Chapter 817 Divine Alliance of the Five Great Mountains
Many pract.i.tioners gathered there for different purposes, but they all wished to gain benefits from the opening of the Gate of the Ancestors.
Different forces interpreted the opening of the Gate of the Ancestors in different ways.
For example, many sects from the famous mountains and great rivers in Hero Country hoped that they could break the shackles on their lifespan by getting out of Earth and entering the Star River.
Some foreign pract.i.tioners believed in the legends circulating within their clans or organizations. They believed that they could summon powerful war beasts from this s.p.a.ce-time gate, sign contracts with demonic G.o.ds, and summon demonic G.o.ds to fight for them.
Different cultivation communities in the world had different prophecies about the Gate of the Ancestors.
The ancient pract.i.tioners from the western world who had appeared and stood in the way of Lu Mu’s flying shuttle belonged to an ancient western organization called the Devil Vine. They thought that the huge s.p.a.ce-time gate in the sky was the entrance to heaven.
The fewer people there were at the entrance to heaven, the better it would be. Otherwise, it would be too crowded.
In the last few dozen days, the major forces and organizations had fought several fierce battles to gain more s.p.a.ce in Xuantian Mountain, and countless people had been killed or injured in those battles. The summit of Xuantian Mountain was almost covered in blood. Now, the major forces and organizations were still contending against each other. Among the forces and organizations from the western White Center Continent, the Devil Vine was a middle to low-cla.s.s organization responsible for patrolling and guarding the periphery.
Li Mu’s flying shuttle happened to land in the zone of those forces and organizations from the western White Center Continent, so it was stopped.
“The Eastern G.o.d of War?”
Mike, the leader of the Magic Devil Vine, was a muscular white man who looked like an ancient Roman sculpture. He was wearing a suit of woven armor made of green vines and a green helmet. When he heard Old Zhang’s words, he burst out laughing. “Is he the coward who was taken away by the Sword Whizzes from a famous eastern mountain? Ha-ha-ha, I happen to have watched that live show. His t.i.tle is stinky. How dare you mention him to scare me...”
Before his voice faded away...
A stream of broadsword light flashed.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Several ancient pract.i.tioners from the Devil Vine turned into a mist of blood before they could even react.
Li Mu looked at the silly dog in surprise.
The Husky withdrew his claws into the sleeves of his suit, grinned like a human being, and said, “Are you surprised? In fact, it’s no big deal. I often watch you practice broadsword skills, so it’s normal that I know a few moves. After all, I am such an excellent dog.”
It was not Li Mu who took action just now. It was the dog.
The utter annihilation of the Devil Vine soon attracted the attention of the other forces from the western White Center Continent.
A hidden force was surging underground.
On the ground, a small sapling was growing at a rapid speed. In the blink of an eye, it grew into a tree thousands of meters high. Its branches and leaves stretched out like green pythons, baring their fangs and brandis.h.i.+ng their claws in the air and frantically rus.h.i.+ng toward the flying shuttle.
“Is that the Druid spell?”
Li Mu opened and closed his Third Eye. A flash of lightning seared all the branches and leaves in the sky into ashes.
All the forces from the western White Center Continent under the Gate of the Ancestors suddenly calmed down.
“You may pa.s.s now.”
A rather strange spiritual wave surged through the air.
It was not language.
Li Mu’s heart skipped a beat.
The spiritual wave gave him the impression that it was an ancient, lifeless, and bottomless abyss like an infinite starry sky. It was definitely not from an ordinary person.
“Could it be an ancient western G.o.d?”
The flying shuttle flew over the camp of the forces from the western White Center Continent.
“Elder, this oriental man killed the chief of the Devil Vine. He is so arrogant. How could we just let him go like that?” A warrior wearing a bear fur coat and a white-tooth necklace asked a gray-robed monk, with an indignant look on his face, in a zelkova forest on the ground.
The monk was bald with gray eyebrows and he wore a gray robe and a pair of straw sandals. He was dressed in a very simple way. He was in his fifties, tall and strong, and in high spirits.
In response to the warrior’s question, the monk smiled faintly. “The road for arrogant people will become narrower and narrower. The ruthless reality will punish them. The Father’s power has not been fully awakened yet. We should focus our attention on the ‘Gate of G.o.d’ that is about to open instead of making things too complicated. Bear in mind that the Father will not let his child bleed in vain.”
“Praise the Father.”
The warrior bowed his head.
Li Mu’s flying shuttle finally landed in the southwest corner on the summit of Xuantian Mountain.
There was a small camp with less than 40 people guarding it.
This campsite was a remote location where a military tent had been set up. Surrounded by the tents of various cultivation forces, the green military tent was especially eye-catching. The campsite was the smallest one in Xuantian Mountain, giving people the impression that it was being ostracized.
Comparatively speaking, it was rather “meager”.
“Consultant Li, you’re finally here.”
A young man with thick eyebrows and big eyes rushed out of the camp and gave a respectful salute.
“It’s you!” Li Mu was quite surprised.
This young man was called w.a.n.g Menghu. Back then, Li Mu rescued him from the hands of terrorists in the Middle East. Unexpectedly, the young man had become a member of the military and had been dispatched here.
“Li Mu, do you remember me?” A familiar voice rang out.
The speaker was a middle-aged man with a square face in a military uniform. He had a resolute look on his face and in his eyes.
“Old Song?” Li Mu was greatly surprised. Then, he laughed and said, “Nice to see you again. What are you doing here?”
This middle-aged man was Song Changlin, a researcher rescued by Li Mu from the Heavenly Land.
