Chapter 1698 — The Chief of the Dao Sect

Meng Yungui then personally led his remaining soldiers to strip the palace of Fire Celestial Venerable utterly bare and to build a mighty pass astride the tributary of the Celestial River, yet even so his face remained clouded with worry. "We cannot hold it, cannot hold it.

.

. We can only fight to the death, and still we cannot hold it.

" Months later, the great army of the Court drew ever nearer to the Yuan Realm, but the supplies still had not come. The Court issued decrees again and again, sending gods to the Southern Heaven to press for them, yet those envoys vanished without a trace once they reached the Southern Heaven. The Court plundered several other heavens and seized slaves and supplies, but it knew something had likely gone wrong in the Southern Heaven.

Emperor Haotian decreed that the First Celestial Master Shang Pingyin lead the two Shenwu Guards among the Ten Guards of the Celestial Court, a hundred thousand men, to the Southern Heaven to ascertain the truth. The two Shenwu Guards were strong soldiers and sturdy horses, the weakest among them a being of the Jade Capital realm, and with the formation diagrams of the Court, the two Shenwu Guards could withstand an existence of Celestial Venerable level, and with Shang Pingyin, the First Celestial Master, added thereto, one could see how gravely Emperor Haotian regarded the Southern Heaven.

The Southern Heaven, the granary of the Court, must not be lost at any cost.

Shang Pingyin led his army thither, but instead of sailing straight up the tributary into the Southern Heaven, he first pitched camp and sent a man to the South Heaven Pass to cry aloud, "Celestial Master Meng, the Celestial Emperor has a decree.

Come forth and speak.

" Meng Yungui came to the wall and gazed at Shang Pingyin from afar.

As the eyes of the two Celestial Masters met, Shang Pingyin gave a decisive order. "Meng Yungui has rebelled.

Storm the walls at once. " The Left Shenwu Commander frowned and said in a low voice, "How does Celestial Master Shang see that Meng Yungui has rebelled? Meng Yungui is the Second Celestial Master of the Court.

To attack without question, if he has not rebelled, I fear Celestial Master Shang will have no answer before His Majesty.

" Shang Pingyin sneered. "Meng Yungui and I are both Celestial Masters. Whether he rebels or not, I know at a glance.

No more words.

Storm the walls at once.

" The Left and Right Shenwu Commanders then gave the order, moving their two armies to form ranks and crush toward the mighty pass of the Southern Heaven. Upon the gate tower, Meng Yungui cried aloud, "Celestial Master Shang, you and I are both Celestial Masters of the Court, and you have always ranked first, until you were defeated by Yue Tingge. When Yue Tingge fell into Taixu, you became First Celestial Master again.

But you know your wisdom is inferior to mine, and that I am in truth the First Celestial Master of the Court, so you abuse your power for private ends, pin the name of traitor upon me, and lead an army to kill me. You envy the worthy.

I shall memorialize His Majesty and beg His Majesty to judge.

" The two Shenwu armies wavered. Shang Pingyin sneered. "The traitor Meng only seeks to delay. I hold His Majesty's military tally in my hand. Left and Right Shenwu, attack at once. " He displayed the tally, and at the sight of it, as though Emperor Haotian himself stood before them, the Left and Right Shenwu armies urged their formations to assault the walls.

With his robes whipping in the wind, Shang Pingyin gazed at Meng Yungui upon the tower and said in a low voice, "Meng Yungui, you pride yourself on surpassing wisdom, but the greatest wisdom in this world is the grand trend.

Before my grand trend, all your schemes are utterly useless. To wield the grand trend well, that is what makes a First Celestial Master.

" With a sweep of his sleeve, Meng Yungui threw the gates wide, and the gods and demons of the Yuhua Camp charged from the city, and he sneered, "Then let me see whether your grand trend can match my wisdom.

Form ranks. " Though the gods and demons of the Yuhua Camp were no fewer in number than the two Shenwu Guards, their cultivation and strength fell far short. The formation diagrams of the two Shenwu Guards of the Court were complete great diagrams, each diagram able to hold fifty thousand gods and demons, fusing the essence, spirit, and soul of fifty thousand gods and demons into one and linking their vital energy into one, so that once the formation was driven its divine powers were vast.

The diagrams of the Ten Guards of the Court were all polished with care by Celestial Masters of past generations, and their might had long been raised to the utmost, the very crystallization of the wisdom of those masters. When Wuyou Village charged out of the Taixu Land years ago, Lang Wan led the Creators to hold off the Court's pursuers, yet the Ten Guards raised their diagrams and beat back Lang Wan and Wuyou Village step by step, proof of their might.

The diagrams of the Yuhua Camp, by contrast, were not complete great diagrams but small ones, ten men to a group, ten thousand groups in all.

Ten thousand diagrams interlocked, the gods and demons of the Yuhua Camp wheeling through the air, swiftly forming the first great formation, its inner and outer parts alternating in unfathomable change. At the sight, Shang Pingyin sneered. "The Glazed Blue Heaven Banner Grand Formation.

That formation was taught to you by me. " The two armies collided, and the might of the diagrams erupted at once.

The two armies collided, and the might of the diagrams erupted at once. The armies of the Court and the formations of the Yuhua Camp shifted in an instant, formation buckling upon formation, flesh and blood flying within the diagrams.

Elsewhere, Meng Yungui's envoy Wang Qing reached Jingping, had audience with Emperor Yanfeng, and presented the letter. Emperor Yanfeng unfolded it and read, pondered a moment, and said, "Raise an altar, invite Long Pi to descend, and have him go to the Southern Heaven with Prince Youming, bearing the Glazed Blue Heaven Banner.

"