Chapter 1726 — The Sage King of Jiangguo

"Cyan Emperor, will you submit to Jingping?

" No sooner had Jiang Baigui trapped the Cyan Emperor's primal spirit than he spoke: "You are beaten.

Refuse, and you die; submit, and you shall be reckoned a meritorious subject. " The Cyan Emperor roamed hither and thither within his heavenly court, seeking a way out, and cried: "His Majesty the Primordial One knew my worth and raised me up, a debt I can never repay in this life.

In this life I am the Primordial One's subject alone, and I swear to die before I yield! " The Cyan Emperor's fleshly body was held utterly in check by the Earth Virtue Primordial Lord Gongsun Yan, so that the strength of his primal spirit fell short of his body's; and fallen into Jiang Baigui's heavenly court, he could never break free.

Jiang Baigui's heavenly court was a strange thing indeed: it was no palace of heaven forged from any single innate Great Dao, but thirty-six heavenly palaces composed of acquired Daos, of farming and forestry, of herding and fishing, of trade and smithing, of blades and spears, of swords and halberds. The road Jiang Baigui walked was plainly the attainment of the Dao through power, yet it differed from the classic way.

The classic attainment of the Dao through power is as it was with Emperor Haotian and the Primordial One and their like: to cultivate the innate Daos, forge heavenly palaces and treasure halls, ascend to Lingxiao, sit upon the Imperial Throne, imprint the ultimate void, and by force attain Daluo.

Jiang Baigui's path, however, was the mutual completion of the acquired and the innate; the thirty-six heavenly palaces were acquired Daos, the seventy-two treasure halls were innate Daos, and both were whole and complete in every part. Such Daos he had seen before, but never had he seen any man cultivate them to so profound a realm.

Wherever he fled, there was no way out. Jiang Baigui's acquired and innate Daos numbered one hundred and eight in all, one hundred and eight sets of arts at the level of the Imperial Throne.

Of the innate arts it might well be said that from Longhan down to this day, most of those of surpassing talent had cultivated the innate Daos, and no few had attained the Imperial Throne thereby; from Longhan to now, the innate Imperial Throne arts accumulated would number eight hundred if not a thousand, and to assemble the seventy-two treasure halls should not be difficult.

But acquired Imperial Throne arts were exceedingly few; from ancient times to the present, of those who had attained the Imperial Throne by the acquired Daos and made their names known to the world, the Cyan Emperor knew of Kaihuang alone.

Even the famed Heavenly Venerable Mu did not cultivate the acquired Daos alone, nor had he ever cultivated to the realm of the Imperial Throne. Yet Jiang Baigui's heavenly palaces were palaces formed of acquired Daos; thirty-six heavenly palaces, thirty-six acquired Imperial Throne arts, and to attain the Dao thereby was a difficulty past all imagining. But Jiang Baigui had made that road passable, and had now cultivated to the Yujing realm.

His Yujing City was like no other man's Yujing City; the Cyan Emperor had never seen its like. Wherever he broke through, Jiang Baigui drove him back.

Jiang Baigui's face was grave as he said in a low voice: "The Cyan Emperor would repay his lord with his own body, loyal heart and righteous gall. Then I shall grant it him.

" Of a sudden he withdrew his own thirty-six heavenly palaces and seventy-two treasure halls; the pressure on the Cyan Emperor's primal spirit eased, and as he made to flee he saw that Jingping's Duke of Weiguo, King of Taishan, Grand General of Heavenly Strategy, and others had led their armies up to ring him round. The three Jingping armies spread their formations and raised their formation diagrams, locking him in together with his body, which had already turned to wood, and fought their way at him with all their strength.

Jiang Baigui said in a low voice: "Encircle but do not annihilate. Draw the armies of the Eastern Heaven out of their passes to the rescue.

" The Cyan Emperor's heart went cold.

Encircle but do not annihilate: this was to draw out all sixty of his Eastern Heaven's army marquises, to throw the Eastern Heaven's camps and formations into disorder, to crush the morale of the Eastern Heaven's armies. Whichever army marched out of the pass to his rescue would surely plunge headlong into the trap Jiang Baigui had laid, and would face a battle of annihilation, to be wiped out at a single stroke by Jiang Baigui's Jingping troops, who waited at their ease for the weary.

And he himself would become the bait by which Jiang Baigui would annihilate the Eastern Heaven's millions of gods and demons.

"Marquises of the Eastern Heaven, hold fast to your camps. You must not come to my rescue! " He strove to the utmost to break the encirclement, yet the wounds upon his body only multiplied.

He knew Jiang Baigui meant it so: to trade the life of him, the commanding general, for the chance to break the Eastern Heaven's armies.

Yet he could not escape.

"Imperial Preceptor of Jingping, I am dying. " The Eastern Emperor Azure Dragon was carried over by many soldiers.

From his battle with the Cyan Emperor he was spent, lamp and oil both exhausted, on the verge of his soul scattering, and he said in a thread of a voice: "I have won merit, have I not? Will Heavenly Venerable Mu revive me.

.

.

?

" His eyes were full of hope. Jiang Baigui shook his head: "Eastern Emperor, you may not die yet.

Send for the Medicine King!

" A middle-aged pill master came with several young pill masters, examined the Eastern Emperor's wounds, and said: "So long as a breath remains in him, he can be saved.

Bring that horse here. " Soldiers led over the dragon horse; it had not, after all, died in the battle between the Eastern Emperor and the Cyan Emperor, but had fled away together with the dragon the Cyan Emperor rode.

In that battle both men had been red-eyed with slaughter; in close combat, who had leisure to think of his mount?

The beasts had escaped instead.

The pill master reached out a hand and with a light twist drew from the dragon horse that thread of dragon qi belonging to the Eastern Emperor Azure Dragon. Robbed of its dragon qi, the horse at once became a jujube-red old nag again, all bones and hide, fouling itself as it went.

The pill master sent that thread of dragon qi into the Eastern Emperor Azure Dragon's body, easing his wounds somewhat, and several pill masters came forward and swiftly treated him. The Eastern Emperor would not die, but his wounds were truly too grave, and but little of his cultivation remained; the pill masters of the Jingping army dosed him too fiercely, so that he hurt until he wished for death, and he rasped: "You might as well let me die, and revive me; that would be the quicker mercy!

" "The number of those in this world who command the art of resurrection may be counted on one hand. I am one of them, yet I have not the strength of cultivation to revive Your Excellency.

Reviving you would take too long, and I have not so much time to spend on the Eastern Emperor. This body of yours was forged by Jingping's greatest heavenly craftsmen, and the Eastern Emperor divine artifact is one of a kind; neither may be squandered.

I still have need of you. You have a great use, and can break the Eastern Heaven utterly.

So you must not die, whatever the cost. " The army's pill masters tended him without cease, and the Eastern Emperor felt the hurts upon his very soul mending; but it hurt so much that he clenched his shattered teeth and endured in silence. His gaze fell upon the face of that middle-aged pill master, and he started slightly: the man was uncommonly handsome, a hero among heroes, of a countenance without peer.

Yet it was this very man whose fierce dosing made life worse than death. "And you are?