Several days later, Chen Du entered a valley.
The cliffs on either side of the valley looked as though they had been carved by blades and hewn by axes.
A narrow passage no more than ten zhang wide ran between them, the only road to the Yan Kingdom Royal City.
The mountain walls were covered in densely packed formation talismans.
Their runic patterns stretched from the valley entrance all the way to its depths, layer upon layer.
Every runic pattern was embedded with spirit stones, the lowest of which were middle-grade.
The formation cores in the central area were powered by high-grade spirit stones, numbering no fewer than several thousand by a rough count.
The formation talismans were linked by refined iron chains hung with bronze bells.
Warning runes were engraved on the bells, one link connected to the next, so that pulling a single hair would move the whole body.
Countless traps lined both sides of the passage: tripwires, horse pits, and poisoned barbed caltrops.
Every one had been carefully placed to hinder the movement techniques and lightness skills of martial arts experts.
On the high ground flanking the valley, thirty-six heavy ballistae stood in a row, their arms as thick as a man's legs.
Their bolts were over a zhang long, their heads gleaming black with a deadly poison that sealed the throat at the first drop of blood.
Stacks of bolts rose like small mountains beside the ballistae, each bolt engraved with armor-piercing runes.
Behind the ballistae stood catapults, and beside their piles of stone projectiles were dozens of earthenware jars filled with flammable oil.
More than a hundred archers lay in ambush in holes carved into the mountain walls, each bearing a breath-concealing talisman and keeping even his breathing to a minimum.
This was the most lavish lineup the Great Yan martial world had assembled in centuries, and the most formidable killing formation this valley had ever seen.
At the center of the valley, hundreds of figures stood ready for battle.
Four people stood at the front, and three Heaven-Human Realm auras rose like pillars of beacon smoke into the sky.
They churned the spiritual energy of heaven and earth for dozens of li around.
The man in the lead wore a black cloak, with an ancient-looking longsword at his waist. His face was as fair as jade, and a long beard flowed over his chest.
He was Xiao Wanjun, leader of the Great Yan martial alliance and sect master of the Yan Cloud Sect. His cultivation at the Heavenly Human Realm Early Stage had reached the pinnacle of mastery.
To his left stood a lean old man whose arms reached past his knees, his ten fingers like hooks.
This was Yin Bugu, the Poison-Handed Medicine King and master of the Ten Thousand Poisons Valley. His poison arts had reached a level beyond mortal comprehension. It was said that even a Heaven-Human Realm expert would have to shed a layer of skin after being struck by his poison.
To Xiao Wanjun's right stood an old woman leaning on a dragon-headed cane. Her hair was white, but her gaze was sharp as lightning.
She was Abbess Jingxuan, sect master of the Ten Thousand Peaks Sect, at the Heavenly Human Realm Middle Stage.
Behind the three stood nearly a hundred Saint Tier experts from Great Yan's major sects, along with no fewer than five hundred elite Earth Tier and Spirit Tier disciples.
Including the archers and crossbowmen on the high ground and the disciples operating the formations, their number exceeded a thousand.
Across the entire Heavenly Human Realm, no single sect could have assembled such a force on its own.
This was what Great Yan had accumulated over centuries.
Over those centuries, countless martial geniuses had been born on this land.
It had produced peerless figures like the Saber Saint, as well as nation-guarding martial gods like Xiang Anshi.
For centuries, each generation of martial artists had built on the work of its predecessors, casting out the old and bringing forth the new.
They created more intricate cultivation arts, forged sharper weapons, and laid down more complex formations.
Over centuries, Great Yan had risen step by step from a small frontier kingdom to a hegemon dominating the north.
It had relied not only on iron cavalry and swords, but also on this martial foundation, passed down from generation to generation and constantly growing.
This foundation could not be summed up by one or two Heaven-Human experts. It was the crystallization of countless predecessors' blood and toil, the backbone of all Great Yan.
Xiao Wanjun stepped forward, his ringing voice drowning out the mountain wind and the hum of the formation talismans. "Chen Du, there are thirty-six layers of mountain-guarding formations here, each laid down with the utmost effort by generations of Great Yan's formation grandmasters.
