infodatos Chapter 34 The Investiture Platform
Chapter 34 The Investiture Platform
The Conferred God Platform is not a single platform.
It is a mountain. Ten thousand years ago, the Celestial Venerable sealed the Demon Lord here, using the entire mountain as a foundation and his natal sword intent as a guide, pressing the core of the Nine Revolutions Demon Sealing Array deep into the mountain. After that battle, most of the mountain was sheared away, and the remaining half of the mountain was as if it had been cleaved in two by a giant axe from the heavens, the cross-section as smooth as a mirror, still bearing countless sword marks to this day. Each sword mark is an undiminished sword intent, still sharp and menacing despite ten thousand years of wind and frost. Cultivators with a cultivation level below the Condensation Realm will have their meridians cut by the residual sword intent if they approach within a hundred feet.
Ling Chen stood at the exit of the abandoned mine tunnel, gazing up at the legendary ruins of the battlefield between gods and demons. His Eye of Insight pierced through the mountain's surface, revealing a golden, inverted tower of light buried deep within the mountains—the final foundation of the Nine Revolutions Demon-Sealing Array—the Divine Realm Foundation. Its structure was far more magnificent than the Mortal Realm Foundation, each layer of the tower a separate sealing law. The seal at the bottom layer was already dim and lifeless, a trace left by the Demon Lord's millennia of erosion; the seal at the top layer was still slowly circulating, but its light gradually dimmed, like a candle flickering in the wind.
"There's only one seal left. Once this last seal is extinguished, the Nine Revolutions Demon Sealing Array will be completely destroyed. We've arrived just in time."
No sooner had Elder Mo finished speaking than a muffled explosion echoed from the direction of the right-wing mine tunnel. Silver Scale had blasted down the tunnel entrance, cutting off the pursuers' path and sealing off their retreat. Immediately afterward, a golden light flashed on the left-wing horizon—the Netherworld Ship's demonic eye main cannon exploded on the left-wing position, its beam piercing through the demon army's left-wing defenses and blasting a demon army skeletal ship attempting to take off to intercept it. The ship broke in two, trailing billowing demonic flames as it crashed into a pile of rubble at the foot of the mountain. The explosion's sound still sent debris tumbling down dozens of miles away.
Bai Ze had already engaged the demon army in full-scale battle on the left flank as planned. Although the fire control system of the Netherworld Ship had been dormant for ten thousand years, with the Demon Emperor personally at the helm, every beam of the main cannon of the Demon Eye on the ship tore a new gap in the demon army's defenses on the left flank. At this rate of advance, it would take about half an hour for the left flank to break through to the foot of the Conferred God Platform. The situation on the front of the Conferred God Platform was even more complicated—the central formation that Jian Xuan and the two Supreme Elders were advancing head-on was intercepted by the demonic energy barrier of Demon General Shi Kun five miles from the foot of the mountain. The area within several hundred feet was enveloped by the demonic energy barrier, making it impossible to see the details of the battle inside. All that could be seen was the constant collision of sword light and demonic energy, with each impact sending rubble from the foot of the mountain flying more than a meter high.
"Elder Jianxuan has held off Shikun. Qingyuan, set up the formation. Xiao Lie, Han Tie, seal off the entrance to the mountain path and prevent any demonic cultivators from sneaking up from the flank."
Xiao Lie drew his Crimson Flame Sword, the fiery patterns on its blade scorching the scabbard until it glowed hot and emitted wisps of white smoke. Han Tie planted his Golden Scale Sword into the ground, the golden light of its inscriptions spreading from the blade into the earth, forming a sword array defensive line several meters wide. Su Qingyuan stepped onto the first broken stone step at the foot of the Conferred God Platform, her Frost Condensation Sword tip touching the ground, and a hundred-foot-long ice wall rose from the ground, sealing off the entrance at the foot of the mountain and the entire mountain path. Empowered by the resonance of the three swords, the ice wall was several times thicker than it had been in the Netherworld Sea, the icy blue sword intent flowing across its surface breathing slowly like a living thing, capable of withstanding at least two cups of tea's worth of attacks from a Void Realm demon general.
Ling Chen walked alone through the ice wall and stepped onto the stone steps of the Conferred God Platform.
The stone pillars lining the mountain path were inscribed with the names of those who died ten thousand years ago. The names of the Sword Attendant, Ice Attendant, and Flame Attendant were prominently displayed, but below the names of the Sword Attendant and Flame Attendant was a line of small, ancient seal script: "Died here." Only the name of the Ice Attendant was left blank, unmarked. This wasn't an oversight, but rather a deliberate choice. According to the ancient inscription format of the Nine Revolutions Demon Sealing Array, the name of the fallen was marked "Dead," while the names of survivors were left blank. Of the three attendants, the Ice Attendant was the only one who survived and descended from the Conferred God Platform.
The Myriad Paths Return to Ruins Diagram flew out from his dantian, unfurling in mid-air. Simultaneously, the Severing Thoughts and Burning Heaven swords were drawn, the two attendant swords releasing their sword intent without reservation upon sensing the aura of the divine realm's array foundation. At the same moment, the Frost at the foot of the mountain emitted a long, resonant sword cry. The three swords resonated, piercing through the ice wall, the demonic energy barrier, and the cannon fire of the Netherworld Ship, condensing into a three-colored sword beam spanning the sky above the Conferred God Platform.
