Unsheathed

Great Sword Immortal Yue Qing was wearing a standard Dao robe from the garment market, and his sword, Mighty Guardian of the Five Mountains, was hanging by his hip. Compared to this pseudo-celestial tool that wouldn’t be carelessly drawn for no reason, Yue Qing was actually more fond of the standard long sword forged by the sword market.

Thus, his two hands were resting on none other than the standard sword. Many sword immortals and earth immortal sword cultivators at the Sword Qi Great Wall liked to wear Dao robes from the garment market and carry swords forged by the sword market, and this was in no small part thanks to Yue Qing.

Sword Immortal Zhou Cheng was still rocking back and forth on the swing. A very long time ago, the young man who had said that he was coming here to take a look at his homeland had ultimately died by the hands of a so-called fellow native of the Sword Qi Great Wall for her sake. Zhou Cheng wasn’t carrying a sword, and wisps of golden sword intent that had been passed down through the generations continued to swim around her. These were her scabbardless swords.

Wu Chengpei was a young and handsome Unpolished Jade Tier sword immortal, but his face was contorted, and the rims of his eyes were red at this moment. Amazing. Very well. There was an especially large number of great demons today, both familiar faces as well as unfamiliar faces.

Sword Immortal Yuan Qingshu from the Southern Whirl Continent was standing beside Sword Immortal Gao Kui, with the latter’s expression solemn as he used his mind’s lake to describe the backgrounds of some lofty great demons to the former. Some great demons had scuttled around everywhere to hide for countless years, yet they had all come out of hiding and gathered together on the battlefield in the south today.

Something like this hadn’t happened in ten thousand years, especially with the fourteen great demons leading the army being the same great demons standing at the forefront of the old lunar almanacs, the Bai Ze Album and the Mountain Scouring Album. Afterward, the many different editions published in the Majestic World no longer recorded the existence of these great demons.

In fact, even Gao Kui admitted that he had never seen these great demons in person before. Fortunately, the Savage World had decided to gather them together today, saving the Sword Qi Great Wall the effort of looking for them one by one.

Yuan Qingshu grabbed his Sword Nurturing Gourd to drink some wine, taking a sip every time Gao Kui finished describing the ancient background of a great demon. Wine tasted extremely delicious when using the names of these great demons as a snack.

Sect Leader Han Huaizi of the Great Emblem Sword Sect was resting his mind with his eyes closed, and he would occasionally tap his sword as he kept his palm on its hilt. Standing beside him was Duckweed Sword Lake’s Sect Leader Li Cai, another sword immortal from the Northern Complete Reed Continent.

There was a bright glimmer in Li Cai’s eyes. Very well. All of these great demons looked very capable.

There were two outsiders who didn’t appear like sword immortals and appeared more like a fisherman and a woodsman, and the two of them were like-minded friends from the mountains of the Pure White Continent, Sword Immortal Zhang Xiao and Sword Immortal Li Ding. They had initially felt a little solemn, but after exchanging a glance, the two of them smiled knowingly and became unwavering in their resolve to fight to the death.

Zhao Geyi sat still and glanced back. Cheng Quan should have been sitting on the city wall in the north, but he had become a pitiful insect languishing at the Nascent Tier after being severely wounded by a great demon and suffering a fall in cultivation base. Only sword cultivators at the Upper Five Tiers were allowed at the front, so Cheng Quan could only swear and curse as he walked away.

Zhao Geyi laughed heartily as he retracted his gaze. He and Cheng Quan had competed with each other from a young age, whether that be their cultivation bases, the quality of their flying swords, their destructive ability, and even their romantic relationships. Cheng Quan had maintained a winning edge over Zhao Geyi the entire time, but now?

Not only did he possess a higher cultivation base, but in terms of charging forward and fighting to the death, the measly Nascent Tier Cheng Quan didn’t even have the opportunity to do so! Cheng Quan could obediently stay behind and eat his dust.

When I die, I’ll go and see her in the afterlife first. I’ll anger you to death, Cheng Quan!

Nalan Yexing felt slightly angry. Couldn’t these beasts from the Savage World wait for a moment longer before charging over to seek death? Once he returned to the Immortal Tier, wouldn’t these beasts enjoy a more satisfying death by the blade of his flying sword?

