Chapter 625 (2): Betrayal

A turbulent river appeared at the foot of each of the five mountains, perfectly encircling them. The water contained a fierce, murderous aura, and sure enough, the water beads had formed moats around the bases of the five mountains. Many of the wandering spirits on the battlefield would've been eventually refined by the pervasive sword qi, but as soon as they entered the water, they immediately transformed into malicious ghosts that began swimming in the river.

From the moment the five mountains had first appeared on the battlefield, a whole host of sword immortals had lashed out with their flying swords at once, both to attack the mountains and to try and save the bonded flying swords of many Middle Five Tiers swordsmen.

Even though the sword immortals had reacted extremely quickly, there were still over a hundred bonded flying swords that were crushed under the five mountains and pulverized on the spot.

Thankfully, a sword immortal was able to manifest a golden deity using his bonded flying sword to carry one of the mountains on its shoulders. In doing so, he was able to successfully impede the mountain's descent for a moment, saving countless Middle Five Tiers swordsmen in the process.

On this occasion, even Nalan Shaowei was going all out. His bright red bonded flying sword had transformed into an extremely long and vibrant flood dragon with flames burning all over its body, and as it wound itself around one of the mountains, it was able to embed itself deep into the mountain to cause immense destruction, and the entire mountain quickly began swaying in an unsteady fashion.

Nalan Shaowei's flying sword flood dragon clashed against the mighty river conjured up by Yang Zhi, and at the same time, Lu Zhi, Yue Qing, Yao Lianyun, and Li Tuimi were also lashing out at the mountains.

If left unchecked, these mountains were going to have an extremely potent impact on the state of the battlefield. Essentially, they would serve as five strongholds for the demonic army, granting them a massive advantage over the opposing swordsmen of the Sword Qi Great Wall.

Tens of thousands of flying maidens had appeared around the five mountains. They were all dressed in vibrant robes and holding pipas in their hands, and it seemed that they were serving as another mountain-protection formation.

The flying maidens were all playing their pipas, producing an orchestra of delightful music that varied drastically in style and tone. Wisps of water fortune spiritual energy were drawn in by the music from their pipas, rising up as water vapor before condensing to form a series of green threads that rose high up into the sky. Those green threads became connected with the five-colored streamers being worn by the flying maidens, and it was as if a thin green veil had been draped onto the five mountains.

Li Tuimi lashed out directly at the middle mountain, but his giant flying sword was caught in the grasp of an inky-black Dao Manifestation conjured up by Yang Zhi.

Not only was Li Tuimi not concerned in the slightest that his flying sword was going to be captured, but he also adopted an extremely aggressive approach, summoning his second bonded flying sword, Silver Thread, which raced through the air toward the glabella of the Dao Manifestation, leaving a long line of silver sword light in its wake. On top of that, he was also flying ahead at full speed with a longsword in his hand, charging headfirst into the fray with seemingly no concern for his own safety.

His Dao partner and all three of his direct disciples had perished at the hands of great demons of Elite Cavalry River.

He was all alone anyway, so what did he have to fear?

"You're a courageous man, I'll give you that," Yang Zhi praised with a seductive smile. "Looks like I'm just going to have to strip you of your courage."

The five mountains were protected by powerful formations and thousands of demonic cultivators wielding talismans and treasures, and that wasn't even to mention Yang Zhi herself. There was no way a single sword immortal could hope to land a meaningful blow on the mountains on his own.

Zuo You didn't care about any of that. He didn't know Li Tuimi, and they had never even spoken before, but the fact that Li Tuimi was willing to lay down his life in such decisive fashion was enough to earn Zuo You's respect.

He could see that Li Tuimi had already resolved to sacrifice himself. He was going to detonate his own body and his two bonded flying swords to destroy as much of the middle mountain as he could, hoping to restore some parity to the state of the battlefield, which was currently skewed heavily in the demonic army's favor.

If the five mountains were allowed to take root on the battlefield and develop new mountain roots and water fortune, then they would only become even more difficult to eradicate.

The difference between all five mountains remaining intact and even just a single one being ruined was like that between night and day.

Li Tuimi forged ahead with single-minded determination.

It was in times like these when sword immortals needed to step up and set an example, even if it meant doing so at the cost of their own lives. What were they supposed to do otherwise? Simply stand by and watch as Yan Zhuo and all of the other juniors fell to their demise?

Zuo You split the inky-black Dao Manifestation into two with a swing of his sword.

However, Li Tuimi didn't take that opportunity to retreat back to the city walls. Instead, he crashed straight into the middle mountain alongside his two flying swords.

