Chapter 1686 — Jingping's World-Suppressing Artifact
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 1 of 5
The crisis of the Primordial Realm came on in a rush and departed just as swiftly; the Ancestral God King and the Celestial Venerable Void withdrew one after the other, leaving the ground littered with ruin behind them.
The soldiers of Jingping and Wuyou Township swept the battlefield and found the casualties heavy on both sides. Emperor Yanfeng flew into a rage and at once ordered the ghost domains throughout the Primordial Realm purged.
The Nether Capital had been able to invade so smoothly this time chiefly because, during the Battle of the Nether Capital long ago, the monsters, demons, and ghostly deities of the Nether Capital had slipped into the Primordial Realm and into the various great heavens attached to it, founding one ghost domain after another. And since the death of Earl Tu, no one had been left to draw those orphaned souls and stray ghosts into the Nether Capital, so the reach of the ghost domains had only grown wider with every passing year. In former days the ghost domains had been no more than a skin-deep affliction; but in this invasion, they became gateways for the Nether Capital's incursion in every region, and a very great share of the Primordial Realm's casualties sprang from them.
The various regions of the Primordial Realm and each of its great vassal heavens at once moved their troops, razing the lurking Guixu one by one. In addition, the Nether Celestial Venerable and Shen Fengqing established the Nether Capital of the Primordial Realm, drawing the orphaned souls and stray ghosts of the ghost domains into it, rewarding the good and punishing the wicked.
As for the officers and soldiers who had fallen in battle, they were led into Fengdu to serve as a ghost army — in itself a force of no small might. King Yama submitted a memorial to Kaihuang, Emperor Yiyue: "To guide souls into the Nether Capital of the Primordial Realm is no different from what Earl Tu used to do; it will only increase the burden of that Nether Capital.
If things go on this way, the Nether Capital of the Primordial Realm will come to be plagued by an overabundance of ghosts. Shen Fengqing does not have Earl Tu's power; sooner or later he will be unable to hold them in check, and ere long the Nether Capital of the Primordial Realm is certain to breed disaster. This must not go unheeded.
" Emperor Yiyue summoned the Heavenly Master Wen Tiange and asked: "Does the Sage Master have any insight?
" Wen Tiange replied: "I have heard that the Celestial Venerable Mu of Jingping has cultivated the Dao of Reincarnation.
Upon that foundation a treasure could be forged that would cause the souls of all living beings to turn through death and rebirth across the myriad heavens and worlds, punishing evil and rewarding good. " Emperor Yiyue journeyed to Jingping, sought an audience with Emperor Yanfeng, and told him of this matter. Emperor Yanfeng laughed.
"Kaihuang need not worry," he said.
"This treasure is already in the forging. " Emperor Yiyue was startled and asked: "When was the forging begun?
" "Ever since our defeat in the Battle of the Nether Capital," said Emperor Yanfeng, "Emperor Yanxiu and the Celestial Venerable Mu commanded the great foundries of Jingping to cast every kind of mighty vessel against the wars to come.
This treasure is one of them.
Jingping's master artisans have labored day and night, and many of the mighty vessels have already taken on their full scale.
" "Might I go and see them? " asked Emperor Yiyue. Emperor Yanfeng gladly led her to the Jinjiang Foundry.
There, giant foundries lined both banks of the Jin River in ranks like one long dragon, while countless tower-ships shuttled across the river's face like weavers on a loom; some of the giant tower-ships carried no more than a single component of a divine artifact!