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Novel: [The Primordial Law]
Volume 4: [Shuangsheng Dao Sect (Twin Rice Sect)]
Chapter 175 (430): [The Hidden Ancestor Emerges, Insects Chirp Across the Land]
(175th of Volume 4)
Translator: Shadow Knight AK
Editor: Shadow Knight AK
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Tang Wanzhou, clad in black armor, stood atop the towering, mountain-like walls of North Pond Pass alongside several Immortal Realm Great Powers from the Northern Territory, gazing out across the vast plains.
It was midday, and the sun shone brightly.
A gray, ominous cloud bank surged over the horizon, obscuring the azure sky.
Before long, their entire field of vision grew dim and gloomy.
Tang Wanzhou glanced at the massive stone parapet, where dust particles trembled rhythmically.
"The Army of the Dead is coming!"
Below the ramparts, a towering Aberrant Humanoid commander, his voice amplified by Spiritual Qi, bellowed across the pass:
"Battle formation activate! War drums sound!"
"The Snow Mountain stands firm! Unleash the three artifacts!"
"Dong! Dong..."
The spiritual artifact war drums boomed, their sonic waves rippling outward for hundreds of miles.
Beyond the pass, on the brown plains, the Northern Territory army formed its battle formation.
Spears pointed skyward, formation glyphs radiating from the armor of each soldier and the spiritual artifacts in their hands.
The military formation coalesced.
Within the Formation, the soldiers' collective battle intent solidified into a majestic Snow Mountain.
Rising a thousand meters high, its jagged peaks stretched across the horizon, radiating boundless cold and an unshakable aura of power.
It was both military might and the power of the mountains.
"Swish! Swish!"
Paper money rained down from the gray, overcast skies, scattering across the "Snow Mountain" formed by the battle formation's war spirit.
The burning paper money sought to shatter the Military Soul.
A deafening roar of rushing water erupted from the earth.
"Boom!"
Before the battle formation, the ground split open in a chasm spanning tens of kilometers, unleashing a black tidal wave hundreds of meters high. The putrid stench of decay and death filled the air as the wave surged toward North Pond Pass.
"The Army of the Dead has brought the Five Decay Dark Sea! Today, we either hold our ground and triumph, or the Life Realm perishes, becoming the first fragment of the Netherrealm of the Dead! Warriors of the Northern Territory, fight!"
"Kill! Kill! Kill..."
Tang Wanzhou and the other Great Powers of the Northern Territory's Immortal Realm soared to the vanguard of the battle formation.
They activated three ancient, heavy artifacts within the formation, unleashing them against the overwhelming black tide.
Above, within the thick, ominous clouds, a vast army of fierce souls materialized.
A corner of a Ghost City, far larger than North Pond Pass, materialized in the void. Its towering walls, moat, and watchtowers were visible, an awe-inspiring sight.
A Dead Spirit Transcendent stood supreme atop the Ghost City, its eyes opening to transform into two radiant moons, illuminating the mortal realm.
The ground trembled as a thunderous horn blared.
The Corpse Bone Army advanced in swift formation, dust obscuring the sky. Mountain-sized beast corpses and skeletons marched alongside the military formation, their overwhelming Qi and boundless killing intent crushing the plains beneath their feet.
A dense forest of war banners and great standards filled the sea of bones.
In an instant, the battle cries of both sides shook the heavens.
Dragon-Headed Camels and Azure Flame Three-Headed Lions led the charge, followed by the Exotic Beast Cavalry.
"Boom!"
"Rumble!"
Horns and war drums echoed across Feng Prefecture as the Northern Territory's Human Race army clashed with the Army of the Dead.
On this vast plain, they would fight to carve out a space for survival and determine the fate of their future.
Fearless, they fought to the death.
Tang Ting, the Snow Sword Tang Court's leader, stood tall at the North Heavenly Gate of the Cloud Heaven Immortal Plain.
He unleashed the court's Supreme Artifact, the Immortal Slaying Sword, and slashed toward the Ghost City beyond the heavens.
Supreme power erupted, summoning howling winds and swirling snow that engulfed the mountains.
Amidst the deafening clash, a corner of the Ghost City shattered within the clouds, its Formation unable to withstand the attack.
...
Southern Territory, Qubei Plains.
The entrance to the Underground Immortal Mansion lay deep within a canyon, dozens of zhang below the surface.
Armies from countless Southern Territory forces - the Zuoqiu Sect, the Jiu Li Clan, the Qi Clan, and many others - marched relentlessly, finally converging on the icy plains by midday to form a battle line stretching over five hundred li.
Over a hundred small units had already been dispatched to intercept and eliminate the Rice Corpses crawling out from the depths below.
But they were endless.
