Chapter 1699 — The Hermit of Dragon Mountain
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 1 of 5
Before the Southern Heaven Pass, the two Celestial Masters each marshaled their forces, the battle formations of both armies shifting by the instant, breaking formations with formations, breaking formations with sheer force!
Shang Pingyin and Meng Yungui were both masters of divination arts and masters of formation arrays, and from this contest of arts one could discern the strength and weakness of each side.
Shang Pingyin had risen to fame extremely early; as far back as the early years of Longhan he had already made a name for himself, and even before the Dao Ancestor founded the macro divination arts, he had already achieved some distinction in the field. At the time he too had been researching macro divination, but he had diverted his attention to the study of formation arrays and the art of deploying troops and laying out battle lines, and so his progress had been somewhat slower than the Dao Ancestor's. Later, when the Dao Ancestor achieved mastery of the macro divination arts, Shang Pingyin was eclipsed by him.
Yet he too was a man of genius, and by his own attainments in formation arrays and divination arts he became the Celestial Court's foremost Celestial Master; the formation arrays and formation diagrams of every army in the Celestial Court bore a profound connection to him.
However, when the Longhan house divided, he personally led a great army to block the departure of the Northern Emperor Xuanwu's Heavenly Palace from the Celestial Court, only to suffer a devastating blow, defeated by the Hermit of Dragon Mountain who laid out a formation with the Glazed Azure Heaven Canopy. That defeat was utter and complete; Shang Pingyin's Dao heart was damaged, and for several hundred thousand years he languished, brooding endlessly on how to break the great formation of the Glazed Azure Heaven Canopy.
It was not until Yue Tingge rose to prominence and broke the great formation of the Glazed Azure Heaven Canopy that Shang Pingyin finally emerged from the shadow—only to step into the shadow of Yue Tingge. After Yue Tingge was lost in the Grand Void, Shang Pingyin once again became the Celestial Court's foremost Celestial Master, and it was at this time that Meng Yungui rose to prominence, threatening to supplant his position.
Meng Yungui never revealed his talents, always concealing his wisdom and strength, yet from the way he marched troops and laid out formations, and from the frequency with which the Heavenly Venerable sought his counsel, it was clear that Meng Yungui's wisdom actually surpassed his own! But the two had never directly contended, and the battle of the Southern Heaven Pass was the first time they had crossed swords.
Meng Yungui held the advantage of terrain, while Shang Pingyin held the advantage of military strength. The great army under his command consisted of the Divine Martial Two Guards of the Celestial Court's Ten Guards.
Tempered through every manner of battle, the Divine Martial Two Guards were the most outstanding beings among demigods; any single one of them could serve as the chief of Meng Yungui's Yuhua Camp! When the Divine Martial Two Guards' formation was activated, they could even do battle with a Heavenly Venerable!
Yet when clashing with a second-rate divine-and-demon army like the Yuhua Camp, the Divine Martial Two Guards' formation power could not be brought to bear at all. The Yuhua Camp's formation was like a needle threading into a seam, inserting itself into the Divine Martial Two Guards' formation, preventing the formation from operating and the formation diagram from functioning.
Every variation of the Divine Martial Two Guards' formation was countered by the Yuhua Camp.
Shang Pingyin excelled at waging upright, frontal assaults, and against an opponent like Meng Yungui, his every skill was difficult to bring into play.