Chapter 1773 — Upheaval at the Ancestral Shrine
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 1 of 4
The Empress gazed at the armies of the Heavenly Court. They were drawing closer and closer to the Ancestral Court now, yet of the Court's host only some seven hundred thousand remained; and within the Heavenly Emperor's palanquin Emperor Haotian sat motionless, his face dark and cold, his body withered and gaunt, without a spark of life in him, like a man already dead. Haotian now suffered worse than death. All the way through this flight they had been hunted and hunted again; the forces of Jingping and of the myriad heavens and worlds grew greater every day, and after they left the Yuan Realm and came to the place where Emperor Ming had fallen in battle, the Heavenly Court's army had already been brought to near parity with Jingping's allied host.
The place where Emperor Ming died had once been a battlefield at the close of the Crimson Ming era.
After Emperor Chi and Emperor Ming were reborn, they marched at full speed and reached it one step ahead of the Heavenly Court, and there fought another great battle against the Court's remnants. The earlier fighting in the Blood Rust Zone had already cost those remnants grievously, and at the site of Emperor Ming's death that engagement drew in Lianyue Tianzun, Langwan, Tianzun You, Xu Shenghua, Gongsun Yan and others; after a savage struggle, Jiang Baigui deliberately left a way open, letting the broken Court troops cut their way out of the encirclement. After that battle the Court's fortunes dwindled day by day.
Time and again Tianzun You raided out of Youdu, slipping in through the life-death spirit treasuries of the Court's gods and demons, hooking out souls and snatching away spirits, so that the Court's soldiers died one after another for no reason anyone could name. The mutiny of the Heavenly Court's soldiers broke out on the very night Emperor Haotian ordered every soldier to abolish his life-death spirit treasury. Once that order was given, deep discontent spread through the ranks; abolish the life-death spirit treasury, and a god or demon's lifespan would no longer last as long as heaven and earth, but would end for every one of them.
The Court had already lost battle after battle. Had the Four Great Celestial Masters still been present, they might have lifted morale and restored the ranks, but of the four only Shang Ping was left, hiding away in the Southern Heaven; the rest were dead or had turned traitor. The mutiny was put down by Emperor Haotian himself, yet more than half the soldiers fled by night into the starry void. From that time on, some portion of the Court's soldiers deserted every day, and as they drew near the Ancestral Court only these seven hundred thousand gods and demons were left.
"Emperor Haotian has lost everything. " The Empress's eyes flickered. In her heart she thought, "His heart of the Dao is finished.
Even if he returns to the Ancestral Court, he can never rally again.
The clans have all rebelled, his soldiers grow fewer by the day, and the Heavenly Court cannot possibly build itself up inside the Ancestral Court. In this war Tianzun Mu has smashed him utterly. Should I take his place.
. . ?
" Then she shook her head.
Jingping now held the favor of heaven, the advantages of earth and the hearts of men; the myriad heavens and worlds had risen in revolt, the Court's territory was shrinking fast, and whether the Ancestral Court could even be held was still an open question. To seize power now and crown herself emperor would be to ask for misery.
Whoever sits as Heavenly Emperor dies the more wretched death.
"And besides, I should be making plans for my own future. " The Empress thought, "The Heavenly Court's day is done. My rank and my power are bound to dissolve into a dream. If I turn against the Court now and throw myself on the mercy of Tianzun Mu, I can still be a loyal minister and righteous man who left darkness for the light, can still live high above and lord it over others, can still be one of the Ten Tianzun.