Chapter 1726 — The Sage King of Jiangguo
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 1 of 5
"Cyan Emperor, will you submit to Jingping?
" No sooner had Jiang Baigui trapped the Cyan Emperor's primal spirit than he spoke: "You are beaten.
Refuse, and you die; submit, and you shall be reckoned a meritorious subject. " The Cyan Emperor roamed hither and thither within his heavenly court, seeking a way out, and cried: "His Majesty the Primordial One knew my worth and raised me up, a debt I can never repay in this life.
In this life I am the Primordial One's subject alone, and I swear to die before I yield! " The Cyan Emperor's fleshly body was held utterly in check by the Earth Virtue Primordial Lord Gongsun Yan, so that the strength of his primal spirit fell short of his body's; and fallen into Jiang Baigui's heavenly court, he could never break free.
Jiang Baigui's heavenly court was a strange thing indeed: it was no palace of heaven forged from any single innate Great Dao, but thirty-six heavenly palaces composed of acquired Daos, of farming and forestry, of herding and fishing, of trade and smithing, of blades and spears, of swords and halberds. The road Jiang Baigui walked was plainly the attainment of the Dao through power, yet it differed from the classic way.
The classic attainment of the Dao through power is as it was with Emperor Haotian and the Primordial One and their like: to cultivate the innate Daos, forge heavenly palaces and treasure halls, ascend to Lingxiao, sit upon the Imperial Throne, imprint the ultimate void, and by force attain Daluo.
Jiang Baigui's path, however, was the mutual completion of the acquired and the innate; the thirty-six heavenly palaces were acquired Daos, the seventy-two treasure halls were innate Daos, and both were whole and complete in every part. Such Daos he had seen before, but never had he seen any man cultivate them to so profound a realm.
Wherever he fled, there was no way out. Jiang Baigui's acquired and innate Daos numbered one hundred and eight in all, one hundred and eight sets of arts at the level of the Imperial Throne.
Of the innate arts it might well be said that from Longhan down to this day, most of those of surpassing talent had cultivated the innate Daos, and no few had attained the Imperial Throne thereby; from Longhan to now, the innate Imperial Throne arts accumulated would number eight hundred if not a thousand, and to assemble the seventy-two treasure halls should not be difficult.
But acquired Imperial Throne arts were exceedingly few; from ancient times to the present, of those who had attained the Imperial Throne by the acquired Daos and made their names known to the world, the Cyan Emperor knew of Kaihuang alone.
Even the famed Heavenly Venerable Mu did not cultivate the acquired Daos alone, nor had he ever cultivated to the realm of the Imperial Throne. Yet Jiang Baigui's heavenly palaces were palaces formed of acquired Daos; thirty-six heavenly palaces, thirty-six acquired Imperial Throne arts, and to attain the Dao thereby was a difficulty past all imagining. But Jiang Baigui had made that road passable, and had now cultivated to the Yujing realm.
His Yujing City was like no other man's Yujing City; the Cyan Emperor had never seen its like. Wherever he broke through, Jiang Baigui drove him back.
Jiang Baigui's face was grave as he said in a low voice: "The Cyan Emperor would repay his lord with his own body, loyal heart and righteous gall. Then I shall grant it him.
" Of a sudden he withdrew his own thirty-six heavenly palaces and seventy-two treasure halls; the pressure on the Cyan Emperor's primal spirit eased, and as he made to flee he saw that Jingping's Duke of Weiguo, King of Taishan, Grand General of Heavenly Strategy, and others had led their armies up to ring him round. The three Jingping armies spread their formations and raised their formation diagrams, locking him in together with his body, which had already turned to wood, and fought their way at him with all their strength.