"I'll be going ahead, everyone!"

Yang Zhi's brows furrowed slightly as her black dragon robe rose up from her body, then instantly enshrouded the entire mountain, forming a protective barrier to stand in Li Tuimi's path. If the five mountains could successfully take root on the battlefield, then the battle frontier would've essentially been moved several hundred kilometers closer to the Sword Qi Great Wall.

The ideal situation for the demonic army would be if the opposing sword immortals weren't content to stand by and watch as the mountains settled on the battlefield, but also didn't possess the resolve to do anything decisive about it. That way, they would send out more and more people to try and destroy the mountains, only to stop just short each time, whittling down their forces in the process.

Only sword immortals of at least the Unpolished Jade Tier would have any chance of striking down the mountains, and the more of them were sacrificed in vain, the more the tides of war would turn in the Savage World's favor.

The Savage World had intentionally taken it easy in the opening battle, but this time, they fully intended to kill a good number of sword immortals and deal the Sword Qi Great Wall a heavy blow.

Li Tuimi's immediate resolution to sacrifice himself was the last thing that Yang Zhi wanted to see.

She hurriedly began communicating with the mighty great demons concealed within the other four mountains through her mind's lake, telling them not to remain hidden and refrain from retaliation. If the demonic army were to successfully carry out its plan, then it was of the utmost importance that the four great demons remained hidden until it was time for them to be revealed.

Even though Li Tuimi had resolved to detonate his own golden core, soul, and bonded flying swords, the resulting explosion was already being suppressed by Yang Zhi's celestial-tool-tier Dao robe, so at the very most, he would only be able to destroy half of the mountain-protection formation, while the mountain itself would remain largely unharmed.

However, to her surprise, Zuo You lashed out with his sword once again, slicing through the dragon robe that enshrouded the mountain to ensure that the impact of Li Tuimi's sacrifice would be maximized.

With Zuo You clearing the path, Li Tuimi was able to make his final sacrifice count. His two bonded flying swords exploded with an almighty boom, and in the wake of the explosion, not even a single shred of his soul remained.

Not only was the entire mountain summit destroyed, but all of the demonic cultivators in the mountain-protection formation below the Nascent Tier also perished on the spot. As a result, the slowly stabilizing roots of the mountain were shaken violently.

It was undoubtedly going to be controversial that Zuo You had essentially just sent Li Tuimi to his doom, but he didn't stop there. Instead of retreating, he descended onto another one of the five mountains, then grasped the hilt of his sword with both hands before plunging it into the mountain summit.

How big could a mountain possibly be? Would it truly be able to withstand my sword qi?!

Yang Zhi was furious at this turn of events, but she reacted to the situation in an immediate and decisive manner. She discarded the celestial-tool-tier Dao robe to focus on the higher priority, which was stabilizing the fortune of the mountain, and on top of that, she continued to urge the other four great demons to remain hidden.

Killing Zuo You was going to be too difficult, so she was going to personally keep him occupied. The other four mountains had to at least kill several sword immortals of Li Tuimi's caliber. Otherwise, the second stage of the plan would be reduced to a massive joke.

She revealed her true form, and her massive body instantly rose to the mountain summit. During her ascent, she crushed many of the demonic cultivators on the mountain to death, but she could hardly care less.

The Hidden Official had been playing with her own braids this entire time, and her eyes instantly lit up in excitement at the unexpected flurry of action unfolding before her.

She turned to look at Chen Qingdu in the distance, and the latter said, "You can go play on your own."

The Hidden Official crouched down slightly, and a violent tremor ran through the entire city wall as she launched herself into the distance, crashing straight through a mountain.

After landing on the ground, she dusted herself off, then began racing back and forth, using her head to plow through the entire mountain over and over again.

Whenever she emerged from the mountain, she would always be looking a little dusty and disheveled, but she seemed to have been thoroughly enjoying herself.

The two close friends from the Pure White Continent, Zhang Xiao and Li Ding, exchanged a glance and a smile.

The two sword immortals then departed from the city walls in unison, soaring through the air atop their flying swords before picking out a mountain, with one of them landing at the foot of the mountain, while the other swooped down halfway up the mountain.

Sword Immortal Zhang Xiao stepped straight into the river that branched off from Elite Cavalry River, then declared with a smile, "I am Swordsman Zhang Xiao from the Pure White Continent."

Li Ding slowly scaled the mountain, then situated himself right next to Zhang Xiao with their backs facing one another, and he smiled and said, "What a coincidence! I am also a swordsman from the Pure White Continent."

