Chapter 1707 — The Battle of Triumph

At his command, the curtains on those tower ships were drawn back one after another, and upon them stood figures of the divine — all of them gods and demons of the Yaochi Jade Capital realm!

In the Celestial River Navy, the strongest were the armies of the Celestial River Pagodas; and now, all of Carefree Village's armies had been committed, while the Celestial River Pagodas still had not stirred!

Moreover, on every tower ship there was a great weapon — mountains, rivers, seas, clouds — all refined from the holy lands of the Ancestral Court!

Most striking among them was the Nine Hells Terrace!

Suddenly, two lines of muddy tears ran down the Woodcutter's cheeks, and he murmured, "We need a victory, a great victory..."

As if a weight had lifted from him, he suddenly cried in a loud voice, "All soldiers, hear my command — raise the great weapons of Jingping!"

The Fisherman Hantang, his body covered in wounds, was fighting the Left Junior Chancellor Yan Sheng alongside two great red kun. Yan Sheng was a powerhouse of the Imperial Throne, far above him in strength; Hantang, master of the way of beast-taming, kept seizing different giant beasts to fight Yan Sheng, but he could only take blows, with no room to strike back.

The soldiers under his command were likewise many wounded and many dead; if this went on, annihilation was certain.

Just then the Woodcutter's voice came. Hantang's spirit blazed, and he cried sternly, "Raise the Myriad Heavens Landscape Scroll!"

One scroll after another unfurled across the sky, spreading wide; majestic mountains and rivers came rushing at them, and swiftly turned from painting into truth!

The Five Chariots army charged into that landscape, where mountains stretched vast and waters stretched vast, endless and unbroken; they looked back, and could no longer find the road by which they had come.

The Left Junior Chancellor looked up and saw the many heavens and worlds, great and small, floating in the sky, and within them no small number of Five Chariots soldiers, scurrying about like headless flies.

The Painting Sage of Jingping's Myriad Heavens Landscape Scroll — one scroll, one heaven, and each heaven linked to the others. Hantang led his remnant troops and gathered his superior force to hunt down the scattered Five Chariots armies, wiping them out one by one.

The Left Junior Chancellor Yan Sheng watched, his eyes splitting with fury, and at once led his remaining troops in a charge at the heaven where Hantang stood.

Suddenly he halted, his face grave, staring ahead. There was a mountain peak, and at its summit sat a man leaning on the Carefree Sword.

The Left Junior Chancellor Yan Sheng's eye twitched wildly. "Kaihuang Shen Ye! Are you not dead?"

Suddenly he heard the sound of a qin, and looked to another peak, where the Moon Heavenly Venerate sat playing.

His mind fell into chaos, and suddenly he saw yet another peak wreathed in ten thousand zhang of purple qi, where the Cloud Heavenly Venerate stood beneath the Dao tree, robes fluttering.

Cold sweat beaded his forehead, and he laughed aloud. "All false — nothing but paintings!"

Then he saw Shen Mu in the painting, Lang Wan in the painting, and in the painting the Nether Heavenly Venerate, Tubo, and the Heavenly Duke.

The Painting Sage of Jingping, also called the Deaf Elder and the Heavenly Chart Prince, had in the way of painting already reached the Twenty-Eight Myriad Heavens realm!

Above the Celestial River, the Ark of the Other Shore was besieged and in dire peril. The Heavenly King Di Shitian also heard the Woodcutter Sage's shout, and his spirit blazed at the sound. With a great cry, ship after ship flew out from the Ark's holds!

Those ships were like modules, endlessly joining and combining with one another, and soon upon the Celestial River they assembled into a colossus no smaller than the Ark of the Other Shore!

This ship was the Peerless Great Ship that Wei Suifeng had designed expressly to break the Celestial River Pagodas!

Di Shitian's fleshly body swelled joint by joint; he leaped and landed upon that ship, crying loudly, "Poison your weapons — follow me to break the Celestial River Pagodas!"

The soldiers under his command smeared the virulent poison sent from Jingping upon their divine weapons, tore open the Heavenly Court fleet's barriers, and the Peerless Great Ship drove straight at the Celestial River Pagodas!

The armies of Carefree Village raised the various divine weapons sent from Jingping, and in a moment the tide of battle turned; the Celestial River Navy fell to the disadvantage!

Zhu Shaoping's mind was thrown into chaos. Suddenly he saw a formation diagram unfurl, forming in the air palace after heavenly palace, palaces staggered and scattered, with who knew how many gods and demons of Carefree Village seated within them, become part of those heavenly palaces and that heavenly court!

"The Great Heavenly Court Formation!"

Zhu Shaoping's head swam. Wherever that formation passed, the warships of the Celestial River Navy shattered to pieces, as if under the assault of a Heavenly Venerate!

The formation diagram drove straight at the Divine King Lang Wan and settled behind her head.

Lang Wan had nearly been slain by Lady Taiyin; with the diagram behind her head, the breath of thirty-six heavenly palaces merged with her, and she said calmly, "Taiyou, do you know how mighty the power one holds after attaining the Dao is?"

Lady Taiyin's pupils shrank, and she drove the Taiji Vein to guard her whole body.

"I did not know before."

Lang Wan raised her palm. "But now I know. And you too will soon know how terrible that power you yearn for truly is."

The Woodcutter Sage wiped the tears from his temples. Behind him, the Martial Heavenly Master Zhuo Cha, seeing the state of the battle, felt his blood boil and itched to move.

Yet the Woodcutter never gave the order to send him out. Zhuo Cha could bear it at first, but at last he could bear it no longer and shouted, "Woodcutter, isn't it my turn yet?"

The Woodcutter shook his head.

Zhuo Cha waited a while more, then roared, "Let me fight, now!"

The Woodcutter shook his head again. "You cannot fight. If you fight, Zhu Shaoping will come to kill me. If I die, Carefree Village loses. I cannot die. With you here, Zhu Shaoping dares not come to kill me. Your role is to protect me."

The Martial Heavenly Master flew into a rage, raising his fist; Niu Sanduo hastily took human form and clung to him, crying, "Master, you must not strike! Kill him, and Carefree Village truly loses!"

The Woodcutter said earnestly, "You should listen to Sanduo. Guard me well, and that is your greatest merit."

The Martial Heavenly Master roared, shaking Niu Sanduo off, sat down cross-legged, and seized a handful of stones, crushing them to powder.

The Black Tiger God sat beside the Woodcutter, head bowed, staring at the ground, not daring to make a sound.