However, Nalan Yexing also felt slightly puzzled at the same time. The formation of these beasts was quite strange. In the past, the sky would be blotted out with an army as dense as locusts, while the earth would also be covered in a carpet of beasts as tightly packed as ants and rats. To his surprise, however, this wasn’t the case today.

Perhaps the Savage World wanted to rely on just these great demons to breach the city wall? Chen Ping’an’s wine was yet to penetrate the market of the Savage World, so why were the brains of these great demons already fried?

Han Huaizi smiled faintly, with his expression carefree and his aura full of spirit and vigor.

The Great Emblem Sword Sect won’t feel any guilt after this battle.

The Hidden Official rubbed her palms and cracked her knuckles, occasionally wiping the corners of her mouth as she muttered, ”It looks like a battle is going to break out. If I’m still alive after this battle ends, then not only can I drink wine, but I can definitely drink to my heart’s content.”

Some sword immortals were squatting along the perimeter of the parapet and stroking the edges and corners of the wall, with their expressions cold and filled with a hint of commemoration for those who had died before them.

Some sword immortals cracked open pots of wine, paying respects in their hearts as they slowly poured wine onto the city wall. They then casually tossed the empty pots beyond the city wall.

The old deaf guy was expressionless, thinking only about when he could walk down the city wall and return to his small den. The wind atop the city wall was truly too strong.

Mi Hu’s expression was solemn. It could be said that these uninvited guests were coming with profoundly ill intentions.

Immortal Tier Li Tuimi smiled bitterly. Alrighty. This time, it wasn’t just Fatty Yan who was nice and plump and ready to be eaten; looking at the enemy formation, he was also part of the meal plan.

Casting one’s gaze to the vast lands lying south of the city wall, fourteen thrones in total were lined up in a row, with some higher and some lower, some larger and some smaller. It was as if this were the strangest ancestral hall in the world.

The layout of the seats was slightly different from that of the ancestral halls in the Majestic World.

Apart from the fourteen extremely unfamiliar great demons, the remaining great demons were all familiar faces that had appeared in front of the Sword Qi Great Wall over the past one hundred years. In comparison to the great demons on the thrones, however, these great demons no longer appeared so great. They had initially attracted the most gazes and faced the most flying swords on the battlefield, but now, they were obediently standing behind the line of fourteen thrones.

These were the rules of the Savage World: simple, crude, and direct, much more direct than even the Sword Qi Great Wall. This was something that the Majestic World, which liked to be superficial, absolutely couldn’t compare to.

Chen Qingdu clasped his hands behind his back and said after a soft chuckle, ”When one’s sword skills are high enough, the scene before us will appear like the most beautiful and majestic artwork. It feels like any casual swing of the sword will strike a target. What do you say, Zuo You?”

Zuo You grabbed the hilt of his sword and replied, ”I never think about that much when I unleash my sword.”

Chen Qingdu glanced further south. As expected of the owner of that world. They were located slightly further away, and if it weren’t for them voluntarily appearing in the open, they would have truly been impossible to notice.

Chen Qingdu retracted his gaze and looked at the great demons who were mighty and imposing in their formation. There were some with whom he had fought before, but had managed to escape alive due to various kinds of reasons. For example, good fortune, being able to flee quickly, having thick skin to avoid being hacked to death, and so on. Of course, these were all battles from many years ago. As for whether there would still be battles many years into the future, that was difficult to say.

They had performed a simulation once, concluding that the Savage World could breach and overrun the Sword Qi Great Wall if it gathered half of its combat power. This wasn’t just an empty threat to scare people.

This was the reality.

However, these beasts liked to have internal fights with each other, and with that old bastard not dying and not even appearing in public, the Savage World was missing a leader and a backbone, someone who could truly rival Chen Qingdu. As a result, they were ultimately too disorganized. In the past, they had been on the path to victory during many assaults on the great wall, yet after suffering a few more casualties and facing some significant hits, there would always be great demons that decided to retreat, leading their tribes back to rest and recuperate.

Other times, some great sword immortals would venture deep into enemy territory to slay a great demon, and other great demons would seize the opportunity to swallow up the land and subordinates of the slain great demon. They would completely forget about attacking the Sword Qi Great Wall, which would be a useless piece of territory even if they managed to conquer it.

