Chapter 1672 — Suspended Alone Beyond the Mortal World
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 4 of 4
On the other side, Shang Pingyin ordered the Zaofu Heavenly Palace to issue more heavenly currency for the purchase of mineral reserves from the various great heavens.
Yet the prices of the reserves ran higher than he had ever expected, and, pressed by necessity, he could only go on issuing still greater quantities of currency. But this very measure set the heavenly currency careering down like an avalanche; its value plummeted at staggering speed, and within two short months it had lost half its worth. Shang Pingyin could not understand it, and was at his wits' end. He went carefully back over Meng Yungui's formulas and equations of numerology—there was not the faintest error in any of them.
He thought of going to Meng Yungui for guidance, but he could not swallow his pride, so he could only send men to investigate. Another month passed, and the masters of numerology of the Heavenly Court returned from the great heavens, saying, "Jingping made its move one step ahead of us, using heavenly currency to buy up mines and driving up the price of mineral reserves in a great many heavens!
Heavenly currency flooded those heavens, and with the Heavenly Court's currency pouring in on top of it, the currency lost its value.
" "Impossible, impossible. . .
for the currency to flood, for the prices of mineral reserves to be forced up, for the currency to lose its value, Jingping would have to spend every last heavenly coin it has ever amassed. .
. " A roar went through Shang Pingyin's skull; his legs lost all their strength and he collapsed into his seat.
Then he sprang up all at once and said at top speed, "When did Jingping start buying mines?
" "Five years ago," the Court's masters of numerology answered. "Ever since the Battle of Youdu, Jingping has been using its heavenly currency to buy up ore veins throughout the great heavens. " Shang Pingyin knitted his brows and paced to and fro, muttering, "Five years ago, five years ago. .
. Curse it!
That was also the very time when the Heavenly Venerable Mu's Dao-heart was collapsing and he meant to surrender! There is treachery in this!
His purpose was only to drag out the time, waiting quietly for the Heavenly Court to inflate the currency!
Quick—I must see His Majesty! " He raced toward the inner palace.
But just then, on the way, he saw the many generals who had been sent to Jingping to receive Jingping's wealth rushing toward the Lingxiao Hall with their faces bruised and swollen. Shang Pingyin hastily caught hold of one of them, and the divine general wept, "Jingping utterly refuses to acknowledge the treaty the Heavenly Venerable Mu signed! They gave us a beating and drove us back! That one they call the Heavenly Venerable Ling said that anything she had not signed was nothing but waste paper!
We have been done out of our due, and we are going to report to His Majesty and have Jingping wiped out, nine clans and all! " Shang Pingyin's mind was in a turmoil.
And then, all at once, he saw the light of a spirit-energy transfer bridge within the Heavenly Court dim; the funnel-shaped stream of light that had flowed through the bridge gradually faded away! "The spirit-energy transfer bridge has been severed! " His heart thrown into utter chaos, Shang Pingyin cried out unwittingly, "Quick! Quick!
Restore that bridge. .
.
no, wait—guard every spirit-energy transfer bridge, and beware lest Jingping break. .
. " Before the words were out of his mouth, the stream of light of another bridge in the Heavenly Court vanished, then a second, then a third, and within a single breath, a thousand bridges, hundreds upon hundreds of them, went dark all at once! Soon every spirit-energy transfer bridge in the Heavenly Court was wholly extinguished.
The Heavenly Court floated in silence in the sky above the Ancestral Court, far removed from all the heavens and all the worlds—a lone island suspended beyond the mortal world, its ties to the myriad heavens severed beyond all recovery.