Chapter 170 — The Divine Sword
The Sword Questions the Heavens · Page 5 of 6
With each syllable he cried, in the clear and open world, in the blue sky where no cloud or wind stirred, there came—startlingly—a peal of thunder to accompany it, shaking heaven and earth; a awe-inspiring force descended from the sky, formless yet as though possessed of substance, pouring in through the crown of his head. A gale rose, and upon his body, as though bursting apart—*bang, bang, bang*—like explosions, three in time with his three cries, the garments of his upper body burst asunder in an instant, crumbling to flying ash.
And beneath his feet, across the vast earth, the mighty Canglan range rumbled; the ground began faintly to tremble, and the seven peaks of Mount Canglan that pierced the clouds—Tongtian, Longshou, Zhaoyang, Luoxia, Fenghui, Dazhu, and Xiaozhu, all seven without exception—from their green hills and deep valleys, their towering cliffs and giant boulders, began to give forth golden light, stronger and brighter, gradually gathering into form, blazing gold, as though projected from the very depths of the mountain-range's spirit peaks; or as though these many mountains themselves were alive, and in that dazzling golden radiance the vast peaks slowly breathed.
And amid the swaying, dazzling golden light, seven immense golden patterns of differing shapes at last coalesced, hovering above the earth and the mountain peaks, facing from afar that ancient Slaying Immortal Sword in the heavens.
Blazing across the heavens!
Resplendent and magnificent!
Even the Beast Lord was struck with dread!
The Slaying Immortal Ancient Sword trembled ever more violently, and the taiji diagram congealed from fresh blood that it pierced had already spun so fast it could no longer be seen clearly. On the face of Daoist Daoyan, gold and green flickered in turn, and suddenly he snapped open his eyes and bellowed:
"Break!"
The moment the word "break" left his lips, the countless sword-shadows filling the sky swayed and shook violently; the vast reaches of the heavens darkened utterly, wild winds drove the stones before them, the mountains quaked and the earth heaved, strange rocks came crashing down one after another, and the golden pattern of the Seven Veins, once so solemn and majestic, seemed to be torn apart by some colossal force and began slowly to come apart.
Almost at the same instant, the radiance upon the ancient Slaying Immortal Sword grew ever more intense, its white glare so dazzling that it wrapped even the figure of Daoist Daoyan entirely within it. And amid this earth-shaking, heart-stopping spectacle, the seven-colored strange lights that had risen from the peaks of the Seven Veins suddenly vanished. At the same time, the countless sword-shadows in the sky likewise gradually faded away, leaving only that seven-colored master sword within the Slaying Immortal Sword Formation, which blazed all the more brilliantly.
"Boom!"
A thunderclap resounded through heaven and earth, the ground shook more violently still, and the golden halos upon the peaks of the Seven Veins had reached their final moment—at last they dissolved completely and were seen no more.
The rolling thunder seemed to surge and swell across the horizon like the tide, yet the earth beneath their feet suddenly fell quiet, stirring no more, splitting no more. Then, almost at the very same moment, strange lights of every hue, more than ten times stronger than before, rose with a rumbling roar, surging skyward, and once again converged upon the ancient Slaying Immortal Sword.