Each layer is stronger than the last. Even a Heaven-Human Realm expert would have to shed a layer of skin upon entering.
Here in this valley are Great Yan's three Heaven-Human experts, hundreds of Saint Tier experts, and over a thousand elites. They are everything the Great Yan martial world has.
Everything the Great Yan martial world has accumulated over centuries is here! I refuse to believe that you alone can stand against the hundreds and thousands of the Great Yan martial world, against the strength of the entire Great Yan martial world, against everything Great Yan has accumulated over centuries!"
His voice echoed through the valley, making the bronze bells buzz.
The hundreds of experts behind him drew their weapons as one, the sounds of blades leaving their sheaths joining into a single chorus as the weapons gleamed coldly in the dusk.
No one spoke. No one backed down.
There was fear in their eyes, but more than that, there was resolve.
Win or lose today, the Great Yan martial world would not let anyone look down on it.
At the valley entrance, a figure emerged from the dusk.
Barefoot,
wearing coarse clothes,
and carrying a wooden sword.
Chen Du raised his head and swept his gaze over them.
Chen Du made no reply to Xiao Wanjun's impassioned speech.
He did not even slow his pace. Holding his wooden sword, he simply kept walking, his bare feet treading the stone road covered in runes, his stride unchanged.
Xiao Wanjun's face darkened.
He said no more and suddenly roared, "Activate the formations!"
His roar cracked like a clap of thunder.
Behind him, Yin Bugu and Abbess Jingxuan stepped forward at the same time, and the auras of the three Heaven-Human Realm experts erupted together.
The three vast pressures converged, churning the clouds above the valley into a massive vortex.
Immediately afterward, nearly a hundred Saint Tier experts bellowed in unison, followed by hundreds of elite disciples.
The roars of over a thousand people merged into a heaven-shaking wave of sound that echoed again and again through the valley like raging surf.
On the high ground on both sides of the valley, several thousand Yan soldiers beat their shields with their blades.
The heavy metallic clamor mingled with the bellows of the martial experts, shaking loose stones from the mountain walls.
The next moment, the valley came alive.
Thousands of spirit stones on the mountain walls lit up at once, and all thirty-six layers of mountain-guarding formations activated simultaneously.
When the first formation lit up, a dense web of golden lines appeared on the ground.
Countless illusory chains flew from the lines and wove together into a gigantic golden net that blotted out the sky and descended over Chen Du.
When the second formation lit up, countless ice-blue runic blades condensed in the air.
Each was as thin as a cicada's wing, yet its edge was as deadly as the full-powered strike of a Saint Tier expert.
There were over a thousand of them, suspended in midair, their tips all aimed at the lone figure at the valley entrance.
When the third formation lit up, dozens of fissures opened in the ground, and dark green poison fire gushed out.
The flames carried a pungent, sickly-sweet odor, and even the stone slabs sizzled and corroded wherever they passed.
The fourth, the fifth, the sixth... All thirty-six formations lit up one after another, their power building layer upon layer.
The hum of the spirit stones made eardrums ache, and the formation talismans shone with a dazzling light that illuminated the entire valley as though it were day.
At the same time, the thirty-six ballistae on the high ground to either side fired together.
The armor-piercing bolts, each over a zhang long, tore through the air with shrill sonic booms.
More than a hundred archers released their bowstrings, sending poisoned arrows pouring down like a torrential rain.
The catapults hurled earthenware jars high into the air, where they shattered.
The oil burned in midair, turning into fireballs trailing black smoke that crashed toward the valley entrance.
Golden light, runic blades, poison fire, ballista bolts, burning oil... All the attacks converged in the same instant into a torrent of destruction that blotted out heaven and earth as it crashed toward Chen Du.
The might of this attack was beyond anything any single martial artist could imagine, and the spiritual energy of heaven and earth for dozens of li around was thrown into chaos.
The shockwaves sent loose stones tumbling continually from the mountain walls on both sides of the valley, and the ground shook violently, as though even the earth could not bear the convergence of so much power.