Wu Qi arrived at Blue Phoenix Rock along with dozens of his personal guards.
The place was once surrounded by beautiful sceneries, with Luans [1] flying and singing in the sky. But now, it was in a complete mess. Eighteen layers of defensive barriers that protected the main peak as well as the area thousands of miles around it had been breached and brought down by Bo Yunting's army. Whenever a layer of barrier was destroyed, it was as if a major catastrophe had struck. The surrounding mountains and hills were razed to the ground; the land was dotted with countless hundreds of miles deep sinkholes, ripped with numerous massive cracks. Dark smoke and poisonous gases sprayed out endlessly from under the ground. The main peak of Blue Phoenix Rock was the only mountain that was still standing, and it looked like hell.
The one hundred thousand feet tall Blue Phoenix Rock was the only piece of green that had been preserved within thousands of miles around it. However, hundreds of ornate pavilions and bridges on the mountain had collapsed for the most part, and dozens of palaces seemed to have been captured and burned by the soldiers. Although the fire had been put out, plumes of black smoke were still rising high in the sky.
The sky rang with deep and depressing sounds of war drums. Nearly one hundred large flying ships were wheeling in the clouds across the distance, with squads of soldiers sitting cross-legged on the decks, all ready to strike again. The siege was joined by Feathermen as well; there were about fifty thousand of them, flying in groups across the sky near Blue Phoenix Rock, forming a tight defense to prevent any Immortals and itinerant cultivators from escaping.
Above Blue Phoenix Rock, a slim female Immortal clad in a blue dress with a blue veil covering her face was standing on a cloud. Flocks of blue light shaped like feathers circled rapidly around her, filling the air with piercing whistles. She was accompanied by dozens of Immortals and itinerant cultivators whose faces were all unsightly; some with blood stains, some with holes in their bodies, and some missing an arm. Apart from her, no one was in a perfect shape.
A square cloud platform was suspended in the air several miles in front of Blue Phoenix Rock, and ten thousand feet above the ground. A large gold-gilded tent stood loftily on the platform, with neatly arranged military camps to its left and right. By the looks of it, the camps could accommodate some five thousand soldiers. Outside the large tent stood two rows of twenty-four stone pillars, each measuring thirty feet in diameter and three hundred feet in height. A large fire bowl was sitting atop them, where green flames danced and towered into the sky, smearing the entire Blue Phoenix Rock green and filling the atmosphere with a menacing chill.
Under each pillar stood three Long Bo men; one hundred feet tall, clad in heavy golden armor, and holding giant axes; with pale golden fiend symbols covering their entire bodies. Their cultivation bases were as strong as Wu Qi; in other words, their actual combat strength was strong enough to fight against lower-tier Gold Immortals.
As Wu Qi and his personal guards set foot on the cloud platform, they were immediately greeted by a Long Bo man. The giant lowered his head to stare at Wu Qi and demanded in a deep voice, "Who are you?"
Pulling out the silver token that represented his military rank, Wu Qi held it up in the air and cried, "I am the Military Minister of Hai Province's Military Court, Colonel Tan Lang!"
Two beams of golden light shot out of the giant's eyes and rested on the token, generating silvery ripples that spread across the void. Suddenly, the Qilin on the token turned into a ball of light, about the size of a human head, and rushed out. It threw its head back and roared, while the six clouds beside it turned into six colorful balls of light and wheeled around it. In the next moment, a fine thread of silver light darted out of the Qilin's mouth, drawing out Wu Qi's facial appearance in the air before leaping toward him.
A splendid gleam radiated from Wu Qi's body as the image created by the silver light merged perfectly with him, and a crisp voice rang out, "The Military Minister of Hai Province's Military Court, Colonel Tan Lang!"
The strange displays of the token were parts of the means employed by Great Yu's military to verify the identity of military officers, and to prevent Immortals from using illusions to spy on the military. The spell on the token was so inscrutable that Wu Qi had failed to determine its origin even with his present cultivation base and experiences. In short, no one could fool this security check except a Primordial Immortal who was shameless enough.
"Welcome, Your Excellency!" The Long Bo man then said as he smiled affably, cupped his fists, and stepped out of the way. Wu Qi ordered his personal guards to stay of the tent while he strode inside. They would soon be attended to by some military officers stationed here.
Looking from the outside, the gold-gilded tent was only about one thousand feet in both width and length; but, it was a whole different world inside. Not only did it serve as Bo Yunting's command post, but it was also the army's rear supply camp and workshop. After entering the tent, there were two entrances to each side, one leading to the rear supply camp and the other to the workshop. And, then there was the third entrance, right in the middle but ten miles away, which led to Bo Yunting's tent.
In fact, the gold-gilded tent was a spatial treasure with an internal space of about one hundred miles circumference. The various supplies stored in it could support an army of two hundred thousand soldiers to undertake more than three years of uninterrupted war. On top of that, its defensive strength was extremely powerful, and basically impregnable unless it was attacked by more than ten Gold Immortals together, all using Gold Immortal items.
