign decided to join the East Camp after all?” Yue Yang, who had thought to just fly straight overhead, considered it a moment.
Then decided he’d better go down and take a look.
To get a read on the situation.
He passed himself off as a fellow martial cultivator setting out from the Northeast Divine Nation toward the Eastern Divine Nation. He slowly overtook a few obvious-soldier squads dressed as ordinary mercenaries, then picked, at random, a small band of just five to ask about the situation.
The transmigrator, a shameless liar to the death, pulled out his Oscar-tier bit-part acting and played the part of a bumbling rookie who’d fallen behind: “Big brothers, please — wait a moment!”
He hadn’t even opened his mouth to explain when one of the party — a bull-strong hulk of a man — laughed. “Look at this. Another deserter!”
Yue Yang put on a mortified face but refused to admit it, wiping his brow. “I’m not a deserter — I just fell behind!”
“Fell behind? What a nice excuse. Ha ha ha — that’s the excuse I’ve been hearing most these last few days.” A dark-skinned, middle-aged man in the five-man party laughed too.
“You can’t fault them for it. The Divine War isn’t a game for little rookies like these. Not wetting themselves in fear, not scampering back into their mothers’ arms — that already counts as decent,” said the party’s leader, a tall man with a commanding air. He waved Yue Yang over, patted his shoulder in encouragement, and turned to the others with a smile. “Sure, he’s a spoiled little son of the manor, but he’s not bad. He’s at least trekked a thousand miles to Frozen Earth City. An ordinary deserter can’t manage that.”
“But he’s even dropped his kit… probably threw the pack and weapons away in a panicked skirmish. Hey, kid — don’t you know that on the battlefield your weapon is your life?” the bull-strong hulk glared at Yue Yang darkly.
“Battlefields are full of weapons. I’ll just pick one up when I get there,” Yue Yang answered breezily.
“And how do you plan to eat and drink?” the dark-skinned man asked, turning to him.
“The Eastern Divine Nation will supply it.” Yue Yang spread his hands.
“Mm — good plan,” a short, sturdy man in the party nodded with a grin. “But I feel that on a battlefield, having your own pack is better. We’re only reinforcements in name. You can’t count on the Eastern Divine Nation’s army to nanny you. My little lord, you’ll have to learn one thing: you take care of yourself!”
“When we get to Frozen Earth City, before muster, let’s kit him out a bit,” the tall party leader decided on the spur of the moment to look out for Yue Yang, for his part.
“A pretty-boy little rookie like him — one minute on the battlefield and he’ll be dead…” said the last, a strikingly good-looking young man in the party, with a scornful huff.
“Ha — you’re just jealous!” the dark-skinned man cut in without hesitation, calling out his comrade for envying Yue Yang.
Truly — this striking-looking young man would have stood out like a crane among chickens in any ordinary crowd, but placed beside the deathly-handsome Yue Yang, for his part — the sort of handsome that took a woman’s breath away — his fate was pre-decided. He looked ordinary by comparison.
After the laughter died down, everyone continued on with the larger column.
Yue Yang had successfully infiltrated.
And gathered the intelligence.
As it turned out, the Northeast Divine Sovereign had not been persuaded by either the East or the West Camp. The Northeast Divine Sovereign, “Qingyun,” had declared neutrality — he would not join either camp’s fighting. But although Qingyun had declared neutrality, the war-captains and soldiers under his banner were free, by their own will, to join either camp’s side as mercenaries or free martial cultivators, and take part in the fighting.
Aside from a small number of Northeast soldiers whom interests or family had drawn to the West Camp —
The overwhelming majority of Northeast soldiers and war-captains still leaned toward the East Camp.
Aside from the necessary garrison —
More than sixty percent of the Northeast soldiers had packed their own gear, brought their own weapons, and set out in groups toward the Eastern Divine Nation, in order to help the Eastern Divine Nation fight the Western Divine Nation in the name of “wandering mercenaries.”
Along the way, they’d been ambushed by West Camp forces, and many inexperienced young soldiers had died, while others had turned coward and deserted.
Only the steadiest, most experienced veterans could make it from the Northeast all the way to the Eastern Divine Nation’s little border city, Frozen Earth City.
Someone showing up empty-handed like Yue Yang, for his part —
Was usually taken for a deserter — or, at best, a routed soldier who had lost his unit.
