Chapter 1724 — The Steed Treads the Heavens

There was still not the least ripple of emotion in his eyes, and yet he rose to his feet without meaning to. The envoy came quickly before him and presented the Azure Dragon's scale, saying in a low voice, "Imperial Preceptor of Jingping, Heavenly Venerable Mu has summoned the three souls of the Eastern Emperor Azure Dragon and sealed them in the dragon scale!

" The Imperial Preceptor of Jingping took the scale and said, "You have worked hard.

Go and rest.

" "This officer is not tired! " The Imperial Preceptor of Jingping gazed at him, and a faint smile appeared.

"Good.

When the war begins, you shall stay at my side and ride out with me. Someone call the Perfected Lord of Earth Virtue!

" "No need.

I am already here! " A gentle voice spoke. The Imperial Preceptor of Jingping looked toward it and saw the Perfected Lord of Earth Virtue, Gongsun Yan, come forward.

He hastily turned his head to look toward the Jingping capital, saw that Yuanmu was still there, and only then breathed easy. Gongsun Yan said, "I have left my true body in the capital and come in my fleshly body, to avoid alarming the Cyan Emperor of the Eastern Heaven.

" The Imperial Preceptor of Jingping saluted and said, "The Perfected Lord considers rightly. Had your true body come, the Cyan Emperor, however he may loathe the Azure Dragon, would not dare take the field.

And if he will not fight, he cannot be taken alive and subdued.

Hear my command: array the three armies! " His orders were passed down.

At once war horns sounded from the camps dotting the sea, and the Duke of Wei, the Grand General of Heavenly Strategy, the Prince of Mount Tai, Shen Feiyue, and one marquis army after another began to review their troops.

On the sea, the camps stood like a wall ten thousand li long; in the sky hung flying divine cities one after another; and beneath the sea lurked gods and demons of colossal bulk, ranks in perfect order, awaiting the command.

The Imperial Preceptor of Jingping reckoned the time to the precise fraction.

Suddenly he said in a deep voice, "Beat the drums, and bring out the Eastern Emperor's divine weapon! " At his word the drums thundered, shaking the Eastern Sea until its waters rolled and surged and the waves split the sky.

Amid the towering swells the gates of the camp opened, and a colossal Azure Dragon divine weapon was pushed out by several thousand Jingping gods.

The Azure Dragon divine weapon rested upon a vast platform on the sea, as though the Eastern Emperor lived again. The Azure Dragon coiled, claws hooked; before its claws it clutched a spirit-treasure mountain, there for it to sharpen its teeth on. That was the spirit-treasure mountain the Eastern Emperor Azure Dragon, defeated by Shen Mu when Shen Mu went to visit the Eastern Pole Heaven in years past, had forfeited to him.

And this Azure Dragon divine weapon was a weapon forged by Jingping's creation divine weapon in the likeness of the Eastern Emperor Azure Dragon, much like the divine weapon that is Yu the Heavenly Venerable. Only, this divine weapon was of flesh and blood, and hidden within it was the Great Dao of the Eastern Emperor Azure Dragon; its power was immense.

The moment the Eastern Emperor Azure Dragon divine weapon appeared, one saw across from the camp the palaces of heaven ranked row on row, divine cities stretching unbroken; the sixty marquis armies of the Eastern Heaven, led by the Cyan Emperor of the Eastern Heaven, whose power was boundless indeed, had all but raised a glittering golden continent upon the sea.

Set beside it, the Jiangling line looked pitifully small! The two sides, one great and one small, were worlds apart in strength; yet the Cyan Emperor of the Eastern Heaven held stubbornly to his camp, and no matter how the Imperial Preceptor of Jingping provoked him, he never stirred.

If Jingping attacked head-on, it would fall into an unfavorable position; so there was nothing for it but to stand locked in stalemate. While Jiangling brought out this Azure Dragon divine weapon, the Heavenly Court camp opposite was not idle either: its gates swung wide, and there emerged a colossal Azure Dragon!

That Azure Dragon was savage and ferocious, its fleshly body vast beyond measure, suffused with the Great Dao's fortune that belongs to the ancient gods alone, pressing down upon the Eastern Sea. Yet the Azure Dragon had no head; the head had been struck off.

It was the fleshly body of the Eastern Emperor Azure Dragon! Taichu had slain the Eastern Emperor Azure Dragon, sealed the Azure Dragon Heavenly Venerable's head in a box and sent it to Emperor Haotian, but the fleshly body he had kept, and given to the Cyan Emperor of the Eastern Heaven.

On Jingping's side there was only a single Eastern Emperor divine weapon; on the other side was the Azure Dragon's very flesh. Plainly the Cyan Emperor of the Eastern Heaven meant to show off his martial might and crush the Imperial Preceptor of Jingping's confidence. Nor was that all.

In the Eastern Heaven's camp, qi and blood hung like a heaven-sea turned upside down, blood-vapor filling the sky above the camps of the sixty marquis armies, thick beyond measure; plainly the Cyan Emperor of the Eastern Heaven had moved over even the Myriad Dragon Nest, the holy ground and ancestral land where the Eastern Pole Heaven's Eastern Emperor Azure Dragon had been born! Within the Myriad Dragon Nest, qi and blood were abundant beyond measure, brimming with vitality, enough to restore severed limbs to life for the countless armies of the sixty marquis armies, so that they need not fear wounds on the battlefield; it was like a divine weapon of creation vast beyond all measure.

Though in strength and in power he far exceeded Jingping, and his treasures were beyond the ordinary, the Cyan Emperor of the Eastern Heaven still shut his gates and would not fight.

The Imperial Preceptor of Jingping, Jiang Baigui, waved his hand, and the several thousand gods escorting the Eastern Emperor divine weapon withdrew and returned to camp.

Then a small boat sailed out from the camp. Jiang Baigui stood at its prow; at the center of the boat stood an old sorrel horse.

It cut a straight line across the sea and came to a halt before the head of the Eastern Emperor divine weapon.

Opposite, the Eastern Heaven camp remained utterly still.

No one came out to fight.

Jiang Baigui's boat halted.

He took the crown from his head and laid it on the prow, then removed his hairpin and let his hair fall loose over his shoulders. He drew his divine sword and the Azure Dragon's scale, and with sword in hand worked his rites before the dragon's head. Opposite, still no stir.

The Cyan Emperor of the Eastern Heaven climbed the tower, settled himself at his ease, ordered fine wine and good food brought up, and gazing at the scene from afar, laughed: "That whelp of Jingping, Jiang Baigui, is full of tricks; now he plays the sorcerer to lure me out to fight. " Scarcely had the words left his mouth when the sea suddenly heaved with monstrous waves; the dragon scale shot out green light in every direction, and a colossal Azure Dragon soared up from the scale into the sky, vast beyond measure. For a time dragon-roars shook the air without cease, and the sea split with a crack, opening a heavenly punishment rift tens of thousands of li long, how many tens of thousands, none could say!

In an instant, throughout the Eastern Heaven's camp, countless divine dragon slaves from the Eastern Pole Heaven raised roar upon roar, bellowing at the sky, shaking the dragon-binding ropes on their bodies with a clatter! Those divine dragons were the divine dragons of the Eastern Pole Heaven.