The sword light illuminated the entire Conferred God Platform, with three pillars of light—golden, ice-blue, and crimson—intertwining and swirling like three entangled auroras. Half of the Conferred God Platform's peak glowed translucently under the sword light, and the inverted golden light tower deep within the mountain began to respond to the resonance command left when the array's foundation was laid ten thousand years ago. Ling Chen poured chaotic spiritual power into the Myriad Dao Returning to the Void Diagram, and the chaotic origin resonated with the three swords once more. This time, the scale of the convergence far surpassed that of the Netherworld Sea—the entire Conferred God Platform resonated, and the myriad sword marks on the mountainside lit up one after another, transforming into myriad sword cries.
At the foot of the mountain, outside the ice wall, the demon army's offensive came to a standstill at the same moment. In the chaos of battle, several low-level demon cultivators even threw down their weapons and knelt down, their protective demonic energy nearly collapsing under the shockwave of the ten thousand swords clashing. Taking advantage of the opportunity, the Netherworld Ship's Demon Eyes unleashed a volley of fire, blasting the last line of bone ship defenses on the left flank into fragments. Bai Ze laughed heartily on the bridge, his laughter carrying far through the gaps in the artillery fire.
Ling Chen gripped the resonant sword light of the three swords with both hands and thrust it fiercely into the mountain. The sword light pierced through layers of seals, reaching the highest level of the inverted light tower deep within the mountain. The divine realm's array foundation was officially activated by this sword—the golden light tower slowly rotated from its inverted position, its tip pointing upwards, and the dim seal at the bottom of the tower was relit. The light spread upwards from the bottom layer, expanding with each layer it illuminated, until finally the entire tower was glowing.
The final layer of the Nine Revolutions Demon Sealing Array had already been activated, but the backlash struck at the same moment—a sealing force far greater than that of the Netherworld Sea Array base flowed back into Ling Chen's body along the sword light. His meridians were compressed, causing them to creak and groan. The chaotic vortex in his dantian was compressed to less than a third of its original size, and the sword intents of the three swords trembled violently under the impact of the backlash. The Myriad Paths Returning to Nothingness Diagram expanded above his head to an unprecedented extent, absorbing most of the backlash for him, but some of the aftershocks still inevitably damaged his meridians.
Just then, a figure appeared at the end of the steps of the Conferred God Platform.
That wasn't a phantom that had perished ten thousand years ago. It was a young girl dressed in a white sword robe, the ice crystal pendant that had appeared on the tassel of her Frost Condensation Sword now hanging gently at her waist. She stopped at the edge of the pillar of light resonating from the three swords, her icy blue pupils shining brightly in the tri-colored sword light. Then she drew Frost Condensation, reversed the tip, and inserted it into the crack in the stone steps of the Consecration Platform. She knelt on one knee, performing the ancient ritual of final certification for the guardian of the Nine Revolutions Demon Sealing Array.
"Ice Servant Han Li. The array base recognizes its master, the seal is restarted."
The moment the Frost Condensed entered the ground, the backlash pressure from the Divine Realm's array base on Ling Chen began to split—half remained borne by the Myriad Dao Returning to Nothingness Diagram, while the other half was guided by Su Qingyuan into the Frost Condensed Sword, then from the Frost Condensed into the ice wall, seeping into the Fengshen Platform mountain body along the ice wall that had silently melted at some unknown time, and reintegrating into the array base's energy circulation. The violent tremors caused by the array base bearing the backlash gradually decreased under this split, eventually transforming into a steady and long pulse.
Their dialogue across past and present lives was condensed by the resonant light of the three swords into a complete sealing command, which was injected into the highest layer of the divine realm's array foundation. The final array foundation of the Nine Revolutions Demon Sealing Array was fully activated. The sealing power spread from the peak of the Conferred God Platform to the Three Realms. A golden array pattern cracked open in the sky of the Spirit Realm, spreading outwards from the Conferred God Platform in all directions, covering thousands of miles in a short time. The dark clouds that had lingered over Qingzhou in the mortal realm were torn apart, and sunlight poured down from the gap. At the same moment, the sealing inscriptions that had been shattered for months at the edge of the Broken Sky Cliff stopped vibrating. Above the ruins of the Conferred God Platform in the divine realm, a thunderous resonance came from beneath the stone slabs that had been silent for ten thousand years.
The Demon Lord let out an extremely deep roar from the depths of the seal. It wasn't a sound, but a surge of demonic power that exploded directly into everyone's consciousness. The sword imprint on Ling Chen's hand suddenly heated up during the roar; the core sealing law of the sword imprint throbbed violently under the Demon Lord's death throes, like a heart being squeezed between the Demon Lord's fingers. *Crack—* A barely perceptible crack appeared at the edge of the sword imprint.
But the beam of light from the resonance of the three swords did not shatter.
After the ice wall completed its guidance, it finally melted completely, turning into shards of ice that flowed down the stone steps of the Conferred God Platform, silently filling the ancient battlefield scars that had been carved by swords and axes. At the foot of the mountain, fierce fighting continued. The cannon fire from the Netherworld Ship on the left flank grew increasingly intense, and the demonic energy barrier of Devouring Kun on the main battlefield was already teetering on the brink of collapse under the impact of the three swords' resonance. Xiao Lie and Han Tie were clearing out the small group of demonic cultivators attempting to ambush Ling Chen at the entrance to the mountain path. The Crimson Flame Sword and the Golden Scale Sword were used alternately, and a wall of demonic cultivator corpses piled up at the entrance to the mountain path.
Su Qingyuan withdrew her hand from the hilt of the Frost Condensing Sword, stood up, and looked at the still-glowing sword beam piercing the sky atop the Conferred God Platform. Golden array patterns on the sky continued to spread, and the sealing power echoed like ripples throughout the Three Realms.
"The third array base is activated." she said.