Chapter 382: 356 Pixiu Sword

While Tang Zhao calmed his heart and cast aside all distracting thoughts to focus on constructing the Charm Tool to mend the gap, the battlefield on the other side was in complete chaos.

The Xiuluo City in the sky became increasingly solid; the Sword Guests below could see its wide, heavy walls and the exquisite details of its architecture. The style of Xiuluo City was filled with an eerie fantasy, completely different from Moyun City or the architecture of the Human World, yet it certainly possessed a unique artistic aesthetic.

The recent anomaly of the heaven and earth resonating made everyone feel tense: this was an unprecedented catastrophe. If it was truly caused by Xiuluo City, did that mean—the incoming enemy was stronger than ever before?

Cui Yinsheng stared at the Xiuluo City on the horizon, bloodshot streaks gradually appearing in his eyes. The recent anomaly had also disrupted the confidence he had previously held.

"All comrades—" He pointed a finger, and a sword as long as a great spear flew out of its sheath, pointing straight at the sky. The Pixiu simultaneously raised its head and roared before him!

Inside Xiuluo City, that great gate was opening; a point of light behind the gate grew brighter and brighter, as if it were an eye filled with eeriness.

"Form up!"

At this moment, inside and outside the Yunhai, apart from the spots where Sword Guests and soldiers stood, other positions were already filled with countless bean-sprout men. Unlike the tool-men working hard under Tang Zhao, these bean-sprout men were worthy of being called "sprout soldiers"; they were arranged neatly with distinct formations, their slender bodies standing straight, their heights uniform, actually possessing quite a military bearing.

Although the sprout soldiers could not be said to have equipment, they only held long cast-iron spears about a zhang in length. But looking from afar, the spears were like a forest, the soldiers like clouds, the formations filling the mountains and seas, like a raging fire, the momentum of the great legion climbing step by step.

What the Pixiu Sword required was precisely this kind of momentum.

The command platform waved its flags, and the officers and soldiers moved according to the flags.

One flag moved, one person stepped forward.

Two flags moved, ten people formed a squad.

Three flags moved, one hundred people formed a company—

One thousand people formed a battalion, ten thousand people formed an army...

One person, ten people, one hundred people, one thousand people, ten thousand people!

Eight or nine thousand sprout soldiers, led by over a hundred soldiers, raised their spears to the sky and shouted "Long live" in unison.

When one person left the formation, it was not obvious, but when ten people formed a squad, a trace of inexplicable momentum rose; by the time one hundred people formed a company, that sharp aura of slaughter was already ready to burst forth; by the time it reached a thousand or ten thousand, the aura of slaughter condensed until it was visible to the naked eye, forming ropes, nets, and cages, rushing headlong toward...

The Pixiu on the command platform!

Urged by the momentum, the Pixiu's form suddenly expanded, as if it had unleashed the Supernatural Power of Law of Heaven and Earth, growing to over ten zhang in length. Its aura of military slaughter pressed down on all living things like a mountain, already resembling a true divine beast!

This was the Pixiu Sword.

The Pixiu Sword was originally a sword for elite troops and strong generals, and also a sword for thousands of armies and horses.

Any momentum condensed by a military formation could empower the Pixiu Sword; this was called "Borrowing Momentum." The more people, the greater the momentum, and the stronger the power of the Pixiu Sword.

Moreover, this suppression rose exponentially. If there were thousands of armies and horses, the momentum would soar to the sky, and a single sword strike could shake the stars and turn the world upside down!

That is why people said that Cui Yinsheng, the Pixiu Sword, could lead troops—the more, the better!

It was a pity that although there were thousands or ten thousand now, they were ultimately sprout soldiers. Sprout soldiers only had the momentum generated by neat formations; they had no killing intent, no baleful aura.

That kind of killing intent, condensed into substance, could only be accumulated by battle-hardened elite troops through countless battlefield slaughters and war experience; it could not be easily imitated. Sprout soldiers were just little soldiers grown from the soil, as pure as a handful of bean sprouts; they had only the aura of the earth, how could they have killing intent?

The momentum of one hundred sprout soldiers could not compare to one true veteran soldier.

If it came to combat power, it was about the same.

This was also why the convenient and easy-to-use sprout soldiers were not rampant in Qianjin City, and were not even very popular.

Except for Moyun City, other cities would not raise sprout soldiers in large numbers; they were not even qualified to be cannon fodder, and were only useful for manual labor like building city walls or moving stones.

Only the Pixiu Sword sometimes used them to support momentum. With nearly ten thousand sprout soldiers, even if it were just flags and spears, it was enough to stop a river by throwing whips into it.

Looking from afar, the ten thousand sprout soldiers were truly spectacular, their momentum soaring to the sky.

They would not fear, would not be in chaos, holding the formation steady, their momentum flowing endlessly.

As long as the momentum did not cease, the main force would not be in chaos, the overall situation would appear stable, and it could in turn increase morale. The mortal soldiers leading them could also maintain stability, and these ordinary people with limited combat power found the meaning of staying here to fight. The sprout soldiers and the soldiers complemented each other.

Besides the borrowed momentum, the Pixiu Sword's own momentum was also climbing step by step; Sword Essence surged from the sword, entwining with the momentum, the two mutually reinforcing each other.

Cui Yinsheng stared fixedly at the city in the sky. He was still worried about Tang Zhao, who was struggling in the very center of the rift, wanting to know how the progress of mending the gap was going, but he truly had no attention to spare for them. He could only hope that the Talisman Sword Master he had picked up halfway was strong enough to have the final say.

