273: Thousand Gates Legend

With the instructions given, Oriental Heng stood above the Nine Heavens, looking down.

He saw an elderly Cultivator holding a golden saber and with a bronze bell suspended above his head, looking back at him from among the crowd.

Perceiving the Aura around this person, two words slowly surfaced in Oriental Heng's mind:

"Killable!"

Oriental Heng twirled the sword in his hand and recited again:

"A lone smoke in the desert rises straight!"

As the line was uttered, the scenery between heaven and earth transformed.

A vast desert stretched five hundred li.

Feeling the change in the surrounding scenery, Elder Zheng, who was possessed by a Soul Transformation being, subtly changed his expression.

He secretly marveled that this was indeed a Disciple of Forget-Love Peak; the power of his attack was not much inferior to that of an ordinary Nascent Soul.

"The long river sets with the round sun!"

Oriental Heng uttered another line, and a blood-red Great Sun appeared in the western part of the desert.

As soon as the Great Sun appeared, a sense of desolation immediately filled the world.

This was the result of Oriental Heng empowering it with sorrowful Sword Intent.

In the few years he had spent in the Great Abyss, besides raising his cultivation to the Peak of Core Formation, Oriental Heng had also cultivated his Literary Heart and Sword Gall.

Teaching the common people to shape their Literary Heart, and using the four Sword Intents of Forgetting Love, Rage, Sorrow, and Death to shape the Sword Gall!

This ability, among the nine Disciples of Forget-Love Peak, might not be considered top-tier.

But if taken to the outside world, he would be a Prodigy among Prodigies.

Fighting above his realm was merely commonplace!

As the sorrowful Sword Intent spread, the Liu Country soldiers and generals immediately recalled the most sorrowful events of their lives.

Cries shook the heavens, and they completely lost their combat effectiveness.

The Disciples also shed tears and snot, completely losing their ability to resist.

Immediately afterward, the desert beneath their feet suddenly turned into quicksand, threatening to bury these hundreds of thousands of soldiers in the desert.

Elder Zheng's eyes narrowed; forty thousand lives, this was an enormous amount of Karma.

Generally speaking, those who have no hope of cultivation care less about Karma.

Anyway, I'm not planning to undergo a Lightning Tribulation for a Breakthrough, so what's this bit of Karma?

The more a Prodigy Disciple, the less they dare to easily provoke Karma.

Does this person opposite him truly not fear it at all, daring to attack Mortals?

But at this moment, he couldn't afford to think about why Oriental Heng wasn't afraid.

These forty thousand soldiers were the foundation of Liu Country; they absolutely could not be lost.

He managed to stabilize the quicksand with difficulty, only to suddenly feel a burning sensation on his head.

Looking up, he saw the Great Sun in the sky rapidly falling towards the ground.

Elder Zheng flew up, holding his golden saber, and directly slashed towards that Great Sun.

Just as Elder Zheng approached the Great Sun, before he could even strike it.

In a trance, he saw a black shadow in the middle of this Great Sun.

He stared intently!

Hey! Guess what?

In the middle of the Great Sun was actually a Pill Furnace.

A sense of foreboding arose in Elder Zheng's heart, and he wanted to retreat, but it was too late.

Bang!

The Pill Furnace suddenly exploded in the air, and a huge shockwave spread out, tearing open spatial cracks.

The power of this explosion was comparable to a full-power strike from the Soul Transformation Realm!

Elder Zheng, who was closest to the explosion, didn't even have time to let out a scream before he was directly reduced to ashes.

The aftermath of the explosion continued to spread, and just as it was about to reach the heads of the Mortals below, a light barrier suddenly rose, firmly protecting these Mortals.

It turned out that the other Disciples of Forget-Love Peak had been prepared, quickly forming a formation to protect them.

Seeing this, Oriental Heng's lips curved slightly:

"Indeed, Revered Master was right; one cannot be too Emperor Tian (Di Tian) as a person; everything requires thought."

"It's just a pity for my Divine Rank exploding pill; using this one, I only have seventy-nine left. I need to use them sparingly."

Turning his head to look at the elite soldiers behind him who showed longing expressions, Oriental Heng pointed in the direction of Liu Country:

"We will not return until we break through Lou Lan!"

The other Disciples: "Huh?"

What about the promise to focus on defense?

However, seeing Oriental Heng's command, they dared not disobey and quickly led their troops out of the city.

In a cave three thousand li away, a thin, withered Daoist sitting cross-legged suddenly spat out a mouthful of blood:

"Pfft! What a Tai Shang Sect, what a Forget-Love Peak! Heaven is destroying my Xuanwei Sect!"

As the withered Daoist was covering his face and weeping, a teasing voice came:

"I hate people like you the most; as soon as you lose, you say heaven is destroying you."

