Chapter 1727 — A Move That Shakes Heaven and Earth

"The Cyan Emperor is a formidable one; a pity he met Jiang Baigui!

" The Cyan Emperor remained hemmed in by the great army, taking wound upon wound, yet Jiang Baigui had not given the order to kill him — and that was the most terrifying thing of all.

The crux of "besiege the point, strike the relief" lies in striking the relief; the Cyan Emperor was spared to draw in reinforcements, and the reinforcements that came for him were spared again to draw in still more.

This was the unorthodox.

When more relief arrived, the first wave was annihilated with utmost speed lest they be caught in a converging assault — this was the orthodox.

Having destroyed the first wave of relief, one adjusted the formations and committed still greater strength to besieging the second — this again was the unorthodox.

Through the shifting of unorthodox and orthodox, the stakes grew ever larger, forcing the enemy to abandon his own living strength and so be strangled in an endless grind.

And the wielding of the battlefield, the mastery of heavenly principle and human desire, tests a commander's wisdom to the utmost; let a single aspect go wrong, and the intended effect can never be attained.

Jingping's forces were far inferior to Eastern Heaven's, and how to overcome the many with the few without being devoured by the enemy's superior numbers was a trial all the greater.

The Imperial Preceptor of Jingping, Jiang Baigui, had already reached the sublime; on the field of battle he had no rival left.

As Eastern Heaven's Heavenly River, Chariot-and-Cavalry, Formation-Chariot and other divisions were thrown into the fight, the Cyan Emperor's heart turned colder still: the more gods and demons the sixty army marquises of Eastern Heaven dragged in, the harder it became for them to cut the tangle loose. If a force so vast were swallowed whole and uprooted by Jingping, no general alive could bear it!

And now the question was no longer whether to keep him encircled without destroying him — even if Jiang Baigui released him this instant, Eastern Heaven's great army could never withdraw from the field!

"The Eastern Emperor's wounds should be of no great consequence now?

" The Imperial Preceptor of Jingping, Jiang Baigui, came to the Eastern Emperor's side and said, "Now Your Excellency may awaken the Myriad Dragon Nest, awaken your own fleshly body and the divine dragons of the Eastern Pole Heaven.

" The Eastern Emperor rose and laughed aloud: "Jiang Baigui, you are indeed ruthless and venomous!

" He gave a long whistle, blood and qi surging wild, and far across the field in Eastern Heaven's camp the headless fleshly body of the azure dragon shuddered violently; the soaring dragon stretched out its claws and seized at the Myriad Dragon Nest!

The Myriad Dragon Nest was his holy land, the very place of his birth, and its might was in no way inferior to the Southern Emperor's Ancestral Land of Dao Fire!

The power of the Ancestral Land of Dao Fire was terrifying beyond measure: it could twist time and space, one layer of Dao Fire, one layer of heaven, until the whole cosmos seemed to dwell within that ancestral fire.

The ancestral land of the Myriad Dragon Nest held no such fearsome might, but its strength lay in blood and qi; when the blood and qi within the Myriad Dragon Nest burst forth, the blood and qi of every divine dragon in Eastern Heaven's camp surged in near-frenzy!

Those divine dragons were of the Eastern Pole Heaven, all descendants of the Eastern Emperor Azure Dragon; strengthened by the blood and qi of the Myriad Dragon Nest, their bodies swelled and snapped the dragon-binding cords upon them! Only a portion of the Eastern Pole Heaven's divine dragons had been beheaded; tens of thousands still remained in the army as slaves, and now these dragons broke free one after another, fangs and claws bared, dragon-cries ringing out unceasing from Eastern Heaven's great camp.

The Eastern Emperor's long chant did not cease; those divine dragons, their strength swelling wildly, hurled themselves at the other armies in Eastern Heaven's camp, and in a moment all was chaos, flesh and blood flying everywhere. At the same instant Jiang Baigui ordered a general assault; the tower ships and great vessels flying in the sky were still a thousand li from Eastern Heaven's camp when cannon-light split the sea's surface, blasting the camp gates and bursting them open.

Countless gods and demons trod the sea's surface and charged the camp; the might of heavy divine weapons was roused one by one, the Sun-Shooting Divine Cannons were triggered, and the killing intent of every slaughter-formation soared to the heavens, churning wind and cloud! At the same time, numberless gods and demons groped along the sea floor to beneath the camp and broke through its foundations to kill their way into the city; from the sea armored giant kun leapt from the water and flew through the air, each kun bearing dozens of gods and demons on its back, who pushed out sword towers from which sword pellets poured like rain.

Just then the Primordial Lady of Earthly Virtue, Gongsun Yan, flew forth and advanced toward Eastern Heaven's camp.

On the sea before her countless tender shoots sprouted from the camp, branches whirling, binding numberless Eastern Heaven officers and soldiers! Ordinarily, so long as Eastern Heaven's soldiers could form their formations, they might still have contended with the Primordial Lady of Earthly Virtue.

For though the Lady of Earthly Virtue was the daughter of the Primordial Lady of the Earth Mother, her cultivation was only that of an Imperial Throne powerhouse who had built a dozen or so Heavenly Palaces, and she could not yet be called a Heavenly Venerable. Moreover, she had seen little slaughter and lacked battle experience; to suppress her, a few hundred thousand gods and demons drawn up in strict formation would have sufficed to hold their own against her.

But in this moment the great army was in chaos, scattered as loose sand, and no one could stop Gongsun Yan! Gongsun Yan was also called the Little Earth Mother; against a being of her own realm she might not have been a match, but against Eastern Heaven's soldiers, scattered as they were, it was a one-sided massacre! Wherever her divine power passed, the Eastern Heaven soldiers in the midst of battle turned to wood, flesh and blood becoming timber, transformed into one wooden carving after another!

Gongsun Yan could not turn the primordial spirits of these gods and demons to wood, but once a primordial spirit leaves the fleshly body, how much fighting strength remains to it?

In Eastern Heaven's camp the primordial spirits of its soldiers fluttered aloft, only to collapse and disintegrate one after another under the attacks of Jingping's soldiers and the divine dragons of the Eastern Pole Heaven; some even became black soul-sand!

The rolling black sand surged along the sea's surface, flowing toward the Tianyin Realm.

Seeing this, the trapped Cyan Emperor was utterly desolate; that single stroke of Jiang Baigui's had cut off every hope he had — the sixty army marquises of Eastern Heaven would surely be routed beyond recovery! One move amiss, and the whole board is lost! "Jiang Baigui, I—" Scarcely had the Cyan Emperor of the Eastern Heaven spoken, before he could utter the two words of surrender, when the Eastern Emperor Azure Dragon suddenly rose in fury and charged into the ranks of the three armies!

In a few bounds the Eastern Emperor Azure Dragon slew the Cyan Emperor's primordial spirit!