Chapter 1663: The Scattered Man of Dragon Mountain
Before the Southern Heavenly Pass, the two Heavenly Masters each deployed their troops, and the formations of their vast armies shifted in an instant—breaking formations with formations, breaking them with sheer force!
Shang Pingyin and Meng Yungui were both masters of numerology and formation tactics. This clash of wits revealed the strengths and weaknesses of both sides.
Shang Pingyin had risen to fame very early, even before the Dragon Han era began. He had already made a name for himself. Before the Dao Ancestor even pioneered macroscopic numerology, Shang Pingyin had achieved minor success in the field. At the time, he was also researching macroscopic numerology, but his attention was divided by his study of formations and military strategy, causing his progress to lag behind the Dao Ancestor’s.
Later, when the Dao Ancestor perfected macroscopic numerology, Shang Pingyin was finally overshadowed.
He was a genius in his own right, relying on his mastery of formations and numerology to become the First Heavenly Master of the Heavenly Court. The formations and array diagrams of all the Heavenly Court’s armies were closely tied to him.
However, during the division of the Dragon Han era, he personally led a great army to block the Northern Emperor Xuanwu’s Heavenly Palace from leaving the Heavenly Court, only to suffer a devastating defeat. The Scattered Man of Dragon Mountain used the Lapis Lazuli Heavenly Canopy to set up a formation and crushed him.
That defeat was a complete rout. Shang Pingyin’s Dao heart was damaged, and he languished for hundreds of thousands of years, brooding over how to break the Lapis Lazuli Heavenly Canopy formation.
It wasn’t until Yueting Ge rose to prominence and broke the Lapis Lazuli Heavenly Canopy formation that Shang Pingyin emerged from that shadow—only to fall into the shadow of Yueting Ge.
After Yueting Ge was lost in the Great Void, Shang Pingyin once again became the First Heavenly Master of the Heavenly Court. But at that time, Meng Yungui rose, threatening his position.
Meng Yungui never revealed his hand, always hiding his wisdom and strength. Yet, from his troop deployments and the fact that the Heavenly Sovereign often sought Meng Yungui’s counsel, it was clear that Meng Yungui’s intelligence surpassed his own!
Still, the two had never directly clashed. The battle at the Southern Heavenly Pass was their first confrontation.
Meng Yungui held the advantage of terrain, while Shang Pingyin held the advantage in military strength.
The army under Shang Pingyin’s command consisted of the Divine Martial Second Guard, one of the ten elite guards of the Heavenly Court. Having been through countless battles, every member of the Divine Martial Second Guard was the cream of the demigods—any one of them could serve as the leader of Meng Yungui’s Feather Transformation Camp!
When the Divine Martial Second Guard activated their formation, they could even fight against a Heavenly Sovereign!
Yet, when clashing with a second-rate demonic army like the Feather Transformation Camp, the full power of the Divine Martial Second Guard’s formation could not be unleashed. The Feather Transformation Camp’s formation was like threading a needle, inserting itself into the gaps of the Divine Martial Second Guard’s formation, preventing it from functioning and making the array diagram impossible to operate.
Every variation of the Divine Martial Second Guard’s formation was countered by the Feather Transformation Camp.
Shang Pingyin excelled in straightforward, head-on assaults. Against an opponent like Meng Yungui, his skills were hard to bring into play. However, the sheer strength of the Divine Martial Second Guard was overwhelming. In a pure war of attrition, Meng Yungui couldn’t outlast him!
This was what Shang Pingyin called the greater trend.
As long as the soldiers of the Feather Transformation Camp kept dying, he would still win!
Just then, Meng Yungui suddenly rose to his full height, floated down from the city wall, and cut horizontally into the array diagram of the Feather Transformation Camp.
Shang Pingyin laughed heartily and shook his head. “The commander personally entering the formation? How foolish! Once you enter the formation, you become a piece on the board, unable to oversee the whole picture or make real-time adjustments to the formation. Meng Yungui, your greatest strength is formation variation, yet now you’re abandoning that advantage to become a mere brute. You disgrace the title of Heavenly Master!”