Five or six hundred military officers had already gathered in the commander's tent when Wu Qi entered. They served in the military across the three hundred provinces under Zhong Province. When the war broke out, just like Wu Qi, they had led smaller armies to attack the rally points of itinerant cultivators. But now, they were all ordered to come here by Bo Yunting.
Wu Qi was a first-grade colonel, and that ranked him below the top one hundred military officers who had gathered here. Without saying a word, he fell into line according to the military rank. Sitting loftily behind the commander's desk, Bo Yunting only gave him a quick glance and a brief nod.
In the next hour, hundreds of military officers rushed in and filled the tent; and soon, all the military officers under Bo Yunting had arrived. The commander rose to his feet, pressed both hands against the desk, and said in a bad tone, "Someone is going to intervene in our mission of suppressing the Immortals and itinerant cultivators on Pangu Continent!"
Bo Yunting was a twelve feet tall man, with a fierce blue face that looked like a goat and a body full of muscles. As soon as he stood up and grunted, a strong might washed across the tent. Wu Qi could not help but admire this man. As the third son of Bo Zhongfu, it was said that he was once a high-grade military officer in the Human Emperor's Imperial Army. He had followed his father to Zhong Province, and was put in charge of the Military Court. He was truly a figure with outstanding overall strength and talent.
More than one year ago, Bo Yunting had led one hundred thousand private soldiers of Bo Clan to reinforce Ningbo City; but in the end, all his men were killed by Myriad Immortal Alliance with the meteor. The resentment nearly drove him mad. Therefore, when the Human Emperor issued the decree, he immediately assembled a great army and stormed the itinerant cultivators in Zhong Province, smearing the land red with their blood. Personally, he had slain more than one thousand and seven hundred Immortals during the war, which showed how ruthless and strong he was.
"The King of Han, Liu Bang!" Bo Yunting's narrow lips curled in a contemptuous smile. "He is merely a thirty-second grade Heaven Immortal, and yet the Heaven conferred him the title of Immortal King. A lesser man like this is appointed as the ambassador of the Heaven to Great Yu, and even worse, he is intervening in the war in Zhong Province as soon as he assumed the office!"
He gave the desk made of gold essence a light punch, immediately crushing it to pieces. "How I wish I could kill this b*stard!" said Bo Yunting with a cold snort. "But, he is an Immortal King, the Celestial Ambassador appointed by the Heaven. So, don't act recklessly when you see him. We'll see what he wants to say!"
As Bo Yunting was telling his subordinates not to act impulsively, a soft voice suddenly drifted into the tent, "The Celestial Ambassador has arrived! Who is the commander-in-chief? Come out now and receive the honorable guest!"
"Damn!" Bo Yunting muttered a curse. "Let's go out and welcome the... Celestial Ambassador!"
At the order, everyone in the tent started moving out. Of all the military officers here, none of them was weaker than Third Stars Realm of First Pangu Heaven. So, when the thousand of them turned and stamped their feet at the same time, the tent swayed with a deafening boom and was filled up with a towering killing intent. Clenching his jaw, Bo Yunting strode out of the tent with one thousand ferocious military officers following closely behind.
Outside the tent, a chariot dragged by three dragons was hovering in midair, and behind it were three smaller chariots, each dragged by a flood dragon. Next to the four chariots were sixty pairs of beautiful girls, who carried all kinds of ceremony instruments and looked down at the gold-gilded tent with smiles on their faces. Some of them were holding baskets of flowers, constantly taking out petals from them and sprinkling them down.
In addition to the sixty pairs of beautiful girls who were at most at the Gold Core realm, the chariots were also surrounded by three thousand soldiers. Clad in golden armors, the soldiers looked valiant and arrogant with their noses pointing at the sky. The strongest soldiers were at the level of thirtieth tier Heaven Immortal realm, while the weakest at the level of Nascent Divinity realm.
In the vast crowd, a man stepping on a cloud and flying beside the first chariot instantly attracted Wu Qi's eyes. He was none other than Reverend Li Yang!
Wu Qi could never forget that face! Even in his dreams, he had hoped that he could kill this wicked Seventh Tier Gold Immortal with a sword. Yet, he had never expected to see this man here, right beside the new Celestial Ambassador.
As he was studying the parade, a soft and sweet voice echoed out of the chariot, "Kneel down and welcome the arrival of the Celestial Ambassador! Aye, don't touch there, my king… It tickles me!"
Wu Qi's face turned a little bit blue, and Bo Yunting, whose face had been blue at the beginning, turned dark as if a thunderstorm was brewing under his skin. He suddenly reached down to the hilt of his sword.
Not a person on the cloud platform moved. Seeing that, Reverend Li Yang frowned.
He flew over and halted right above the cloud platform, pointing a finger at Bo Yunting as he shouted, "How can you be so arrogant when the Celestial Ambassador is right in front of you? Do you have no respect for the Heaven, the Great Celestial Emperor?"
Bo Yunting responded with a cold snort. Suddenly, he strode forward, drew his sword, and thrust it towards Reverend Li Yang.