“Stay tight, all of you. We’re about to reach Frozen Earth City. Real fighting is about to break out for real. Bring out your fighting spirit! We’re men from the Northeast Divine Nation — don’t disgrace me! Anyone whose knees turn to jelly in the fight and acts like a coward — the enemy won’t need to kill you. I’ll cut you down myself! And another thing — remember: we are not an army. We do not represent the Northeast Divine Nation. We are free wandering mercenaries. Whatever we do has nothing to do with our great Divine Sovereign Qingyun. We are not acting on his will. We’re acting of our own accord — for the sake of justice. Got it?” A divine-envoy-tier war-captain swept across the sky, roaring aloud, reminding the Northeast soldiers to stay alert while patrolling and guarding these hard-marched veterans from the West Camp’s secret hit-squads.
“Yes, Sir Zhongxi!” the soldiers who knew this war-captain roared back in unison.
Officially unaffiliated, but in practice not much different from formal deployment.
The only difference was that whether they won or lost, whatever honor these soldiers earned after the war would have nothing to do with the neutrality-declared Northeast Divine Nation.
Just as they were about to enter Frozen Earth City, dozens of meteor-like stones — trailing long comet-tails of fire — came crashing down from the sky… Zhongxi and a few other unnamed war-captains intercepted a handful and shattered them. But more of the meteor-stones broke through the line and struck the ground, blowing the Northeast soldiers who couldn’t dodge into powder.
Not far from Yue Yang, one stone hit.
The shockwave blew the soldiers straight into the air.
If Yue Yang had not covertly helped the five-man squad, at least two of them would have died in that meteor barrage.
The transmigrator could not shadow them every second of the day, but with them right before his eyes, he wasn’t going to watch idly. He quietly pulverized the flying stone-fragments into dust in mid-air, letting the un-reacting dark-skinned man and the bull-strong hulk luckily escape catastrophe.
“Enemy — enemy attack!” the war-captain named Zhongxi roared like thunder, ordering the soldiers not to panic, but to gather up, using the strength of the group to defend.
“All of you — die!”
The West Camp enemies had appeared — several war-captains attacked first.
Then, further out, the West Camp’s soldiers, who had been lying in wait, came running in. Yue Yang saw that these West Camp soldiers were not elite troops, but they were no rubbish-tier legion either — and in numbers they had a not-insignificant advantage over the Eastern Divine Nation garrison and the Northeast reinforcements. West Camp legions swarmed toward this place like ants over the hills and plains…
Sir Zhongxi and the other war-captains immediately mounted a retaliatory counterattack.
Hoisting hill-sized boulders —
They flung them at the incoming enemies, cutting down and wounding a swath, giving the enemy line a shudder of pause and drawing a thunderous cheer from their own ranks, restoring quite a bit of morale.
Officer against officer, common soldier against common soldier. Taking advantage of the fact that the Northeast free reinforcements had not yet reached the shelter of Frozen Earth City’s walls, the ant-thick West Camp soldiers pressed in on all sides, cutting the Frozen Earth City garrison and the free reinforcements apart, splitting them in two, and attacking them from both ends.
In the sky, Zhongxi and the other war-captains were held up by West Camp war-captains, and a ferocious battle broke out.
The West Camp’s interception plan had been working well.
If not for the unexpected variable of Yue Yang, they would probably have wiped out the Northeast free reinforcements below the walls and taken Frozen Earth City in a single stroke.
But with Yue Yang thrown into the mix, they were fighting in frustration. They kept making inexplicable mistakes. West Camp war-captains who ought to have been evenly-matched with — or even stronger than — their East Camp counterparts, kept somehow ending up outmatched by Zhongxi and the others. Aside from one who escaped, the rest either died in bizarre ways or were badly wounded and captured. The uncanniness of this fight was such that even Zhongxi found it hard to credit.
Of course, no one knew the true reason for those uncanny events.
It was the work of Yue Yang, for his part, in the middle of the ordinary rank-and-file, watching the show.
Fortune and victory —
Kept accompanying this not-particularly-strong band of free reinforcements.
Five days later, after Zhongxi’s legion had strung together ten victories in a row, they finally slammed into an iron plate. Their performance on the battlefield had been so exceptional that they had been noticed by a certain “Divine Sovereign” in the West Camp.
(End of Chapter 1164)