Zhuang Shiyan, the Immortal Master of the Calamity Crossing Temple, stood solemnly amidst the clouds.
Gazing down at the Rice Corpses swarming the land like black dots, he felt utterly helpless. No matter how high his cultivation, his individual strength couldn't stem the tide.
He could only watch as towns, villages, and county seats vanished one by one, devoured by the Rice Corpses.
The slaughter spread rapidly, engulfing the entire Life Realm.
He then turned his gaze toward the Cloud Heaven Immortal Plain, sensing the immeasurable aura of Transcendents from the Demon Kingdom, Demon Race, and Nether Realm of the Dead - the Crown Prince of the Demon Kingdom, the Second Palace Master, Lord Lan, Qilin Zhuang, the Azure Phoenix, the Purple Phoenix, the Mountain Monarch Huihuo, and countless others - along with the energy of nearly ten Supreme Artifacts.
The entire Cloud Heaven Immortal Plain and its surrounding regions seemed to be boiling.
Faced with such a formidable formation, even Zhuang Shiyan, a top-tier Transcendent, knew that venturing there would mean certain death.
He would be annihilated in an instant.
He wondered how long the Mist Celestial's peerless spirit could endure against such overwhelming force.
Below, the Confucian-Dao Ancestor of the Zuoqiu Sect escorted Zuoqiu Hongting back from Prefectural Prefecture, entering the military camp one after the other.
Jiang Ning and Zhuang Yue were nowhere to be seen.
Zuoqiu Hongting, clad in a Daoist robe, wore a solemn expression, a stark contrast to her usual optimism.
She didn't know how she would explain this to Li Weiyi in the future.
The Confucian-Dao Ancestor sighed: "Who could have foreseen this? She probably didn't even know herself. Don't blame yourself too much. The Jiang Clan has been plotting for a thousand years, likely to welcome the return of the Primordial Ancestor, the source of Benevolent Rice. If I hadn't arrived in time, you would have been trapped, your fate uncertain."
A cold wind swept in from the south, causing the camp flags to flutter wildly.
The wind carried the chirping of insects.
"Chirp! Chirp!"
The insect's call was clear and resonant, echoing from a great distance.
The Confucian-Dao Ancestor and Zuoqiu Hongting hurried out of their tent and gazed southward.
There, a rare insect with a wingspan exceeding a thousand meters emerged from the clouds, unleashing bolts of golden lightning.
The creature was breathtakingly beautiful.
With each beat of its twin wings, it scattered countless shimmering particles.
"It's still alive! Wonderful! Now that it has emerged, we can withstand the Rice Corpse army and the Nether Realm's shadow soldiers. The casualties among the common people can be contained," the Confucian-Dao Ancestor said, stroking his beard with excitement.
It was the Hidden Ancestor of the Jiu Li Hidden Sect.
The Hidden Ancestor had awakened this morning. Its chirping had originated in Li Province, passed through Zhi Prefecture, and traversed ten thousand miles to reach the Qubei Plains.
Deep beneath the Seven Southern Provinces, all insect swarms obeyed the call.
Commanders of rare insects, Lord-Marquis Grade Strange Insects, crawled forth from the earth, leading their insect armies to devour the Rice Corpses surging toward Li Province until nothing remained.
The dense swarms then converged on the Qubei Plains, surging toward Fu Prefecture.
"Is that... is that the Ancestor from our Jiu Li Clan legends?"
"So Lord Cangming still lives!"
"If we'd known Lord Cangming was alive all these years, why would our Jiu Li Clan have had to kowtow to the Sui Sect and Coffin Mountain?"
"Excellent! Who will dare underestimate the foundation of our Ancient Myriad Clans now? Lord Cangming can command all the insect swarms beneath the Lingxiao Realm, making our Jiuli army virtually limitless. Conquering the world is no longer a distant dream!"
The Jiuli army erupted in jubilation.
For centuries, the Jiu Li Clan had occupied an awkward position, lacking a Transcendent birth. Not only were they forced to pay annual tribute to Coffin Mountain out of fear, but they also remained subject to the Sui Sect's Yang Shenjing.
Cangming, the eldest son of the Jiu Li Gods and known as "King Cang," had once commanded rare insects that vanished from the Jiuli Clan over a thousand years ago.
The Jiu Li Hidden Sect had secretly nurtured them ever since.
Only a handful within the Hidden Sect knew of Cangming's continued existence.
Hidden Nine and Yin Shiyi rode their Strange Beast mounts at the vanguard of the army.
Yin Shiyi sneered, "The moment the Hidden Ancestor revealed himself, they all swelled with arrogance, daring to contend for dominion over the world? If the Hidden Ancestor hadn't concealed himself, they would have dragged him down to his death long ago."