He immediately manipulated the array diagram of the Divine Martial Second Guard, using formation variations to trap the Feather Transformation Camp. However, the Feather Transformation Camp’s formation also shifted simultaneously, still firmly controlling the Divine Martial Second Guard’s array diagram, making it difficult to change formation!
Even if Shang Pingyin forcibly altered the formation, it would immediately be countered by the Feather Transformation Camp!
Meng Yungui was also a master at the Imperial Throne realm. Within the formation, he moved like a fish in water, slaying generals of the Divine Martial Second Guard and inflicting casualties on them!
“Something’s wrong. He’s inside the formation and can’t see the whole picture—how does he perceive my formation changes?”
Shang Pingyin’s face darkened, and he thought to himself, “And while inside the formation, how does he command all the soldiers of the Feather Transformation Camp with such precision? Wait—it’s the Three Yuan Spirit Convergence Technique of Yankang!”
His expression changed drastically.
During the Yankang reforms, one of the techniques developed was the Three Yuan Spirit Convergence Technique, the most miraculous battlefield art. It allowed for the swiftest command of troops.
Back in the Great Void, Emperor Yankang and Yankang National Teacher Jiang Baigui had taken the forms of a monk and a Taoist, leading the army of Carefree Village in numerous clashes with the Heavenly Court’s forces, killing countless enemies. The four Heavenly Masters and four Heavenly Kings of the Heavenly Court found these two extremely troublesome.
In the end, it was Meng Yungui who saw through their tricks, broke Emperor Yankang’s formation, chased him for tens of thousands of miles, and nearly killed that bald monk.
At that time, Meng Yungui had been able to break the formation by sending spies to Yankang to secretly learn the Three Yuan Spirit Convergence Technique and discover its weaknesses!
Clearly, Meng Yungui had not only cracked the Three Yuan Spirit Convergence Technique but had also learned it himself!
“I don’t know the Three Yuan Spirit Convergence Technique, so I can’t counter it. But if Meng Yungui can grasp the whole situation, he must have eyes and ears outside, watching the battle!”
Shang Pingyin was exceptionally clever. He immediately looked around, and his gaze fell upon the front of the Southern Heavenly Pass, where an oval, convex bright mirror hung.
Shang Pingyin raised his divine bow, drew it, and shot an arrow. The mirror shattered into dust.
He breathed a sigh of relief and tried to change the formation again, but it was still countered by Meng Yungui.
Shang Pingyin frowned and looked around once more. Suddenly, he drew his bow again and shot out a sun in the sky, extinguishing it!
The sun went out, and the sky grew dim. Shang Pingyin looked again, but the formation was still suppressed by Meng Yungui.
“He has other eyes and ears!”
Shang Pingyin pointed at his brow, and a vertical eye opened there. He looked into the tributary of the Heavenly River, then stomped his right foot heavily. The river churned, and silver fish leaped out!
Shang Pingyin shot all the silver fish, which exploded into countless parts. They were forged from divine gold and divine iron, serving as Meng Yungui’s eyes and ears!
“Still more eyes and ears!”
Shang Pingyin’s vertical eye blazed with light. He roared, pushing the power of his divine eye to its limit, seeing through the void. In the void around the Southern Heavenly Pass, countless mirrors hung high!
Shang Pingyin shot those mirrors to pieces, then looked downward. In the Netherworld, enormous demon god eyeballs, refined into treasures, stared eerily at this place.
“Meng Yungui, you truly are my worthy rival!”
Shang Pingyin’s right index finger traced rapidly in the air, drawing a Netherworld Dao talisman, which he stamped onto his divine bow. He drew and shot arrow after arrow, destroying those demon god eyes.
Now, all of Meng Yungui’s arrangements had been removed. Shang Pingyin could finally relax.
Just then, a patch of gray clouds rose from within the pass. In the clouds were countless strange insects, with large heads and small bodies, covered in compound eyes. They buzzed into the air, and their compound eyes reflected the battlefield scene in vivid detail.