After the Vanguard returned to the Earth, Li Mu didn’t meet any of the scientific investigators on board the Vanguard who had come back alive, except for Su Cuo. Song Changlin resumed his research after a short period of review upon his return to the Hero Country.
However, he had s.h.i.+fted the focus of his research to the integration of martial arts with science and technology. As the Great Era of Cultivation came, he soon became a national research expert because of his extraordinary experiences in the Heavenly Land over several decades and his outstanding performance in scientific research.
Li Mu didn’t expect that Song Changlin was actually one of the Hero Country’s representatives stationed in Xuantian Mountain.
“There is a research project that can change the fate of the whole country. At the crucial stage, we couldn’t proceed with the project due to the lack of cases until this super-large s.p.a.ce-time gate appeared. All the data of this gate met the research requirements, so I requested to come here to collect data. It is now the critical moment for data collection!”
Song Changlin explained why he came here before Li Mu asked.
He had been working hard on the integration of martial arts with science and technology. The ultimate goal of his work was to enable ordinary people to contend against martial arts pract.i.tioners using various weapons and equipment. In this way, the government could regain dominance in the world and maintain public order, and at the same time, the Earth would gain a stronger counterattack capability against the invasion of martial arts forces from outside the solar system!
This could be considered a researcher’s attempt to solve the Earth’s crisis!
Li Mu admired such researchers very much!
“Thank you for your hard work.”
Li Mu shook hands with Song Changlin.
Besides Song Changlin, there were six researchers, three top masters serving in the army, and more than 20 special forces soldiers.
Li Mu introduced Old Zhang, Old w.a.n.g, and the other old men to Song Changlin and the others.
The commander of the campsite was an old man named Ouyang Fu. He was one of the three top masters serving in the army. He had reached the high level of the Soldier Realm. He was a member secretly trained by the army using countless resources. However, Li Mu could tell at a glance that like the other two top masters serving in the army, Ouyang Fu had entered the Soldier Realm, but his real combat capability was weaker than that of those real masters in the Soldier Realm.
“We’ve received the military orders from Corps Commander Miss Su and Commander-in-chief Mr. Fan. From now on, we’ll follow your orders during this operation.” Ouyang Fu was a typical veteran. He stood to attention and saluted, his body ramrod straight.
“Okay.”
Li Mu didn’t stand on ceremony.
He glanced around the campsite and saw many campsites of various forces and countless barriers and tactical deployments. In the area closer to the Gate of the Ancestors, the compet.i.tion was more intense. The area under the Gate of the Ancestors, which was the best spot, was occupied by several of the largest cultivation forces in the world.
Geographical proximity could provide advantages.
Everyone understood that.
“Seniors, you must be tired after such a long journey. Please come in and have a rest in the tent.” w.a.n.g Menghu didn’t know why Li Mu brought more than ten old men here. He politely asked the old men to have a rest. After all, he didn’t want them to get too tired.
Li Mu smiled when he heard that.
“There’s no need to rest. We are not tired at all. We can still stand guard.”
The old men were wearing loose old military uniforms that covered their strong muscles, so they were underestimated. However, they did not take it seriously and started to set up sentries around the campsite as they did when they served in the army.
“Is Qinling still the land of our country? Why has so much land been occupied by those foreigners?”
Like angry young men, those old men were very dissatisfied with the current situation.
They were all veterans who had fought countless battles. Their enthusiasm had never died down. They still adhered to some concepts that many young people couldn’t understand.
In the end, everything was settled.
Li Mu looked at the huge s.p.a.ce-time vortex in the sky.
He could clearly feel that the energy waves in the s.p.a.ce above his head were growing stronger with every pa.s.sing second, as if some mysterious power was being released gradually from the depths of the s.p.a.ce-time vortex.
He looked around with his Third Eye and saw numerous broken and distorted runes colliding with one another in the vortex, constantly disappearing and reappearing, combining with each other, and looking for a completely out-of-control and stable channel to create a runic formation.
Those runes were ancient but familiar. They were produced by the secret skills of the six major clans in the Ziwei Star Zone.
Li Mu could even clearly feel the aura of a familiar force flowing from the s.p.a.ce-time vortex and filling the s.p.a.ce between heaven and earth. The s.p.a.ce’s repulsion of the s.p.a.ce-time vortex was no longer as strong as before.
That was the aura of the divine blood of Bai Jun the G.o.d of War.
Undoubtedly, this s.p.a.ce-time gate was the out-of-control channel built by the ancestors of the six major clans. It was the first way for them to invade the Earth.
“If I take action and break this out-of-control formation now, it will gain at most half a month for us. I believe the six major clans will soon try to build the second and third s.p.a.ce-time gates. Once I act rashly and alert the six major clans, they will probably adopt other more secretive methods. In that case, it will be more difficult for me to find those s.p.a.ce-time gates and deal with the six major clans.
“It’s easy to dodge a spear in the open but hard to defend against an arrow in the dark.”
Li Mu tried to come up with a plan.
Just then, he heard some noises from outside the campsite.
“Who are you?” Old w.a.n.g shouted, “Stop! I’m going to take action if you don’t stop!”
“Humph, you rude old man. I’m Sun Hao, the first disciple of Elder Jian—the current leader of the Divine Alliance of the Five Great Mountains. I’m here to see Li Mu and send him an invitation card on behalf of our leader. Our leader wants to ask if Li Mu dares to go to the Swordsmans.h.i.+p contest square and meet him there... Get out of my way.”
The voice traveled hundreds of meters through the tactical deployments at the campsite and reached the ears of Li Mu and the others.
The man spoke very aggressively.
Before Li Mu and the others walked out of the tent, a loud sound rang out outside the tent.
Energy waves surged wildly in the air.
It seemed that a fight was on.