Chapter 1848: Headless Soldier

Battle dogs were the divine beasts of the heavenly court; they were more effective than battle drums. However, it was a bit unseemly for dog barks to fill the air before two armies engaged in conflict. Therefore, combat arts were employed to modify their utterances so they’d sound like thunderous drums. In this regard, their barks were also named the roars of war.

Time was a poison that could kill anything. The roars of war returned to their origin in the river of time and sounded like ordinary dogs barking again. But the killing intent nurtured within the barking yet remained.

Soldiers of the heavenly court were heavyweights whose will and mind were far superior to the cultivators assembled in front of the Firmament Prison. The barking filled their hearts with passion and drive to charge forward. But for cultivators who were much weaker and had never encountered this sensation, all they experienced was a wallowing in bloodlust.

Of course, there was a hint of entrancement in the barking as well, apart from towering battle intent. Other than seeking to protect their homes in the battlefield, the soldiers also wished to achieve glory and receive promotions after combat.

The dogs of war were meant to facilitate the full display of their capabilities and release their desires, making them braver the longer they fought.

....

Lu Yun’s eyes were blood-red and he felt his soul and body struggle to betray himself. It was an urge that his mind could barely repress.

Just as he was about to lose himself in the devastating barking, it suddenly stopped. Lu Yun’s consciousness trembled and he quickly sat down cross-legged, calming down his mind. A refreshing breeze drifted out from the Tome of Life and Death, flowing through his body.

He regained his clear-headedness.

The treasure was unable to resist the barking, or perhaps it hadn’t tried to do so if it identified that the barking didn’t pose a threat to its owner. That would mean Lu Yun hadn’t tempered his mind enough for the challenges to come.

He was coming to this realization as well.

The fighting didn’t stop with the cessation of the noise. Everyone’s desires and violence had been thoroughly roused. Bloodshed was the natural rhythm of the Firmament Prison. Even though some had come to their senses, they still killed and robbed for a chance to become a supreme.

Vivid blue shooting stars continued to fire from the depths of the ruins, resolving themselves into stunning treasures that floated in the air. Even Lu Yun was awed by the sight.

In his eyes, present time trumped the past. Although some things in modern society didn’t measure up to what the ancients had once used, as a whole, the present proved superior in terms of combat arts, cultivation methods, and daos.

Other than people clinging to their knowledge and taking it to the grave with them, things of the past had been lost to time because they were eliminated by progress.

But the scene in front of him made Lu Yun feel like a country bumpkin entering a city for the very first time. He hadn’t seen or even heard of many of these items before. Their craftsmanship went far beyond what he could imagine, and all sorts of talismans, formations, pills, treasures, and supplemental items were here for the taking.

One caveat was that the powerful energy of space and time surrounded the treasures that’d fully materialized. Even Lu Yun couldn’t easily obtain them.

“The future!” His heart quailed. Many of these treasures came from the future!

There was only one spacetime tide that traversed the past and present. He’d noticed that when people died, their treasures scattered into the void and were carried back to the Firmament Prison by the ripples of spatial order. The treasures from the future that Lu Yun saw had likely been left behind when their owners died in the future too.

Hence, while they were all priceless to him, they might very well be ordinary trinkets in the future. Just imagine a commonplace lighter from modern Earth being sent back to the feudal times or even earlier. It would be hailed as a holy artifact and the one who wielded it might become the fire god.

Lu Yun could easily wrap his mind around the concept because his own home planet was a wondrous land jointly shaped by Fuxi, Hongjun, Leize, and the Dao King. Even so, they’d marveled at how Earth had developed. They hadn’t thought that the planet would reach such heights when they set their plans in motion. Losing the civilization of cultivation had the effect of helping life shrug off its fetters and fully set free its thoughts and ideas.

Now that cultivation was the way of life again, the Earthling mindset did not devolve. Lu Yun was very much aware of this since he came from Earth. Although he didn’t understand the treasures he was seeing, he swiftly understood the cause and effect of everything. While he still didn’t know how the spacetime tide formed, he knew that it wasn’t something that could be dictated by any one person.

....

After the barking stopped, the tide grew more tempestuous. Blue ripples continuously pushed out treasures from the Firmament Prison and brought many things back when they ebbed back into the ruins.

More than half of the cultivators present were injured or dead; blood splashed liberally through the void. If it wasn’t for only three hundred-some-thousand cultivators having assembled on such short notice, the void would already be a sea of blood—just like in previous tides.

Everyone knew that this was very possibly a one way trip, but they had to come. They all wanted that last chance to become a supreme.

Lu Yun felt the scene darken in front of him as a horde of figures walked out of the vivid radiance. One hundred thousand heavenly soldiers in black armor stood in front of the cultivators. The area above their necks was empty—they had no heads.

Headless soldiers! The most terrifying existence of the last spatial tide had appeared!

“Headless soldiers!!” Screams rose and fell. Quite a few people had come back to their senses at this point, but they remained busy killing and taking.

The appearance of the legendary headless soldiers, however, shocked their reason into operation. Fear washed away the violence and greed in their hearts.

Space seemed to freeze.

A massive black battle flag unfurled in the void. Silver radiance exploded from it and intersected with the blue in the surroundings. The illumination forced away the blood in the surroundings and created a world of silver and blue.

Lu Yun’s pupils constricted violently and his heart skipped a beat. He recognized this banner! It was the battle flag that Hongjun, Fuxi, and the Dao King had created from the cosmos outside Earth!

It felt like a bucket of cold water came down over his head; he shivered uncontrollably. A terrifying thought rose from his mind—was this battle flag from the past or the future?