Chapter 168 — Sorcery
The Sword Questions the Heavens · Page 5 of 5
After a while, Dao Yan Zhenren seemed to give a faint cold snort; with a flick of his left hand's sword-sign, his Daoist robes flying, the gleaming ancient sword Immortal-Slaying at his side flashed—and then suddenly fierce winds rose on all sides in the vault of heaven, and of the sword-shadows filling the sky, half the heavens' worth shook with a thunderous roar in an instant. For a time the sky streamed with wondrous radiance, dazzling beyond bearing, almost impossible to look upon.
The Beast Sovereign's expression changed; he focused himself to face it. Sure enough, within moments, beginning from behind Dao Yan Zhenren, dozens of colored swords of qi had turned about, trembling in the air, aimed at the Beast Sovereign. In an instant the chill air surged and billowed; before long, half the swords of qi in the sky—no eye could count how many—seemed moved by some invisible force, and slowly turned about.
Between heaven and earth, all was deadly stillness. But before anyone could marvel, the ancient sword Immortal-Slaying in Dao Yan Zhenren's hand blazed with strange light, and at the same moment, like a furious tide bursting, like waves pounding the shore, over a hundred single-colored swords of qi in the Immortal-Slaying Formation formed a vast sword-rain seven zhang wide and seven zhang long, and came crashing down.
The air was full of shrill screaming, the whistling sound filling heaven and earth. The Beast Sovereign watched that sword-rain blot out the sky and come, and gave a great shout; the huge evil spirit-beast beneath his feet howled to the heavens with him, a sound of utter desolation. Then he opened his arms wide in great sweeping motions, his body swaying, his movements crude and ancient; and though they were far away, somehow everyone on Jietian Peak heard at once a strange and desolate song rise in their ears.
That song was utterly unlike anything of the Central Plains—bleak and powerful, like a giant beast of the wilderness howling to the sky on a stormy night, with a further note of endless bleakness. As the low, ancient notes sounded, accompanied by the harsh, ragged beat of strange drums, the black vapor around the Beast Sovereign suddenly surged up, black as ink, flowing swiftly in the wild wind, almost like a black dragon with bared claws and fangs, glaring over all the world.