Chapter 427: Falling from the Nine Heavens

"It's just as well that you aren't going. Why should every Priest across the land mobilize over one minor black-robed priest?"

As a Priest of the Imperial Dynasty, Priest Gounv did not resent Du An's betrayal nearly as much as the Priests of the Myriad Ancient Pagoda did.

Of course, her stance toward black-robed priests was the same.

Whenever she crossed paths with one, if it was within her power, she would kill them without hesitation.

"Since Priest Li Ban wishes to temper himself at the Nine Heavens Sea, why not stand watch with me first? How does that sound?"

Li Ban found that odd. "Two Dark Moon Priests standing watch together?"

Priest Huinv offered a gentle smile. "You only just arrived, after all. I'll show you around and let you get a feel for how battles play out here. Once you can handle things on your own, I'll ask the Solar Priest to put you in command of your own squad."

"Then you have my thanks, Priest Huinv."

Priest Huinv was showing him unmistakable goodwill—not at all as if they were meeting for the first time.

"Priest Huinv—" Li Ban stopped mid-sentence as a flash of light caught his right eye, followed at once by peals of thunder rolling past his ears.

He and Priest Huinv turned at the same time to face the Nine Heavens Sea.

Around the clear sky of moments ago, dark clouds reaching to the heavens had formed out of thin air, rolling and churning as lightning arced through them.

The clouds overhead piled thicker and heavier, as if the sky itself were pressing down on the earth.

The air pressure dropped so low it was hard to breathe.

"Priest Li Ban, you haven't been to the Nine Heavens Sea before, have you?"

"This is my first time even setting foot in Tu Province."

Huinv stared gravely toward the horizon. "Then take a look at what the true Nine Heavens Sea is like."

Li Ban kept his eyes fixed on the sky.

The heavy bank of dark clouds split down the middle, tearing open a vast rift.

Light from the heavens slanted down through it like a grand thoroughfare descending from the sky to the mortal world.

The very next second, Li Ban heard a roar louder than thunder.

It wasn't thunder, however, but rushing water.

A stream plunged from the heavens through the rift in the clouds.

Thin at first, the flow quickly thickened along the edges of the fissure, forming a colossal column of water—a pillar propping up the sky from the earth below.

As the torrent struck the sea, it kicked up massive waves some a hundred meters high. When the waves crashed back down, vast amounts of spray condensed into mist, shrouding the surrounding waters.

The fog lingered without clearing.

Before long, Li Ban realized the fog was more than just fog.

Distinct figures were gradually taking shape within it.

One after another, translucent raw souls appeared.

The impact of plummeting from the sky into the sea left them momentarily dazed.

Soon enough, though, their eyes snapped open and turned toward the coast.

Longing and madness crept across their faces.

They yearned to set foot on the Nine Provinces Continent, as though escaping the sea would grant them a new life.

The mist seamlessly gave way to an overwhelming army of raw souls blotting out sky and sea.

They held no weapons in their hands, yet they themselves were weapons.

"It's too late to head back now," Priest Huinv said, drawing the long whip from her waist. "We've run into a sudden engagement. Will you fight alongside me, Priest Ban?"

"Of course!" Now that Li Ban was here, he had no intention of shying away from a fight.

Priest Huinv looked back at a Star Glow Priest following them and said, "Zhao Yao, lend your Soul-Slashing Blade to Priest Li Ban."

Li Ban didn't refuse, taking the long blade from the woman behind him.

Judging by the scabbard, the blade was less than a meter long, with a slender hilt better suited for a woman.

Still, if Priest Huinv had made a point of borrowing a blade for him, she must have had a reason.

"Priest Ban, fighting raw souls—especially in large numbers—is different from fighting the living. Spells consume far too much spiritual rhinoceros, and ordinary weapons do little harm to them. Our weapons are made specifically to deal with raw souls. Once you've settled in, I'll teach you how to forge one of these."

"Thank you." Li Ban drew the blade in one swift motion.

Only as it cleared the scabbard did he realize there was no metal blade inside at all—only an expanse of white radiance.

The white light brimmed without dispersing, the shape of a blade visible within it.

Without Priest Huinv needing to explain, a single glance was enough for Li Ban to grasp the flow and pattern of the spiritual rhinoceros inside.

He tightened his grip on the scabbard, and the blade of light abruptly lengthened.

From less than a meter, it surged to two meters.

The blade remained light, shifting at will.

Priest Huinv gave a slight nod, turned, and flew toward the sea.

By now, the first wave of the raw soul army had closed to within three hundred meters of the coastline.

All around, from the nine-story towers stretching along the entire coast, Priests were flying out to meet the enemy.

Li Ban leaped lightly into the air, joining the Priests rising to intercept them.

Although he was a Dark Moon Priest, in a battle on this scale, he was no more than a tiny figure across the vast battlefield.

The Dark Moon Priests flew out in the lead, with the Star Glow and Cloud-Hidden Priests close behind.

At the Nine Heavens Sea, Spirit Awakening Priests were actually the fewest in number.

The intensity of the fighting here was ill-suited to anyone who had only just become a Priest.

Li Ban soon met his first raw soul.

It wasn't human in shape, resembling something between a tiger and a leopard. The moment it saw Li Ban in front of it, its jaws flew open to bite.

With a horizontal slash, Li Ban cleaved the raw soul—which stood a meter taller than him—clean in two.

An ordinary weapon slashing a raw soul would simply pass right through it.

When the blade of light in Li Ban's hand struck the raw soul, however, he felt a distinct resistance. Once cleaved apart, the raw soul dissolved into smoke at once.

Li Ban spared a glance at the beast he had cut apart, then looked away to meet the other raw souls.

Before long, though, he noticed that the raw soul he had dispersed was showing signs of gathering itself back together to reform.

Just then, the other Priests following Huinv rushed forward and cut down the raw soul again before it could fully reassemble.

The blur of a whip swept past, scattering the raw souls beside Li Ban in a single stroke.

Priest Huinv brandished her long whip as she drew near. "Sorry about that. I charged a bit too far ahead just now and forgot you were still behind me."

"It's fine. It gives me a chance to get used to the fighting here."

Li Ban looked at the long whip in Priest Huinv's hand; all told, it was probably fifty meters long.

He ran a hand along the blade, driving his spiritual rhinoceros into it.

The blade surged once more, stretching a full four meters long.

"My bladework is ordinary, so I'll just have to overpower them with force."

"As long as you don't run into anyone else, fight however you like," Priest Huinv said with a laugh.

By then, the open stretch they had just cleared was already packed with newly arrived enemies.

"Priest Ban, let's deal with the raw souls rushing toward us together. The ones reforming after being scattered are weaker—leave them to the Priests below the 6th Tier."

Li Ban nodded and swung his blade of light again at a ferocious raw soul charging right up to him.

This time, Priest Huinv held back a little and didn't press too far ahead.

Moreover, whenever she spotted a raw soul slipping past Li Ban, the long whip in her hand split in two, lashing apart those trying to circle around him. Her whip moved with extraordinary agility, scattering the raw souls with precision without ever interfering with Li Ban's fighting.

The sudden battle lasted from broad daylight all the way to midnight.

By midnight, the sky-hung waterfall over the Nine Heavens Sea finally began to thin and shrink.

After another hour, the clouds parted and the rain ceased, and the Nine Heavens Sea returned to calm.

The Priests had finished the battle, driving the remaining raw souls into the deep sea and guiding the non-aggressive divine souls into the River of Helplessness.

Li Ban finally touched back down on the ground.

"So this... is the Nine Heavens Sea."