Chapter 1373: Mountains Crumble, Seas are Destroyed!
Using the land ma.s.ses as battering rams against the Mountain and Sea Realm truly was an act of madness. It was a strategy that Xuang Fang had begun to unfold with the 2nd Heaven, and had then entrusted to Mythdragon to fully carry out. However, the price to pay was a steep one: the wrath of the entirety of the 33 Heavens.
Only if the plan resulted in a grand victory could it have potentially been accepted. But now... Xuan Fang would never see any such victory; he was moments away from peris.h.i.+ng.
“After I die… the true deluge will come!” Xuan Fang’s laughter rang out, filled with madness. Since he had already sacrificed the 2nd Heaven and the other land ma.s.ses in a deadly attack, he didn’t object to sending everything else to crush the Mountain and Sea Realm at his hour of death.
This was the only way left that he could deal an unprecedentedly critical blow to the Mountain and Sea Realm, and thus, buy a chance for the 17th Heavens and beyond to gain victory.
“This... is all that I can do,” he said. He waved his sleeve, sending the land ma.s.ses down toward the Mountain and Sea Realm, surrounded by millions upon millions of Outsiders.
Then, Xuan Fang closed his eyes, whereupon a Heaven-shaking, Earth-shattering power of detonation was unleashed!
BOOOOMMMMMM!
Xuan Fang exploded. This was not a partial Paragon self-detonation like what had occurred with Mythdragon’s clone. This was a full and complete Paragon self-detonation. His cultivation base had not dropped, and although he had sustained injuries, he still had the full cultivation base of a Paragon.
He was even able to add his own Essence into the explosion. The starry sky was set aflame, the Heavens shook, and the entire Mountain and Sea Realm vibrated.
The power of the self-detonation did not just blast about wildly. Instead, Xuan Fang managed to direct the power of the blast into a propelling force which sent the Heavenly land ma.s.ses down toward the Mountain and Sea Realm with indescribable speed.
Although the Mountain and Sea Realm had prepared to be battered by Heavenly land ma.s.ses, this barrage was unlike anything that had happened before. This time, the land ma.s.ses were being propelled by the force of Xuan Fang’s self-detonation, making them like deadly blades that stabbed down with incredible force.
The war was now erupting with unprecedented intensity!
Booms echoed out continuously. The starry sky trembled, and the lands quaked. Upon the land ma.s.s closest to the Mountain and Sea Realm, the seas evaporated and the mountains crumbled. The entire ma.s.s of land crumbled and then burst into pieces.
The Three Great Daoist Societies attacked in unison, drawing upon their most profound Daoist scriptures, unleas.h.i.+ng their most shocking Daoist magics. The Immortal Ancient Daoist Rite spared no cost to summon numerous Dao projections to fight against the incoming land ma.s.ses.
The Sublime Flow Sword Grotto formed a majestic sword formation of 1,080,000 flying swords, which whistled up to meet the land ma.s.ses.
The Nine Seas G.o.d World had sustained the most casualties of all, and yet called upon equally terrifying resources. Countless Sea Dragons flew out, along with innumerable cultivators. Numerous G.o.d World gates appeared which, upon opening, unleashed one giant after another.
The giants then linked arms, forming a huge wall that braced for the impact of the land ma.s.ses of the various Heavens.
The disciples of the three Doyens also put everything on the line, joining forces to unleash a shocking attack with their magical items!
Paragon Sea Dream’s face was pale white, and blood was oozing out of her mouth. Ignoring any negative effect it would have on her already serious wounds, she flew out toward the land ma.s.ses and began to attack them.
The Paragon puppet was now under Meng Hao’s control, and it also launched forth.
Then there were Meng Hao and Ksitigarbha. As of this moment, they were doing everything they could to block the incoming land ma.s.ses.