Hidden Nine nodded in agreement: "With the Hidden Ancestor's terrifying power of command, if he hadn't remained hidden, Qilin Zhuang and the Crown Prince of the Demon Kingdom would have seen him as a potential threat and eliminated him preemptively."
The tremors beneath the earth grew more violent.
One after another, colossal rare insects crawled out from canyons, volcanoes, deep pools, and subterranean caves, their piercing cries echoing southward in response to the Hidden Ancestor's call.
The insect cries spread from the Southern Territory to the neighboring Western and Eastern Territories, triggering massive insect swarms across vast regions.
The overwhelming black tide of insects surged into the Underground Immortal Mansion first.
The Confucian-Dao Ancestor, Zhuang Shiyan, and other Transcendents and Immortal Realm Great Powers followed closely behind.
The war to seize the Twin Rice Sect's Main Hall had officially begun.
The Twin Rice Sect had fortified the Underground Immortal Mansion for millennia, filling it with countless dangers.
Overwhelming force would be required to breach its defenses.
The Space Teleportation Formations within the Ancestor Rice Temples had already been destroyed by the Twin Rice Sect, leaving the Underground Immortal Mansion as the sole entry point.
Zuoqiu Xuanming, the Southern Territory's foremost expert, stood beside the Hidden Ancestor, activating the Xi Huang Eight Trigrams Mirror.
His gaze swept across the Fu Prefecture, searching for any hidden exits the Twin Rice Sect might use to escape, ready to seal them off immediately.
At the same time, he had to protect the Hidden Ancestor's safety. If enemy Transcendents managed to get close, the Hidden Ancestor risked being killed.
....
Southern Yan Pass was shrouded in a Demon Cloud stretching hundreds of miles.
The fortress had collapsed, leaving behind vast stretches of ruins.
Eight thousand Giant Spirit Army soldiers lay scattered across the blood-soaked ground, their battle flags reduced to mud.
Tai Shi Qingcang, the commander of Southern Yan Pass, stood with disheveled hair, blood gushing from wounds all over his body.
He gasped for breath, clutching a broken halberd, his gaze fixed on the colossal demonic silhouette towering hundreds of meters tall within the Blood Mist.
His jaw clenched, his eyes burned with unyielding defiance.
The Four Extremes Ape King extended a massive hand, seized him, crushed his body, and tossed him into its maw.
Its enormous head was crowned by the Five-Colored Mountain, allowing it to manipulate the Five Elements of heaven and earth.
This Five-Colored Mountain had enabled the Four Extremes Ape King to cultivate at an astonishing rate.
After sixteen hundred years of cultivation, its combat prowess had already surpassed established Transcendents like the Crimson Phoenix.
In the Southern Territory, it had once rivaled the Zuoqiu Sect, unlike the Coffin Mountain Forbidden One, who was forced to remain hidden.
One of the ape's four arms wielded a burning war spear.
The spear stretched hundreds of meters long, as thick as a millstone.
"Boom!"
With a thunderous roar, the flaming war spear swung out, shattering the Southern Heavenly Gate and its Heavenly Gate Formation into a shower of sparks, demonstrating its extraordinary destructive power.
The Four Extremes Ape King strode onto the Cloud Heaven Immortal Plain, his mouth bristling with sword-like teeth.
He roared, "Today, this King joins the battle to slay the Heavenly Emperor! The Lingxiao Realm must usher in a new era!"
The Cloud Heaven Immortal Plain, a vast expanse stretching a thousand miles south of Lingxiao City, lay in ruins.
Blackened scorched earth, sword marks scarring the land for hundreds of miles, collapsed hills...
Zen Hai Guanwu stood beneath the South City gate, blocking all enemies south of the city.
Over half her body had transformed into bone.
Having consumed the fourth Emperor Medicine, she swept her sword across the ranks of Transcendents before her.
Red robes, a ruined city, and the heavens above.
Behind her, the South City wall had completely collapsed, leaving a scene of utter devastation.
Half an hour earlier, Chen Su, who controlled the thirty-six earth meridians, had been ambushed and killed by a Dead Spirit Transcendent lurking within the city. The Third Palace Master had then used the Nine Heavens Beyond the Clouds Grand Formation to suppress and eliminate the Dead Spirit Transcendent.
The Immortal Plain Grand Formation had been riddled with holes by the Demon Race's elite forces - Qilin Zhuang, Azure Phoenix, Purple Phoenix, and the Mountain Monarch Huihuo - using two Supreme Artifacts.
Huo Di, who oversaw the Immortal Plain Grand Formation, had been killed, while Duke Tai Shi was critically wounded.
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END OF CHAPTER
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