"Rumble..." At that moment, peals of drumbeats rang out, more deafening than thunderclaps. After the drums sounded nine times, the crimson clouds began to churn, and shafts of golden radiance stabbed straight down from between the clouds. Then, the crimson clouds gathered toward various places. In but a moment, they had condensed into twenty-eight enormous cloud masses. Upon them stood twenty-eight brightly armored Immortal Generals. Their appearances varied—some were stout, some short and lean, too many to list. Even their mounts differed: tigers, wolves, and even strange rabbits and roosters!
"The Twenty-Eight Mansions?" Xiao Hua stopped in midair. His gaze swept over them, and he gained some understanding as he pondered inwardly.
Behind these twenty-eight Immortal Generals stood several dozen clearly armored Immortal Soldiers. Although the Immortal Soldiers behind each general wielded identical weapons, the weapons carried by the twenty-eight generals differed from one another.
At this time, all the Immortal Soldiers and Generals wore solemn expressions. As the clouds beneath their feet rolled, tremendous drumbeats rang out again. Beside every Immortal General stood a towering giant several zhang tall, holding an enormous drumstick as gigantic heavenly drums emerged from the clouds. The giants were bare-chested, with layers of faint mist winding around them. Beneath that mist, their skin gleamed with an oily luster, which flashed with strange radiance as their muscles rippled.
"Ding ding dong dong..." Amid the earth-shaking drumbeats, waves of string and wind music rose as well. Though not as deafening as the drums, the music was still grand and unrestrained. When Xiao Hua and the others looked up, they saw palace-dressed women within the clouds behind the twenty-eight Immortal Generals, some holding flutes, others pipas. Even sets of gleaming golden chime bells appeared amid the misty clouds.
After the time it took to eat half a