Chapter 786 — He Whom the Martial Dao Crowns Emperor
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 2 of 5
If the people of the ruins are gathered together and several god-cities built, with the protection of the gods of the Kaihuang remnant, their safety can be assured.
But what of Jingping? The people of Jingping number two or three billion, do they not? They are scattered across every city and every land, and the distances between those cities and lands are now a hundredfold what they once were! " Shen Mu's heart sank by slow degrees. The old farmer continued: "Between the cities the roads are cut, all coming and going has ceased. Between the cities lie nothing but the primordial forests of the primordial world, the haunts of demigods, and all manner of perilous relics and ancient battlefields. The emperor of Jingping's rule over the provinces has fallen to the freezing point; each region governs itself, and before long the reforms and the new laws of Jingping will be severed. With no people, there are no reforms, and the empire will break apart!
Even if the emperor had the boldness to move the people of every city to gather near the capital and reclaim the wilds anew, it would take decades, even centuries, to accomplish! " "But it will not take decades. In a mere few months, many places will declare themselves free of Jingping and crown their own emperors!
The forces that rebel will be beyond counting, and all Jingping can hold will be the land about the capital! " He gave a cold laugh: "And to win back these domains that have suddenly appeared, leaving aside whether Jingping has the strength for it, the marching alone would take a hundred years! Let alone the fact that Jingping has not the power to fight the demigods head-on!
" The old farmer let out a breath of turbid air: "When I spoke earlier of driving the tiger to devour the wolf, Jingping is that wolf, and the tiger is the demigods of the primordial world. And besides the demigods there are other hungry tigers. Look up.
" Shen Mu raised his head to the sky. There, heaven after heaven gleamed with hues of every color; clouds and mist coiled between the continents; the stars moved in their courses; those heavens were so varied, so magnificently wrought. "These heavens all have living beings dwelling in them.
" The old farmer said: "On the nights of the ruins, demon gods often prowl.
Those demon gods come from these heavens. When the primordial world was sealed, they had to go to some trouble to come in, needing blood sacrifices and the like. Now they may come in far more easily. Jingping must face the demigods, and must face these gods and demons of the heavens. By what power is she to survive?
" Shen Mu was awed.
He had indeed met demon gods of other worlds many times in the ruins. For instance, when he and Li Zheng searched for the Land of No Sorrow in the dark of night, they encountered on the Soul Boat a female demon god and a host of heavenly demons.
On his first visit to Xiquan to see Yan Jingjing, he met Yu Zhaoqing and others of the Tianyu clan, controlled by a demon god, attacking Xiquan.
And at the Soul Spring, he had seen the traces left by demon gods who attacked the spring and slaughtered every last Moon Shepherd.
Before, with the ruins as a natural barrier, Jingping was quite safe. But now the heavens have shaken off the seal, and the ruins have become the primordial world once more.
Will Jingping still be safe? "The fall of Jingping is a certainty. Jingping will first break apart, each region seceding to crown its own king; the remnant clans of Chiming will likely not stay quiet either; and added to them Vajra, and the northern frontier, the grasslands, the western lands, all will split away.