Chapter 1700 — The Youth Honing His Blade
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 2 of 4
" A thought moved in Meng Yungui's heart: "I will first help him grow familiar with the shifting of the formations, and he will surely regain his fluency.
" His divine sense rippled, turning to a voice that rang in Long Qilin's mind, guiding him in how to shift the formations. Urged by Long Qilin, the Glazed Azure Heaven Banner swept toward the Shenwu Second Guards, and with Meng Yungui's guidance he gradually relaxed, the formations turning ever more smoothly.
The great host of the Court had pressed upon Yuan World, its first vanguard already entering Yuan World to probe, seeking the weak points in Yuan World's defenses.
Yuan World stretched vast, ringed by countless worlds without number, for in those years Yuan World had held three courts, Longhan, Xiaohan, and Longxiao, and set against Yuan World the Court's armies were but a drop in the sea.
Nor could Jingping and Wuyou Township guard every point, so to strike at the weak point was the most economical path.
The divine and demonic vanguard that charged into Yuan World galloped unchecked, burning, killing, and plundering, for Jingping had never seized the whole of Yuan World, and within Yuan World there remained divine kingdoms great and small, and these kingdoms were not Jingping's lands, some even his enemies, and they surrendered to the Court's vanguard at once.
Some were Jingping's vassals, resisting with all their might even as they begged Jingping for aid, while many small states surrendered at the rumor of approach without any resistance at all.
Before the Court's main force had even come to Yuan World, a third of Yuan World's lands had already fallen into the Court's hands. When the Court's main host appeared above Yuan World, the world barrier of Yuan World was crushed outright, like an egg stripped of its shell, laid bare before the Court's armies.
Palace after resplendent palace drifted in the sky, countless gods and demons standing upon the clouds, the gods and demons of the Court venting to their hearts' content the tempers gathered over a dozen years of marching, Lord Thunder and Mother Lightning hurling thunder and lightning crackling down from the heavens to blast the land below into scorched earth.
The Court's armies marched into kingdom after kingdom, and those kingdoms suffered at once, for after the long march these gods and demons had bellies full of sullen anger with nowhere to vent it, and in Yuan World they had found their outlet at last, and naturally lorded it over all, with no lack of burning, killing, plundering, and seizing men and women. Some officers even led their hosts in sack, wiping out cities and beheading the residents of these kingdoms to count their heads as battle merit.
Worse still were those who looted the treasuries of Yuan World's kingdoms, even entering the emperors' harems, slaying the emperors, and sporting in the harems day and night.
The chief commanders of the Court's routes all turned a blind eye, for in this campaign against Yuan World the soldiers needed to vent, lest trouble breed, and so they let them run wild.
After a dozen days Emperor Haotian issued a decree, commanding: "Tell them not to carry the revels too far. " The commanders of the routes received the decree and ordered the troops整顿ed, and only then did they grow somewhat more orderly.
After this sack, the marquises of the routes had all scraped together immense wealth, with baggage, grain, and slaves to hand, and all rejoiced, only the kingdoms that had surrendered to the Court were left a wasteland, their states ruined and their houses broken. After resting several days, Emperor Haotian decreed: "Black Emperor of the Northern Heaven, lead the forty marquis hosts of the Northern Heaven, and advance from the Kan Lands in the north of Yuan World.