The Verdant Canyon had collapsed, but its entrance was flat and wide while the inside of the canyon was blocked by huge rocks like a horrible iron wall.
Hundreds of armored cavalrymen had raided from the south and planned to push the disciples to their deaths by impacting them. However, in such terrain, even if they could succeed, they also would not survive.
Therefore, they were already prepared for death. Even still, when seeing their companions fall, they could not help being afraid. But they had to grit their teeth and continue rushing forward.
In a short time, countless cavalrymen and their horses had fallen injured to the ground. The wounded men struggled to stand up to no avail and the scene looked extremely bloody and miserable. And when the last dozen riders confirmed that they had failed, they had to turn around and withdraw.
The autumn wind blew over the carriages in the coalition. The Great Divine Priest of Revelation stopped reading the decretals. Looking at the gorge, he revealed a complicated expression and said with a sigh, “Tonality isn’t orthodox. Even if the two of you could enter the Knowing Destiny State, you will not see the end of Heaven’s Way. What’s the point?”
The Great Divine Priest of Revelation’s voice resounded at the entrance.
Beigong Weiyang knew what he was talking about. Looking toward the south, he said, “Everything in the world is the Tao and practicing tonality is also cultivation. However, it doesn’t serve wars, but is used for realization. What’s the difference between a Knowing Destiny State cultivator and an ordinary person playing the qin? I thought you were different, but you still don’t understand it.”
No one was listening to them at the entrance because everyone was busy with their own matters. The Seventh Sister was dividing the threads while the Fourth Brother, holding the Sandtable, was asking the Sixth Brother to insert something into the ground.
The West-Hill Divine Palace Coalition Army would not give them any chance to rest. When they saw they were going to fail, many archers were prepared and were about to shoot.
Upon hearing the command, countless shooters buzzed their bowstrings and shot up into the sky as if they would shoot through it.
When the arrows reached their apex, they began to fall like a dark storm, creating sharp and frightening sounds, and rained down on the Verdant Canyon.
Looking at the incoming arrows, the Second Brother did not intend to avoid them. The mask clicked as he put it over his face and then the armor covered his entire body.
Then a series of crisp or muffled sounds of impacting arrows rang out continuously.
At least 20 arrows hit him with accuracy.
With great power and speed, the arrows drilled his armor. At this moment, beneath his armor, a faint light shone and activated the dense and complicated runes, summoning the Qi of Heaven and Earth in the Verdant Canyon, which turned into an armor of qi and covered the metal armor.
Then, everyone heard friction noises that pained their ears.
Because those sharp arrowheads were unable to puncture the qi armor, they all rebounded when they hit against it, breaking or bending like useless straws, and fell on the Second Brother.
And like a mountain, the Second Brother did not move at all.
But the long-range arrow attack was spread out wide. Compared to the Second Brother, the disciples had to endure more dense and horrible arrows.
However, before the arrows left the bowstrings and became little black spots in the sky, the Academy’s disciples had moved in advance.
Commanded by the Fourth Brother, the Sixth Brother had inserted more than 10 metal rods within a 100-foot radius, each end of which was connected by a red line.
These red lines were casually lying on the ground, with many knots in the middle. They were tied to the disciples’ ankles, leaving two terminals: one was attached to the Seventh Sister’s embroidery needle and the other was tied onto the Second Brother’s waist.
As the rain of arrows approached, the Sixth Brother looked up into the sky. Then he stretched out his sturdy right hand, and swinging it, a spool opened from his hand that spread to the tops of the rods from east to west.
The spool appeared to be metal and was very thin and tough, and could be rolled up like a quilt. The mechanism under its edge connected with the metal rods and then buckled.
With multiple clicking sounds, a metal tent appeared outside the Verdant Canyon, covering all the Academy’s disciples except for the Second Brother.
That is when the rain of arrows arrived.
The dense and muffled sounds rang on their heads, as if a hundred of the best drummers had impudently beaten on tight drums.
No arrow was able to pierce the tent, even though it looked as thin and soft as paper.
Beigong Weiyang and Ximen Buhuo were adjusting their instruments while Wang Chi was boiling medicine. The Fourth Brother was creating something new while the Sixth Brother was lighting the stove. They all acted normally as if the arrows did not exist.