"It's clearly just not daring to admit your own mistakes, a typical case of being able to win but not lose."

The withered Daoist looked in the direction of the voice, only to see the Heavenly Cripple Duo walking in from the cave entrance.

The withered Daoist gave a tragic laugh, then suddenly raised his hand and slapped his own heavenly spirit, instantly dying.

The Heavenly Cripple Duo then conjured flames to burn the withered Daoist's corpse.

However, as it burned, screams were heard again.

Clearly, the withered Daoist didn't truly commit suicide but intended to escape through it.

If he had encountered others, he might have truly escaped, but unfortunately, he encountered people from Forget-Love Peak.

After cremating the body, Ninth Sun retrieved the storage ring left by the withered Daoist.

After checking each Magic Treasure with his Divine Sense and confirming there were no remnants of Divine Soul, Ninth Sun snorted coldly:

"You thought I wouldn't find you hiding in a secret treasure?"

Saying that, his Divine Sense transformed into a silver needle, about to pierce a certain spot.

Just as the silver needle was about to pierce, Ninth Sun suddenly saw a finger bone in the storage ring tremble slightly.

Ninth Sun grinned widely:

"I didn't expect there to be a backup plan. I originally thought the Peak Revered Master was being overly cautious, but now it seems that none of the procedures he instructed me on were useless."

The withered Daoist hiding in the finger bone realized at these words that he had fallen into a trap.

He wanted to say some harsh words before he died, but he didn't even get a chance to speak before he was directly reduced to ashes, completely dead.

...

On the first day of September, the three countries of Yan, Liu, and Wenren used the strategy of feigning a direct attack while striking elsewhere, intending to encircle and attack Tai Shang Sect.

Yan Country moved first, leading 170,000 troops, claiming 300,000 to the outside world, and marched towards the Great Abyss.

On the same day, Qianqiu, the Emperor of the Great Abyss, dispatched Forget-Love Peak's Inner Sect Disciple Gou Dezhu to Chang River to block Yan Country, stopping Yan Country at the riverbank.

During this time, Yan Country made multiple feigned attacks, but Gou Dezhu remained still, using stillness to counter movement, his tactics steady.

The next day, outside Sword Gorge Pass, Gu Liangyuan's personal fourth Disciple, Jun Ao Zhi, led troops to Sword Gorge Pass, proactively left the pass, broke Wenren Country's Hidden Dragon Formation, annihilated Purple Cloud Palace, and within half a month, captured twenty-four cities, taking down Wenren Country.

On the same day, Xuanwei Sect, leading Liu Country's generals, attacked Great Abyss's Three Star City, but was stopped by Oriental Heng using a Divine Ability.

Xuanwei Sect was not convinced, and there were suspicions of a Core Formation and above existence secretly making a move, but it was still broken by Oriental Heng, who then proactively left the city and took down Liu Country.

The person behind Xuanwei Sect's move was also slain by Forget-Love Peak's Heavenly Cripple Duo.

On September 22nd, Liu and Wenren Countries were annihilated and officially incorporated into the Great Abyss's territory.

The next day, Gou Dezhu led his troops to annihilate Luo Xue Sect and take down Yan Country.

By this point, the Great Abyss's territory had expanded threefold, occupying a square on the large chessboard of the Eastern Continent.

This battle was the first battle initiated by the Fu Long Court.

People were not surprised by this result, as the strength of Tai Shang Sect was evident.

However, the process itself sparked much controversy.

Where did these three small Sects get the courage to encircle and attack Tai Shang Sect?

Also, did Xuanwei Sect truly violate the rules?

If a Soul Transformation being truly made a move, how did Oriental Heng, a mere Core Formation, win?

There was no evidence that Xuanwei Sect violated the rules, but Xuanwei Sect's Old Ancestor died at the hands of Tai Shang Sect, which Tai Shang Sect itself admitted.

Moreover, Tai Shang Sect's Disciples acted ruthlessly; once they made a move, they aimed for lives.

They even didn't spare the Sects behind them.

The reason for the Fu Long Court in the Eastern Continent was to avoid Sect conflicts, allowing Disciples to rely on their own abilities.

Was Gu Liangyuan's action a bit excessive?

Therefore, a rumor quietly spread across the Eastern Continent:

"Xuanwei Sect's Old Ancestor did not make a move. Because Xuanwei Sect brought pressure to the Great Abyss, Gu Liangyuan sent people directly to find Xuanwei Old Ancestor to threaten him, saying they would kill him if he didn't surrender."

"Xuanwei Old Ancestor, in order to survive, reluctantly agreed to Gu Liangyuan's request, but after the matter was done, Gu Liangyuan feared Xuanwei Old Ancestor would report him, so he killed him."