The two of them were calmly embracing death, and they had destroyed the entire mountain's roots and water veins.

Atop the city walls, the old great sword immortal's eyes narrowed slightly as his gaze fell upon a certain spot on the battlefield, following which he took a step forward.

The old man in gray standing at the northern entrance of the tent smiled and said, "There's no hurry. You and I will only be responsible for wrapping things up. As long as you don’t take part in the battle, I definitely won't, either. At this point, I'm sure you've already gotten used to seeing your juniors die before your eyes one after another."

The old man in gray turned to Yang Zhi before issuing her an instruction, and the Ascension Tier great demons and Immortal Tier swordsmen concealed in the mountains immediately revealed themselves.

As for the survival of the thousands of demonic cultivators on the mountains, whether the mountains would be able to continue to take root on the battlefield, and how much longer the mountain-protection formations would be able to withstand the concerted attacks from the opposing sword immortals, that was no longer important to them.

The four great demons converged toward the middle mountain in unison to convene with Yang Zhi, and their objective was to kill Zuo You.

A short old man appeared on the scene, standing atop a flying sword, and he abruptly rose to over a hundred feet tall. Both his hair and brows were completely white, and he had a long staff resting on his shoulders. He slowly rose up into the sky atop his flying sword, and during his ascent, he was gobbling down dozens of pipa-bearing flying maidens each time he opened his mouth, as if he were munching on beans.

Dong Sangeng launched himself onto the battlefield from the city walls, and Chen Xi and Qi Tingji wanted to accompany him, but they were stopped by Chen Qingdu.

"Let Zuo You be," Chen Qingdu said. "It would do him some good to test himself in a trial of life and death. There are no good battles for him to fight in the Majestic World, but he'll get plenty of those here. If everything goes too smoothly for him, he'll continue to be a recluse, and his swordsmanship won't improve."

Dong Sangeng, Zuo You, and the Hidden Official, who was still playing on the battlefield, were locked in a confrontation against Yang Zhi, the staff-bearing old man, and four other great demons.

Standing atop the city walls, Yan Zhuo was biting down on his lower lip in a tense silence.

Elsewhere, Cheng Quan and Qi Shou's attention was focused entirely on the battlefield, and they failed to notice that Chen Ping'an had fallen completely still with a look of struggle on his face.

By the time Chen Ping'an's yin soul regained the ability to move, it was already too late.

A mishap that was even more massive than the mountains had just appeared on the battlefield.

The Hidden Official had punched straight through Zuo You's sword qi and blown a hole into his abdomen.

If he hadn't reacted just in the nick of time and taken some evasive measures, that punch would've destroyed his heart.

Zuo You instantly retreated several kilometers, and he was grabbed by the shoulder by Dong Sangeng, who withstood an all-out attack from the staff-bearing old man before fleeing with Zuo You.

Aside from a tiny handful of swordsmen on the Sword Qi Great Wall, everyone was stunned into silence by what they had just witnessed.

The Hidden Official spat out a mouthful of blood, then turned to Chen Qingdu and gave him the middle finger as she yelled, "You're the one who deserves to die the most, you old fart!"

Chen Qingdu only took an expressionless glance at the Hidden Official before turning his gaze to Dong Sangeng and Zuo You, and he mused to himself, "That junior brother of yours told me to be wary of the Hidden Official."

Aside from Dong Sangeng, even Chen Xi and Qi Tingji couldn't be fully trusted. Chen Xi harbored too much resentment, while Qi Tingji was too ambitious. The two old sword immortals could face the Sword Qi Great Wall with a clear conscience, but they harbored immense resentment toward the entire Majestic World. However, when it came to these two sword immortals, Chen Ping'an was ultimately unable to predict whether they would definitely defect to the Savage World.

On the ground below, the Hidden Official made a beckoning motion, and Zhu An and Luo Shan, who were in the process of attacking a nearby mountain, immediately stopped what they were doing before arriving by her side. From there, the three of them turned their backs on the Sword Qi Great Wall and made their way toward the Savage World.

Looking on from afar, Pang Yuanji collapsed to the ground atop the city walls, tears streaming down his face.

He couldn't understand why this had happened.

Chen Ping'an was finally able to move again, but he didn't go to confront Chen Qingdu for intentionally hiding the truth, nor did he go to visit the severely wounded Zuo You. It was never easy to judge who was right and who was wrong. Thus, Chen Ping'an merely sat down on the spot and opened his folding fan, peering over it onto the southern battlefield as he mused to himself, "Looks like we have a battle on our hands."

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