The land ma.s.ses of the various Heavens were being blasted apart. And yet, the fragments and rubble continued to shoot down at incredible speed, piercing into the Mountain and Sea Realm. Wherever they pa.s.sed, ma.s.s destruction was wreaked. Cultivators were smashed to death like ants beneath mighty hands of destruction. Miserable screams rang out constantly.
Vast hosts of cultivators of the Mountain and Sea Realm joined forces, unleas.h.i.+ng a sea of magical techniques that rose to meet the land ma.s.ses. And yet... there was nothing they could do to stop the onslaught.
BOOOOMMMMMM!
A ma.s.sive remnant of one of the land ma.s.ses, despite being broken and in ruins, was still mighty enough to evaporate the Third Sea, and even slam into the Third Mountain.
The Mountain began to crumble!!
The Sea was destroyed!!
Light arrows shot out from Meng Hao’s location, slamming into the various Heavenly land ma.s.ses, bas.h.i.+ng them to pieces. However, there was only so much he could do. Even with the added efforts of the Three Great Daoist Societies, Paragon Sea Dream, and everyone else, only about seventy percent of the land ma.s.ses could be destroyed, which wasn’t enough to save that Mountain and Sea.
Soon, the Third Mountain was in a state of complete collapse. The Mountain and Sea Realm was in chaos. Countless cultivators couldn’t hold back from screaming in agony as they watched the Third Mountain crumble into rubble. Tears streamed down cheeks, especially among the cultivators who were originally from the Third Mountain and Sea.
Their home... was gone....
The Xuanwu turtle atop the Third Mountain died an agonizing death. The Third Mountain vanished, and the sound of its destruction rang in the ears of the Mountain and Sea cultivators. More and more of them began to weep.
Next was the destruction of the Fourth Sea!
It transformed into nothing more than a mist. Then came the Fourth Mountain.... The Fourth Mountain and Sea represented reincarnation, and the underworld. But now, it was shattering into nothing.
Henceforth, there would be no sun or moon in the Mountain and Sea Realm. Nor would there be any reincarnation....
More people began to weep, and yet, those tears led to even more unswerving determination.
The apocalyptic rubble of the various land ma.s.ses incinerated the Fifth Sea before it finally came to a stop. Xuan Fang had resorted to self-detonation, ending his own life, and yet unleas.h.i.+ng an unprecedented level of damage and destruction onto the Mountains and Seas.
The number of cultivators who died was impossible to count....
Furthermore, the Mountain and Sea Realm had gone all out with its power to block the attack; had it not, then the destruction would not have stopped at the base of the Fifth Mountain!
The Mountain and Sea Realm would have sustained even more severe casualties.
Now that the bombardment of the Heavenly land ma.s.ses had ended, the army of Outsiders poured in. The war had reached a fever pitch with such rapidity that people had almost no time to consider how to react.
Cultivators and Outsiders alike were unable to process it all.
And yet, the fighting did not stop. The millions upon millions of Outsiders were met by countless Mountain and Sea cultivators, whose tears flowed as they fought back against the onslaught.
Paragons attacked. Dao Realm experts attacked. Imperial Lords held back no divine abilities. As soon as the two sides met, blood flowed. Everything was stained with red, and the starry sky glowed with crimson light.
The flames of war raged in front of the Fifth Mountain. Blood flowed like seawater, and the din of slaughter rang out constantly. By this point, the Paragon-level fighters were limited in what they could do. After all, the Outsiders were many... but there were also Mountain and Sea cultivators on the battlefield, and it could be difficult to distinguish between the two.
Furthermore, the Outsiders attacked with complete insanity, ensuring that the fighting was close and fierce. The battlefield soon turned into a vast sea of blood.
Meng Hao was there on the battlefield, and wherever he went, death followed. His eyes were crimson as he glared at the surrounding Outsiders, and by this point, he had no need to unleash magical techniques to carry out slaughter. He transformed into a sea of blood that washed over them and absorbed their life force.
