Chapter 157: Chapter 49: The Power of the Divine Blade

And who, by what method, could possibly bring peace to a world ravaged by a plague of demons?

BOOM! Thunder cracked across the sky. The tall, current Confucian Saint stood at the prow of a True Qi Airship. A gale mixed with a torrential downpour battered his robes, just like those days many years ago when he had run frantically through the storm.

The cold, damp rain brought the Confucian Saint back to his most painful memories. Shaking his head slightly, he shook himself from his reverie and surveyed his surroundings.

Engines roared, propellers whirled. A total of twelve massive True Qi Flying Ships flew beneath the cloud layer, their flight accompanied by a tremendous roar.

As the dark clouds roiled, a torrential downpour fell like a liquid curtain from the gray-black clouds. On the twelve True Qi Flying Ships, countless figures radiating the aura of Inner Qi stood packed along the railings. They gazed down at the massive fortress below and at the enemy ships and soldiers gathering on the opposite riverbank.

The Nanjiang Celestial Gate.

「Nearly eighty years later.」

The Confucian Saint, Lu Chengping, was once again on the road to the Southern Celestial Capital. Alongside him were 120,000 soldiers of the Rebel Army, 1,124 Postnatal Martial Artists, seventeen Grandmasters, and three other fellow Grandmasters. Together, they embarked on a journey in the name of "walking the Dao for Heaven" and "pacifying the world"!

And this time, his goal was to put it all to the torch: the city, the Demon Tree, and the Demon Emperor who had long since fallen to the Endless Demon Path!

"——THE EMPEROR——IS A TYRANT!"

From the opposite bank, a Martial Artist’s furious roar could be heard rising from the disciplined ranks of the grand army: "——THE PEOPLE——SUFFER!"

The next moment, a cry echoed from the twelve True Qi Airships, answering the slogan from below.

"——WE OF THE HUNDRED SCHOOLS——WALK THE DAO FOR HEAVEN——SLAY THE DEMONS AND DESTROY THE TRAITORS!"

In the distance, on the ramparts of the Nanjiang Celestial Gate, Demon Soldiers could be seen assembling. One by one, siege engines were pushed atop the walls. Warships emerged from the fortress gates, taking up positions to face the Hundred Schools’ Righteous Army across the river. They too were shouting battle cries, but their voices were far too faint, all but inaudible. Meanwhile, Demon Generals spurred Spirit Plant Demon Beasts into the sky, intending to halt the advance of the twelve True Qi Airships.

Just then, the collective roar of 120,000 soldiers of the Rebel Army shook the heavens: "And then, we will pacify the realm, bring peace to this age of chaos, and for all the people of this world—"

WHOOSH—Aboard the four central True Qi Airships, four columns of Spiritual Light flared, born of Inner Qi. It was the Spiritual Light of the four Grandmasters. Their power was a clarion call to battle, igniting the fires of war in an instant!

"RESTORE! TAIPING!"

"FIRE!" The Daoist Saint’s voice boomed like thunder, his furious command riding the gales across the entire battlefield. "RELEASE THE PAYLOAD!"

At his command, hatches opened on the undersides of all twelve True Qi Airships. From them, massive, shuttle-shaped iron shells plummeted downward, screaming through the air as they fell upon the Nanjing Celestial Gate!

BOOM! As the iron shells shattered on impact, they scattered clouds of red and white phosphorus powder. Then, a pulse of pure Fire Spirit Power erupted from the core of each projectile, instantly engulfing an area dozens of meters wide in a searing conflagration, a blinding flare of scorching heat!

Dozens, then hundreds, of the phosphorus fire shells rained down upon the once-impregnable Nanjiang Celestial Gate. In an instant, the entire fortress was transformed into a forest of fire. The dazzling flames burned unabated even in the downpour, drawing agonized shrieks from countless Demon Soldiers!

And that wasn’t all—from their positions along the river, the forces of the Hundred Schools raised dozens of catapults and several times as many True Qi Cannons. Though called stone-throwers, the catapults were not loaded with wall-shattering boulders. Instead, they carried vessels filled with a black, viscous liquid.

The instant the Nanjiang Celestial Gate was set ablaze, the catapults launched in unison, flinging hundreds of jars of the black liquid onto the Demon Army’s warships. The True Qi Cannons fired next. The phosphorus fire scattered, followed by the same burst of Fire Spirit Qi, and in a flash, the entire river’s surface was aflame, turning half the waterway into a blazing Purgatory!

For a time, the only sounds from the roaring Fire Prison were the agonized cries of the Demon Army, begging for death to end their suffering. But this did nothing to halt the Rebel Army’s relentless assault. If anything, the screams were like war drums, spurring them on with fanatical zeal!

Above a world on fire, amid the hiss of the boiling Nanjiang River, the Hundred Schools’ Righteous Army began its final war against the Demon Dynasty. Riding massive Flying Battleships powered by True Qi Furnaces, the Martial Artists dropped incendiary phosphorus and poured down black fuel, instantly turning the Nanjiang Celestial Gate into a sea of flames!

They had come for vengeance, for righteousness, and for a lasting peace for ten thousand generations to come. They swore an oath to reduce it all to ash: the entire New Southern Celestial Capital and the Divine Wood Immortal Coiling Banyan!

But even so, the Demon Dynasty was not without its own means of resistance. With furious roars echoing from behind the Nanjing Celestial Gate, the jungle began to tremble. Enormously tall trees writhed, pulling their roots from the earth to become colossal Banyan Giants that strode toward the front lines. These thirty-meter-tall Banyan Giants were covered in Wood Centipedes that clung to them like living armor. They uprooted trees as they passed, shaping them into sharp wooden spears with a single swipe of their hands.

These City Guard Giant Demon Generals, spawned by the power of the Divine Wood, then aimed their wooden spears at the True Qi Airships high above. Swinging with all their might, they hurled the spears into the sky, attempting to smash the troublesome airships and their fiery payloads out of the air!

And in the midst of this battlefield—a chaotic scene of raging flames, Demonic Qi, and grotesque Demon Spirit Plants—Su Zhou stood at the prow of a Flying Airship. He stood in the howling gale of the propellers, beneath the incessant flashing of lightning in the clouds, and amid the drumming of the downpour on the deck. His cyan-purple, slit-pupiled eyes swept across the land below.