Chapter 77 — The Crown Prince of Tiantu
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 2 of 3
With a flick of his brush tip the painting rose into the air, drifted up into the heights, and vanished from sight. No sooner had the Wind Marquis Army worked its arts and the black wind stirred the thunderclouds than a sudden, violent change arose: from within those clouds great tornadoes came down like divine dragons letting their tails drop from the thundercloud, plunging among the countless officers and men of the army.
The tornadoes numbered not one but several dozen; they caught up the black wind of the Wind Marquis Army and drew it into themselves, adding to their own power, and countless soldiers were swept up into the air, arms and legs flailing.
More terrible still, the moment those men were swept into the air, innumerable thunderbolts and lightning flashes came striking down and burned them to charred cinders in midair! Be they martial artists or wielders of divine powers, before such forces of heaven and earth they were helpless.
In the sky wind and thunder raged; a torrential rain came pouring down from heaven and drenched the Jingping army to the bone, and every flash, every bolt that fell upon those soaked soldiers and that waterlogged earth gained fresh power from it. Countless men shuddered and twisted in the lightning and turned to charred cinders.
"Demons and monsters, how dare you run wild! Black Tortoise Army—raise your shields!
" General Lu flew into a rage; bringing both palms down in a heavy slap, he shot up into the air and charged into the thunderclouds, wheeling back and forth and bursting one tornado after another with sheer force. Bolts of lightning struck toward him, but before they reached him they were deflected by the radiance given off by his armor and could not touch his body.
Below, meanwhile, the officers and men of the Black Tortoise Army shouted in unison, and their vital essence became great shields that rose into the air, hovering a hundred feet or more above the heads of the various armies and blocking the pouring rain.
The falling thunderbolts too were held off by those Black Tortoise shields, and the army's morale steadied at once; the commanders of the various units hurried to restore order, executing deserters and regrouping their forces. In Crimson Dragon City another great painting tore through the air and flew up into the heights—a Painting of a Hundred Demons.
The Painting of a Hundred Demons gradually faded into the air and disappeared.
Then from the thunderclouds demon gods with hideous, ferocious faces came charging out and surrounded General Lu in battle; his scalp went numb as he fought desperately to hold them off, and at that moment yet another great painting flew out from Crimson Dragon City.
General Lu stole a glance at it, and his soul nearly left his body in fright. It was a painting of meteors, and in it countless meteors fell from the sky!
"Retreat!
" The word had scarcely left General Lu's mouth when the heavens changed abruptly: huge meteors trailing long tongues of fire came plummeting down, cleaving the vault of heaven and crashing toward the Jingping host below. "One man's painting can hold off a million troops.
That reminds me of someone.
" On the border between the Kingdom of Jingping and the Wasteland, at Yanbian Pass, atop the gate tower, stood a middle-aged man with phoenix eyes and willow-leaf brows, a line of great generals behind him.
This man was none other than the Imperial Preceptor of Jingping.
Gazing out at the Jingping army as it fell into mortal peril, he betrayed not the least emotion, and said slowly and unhurriedly, "In the days when the Kingdom of Tiantu still stood, its crown prince was a man of peerless elegance and matchless gifts, the handsomest man in Tiantu and the most talented as well. Yet he was wholly absorbed in calligraphy and painting, and once said that he would hear nothing of the world's affairs with either ear and give his whole heart only to the books of the sages.