Sea Dream was there, as was the Paragon puppet. Both of them were using similar tactics as Meng Hao to unleash the power of Paragons to dispatch the Outsider Imperial Lords, which were now all dead. The Mountain and Sea cultivators fought with madness, and the Outsiders with complete viciousness. The slaughter being carried out was shocking.
When those on the front lines grew exhausted, there were others behind them to who were happy to continue the fight. The battle stretched on outside of the Fifth Mountain, and it was hard to say when it would end.
The number of Outsiders was dropping at a horrific rate. With the Three Great Daoist Societies, the Doyen disciples, and the combined power of all the other Mountain and Sea cultivators, they ensured that, despite facing millions upon millions of Outsiders, their superior position made them like a grindstone that crushed all of the Outsiders who charged the Fifth Mountain.
The entire time, the 17th through 33rd Heavens looked on reticently. They did not interfere in any way, but simply watched, observing the tactics and methods of the Mountain and Sea Realm, committing them to memory and using augury in order to prepare ways to deal with and neutralize them.
Eventually, the fighting ended. A vast sea of blood now existed outside the Fifth Mountain. The bedraggled remnants of the Outsider army began to fall back, and the Mountain and Sea Realm cultivators let them go, too exhausted to pursue.
Meng Hao’s vision was fading, and his cultivation base was drying up. He bit the tip of his tongue to regain some clarity, then looked down to find his clothing so soaked with blood that it was sticking to his body. It felt disgusting.
He looked up into the starry sky for a moment before sitting down cross-legged and closing his eyes to focus on healing. When he did that, the sound of the weeping of the Mountain and Sea cultivators drifted into his ears.
They wept for their homes. They wept for their friends and family who had fallen in battle. They wept because of the grief which filled their hearts.
Bitterness washed over Meng Hao as he realized that the war wasn’t over. And yet, despite all odds, the Mountain and Sea Realm... had eked out another victory!!
They had survived against the 1st Heaven’s onslaught, resisted the 2nd through 6th Heavens, and blocked the 7th through 16th Heavens. The price they had paid was immense. Four entire Mountains and Seas had been destroyed, and countless cultivators had died. The sun and moon had been lost. And yet... they had still come out victorious!
Despite all that, little joy could be found in the hearts of the fighters. Everyone was exhausted. Xu Qing, many members of the Fang Clan, and other faces familiar to Meng Hao had all partic.i.p.ated in the battle. Now that the fighting had stopped for the moment, everyone was lost in their own thoughts and feelings.
When they looked up into the starry sky, it was with mixed emotions. Everyone knew that the war wasn’t even half over. Soon, they would face... the 17th through 33rd Heavens.
That would be... the final battle!
The final battle for the Mountain and Sea Realm! The enemy would be prepared to counter the techniques they had used in the fighting thus far. Furthermore... even more powerful Paragons would be coming.
At that time....
One side would be wiped out, or the other would!
By means of Xu Qing, Paragon Sea Dream sent orders out into the various Mountains and Seas regarding how to rest and reorganize. The sea of blood outside the Fifth Mountain was filled with restrictive spells, as was the Fifth Mountain. The Mountain and Sea Realm sprang into action. Most cultivators buried their tears and focused on carrying out the tasks a.s.signed to the various sects and clans by Paragon Sea Dream.
The Fang Clan was completely mobilized, as were all of the Mountain and Sea Lords.
It was at this point that Meng Hao received a request from Paragon Sea Dream....
“The 33 h.e.l.ls... should be opened. Meng Hao... I will pick 33 Chosen from the Mountain and Sea Realm to go with you into the 33 h.e.l.ls and acquire the legacies therein!
“You must become stronger! Furthermore, the 33 Chosen I select must search within the 33 h.e.l.ls for their own personal... Dao!
“It is there that Paragon Nine Seals... left incredible good fortune behind for the later generation of the Mountain and Sea Realm!
“You and the Chosen will have ten months. After ten months pa.s.s, the 17th through 33rd Heavens will descend, and the final battle for the Mountain and Sea Realm will begin....”