Chapter 1687 — Though Dead, Their Heroic Spirit Lives On
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 3 of 4
Betrayed in those years by Taichu and Yuanmu and brought to this pass, you would turn back and lean upon your betrayer.
Your Majesty, you are versed in the art of reincarnation.
Can you not disguise yourself as Lady Yuanmu?
Disguised as Lady Yuanmu, would Emperor Haotian still guard against you?
" The Empress considered carefully, for the Dao of Reincarnation could indeed do this, flawlessly, beyond the discernment of others. "Minister Yun, why aid me?
" The Empress sneered: "Would you have me throw the Celestial Court into chaos to secure victory for your Jingping?
" Celestial Venerable Yun did not deny it, nodding with a smile: "Exactly so. Then how does Your Majesty choose? " The Empress drove the divine art of reincarnation, and her face, voice, and bearing became no different from Lady Yuanmu's.
She drifted slantwise upward, still facing him squarely and never relaxing her guard, laughing shrilly: "I shall grant your wish!
" Celestial Venerable Yun hesitated, and behind the Empress in the sky his Daluo Heaven of divine consciousness emerged, with the Imperial Sword of Taichu hanging upon the Dao tree, poised to thrust from afar.
Yet he halted and did not seize the chance to assassinate the Empress.
"With Celestial Venerable Ling gone, Jingping is short one more master.
I can only spare the Empress. Besides, I may not succeed in slaying her in secret.
" At this thought his Daluo Heaven of divine consciousness faded, and he smiled faintly at the Empress.
Above the Celestial River, the great armies of the Celestial Court advanced in mighty array along the river, nearly every god and devil in the court conscripted, while many more gods and devils flew each to different heavens, direct domains of the court, bearing Emperor Haotian's decree to levy the armies of every quarter for Yuanjie.
Along the way the host sent to chastise Yuanjie grew ever larger, reinforcements from the great heavens joining without cease, its might swelling with each league.
On the march the court also crushed several rebellious heavens, plundered them, and seized countless slaves to manage supply.
At the same time the Ancestral God King dwelling in Xuandu drove the waters of the Celestial River with the power of the Heavenly Duke to hasten the armies onward. Upon the river's surface, towered ships and great warships bore clouds of divine soldiers and generals, and those vessels were themselves mighty treasures, with sun and moon circling the hulls, day and night and the four seasons of spring, summer, autumn, and winter all contained aboard. Still more rode palaces of heaven itself to war, palaces thronged with gods and devils.
The star lords of every quarter and the gods of heavenly slaughter were also stirring stars, constellations, and mansions to hasten hither.
Some towered ships dragged colossal divine engines across the Celestial River, riding deep in the water.
Unlike the engines of Jingping, which were forged, these engines of the ships seemed born of nature.
Upon some ships lay vast mountain ranges in tow, with tens of thousands of gods and devils gathered about them in ceaseless sacrifice, seeking to refine the ranges into mighty treasures of every form according to their shape. Upon others many gods and devils labored to refine rivers thousands of leagues long, with ancient gods of Taiji beside them instructing them how a river might be forged into a weapon.
Upon still others stood a Gate of Heaven, with the Nine Prison Terrace, the Jade Terrace, and other enormities uprooted whole by the armies of the court and refined into treasures.
Entrenched in the Ancestral Court, what vastness and richness did the Celestial Court command?
Every sacred ground of the Ancestral Court had been dug up by them, grounds born with boundless might, and though the court's art of forging fell short of Jingping's, the power of those sacred grounds alone sufficed to suppress all.