There had only been one time in history, the most dangerous time, when the Heroic Spirit Hall of the Savage World — which Chen Qingdu referred to as the rat nest — had summoned close to half of the owners of the thrones, with each taking a vow and agreeing on how the benefits would be distributed. A huge battle had followed, one which was truly violent and tragic. If Chen Qingdu remembered correctly, he was the only person left standing on the entire city wall. The spell formation on the northern city wall had almost been shattered, which would have comprehensively severed the future of the Sword Qi Great Wall.

Many senior sword immortals had fallen in that battle, and many so-called children had also sacrificed their lives.

Chen Qingdu sighed and said slowly, ”There should indeed be a conclusion between the three sides.”

Some had been the descendants of those prisoners for ten thousand years, so it was time for them to give him an answer.

Far away in the south, there was a shattered and upside-down mountain where iron chains pierced through countless humongous boulders. Much like Stalactite Mountain, the peak of the mountain pointed toward the earth, while the foot faced the sky.

The elevated foot of the upside-down mountain was as smooth as a mirror, and under the radiance of the sun, the eye-catching shimmer made it appear like the biggest gold essence copper coin in the world. Atop this platform was a great demon wearing a gold robe, with their appearance unable to be seen clearly.

The great demon made a grabbing motion, collecting a large handful of semi-tangible gold-colored copper coins. However, these copper coins quickly flowed through the gaps between the great demon’s fingers like water, falling to the ground. They were ultimately not real and tangible enough, and they needed to be reinforced and completed by many deities from the Majestic World. Only at that time would this great demon’s gold essence throne become legitimate and live up to its name.

According to the agreement, it would receive the shattered golden shards of the slain deities in one entire continent of the Majestic World as payment for participating in this battle. However, it was a shame that this wasn’t enough. Far from enough.

If it wanted to become as lofty and imposing as the blazing sun in the sky, unrestrained by the Great Dao for tens of millions of years and truly uncorroded by time, then it needed to consume even more. It was best that it could even consume the fabled reincarnations of those gods belonging to the Heavenly Court. Only then would it feel satiated!

There was a large collection of jade buildings hovering in the sky, and a great demon that had assumed human form was sitting on a railing as if he were guarding his immense wealth by himself. He smiled widely as he looked at the Sword Qi Great Wall. He had heard before that there existed a Cloud Stop Pavilion constructed from immortal jade located further north of the city wall, and there was also the Myriad Ravine Residence, which enjoyed the peaceful rustling of pine trees whenever the moon was bright and the wind was gentle.

These buildings could seemingly add some extra flavor to his residence, though they would appear largely insignificant compared to the grand size of the existing structures. He would only feel satisfied if he managed to obtain the so-called ”archway that assembled the characteristics of all teachings” owned by the Southern Whirl Continent’s Pure Confucian Chen Clan. It would be even better if he could grab the ancient ascension platform of a large world owned by the small Eastern Treasured Vial Continent.

There was the colossal corpse of a deity floating in the sky, and sitting on the head of the corpse was a great demon. Beside the great demon was a spear piercing through the head of the deity, with the spear body buried inside the head, leaving only the tip and the tail visible. There was the subtle rumbling of thunder at the tip of the spear, causing the entire corpse to shudder and sway.

The great demon lightly patted the tip of its sword. It had heard that cultivators in the Majestic World were skilled at the Five Lightning Righteous Technique, especially those from Mount Longhu’s Heavenly Master Residence in the Middle Earth Divine Continent. It could find an opportunity to battle with them.

There was a skeletal throne constructed from countless white bones belonging to hundreds of thousands of corpses, both demons and sword cultivators. A fleshless skeletal great demon, whose entire body glowed like jade, stood with one foot atop the skull of an ancient great sword immortal. As the great demon drank, it used the tip of its foot to roll the skull around the ground.

The great demon stopped drinking, changing its posture in the skeletal throne before tilting the wine cup in its hand and pouring blood-red wine onto the skull. A short moment later, the skull slowly rose into the air, and as more and more wine flowed from the cup, flesh, tendons, and bones gradually grew from the skull. In the end, it transformed into an old man standing three meters tall, with his appearance identical to that of humans.

The skeletal great demon flicked its sleeve, and the slightly rigid old man reached out and grabbed the streak of bright light. His eyes empty and his movements stiff, the old man’s aura instantly became towering and imposing like a sword immortal the moment that he grabbed the streak of light.