It seemed like they were at the back of the mountain of the Academy, where they could focus on what they were interested in.
Only the Seventh Sister slightly frowned. Looking at the embroidered cloth, she fell silent because one end of the lines was attached to her embroidery needle.
The surface of the metal tent was covered with thin but condensed Qi of Heaven and Earth like the best defensive armor, blasting away all the arrows.
This was an array.
The red lines, which were attached to the metal rods and their ankles, slowly rose up and became tighter.
The disciples sat under the tent as the arrows rained.
The Second Brother stood like a silent mountain.
Looking at them, the West-Hill Divine Palace Coalition soldiers could not help feeling desperate.
In fact, most of them had anticipated this—if the Academy could not deal with the rain of arrows and the armored cavalry, then why would they even fight against the mighty Divine Hall Army?
When everyone was attracted by the arrow rain, six swordsmen wearing simple clothes left the quiet carriage in the coalition and walked toward the Verdant Canyon.
The swordsman in the middle had to be led because his vision was poor and his eyes were covered by a piece of cloth.
The six men had crossed the formation and stopped at the front of the Verdant Canyon after the arrow rain. The blind swordsman was told the direction where the Second Brother was and bowed to him.
The Second Brother took off his mask, looked at him, and said indifferently, “For your brother’s sake, we only blinded you and sent you home, so you don’t need to thank me.”
The blind swordsman was Liu Yiqing, the master of the Sword Garret of South Jin Kingdom, who was blinded by Ning Que after getting out of the Back Cliff. He was also Liu Bai’s younger brother, who used to be a proud swordmaster. After being sent back to the Sword Garret, he had introspected about his failure. Instead of becoming decadent, he had made great progress in his mental cultivation and entered the Knowing Destiny State last spring.
Having lost his eyes, he had to listen to discern the Second Brother’s direction. He said, “I thanked Mr. Second, but not because of the past. We just appreciate you for giving us an opportunity to fight with you.”
He sincerely said it because it was the truth.
If the Second Brother had not allowed them, they would have been killed by his flying sword before they approached him.
Even though they were strong, they would have no chance to fight back.
Looking at the quiet carriage in the coalition, Second Brother slowly said, “I’m just curious why Mr. Liu Bai sent you to lead the attack.”
Liu Yiqing answered, “My brother felt honored when the Headmaster borrowed the sword from the Sword Garret, but he felt sorry as well because since then, no one can use the sword ever. In order to commemorate the Headmaster, he taught us a sword array. This time, he sent us to expressly ask for some advice from Mr. Second.”
Upon hearing that, the Second Brother blinked his eyes and said, “Fine.”
Liu Yiqing said, “We appreciate it.”
After that, they drew their swords.
The disciples of the Sword Garret all followed Liu Bai’s Dahe Swordskill and preferred swords over flying swords, which was different from any other sect.
In the past, Jun Mo appreciated his excellent Sword Taoism, which was why he was not surprised when he saw them draw their swords.
But to his surprise, the six of them did not approach him after drawing their swords.
After they made Sword Formulas, six swords flew into the sky over the Verdant Canyon, waving and creating countless shadows. Then the shadows condensed into one, rushing out of the sky.
In the spring, the Headmaster borrowed the sword from the ancient pool of the Sword Garett in the south 10,000 miles away in order to chop down the Divine General and behead the Giant Golden Dragon.
Since then, the sword was no longer an ordinary sword but turned into a real human sword.
Even Liu Bai could not use it anymore.
After thinking it over for days, he had to admit, after the Headmaster, no one in this world was able to use this sword again, so he worked out a different way.
He collected the six best disciples of the Sword Garret and created a sword array, gathering their strength together to practice one sword.
Liu Bai clearly knew that even if he could combine all of the strength of his disciples, he could not duplicate the sword.
However, he did not want that much. He would be satisfied if he could see just a little of the sword style.
One-thousandth of a human sword would be enough to sweep away the world.
And that was just like the sword outside the Verdant Canyon.
Looking at the sky-breaking sword, the Second Brother offered praise. “Nice sword!”
He inserted his iron sword into the ground.
Facing such a powerful sword, it looked as if he was giving up his sword.
What was he going to do?