Chapter 1698 — The Chief of the Dao Sect

This time Meng Yungui had come to escort the supplies with few troops, most of them his own personal force, called the Yuhua Camp. He was a human god of Yuhua Heaven, and in recent years no small number of human gods had sought refuge with him, the greater part of them from Yuhua Heaven. He had a masterful hand at ruling soldiers, and most of those under his command were loyal to him to the death, yet the Celestial Court had also planted many demigods inside his Yuhua Camp to watch his every move.

After all, he was human, and the Court never quite trusted him. He had other forces at his disposal in the Court, such as the Ten Guards of the Celestial Court, but those armies obeyed only the Celestial Emperor's command, and he had no power to move them.

At the very moment Meng Yungui struck to execute Yan Yazi, a great purge unfolded within the Yuhua Camp as well, and by the time Meng Yungui had slain the gods and demons under Yan Yazi, the soldiers of the Yuhua Camp came sailing through blood, and the surface of the tributary of the Celestial River was already a sheet of crimson.

Sword in hand, Meng Yungui stood amid the many corpses of the Southern Heaven Palace and gazed at his own soldiers, slave ship after slave ship mooring by the riverbank, blood still dripping from the divine armor of the human gods aboard. The air grew heavy.

"Do you regret it? " There was none of his former confidence in planning within a tent in Meng Yungui's voice. This rebellion felt more like a decision made in a sudden rush of impulse than a complete and deliberate stratagem, and for a Celestial Master such as he, to be ruled by feeling was an absolute failure.

In his heart he knew full well that this rebellion could never succeed. The human soldiers who had followed him for so many years would likely all die. "If you rebel with me, we may never succeed at all.

What awaits you will be no honor and no glory, only defeat after defeat, only comrades and brothers-in-arms dying in battle one by one.

" Meng Yungui looked at his subordinates, his gaze sweeping across one familiar face after another, and said in a low voice, "When I led you out of Yuhua Heaven all those years ago, I may never be able to lead you back alive.

Perhaps only your corpses will return, perhaps not even your corpses will remain. If we lose, the history recorded by the Celestial Court will hold only our disgrace. " "If we die, there will be no tombstones.

A lifetime of cultivation may buy us only corpses like dead dogs upon the battlefield, and after death men will spit and curse, 'Look!

These are traitors!

'" "Will you still follow me? " he cried aloud. Aboard the slave ships, the soldiers of the Yuhua Camp fell silent, until suddenly one soldier pushed back his visor, revealing a resolute face.

"Celestial Master, you brought me out of Yuhua Heaven. " The middle-aged god spoke softly, yet his words shook the heart. "I know only this. Before I met you, I lived worse than a dog. When the calamity broke out in those years, the starved lay everywhere, and I followed the villagers to beg in the city, and heaven knows how many starved to death along the road.

I reached the city alive, faint with hunger, and searched the foul ditch of a demigod's manor for the food they had thrown away. I turned up the human bones they had gnawed clean, and I was starving and wanted to eat, and it was you who pulled me from that ditch. You told me we must have backbone and must not eat men, that we humans must make something of ourselves and live upright.

You said humans are not born destined to be slaves, nor destined to be food for the gods.

You said you would let humans live better. From that moment I followed you.

" Another god pushed back his visor, revealing a long scar like the mark of a whipping centipede, and said in a hoarse voice, "I too lived through that calamity, and from that time I have followed you.

Then you were still a wielder of divine powers, high-spirited and vigorous, and you let us starvelings of skin and bone see hope. " "I am also from that time. " Yet another god pushed back his visor. "We followed you through life and death. Many companions are gone, but we survived. " "And me! " "Me too! " "Not me, but my father. Before my father died he bade me follow the Celestial Master, never to abandon you! " Many other gods had not followed Meng Yungui since the calamity in Yuhua Heaven, but all had come this far by conviction and by trust in him.

"You taught us principle and righteousness, and told us where principle lies, righteousness permits no turning back. " An old general smiled. "Now is where principle lies, so we permit no turning back. We.

.

. " He went down on one knee upon the deck, his voice ringing.

"We swear to follow the Celestial Master unto death!

" Aboard ship after ship, the soldiers of the Yuhua Camp dropped to one knee as one, and their cry surged back and forth over the tributary of the Celestial River.

"We swear to follow the Celestial Master unto death!

" Meng Yungui's blood burned.

Raising his sword toward the Celestial Court, he laughed aloud. "Since you will not fail me, I shall never fail you.

Rise, all of you.

Today follow me in rebellion.

Overthrow the Celestial Court!

" The wind ran hard over the Celestial River. A gale drove great waves beating against the slave ships, and the slaves aboard trembled in terror, while upon the decks those human gods burned with fierce resolve, and at Meng Yungui's dispatch they sped to the other heavens of the Southern Heaven to sweep away the Court's power there.

They had to seal off all news and let no power of the Court in the Southern Heaven inform the Court. This rebellion had been decided on the spur of the moment.

Neither they nor the Court had been prepared, and so long as they cut off word, they could delay as long as possible and make full preparations.

Though they all knew that even with full preparations, theirs was likely a road to death. Meng Yungui ordered men to hasten at once to Yuhua Heaven to move the kin and families of his soldiers, and ordered others to steal secretly to the Celestial Court, for they had families there too, and they must move their loved ones before exposure, else the consequences would be unthinkable. "Wang Qing, set out for Jingping at once.

" Meng Yungui hesitated a moment, then still entrusted the letter to his most valued disciple, saying, "Deliver this letter to the emperor of Jingping.

" Wang Qing hesitated. "Master, Jingping is the very target the Court means to destroy.

This time the great army of the Court marches against Jingping, and Jingping has no spare troops to aid us.

Moreover, when we attacked the Taixu Land years ago, you yourself led the army against Wuyou Village and slew countless masters of Wuyou Village. I have heard that Emperor Yanfeng was then a general in Wuyou Village and suffered defeat at your hands, and Wuyou Village and Jingping are one. .

.

" Meng Yungui waved his hand. "Emperor Yanfeng has the bearing of a Celestial Emperor, surpassing even Emperor Haotian.

He will not blame us. Go swiftly. " Wang Qing took the command and sped to the Yuan Realm. Meng Yungui further ordered the removal of all humans in every heaven of the Southern Heaven, to take them far from the Celestial River region, to carry away grain and supplies, to strip the land bare and strengthen the walls, and to prepare for a decisive battle. His soldiers moved like his own limbs, and once a command was given it was swiftly done. Moreover, the humans of the Southern Heaven had been tamed like livestock, never resisting a god's command and enduring all without protest, which made their removal easier.