Chapter 1716 — The Fall of a Heavenly Venerable

The scheme the Northern Heaven King had laid was exceedingly vicious; with only the meager force Meng Yungui had, he could not stand against the Heavenly Court's great army — the only way to resist was to summon the ancient giant beasts of the Beast World. Yet the moment Heavenly Venerable Long Xiao recalled the giant beasts and Long Qilin, he would pull the firewood from under Meng Yungui's cauldron; the arrays within the Lapis Lazuli Azure Heaven Banner would scatter like loose sand, unable to withstand a single blow! What awaited Meng Yungui was not only his own death, but the annihilation of his whole army — every officer and soldier of the Feathered Ascension Camp would be buried with him! She and Meng Yungui were close friends, the closest of friends. Both were of the human race, both Celestial Masters of the Heavenly Court, each upholding the other.

Meng Yungui had once helped her stand against Yin Tianzi. To watch him die before her eyes — her heart could not bear it. "And yet the Northern Heaven King is at my back, holding the Southern Heaven Gate.

At the slightest misstep from me, I am dead beyond doubt.

" Bai Yuqiong struggled inwardly.

"Senior Brother Meng, why did you have to rebel at this very juncture? You are such a cunning, such a cautious man — why rebel at this moment of all moments. .

. " Across the field, when Bai Yuqiong and Yiluo led their troops in, Long Qilin had already made his preparations, ready at any moment to summon the ancient giant beasts of the Beast World.

He was Long Xiao's adopted son, the young master of the Beast World, who had managed its affairs for many years and commanded countless giant beasts. He too had great ambitions, and the wish to share Jingping's burdens and ease his troubles.

He wanted to turn the Southern Heaven into a battlefield that pinned down the Heavenly Court's great army!

The great army of the Beast World was his capital. To accomplish this, he must drag as many of the Heavenly Court's gods and demons as possible into the Southern Heaven, forcing the Southern Heaven to become a place the Heavenly Court could not abandon, so that the Heavenly Court would have to pour in more and more forces without end.

Thus Jingping's pressure would be eased.

Long Qilin had cultivated under Shen Mu for many years and had been sent out by Shen Mu to temper himself; he had grown into a competent commander. In name he was Longshan Sanren, famed as the foremost Celestial Master under heaven, yet in the movement of troops and the laying of formations he was still inferior to Shang Pingyin.

These past years it had been Meng Yungui secretly helping him control the shifting arrays of the Lapis Lazuli Azure Heaven Banner, and in but a few short years he had grown with astonishing speed, so that his command of battle formations was now all but instinct, and the gap between him and a Celestial Master grew ever smaller. But when he summoned the ancient giant beasts of the Beast World, everything was already sealed.

It was the Ancient God Taiji who devised the strategy for Yiluo.

These two Ancient Gods possessed wisdom of the highest order; with the schemer against the unwitting, Long Qilin's defeat was foreordained!

At Bai Yuqiong's command, the Heavenly Court's army surged forth.

Long Qilin at once summoned the ancient giant beasts; the sky of the Southern Heaven was torn open, and beast after beast descended from the heavens into the twenty-eight heavens laid out by the Lapis Lazuli Azure Heaven Banner!

Meng Yungui and Crown Prince Youming immediately helped him disperse the ancient giant beasts of the Beast World into the arrays of one heaven after another among the twenty-eight; with the Beast World's aid, they would never lose this battle! In the instant the two armies clashed, flesh and blood flew. Even gods and demons who were ordinarily high and aloof were in that moment no more than insignificant ants in the torrent of the battlefield; in the blink of a collision, who knew how many gods and demons perished!

Just then, suddenly, the sky split open, and an enormous dragon head thrust out from the rift, its eyes like blazing suns, radiating a fearsome heat that lit the vast, boundless battlefield through and through!

The Northern Heaven King raised his head and sneered, "Heavenly Venerable Long Xiao, are you also preparing to rebel and make trouble? " That enormous dragon head was Long Xiao.

His face was grim, and wherever his gaze fell, countless ancient giant beasts within the Lapis Lazuli Azure Heaven Banner were lifted off their feet against their will, vanishing one after another into the rift in the sky as he forcibly dragged them back to the Beast World! In Long Qilin's heart was both fury and grief. He raised his head and cried out sharply, "Adoptive Father—" With a swish— Long Xiao's gaze swept over. Long Qilin struggled with all his might, but still he rose into the light and vanished into the Beast World. Unable to break free, Long Qilin turned his head to look at Meng Yungui and Crown Prince Youming, and cried out at the top of his voice, "Live!

Wait for my return!

You must live—" The rift in the sky closed, and Long Qilin's figure was gone. "My adopted son sent troops without my leave; I will discipline him strictly.

" Long Xiao's voice burst like thunder, and then the enormous head withdrew into the Beast World. The Northern Heaven King laughed and strode out of the city. Looking up, he saw that countless arrays within the Lapis Lazuli Azure Heaven Banner had at once run out of control; without the ancient giant beasts of the Beast World to drive them, the various formations turned sluggishly, uselessly!

The Heavenly Court's host of gods and demons poured into the twenty-eight heavens of the Azure Heaven Banner, and at once the officers and men of the Feathered Ascension Camp were torn apart, flesh and blood flying! At this violent turn, Crown Prince Youming and Meng Yungui knew the defeat was sealed.

The two sent their primordial spirits out of their bodies, unleashing every divine power, fighting to the death, shielding several thousand officers and men of the Feathered Ascension Camp as they hewed their way out of the encirclement, striving to break through the Lapis Lazuli Azure Heaven Banner and flee to the outside world! Crown Prince Youming seized the jade pillar of the Azure Heaven Banner, meaning to withdraw its twenty-eight heavens and carry the supreme treasure away. Just then the Northern Heaven King roused the Southern Heaven Gate of the Ancestral Court; between two mountain ranges, fire blazed and dao resonance spread, and the Southern Heaven Gate pressed down, crushing Crown Prince Youming until crackling explosions burst from his very flesh.

He roared, raising all his strength to its utmost; his turtle-snake primordial spirit danced, and the radiance of the Great Dao spread everywhere — yet still he could not uproot the Azure Heaven Banner. He was still straining to pull it up when suddenly Meng Yungui flew to him, seized him, and bore him away: "Crown Prince of the Northern Emperor, if we do not leave now, we never will!

" Scarce had they gone when the Northern Heaven King's two wings scissored shut — and closed on empty air.

The Northern Heaven King landed, and countless troops poured out from either side of him, forming arrays and charging at the remnant of the Feathered Ascension Camp. The Northern Heaven King turned back and looked at Bai Yuqiong, saying mildly, "Celestial Master Bai, your arrays may not match Meng Yungui's, but surely they are not so full of holes as this? You let Meng Yungui and the rebels escape!

" Bai Yuqiong stepped forward.

"Meng Yungui's attainments far exceed mine.

Even Celestial Master Shang was defeated by him — how much more so I?

Fortunately, this game is already ours to win! " The Northern Heaven King did not press the matter.