There was an ancient pillar that measured three thousand meters in height, inscribed with talismanic characters that had long been lost to the world. A sanguine snake was wrapped around the pillar, with many lusterless flood dragon jewels circling around its body. The sanguine snake hissed as it stared intently at the great wall, and it only had one goal after they crushed this mud wall that had stood for ten thousand years and flattened Stalactite Mountain.

Its goal was that little creature that could just qualify as a True Dragon, the last of its kind in the human world. Afterward, the sanguine snake could complete its Great Dao, and the clouds and rain and the Heavenly Dao of Water would all fall under its control.

A severely damaged and worn robe slowly emerged in the sky. The robe was empty, and it fluttered loudly as it swayed with the wind.

When this mysterious and ownerless robe appeared, some primordial sword intents near the Sword Qi Great Wall rejoiced as if they were encountering an old friend, while even more sword intents were seemingly weeping. There were also countless sword intents growing increasingly irritated and furious, seemingly scolding the gray robe.

There was a stunningly beautiful woman with a human head and a flood dragon body wearing a crown and dressed in an ink-black dragon robe, sitting on a dragon throne that was as large as a mountain peak. Her extremely long flood dragon body extended beyond the throne, and each time the tip of her tail lightly slapped the ground, a violent tremor would travel dozens of kilometers and send plumes of dust into the air.

In stark contrast to her colossal body, there were hundreds upon thousands of insignificantly small women around her, slender and beautiful like the celestial maidens in the murals as they held pipa in their laps and their colorful ribbons flowed in the wind.

There was a short old man standing on a hovering sword, with his arms as long as those of apes and his hands casually resting on a long staff that was sitting on his shoulder. His hair and eyebrows were all white, yet he was dressed in black, with a sword slowly hovering around him.

He would occasionally breathe in, sucking one or two pipa women into his mouth from his neighbor’s territory and slowly chewing. The old man had prayer beads around one wrist, but these prayer beads were especially rough and crude. In fact, they were nothing more than jagged stones of various sizes.

The beautiful woman sitting on the dragon throne nearby paid no heed to the old man’s actions, and she even flicked her sleeve and actively pushed a dozen or so ”maidservants” toward him, allowing him to devour them.

A Daoist priest wearing snow-white robes sat in mid-air. His appearance was blurry, and he measured more than nine hundred meters in height. This wasn’t his Dao Manifestation, and it was, in fact, his true body. There was a bright crescent moon hanging behind the Daoist priest, almost as if he had plucked the moon from the sky and brought it to the mortal world.

There was a giant with three heads and six arms sitting on a gigantic mat made from a large number of golden books, and despite sitting on the ground, he was still taller than the Daoist priest sitting in mid-air beside him. There was a startling sword gash on his chest, but the giant didn’t go out of his way to conceal this extremely deep wound. Instead, he would only wipe away this wound when he managed to exact revenge for this utter humiliation.

There was a big-bearded man with neat clothes standing extremely high up in the air, and a saber by his hip and a sword strapped to his back. A young man was standing beside him with a sword case on his back, with his clothes ragged and a huge number of swords resting in the sword case. This made the skinny and frail young man look like a peacock displaying its colorful tail.

This big-bearded man had been summoned to the secret meeting at the Heroic Spirit Hall last time, yet he still hadn’t attended, not even willing to show his face. However, no one had dared to say anything at the time.

Even higher up, a man wearing Confucian robes was sitting upright, with a smile on his face as his hands were folded in front of his abdomen. There was a fist-sized orb of light resting on his palm, shifting unpredictably between snow-white, pitch black, and multi-colored.

An extremely handsome young man stood in a middling position, not only taking human form, but even adopting the size of ordinary humans. Looking closely, however, his face was actually stitched together, and the old Sword Nurturing Gourd hanging by his waist held not wine, but the remnant souls of sword immortals as well as many bonded flying swords that had already lost their spirit and intent.

Much like the great demons around him, it had also been a very long time since he had last appeared in the world. The contents in his Sword Nurturing Gourd had all been offered to him by his disciples and grand-disciples.

A burly man dressed in a suit of golden armor stood on the ground with his fists tightly clenched, and golden light that was as thick as oil continued to drip from the gaps between his armor. This suit of golden armor, which was a celestial tool but was still on the verge of collapse, wasn’t a rare treasure that the burly man was wearing of his own volition, but rather something that was akin to a cage.