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh—

As the command flag waved, dozens of Sword Guests drew their swords one after another. According to military discipline, they did not unleash their Sword Images in advance; only streaks of Sword Qi crisscrossed in the air, and the momentum climbed once more.

Sword Guests were different from ordinary soldiers; their swords would protect them. Unless the Sword Guests were willing, their momentum would not be directly borrowed by the Pixiu Sword. And in non-emergency states, even Cui Yinsheng would not require all Sword Guests to open their Sword Hearts and lead those Sword Qi into themselves, because that would cause the power of one person to completely suppress all the Sword Guests present, preventing everyone's Sword Intent from being extended. They would not even be able to release their Sword Images. Although his power would greatly increase, the overall strength of the legion would instead decline.

Their own momentum rose, which greatly boosted morale. For a time, the momentum of the three-tier military formation—formation, Sword Guests, and general—merged, reaching the point of being ready to strike.

"Roar—"

A loud roar came from the clouds.

That sound was indeed fierce and loud, yet it did not seem to be the sound of any beast, but rather like it came from a human throat.

The Xiuluo City in the sky finally became completely solid, the city firm and stable, as if it had been hanging high in the sky since ancient times.

Cui Yinsheng gave a shout and said loudly: "Friends on the other side. Which unit are you from? The Boundary Gap is not open, the Heavenly Demons do not enter; do you still remember the rules between the two worlds? Is your Great King trying to provoke my entire region?"

Answering him was one roar after another.

There was more than one person on the other side, and they also had thousands of armies and horses ready to strike. Judging from the roars that erupted from the depths of their throats, they were less like soldiers and horses, and more like a pack of hungry wolves.

Cui Yinsheng instead smiled and said coldly: "So we've met someone who doesn't understand the rules. Fine, the ignorant are not guilty, but the ignorant also die without resentment!"

As he spoke, his Sword Qi surged, as if he would pierce that city wall directly in the next moment and counterattack. But in the end, the Sword Qi only rose to mid-air like a torch.

Moyun City was, after all, the defending side, and even Qianjin City was only a defending side. They were bound by rules; facing a powerful enemy like the Xiuluo, they had to strike only after the enemy had struck, strictly observing all rules so as not to give others a handle against them.

Cui Yinsheng had a fiery temper, yet he had a heavy responsibility on his shoulders and ultimately had to prioritize the overall situation. Having been on the front line for a long time, he knew some hidden situations and taboos; only when the Heavenly Demons actively attacked the Human World could they rightfully launch a counterattack, otherwise they might violate deeper taboos.

However, it was almost time.

He looked up and saw the figure faintly appearing in front of the gate.

"Done!"

At the same time, on the floating board, Tang Zhao carved the final stroke.

Under the gaze of Elder Ou Ye's complex eyes across the Copper Mirror, Tang Zhao shouted, telling all the bean-sprout soldiers to act together to push this giant stone, which was several zhang high, into the depths of the Yunhai—

Others might not be able to see clearly, but in Tang Zhao's eyes, that giant stone was exactly the shape of the Boundary Gap, shrunk several hundred times. Its edges were blurry, constantly contracting and expanding.

Drifting and flickering, the giant stone finally flew to a very subtle position, and together with the formation base already set up next to the rift, they clamped into a layered and regular geometric angle.

"Mend—"

Beams of light issued from the base of the array, spiraling like a whirlpool, wrapping layer by layer around the Array Eye, just as countless screws would lock onto a nut.

The Array Eye began to rotate instantly, emitting layers of invisible air columns that expanded unceasingly, growing larger along a special trajectory. It was as if a giant hand were tightening a bottle cap.

Behind the fastest-extending air column, a slightly smaller circle of flickering light flames was also expanding, and in the deeper Inner layer, viscous, seemingly formless liquid was just about to flow out.

Layer upon layer, the energy within the giant stone stretched toward the fissure like a thousand-layer cake, until every layer expanded to the edge of the Boundary Gap, firmly sealing the fissure shut.

The first layer to lock in was the outermost, most ethereal Wind Quality Layer!

Whether it could be locked in seamlessly depended on this first layer of mortise and tenon.

The Wind Quality Layer was invisible to the naked eye, its stable extension almost impossible to capture. But in Tang Zhao's eyes, that boundary had completely transformed into the shape of the gap through complex changes.

"It can connect!"

Almost the moment he reached his conclusion, the gap seemed to shudder, then suddenly stabilized. The surrounding Yunhai also stopped churning, as if time had frozen at this moment.

It stuck!

The Boundary Gap was as if a wound had been plastered with transparent ointment; it stopped twitching, and the blood loss also ceased.

However, the wound had not healed, nor did it even appear to have narrowed; that was something that could only be achieved once the second layer, the Fire Quality Layer, the third layer, the Water Quality Layer, and even the fourth layer, the Soil Layer, were all completely covered.

That would likely not happen in a short while. The speed of the second layer was ten times slower than the first, and the third layer was ten times slower again...

What Tang Zhao feared was that if the second layer did not have time to seal, the opposition would charge over and wash away the perfectly good repair materials, rendering his efforts useless.

Regardless, his mission as a Talisman Sword Master had come to an end; since he had let go of the Rune Stone, there was no room left for adjustment.

Now it was time to fight!

He drew his sword, his gaze sweeping across the two Shadows in the sky and the cave.

For the sake of final victory, he had to continue contributing his strength and fight like a Sword Guest.

After he made up his mind and drew his sword, the fairy who had been floating quietly behind him shook her head; although there was no mockery, her indifferent features seemed to reveal dissatisfaction, and she opened her mouth silently, as if saying: "Clumsy!"