Chapter 1773 — Upheaval at the Ancestral Shrine

The Empress gazed at the armies of the Heavenly Court. They were drawing closer and closer to the Ancestral Court now, yet of the Court's host only some seven hundred thousand remained; and within the Heavenly Emperor's palanquin Emperor Haotian sat motionless, his face dark and cold, his body withered and gaunt, without a spark of life in him, like a man already dead. Haotian now suffered worse than death. All the way through this flight they had been hunted and hunted again; the forces of Jingping and of the myriad heavens and worlds grew greater every day, and after they left the Yuan Realm and came to the place where Emperor Ming had fallen in battle, the Heavenly Court's army had already been brought to near parity with Jingping's allied host.

The place where Emperor Ming died had once been a battlefield at the close of the Crimson Ming era.

After Emperor Chi and Emperor Ming were reborn, they marched at full speed and reached it one step ahead of the Heavenly Court, and there fought another great battle against the Court's remnants. The earlier fighting in the Blood Rust Zone had already cost those remnants grievously, and at the site of Emperor Ming's death that engagement drew in Lianyue Tianzun, Langwan, Tianzun You, Xu Shenghua, Gongsun Yan and others; after a savage struggle, Jiang Baigui deliberately left a way open, letting the broken Court troops cut their way out of the encirclement. After that battle the Court's fortunes dwindled day by day.

Time and again Tianzun You raided out of Youdu, slipping in through the life-death spirit treasuries of the Court's gods and demons, hooking out souls and snatching away spirits, so that the Court's soldiers died one after another for no reason anyone could name. The mutiny of the Heavenly Court's soldiers broke out on the very night Emperor Haotian ordered every soldier to abolish his life-death spirit treasury. Once that order was given, deep discontent spread through the ranks; abolish the life-death spirit treasury, and a god or demon's lifespan would no longer last as long as heaven and earth, but would end for every one of them.

The Court had already lost battle after battle. Had the Four Great Celestial Masters still been present, they might have lifted morale and restored the ranks, but of the four only Shang Ping was left, hiding away in the Southern Heaven; the rest were dead or had turned traitor. The mutiny was put down by Emperor Haotian himself, yet more than half the soldiers fled by night into the starry void. From that time on, some portion of the Court's soldiers deserted every day, and as they drew near the Ancestral Court only these seven hundred thousand gods and demons were left.

"Emperor Haotian has lost everything. " The Empress's eyes flickered. In her heart she thought, "His heart of the Dao is finished.

Even if he returns to the Ancestral Court, he can never rally again.

The clans have all rebelled, his soldiers grow fewer by the day, and the Heavenly Court cannot possibly build itself up inside the Ancestral Court. In this war Tianzun Mu has smashed him utterly. Should I take his place.

. . ?

" Then she shook her head.

Jingping now held the favor of heaven, the advantages of earth and the hearts of men; the myriad heavens and worlds had risen in revolt, the Court's territory was shrinking fast, and whether the Ancestral Court could even be held was still an open question. To seize power now and crown herself emperor would be to ask for misery.

Whoever sits as Heavenly Emperor dies the more wretched death.

"And besides, I should be making plans for my own future. " The Empress thought, "The Heavenly Court's day is done. My rank and my power are bound to dissolve into a dream. If I turn against the Court now and throw myself on the mercy of Tianzun Mu, I can still be a loyal minister and righteous man who left darkness for the light, can still live high above and lord it over others, can still be one of the Ten Tianzun.

If I wait even a step too long, I am only a defeated general who surrendered, fit for nothing but a cell. .

.

" Power is a commodity that can be bought and sold; dynasties may change, but the men and the factions at the heart of power are never replaced.

That is how the game has always been played.

The Empress had seen it all too many times. She had barely finished the thought when, behind Emperor Haotian's head, the Lingxiao Treasure Hall shuddered, the knotted red cords opened of themselves, and surges of the might of the Dao came pouring out, filling Haotian's body in an instant, surging without cease! The Empress's heart lurched, and she hastily snuffed out her little schemes. "All armies, make ready to enter the Ancestral Court! " Emperor Haotian rose to his feet, his former dejection swept away, and cried out in a loud voice, "The Ancestral Court is our homeland, the place where we rise again!

This war is not yet lost! " For all the fire in his words, few answered.

The several hundred thousand soldiers of the Heavenly Court walked stiffly through the starry void like walking corpses.

Haotian turned his head and said joyfully to the Empress, "Mother, the Third Young Master has broken through the seals and come forth. All is settled! Once we reach the Ancestral Court, everything that is past will be only tempering for us, and it will make us stronger than ever!

" The Empress smiled and said nothing.

At last the remnant army of the Heavenly Court entered the Ancestral Court, and ahead of them the vast Heavenly Court came into view.

The Heavenly Court was a supreme divine weapon forged from countless divine arms and mighty treasures fused into one, and it was the strongest fortress in the world today, their last hope. Once inside it, and once the world barrier of the Ancestral Court was sealed, Jingping and the allied armies of the myriad heavens and worlds would shed oceans of blood trying to break in. And the Ancestral Court was unimaginably rich; hold it, and one stood on ground where defeat was impossible.

Jingping had been a barren land, yet in two hundred years it had grown to its present scale and all but unified the Yuan Realm. The Heavenly Court of today was better off by far than Jingping had been then, and given time it too could become immeasurably strong.

Yet the joy on the faces of Haotian and all his soldiers froze, and they stood in the sky like wooden statues. Before them, above the Heavenly Court, five dao trees hung suspended at its east, south, west, north and center, the dao trees of five Dao-achievers, radiating a stern and forbidding Dao-might. And within the Heavenly Court stood divinities to rival Tianzun, each of a different countenance, filling the place with their divine power.

Below, throughout the Ancestral Court, divine cities great and small lay scattered in every direction, blazing with light, each garrisoned by mighty Tianzun-level divinities.

Farther off, where Tianzun Mu's territory had once been, where Great Black Mountain stood, beneath the World Tree, magnificent divine cities had risen from the ground, and there were even divine cities built upon the leaves themselves.

The Ancestral Court was now another world entirely, utterly unlike the place they had left when they marched out in full strength to make war upon the Yuan Realm. Suddenly Haotian dropped down and sat where he fell, and burst into loud, uncontrolled weeping.

"Tianzun Mu, to defeat Us, to seize Our power and Our throne, you have no shred of shame! " He wept bitterly, wept till he was nothing but tears, cursing and sobbing at once: "You knew you could not beat Us, so you set loose the prehistoric powerhouses beneath the World Tree.

You are a scoundrel, you are the criminal of the whole cosmos!