The Heartbeat of the Mountain

The strange object pierced through the layers of golden light when Emperor Dawnfiend suddenly realized the danger. His expression shifted. "Not good." He dodged while swinging his sleeve to block. The sharp, bizarre object struck his sleeve, then flew off.

"Everyone, be careful," Emperor Dawnfiend said quickly. "It's too fast. We cannot afford the slightest distraction."

"Xingtian, do you have any other shield-type treasures?" Divine Truegod Lu Wu asked hurriedly.

"I do." A small shield appeared in Xingtian's hand. He tossed it to Lu Wu, where it rapidly expanded to nearly half a man's height. Lu Wu caught it with one hand, holding his iron whip in the other.

Xingtian likewise held a shield in one hand and his Xingtian Axe in the other. "Does anyone else need a shield?" he asked, sweeping his gaze across the group. His eyes inevitably fell upon Ji Ning, who was within the formation.

Among the seven of them…

Kua Fu was the strongest, followed by Xingtian and Emperor Dawnfiend. Xingtian already had his own shield, and Emperor Dawnfiend was skilled with his sleeves.

Next came Kong Xiu, Feng Ji, and Lu Wu. Lu Wu had just taken a shield. Daofather Feng Ji had his fan… which could also serve as a shield. For him, the fan actually allowed him to display greater power. As for Kong Xiu… she was a clone refined from a single tail-feather, comparable to a top-grade innate treasure—she was actually the safest of them all.

In Xingtian's estimation, Ji Ning was a swordsman.

Swords excelled at offense but were relatively weaker in defense. He believed Ji Ning was the one who most needed a shield.

"I don't need one yet," Ji Ning said with a smile, shaking his head.

"Be careful," Xingtian cautioned, then said no more.

One after another, the invisible strange objects attacked. The six Fiendgods maintained their vigilance with extreme care, even deliberately shrinking the formation's range to better protect Ji Ning within.

Nineteen consecutive waves of assault came. The six Fiendgods gave their all to block them, while Ji Ning took advantage of the situation. Protected within the formation, he was not attacked.

"Eh… it seems to have stopped," Kong Xiu murmured.

"The rumbling from the earth is already beginning to fade," Kua Fu noted.

Dong… dong… dong…

The sound from deep within the earth, like a heartbeat, was indeed weakening.

"In a while, the rumbling will surge again, and the attacks will resume," Kua Fu said. "Let's all rest for now and prepare for the next wave of the Earthsound Mountain's assault."

"Mm."

The Fiendgods' expressions were grim.

The invisible attacks were devastatingly powerful and eerily elusive. In those nineteen waves just now, Divine Truegod Lu Wu had been wounded three times. Daofather Feng Ji had been wounded twice. Emperor Dawnfiend and Xingtian had each been wounded once. Kua Fu, Ji Ning, and Kong Xiu had all come through unscathed. But each wound required vast amounts of divine power to heal.

Restoring a divine body consumed an immense amount of divine power. Over time, their power would be exhausted. Then, even the formation could not be maintained! The only reason they had survived the nineteen consecutive waves was the formation's pre-emptive weakening! If they had faced these attacks head-on, even Kua Fu… would have been in danger of dying.

Everyone could see the threat of death hanging over them. The atmosphere naturally grew heavy and grim.

"This Ji Ning… while we're all so tense, he's… daydreaming?" Lu Wu glanced at Ji Ning, who stood in the center of the formation with vacant eyes, clearly lost in thought.

"Ah." Lu Wu, a simple and honest man, said nothing more. "We'll do our best. We'll protect Ji Ning for as long as we can. If we die… and cannot protect him anymore, then so be it. He is, after all, still too young."

…

Ji Ning stood there, pondering. "Every time they attack, especially when they get close enough, I can faintly sense a trace of dissipated ripples. This shows that the power of these strange objects is enormous! At such close range, they can't completely evade my detection… but I can only sense a hint of the ripple. I can't pinpoint the exact location of the object."

By the time he detected the ripple—which might have been emitted by the object itself—the attacks were already upon them, given their incredible speed, striking their target instantly.

"I need to determine the trajectory of these objects. I need to know their direction of attack."

"With such immense power, they must cause a slight disturbance in the fabric of spacetime." Ji Ning looked at the surrounding forest. "But the forest illusion here is too realistic. There are ripples in spacetime everywhere, masking the ripples caused by the objects."

"What I need to do is… separate the ripples of the forest illusion from the ripples of the objects."

During the previous dozen or so attacks, Ji Ning had been carefully sensing.

But he had never been able to determine the flight path of the objects.

Dong! The heartbeat from deep within the earth began to strengthen again from its previous weakness.

Dong! Dong! Dong! The sound of the heartbeat grew louder and louder.

"Everyone be careful! The Earthsound Mountain's assault is about to start again!" Kua Fu shouted.

"Mm."

The other five Truegods immediately responded, maintaining the formation and preparing with extreme caution.

Ji Ning, with half-lidded eyes, circulated his Heartforce and activated his soul, carefully sensing all the ripples around him. The chaotic external ripples—the ripples of wind, of light, of spacetime, of scent… Ji Ning was able to isolate the 'ripples of spacetime' from among them. Now, he needed to find, within the endless ripples of spacetime, that single ripple caused by the strange objects.

Even for a mighty being like Ji Ning… it was extraordinarily difficult!

