Chapter 1706 — The Battle of the Five Chariots
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 1 of 4
Shen Mu and Shang Jun gazed out from afar.
In the heartland of the Primordial Realm, the Heavenly Court's Five Chariots Army had come out in full, attacking from the flank.
Shang Jun said, "Heavenly Venerate, do you need me to act?
" He was a master of assassination; he could lurk amid a chaotic host and cut down the enemy's high command, plucking the head of a general from the midst of ten thousand troops as easily as taking something from a bag. If the commanders of every division of the Heavenly River Navy were slaughtered and the army left leaderless, its battle lines thrown into chaos, then its deployment would inevitably scatter into loose sand, and Carefree Village could win with ease.
"No need.
" Light flickered in Shen Mu's eyes; he shook his head. "Existences of the Heavenly Venerate level overawe one another, and they will not lightly take action. If you act, you expose yourself, and once you have shown a flaw, some other Dao Attainer or Heavenly Venerate will find the opening, and that will be the day you die. For beings like you and me, the moment we strike is the moment we stake our lives outright.
In this heavenly expedition, it is the hosts of gods and demons clashing in the field on both sides that will be the true main force of the war.
" Shang Jun was somewhat puzzled, but he did not press further.
He was not a man who liked to dig to the bottom of things. Shen Mu had thought further than he had.
The war between the Heavenly Court and the Primordial Realm was not merely a war of Heavenly Venerates, but a collision of two ideals. Heavenly Venerates might decide the course of a battle, but what decided the victory of an ideal was still the ordinary gods and demon soldiers, and the nations behind them.
Before this surging torrent, Heavenly Venerates and even Dao Attainers were one member, one part, of the battlefield; a Heavenly Venerate or a Dao Attainer might contribute strength and determine the course of a fight, but they could not determine the outcome between the Heavenly Court's diehard faction and Jingping's reformist faction.
The Jingping Reforms had run one hundred and seventy years, and now the time had come to test their fruits.
Shen Mu looked into the distance, and behind this battle of Carefree Village he saw the Heavenly Court's fortune at its blazing height, lighting up the western sky of half the Primordial Realm.
It was the countless hosts of the Heavenly Court, thronging about the civil and martial gods of the court and Emperor Haotian, pressing toward this place.
The battle of Carefree Village was only a prologue, slowly being drawn open.
And once the prologue was drawn open, what followed was a truly magnificent epic of war! Suddenly, amid the advancing Heavenly Court army, two Dao Trees rose slowly into the air, and their Dao light formed the faces of Emperor Haotian and the Retired Emperor Taichu, vast beyond measure, profoundly shocking.
"Parading your martial might — how does it compare to mine?
" At a thought from Shen Mu, his Divine Treasury domain spread wide, and the World Tree grew broader and broader.
He stepped forward and descended upon Jingping; the World Tree, lush and verdant, spread like a grand canopy, shrouding a stretch of sky.
The commander of the Heavenly Court's Five Chariots Army was the court's Left Junior Chancellor, by name Yan Sheng, a powerhouse of the Imperial Seat, who presided in person over the Five Chariots.
The Five Chariots Army belonged to a branch of the Earth Division among the three divisions. The Heavenly Court had three divisions: the Water Division, the Earth Division, and the Spirit Division.
The Water Division was on the water and was called the Heavenly River Navy; it commanded tower ships and great vessels, galloping along the Heavenly River and ranging through all the worlds. The Spirit Division was in the heavens, made up of demigods born with feathered wings.