In fact, back in the day, Daofather Three Purities himself had spent over three thousand years to achieve this. Ji Ning's advantage lay in the powerful Heartforce techniques created by World God Northrest.

Whoosh.

Chiiii.

Swish.

The invisible attacks began to descend, one after another.

Kua Fu, Xingtian, and the others strained with all their might, giving everything they had to block them.

"It seems… to be the spatial ripple of the object…" Ji Ning, within the formation, kept his eyes half-closed, sensing intently.

"Ji Ning, I think you should enter a pocket world treasure," Xingtian shouted. He had a closer relationship with Ji Ning, after all.

Ji Ning did not respond. He simply continued his silent sensing.

…

Three Realms. Human Imperial Palace, Ten Thousand Clans Hall. A multitude of mighty beings had gathered.

"Hurry!" Kong Xiu stood up, her voice urgent. "This is already the third assault from Earthsound Mountain. Divine Truegod Lu Wu is severely wounded. His divine power is almost exhausted. Once it's gone, the formation can't hold. Kua Fu and the others will die in Earthsound Mountain very quickly."

"Rulai." Daofather Three Purities looked over.

"I am breaking the formation," Rulai, the Buddha, said quickly. "It should be a formation created by Master Stonerule, built upon endless mountains with immeasurable thought and effort. Even with my fastest speed, it will still take some time."

"There's no other way." Rulai shook his head. "Even if you went there right now, you would first have to reach the formation itself. By the time you flew there, I would have already broken it."

Daofather Three Purities nodded.

Indeed.

The Thousand Mountains World was filled with dangers. One could not simply tear through spacetime to get there. Ji Ning and the others, like Rulai and Fuxi, had to fly slowly.

"Fuxi, who is best at formations, is also tied down by those aliens in the Primordial Ruins," Kong Xiu said anxiously. "He can't go now, either."

"This Stonerule…" Seated nearby, Patriarch Subhuti's expression was grim as well.

In war, the most terrifying thing was being forced into a battlefield the enemy had prepared.

The Primordial Ruins were a battlefield the enemy had deliberately set up. Regardless, Nuwa's camp absolutely could not allow the Primordial Ruins to reap the benefits of the chaos. Even if it was just to eliminate the Seamless Gate's allies, they had to break through! Precisely because they feared the Primordial Ruins might contain terrifying environments and formations, only two of the leader-level mighty beings had gone there.

The other mighty beings held the line in the Three Realms, ready to respond to any change in the situation.

"My Dharma Bodies have all manifested. I'll break the formation immediately," Rulai said, his expression solemn.

The Buddha Rulai was indeed giving his all.

High in the sky, the other three Buddhas formed a formation. The radiance of Buddha-light shone everywhere as various attacks descended, obliterating heaven and earth.

But the Buddha Rulai himself was a different matter.

He manifested three bodies.

These were the Śākyamuni Original Body, the Vairocana Dharma Body, and the Bhaiṣajyaguru Dharma Body. An enormous Buddha palm descended from the heavens, tearing apart the sky and earth, destroying mountain after mountain. Yet, even when some mountains were shattered, the boundless power of heaven and earth would gather and reform them. This was clearly the power of the formation.

Rulai was originally a Chaotic True God.

Later, in the primordial era, his soul had scattered, leaving only a sliver of his true spirit to reincarnate into the human race, becoming 'Śākyamuni.' This journey from death to life had ultimately allowed him to reach the very peak, comprehending the Five Heavenly Daos of Metal, Wood, Water, Fire, and Earth, and achieving his Five Dharma Bodies! Activating these Five Dharma Bodies consumed an astonishing amount of energy. He only used them when he was fighting for his life. In this assault on the Primordial Ruins, he had brought a majority of his power. Two of his Dharma Bodies remained in the Three Realms as a safeguard.

Daofather Three Purities had his 'One Qi Transforms into Three Purities.'

Rulai had his Five Dharma Bodies. Of course, the strongest was his Śākyamuni Original Body.

…

"Rulai's strength is truly impressive." The Great Demon God Cixiu watched the displayed scene with a sense of awe. Rulai was destroying heaven and earth as he broke the formation. "These natives have rather crude cultivation methods. Even when they become Ancestral Immortals, they're only third-rate Ancestral Immortals! But the most monstrous among them… their comprehension of the Dao is truly profound."

"Fuxi is also tied up."

"Stonerule's formation is also impressive… Even if other mighty beings arrive, they'll need some time to break through. After they break it, they'll have to enter Earthsound Mountain. They'll need to find Kua Fu and the others within the treacherous environment of Earthsound Mountain, which also takes time. My estimation is… Kua Fu and his group probably won't be able to hold out." The Great Demon God Cixiu murmured to himself.

"Rulai is going so crazy, trying to break the formation in such a short time. Kua Fu's group must be at their limit," said the Immortal Wuxiao, who was below.

They could only speculate.

Because Earthsound Mountain was a naturally dangerous environment within the Primordial Ruins. Even they could not detect what was happening inside.

…

The situation within Earthsound Mountain was indeed already extremely dire. Divine Truegod Lu Wu and Daofather Feng Ji were both pale as ghosts, their bodies covered in bloody wounds. They no longer had the divine power to repair their divine bodies.

Swish. Another cruel, invisible attack shot forth.

Ji Ning, who had been keeping his eyes half-lidded, suddenly opened them. His eyes shone like stars. He murmured to himself, "Finally… I've found it."

One more chapter tonight, making up for what I owed everyone.