Shang Pingyin opened his mouth and spat out a divine flame, burning all the insects to nothing.
Meng Yungui sighed inwardly. His time was too short, his forces too weak. He hadn’t prepared more measures. Given time to arrange things calmly, he could have made it impossible for Shang Pingyin to break through.
Now, having lost control of the overall situation, if he held on, his entire army would be annihilated.
Meng Yungui personally covered the retreat, pulling back toward the pass. Shang Pingyin pursued, chasing them all the way to the foot of the pass. Suddenly, countless banners fluttered within the pass, and the formation was tightly organized.
Shang Pingyin was startled and quickly ordered the army to halt, wary of an ambush. Meng Yungui took the opportunity to enter the city.
“How many men did Meng Yungui bring to the Southern Heaven this time?” Shang Pingyin called over a soldier and asked.
The soldier replied, “Reporting to the Heavenly Master, Meng Yungui brought one hundred thousand soldiers from the Feather Transformation Camp this time, and no other troops.”
“This pass is an empty city!”
Shang Pingyin’s eyes lit up, and he shouted, “Charge into the city!”
Boom!
The seemingly majestic Southern Heavenly Pass collapsed under the assault of the Divine Martial Second Guard!
Inside the city, Meng Yungui sighed and shouted, “Fight while retreating! Defend the Southern Heaven to the death!”
The soldiers of the Feather Transformation Camp fought bloodily, but against the overwhelming force of the Divine Martial Second Guard, their casualties mounted. Around Meng Yungui, familiar figures fell one by one.
As he had said, they were destined to lose, with no hope of victory. Even though he had foreseen this outcome, witnessing it still filled his heart with sorrow.
The power of the Divine Martial Second Guard’s battle formation had gradually erupted, growing stronger with each attack. Every strike caused hundreds around him to fall. Where the formation passed, mountains toppled, the sky shattered, and the sun and moon lost their light!
Over these days of fighting, Shang Pingyin had fully leveraged the advantage of the Divine Martial Second Guard.
As demigods, their physical bodies were formidable, and they fought without fatigue. Coupled with their high cultivation levels, they had worn down the Feather Transformation Camp.
If the battle continued, the Feather Transformation Camp, including Meng Yungui, would be completely annihilated!
Finally, the array diagram of the Divine Martial Second Guard was pushed to its limit. Waves of Imperial might surged into the sky from the diagram, merging like eighteen heavenly palaces into a grand Heavenly Court formation.
Meng Yungui’s face was ashen. This was the array diagram jointly created by the four Heavenly Masters, to which he had contributed the most, designing most of its structure.
In the campaign to hunt down Carefree Village, he had used this formation to overpower Lang Wan, killing countless soldiers of Carefree Village, forcing their four Heavenly Masters to join forces just to hold off the Heavenly Court’s assault.
But now, he and his Feather Guard were about to be destroyed by the very weapon he had designed!
He looked back at the Southern Heaven, his mind blank. “I shouldn’t have listened to Yuchenzi, shouldn’t have listened to Mu Tianzun. Dreams, heh…”
Suddenly, his spirit rallied. He unleashed all his power, wrapping it around the surviving soldiers of the Feather Transformation Camp, and shouted, “Brothers, will you follow me to death?”
“It is our honor!”
Laughter rang out. Within the formation, divine light shot into the sky. Figures stood with him, charging at the Divine Martial Second Guard!
Shang Pingyin watched and shook his head. “Overestimating yourself.”
The two formations collided. The Feather Transformation Camp was about to be completely swallowed when, suddenly, a massive jade pillar spun down from the sky and slammed into the ground between the two formations with a thud, sending earth and stone flying!
At the base of the pillar, a burly man with a dragon’s head and a tortoise’s back spun the pillar. Twenty-eight layers of heavens expanded with a roar, and countless treasures appeared within them, their light blazing. They shattered the formation of the Divine Martial Second Guard, sending the hundred-thousand-strong demonic army flying!
The twenty-eight heavens shifted and interwove, drawing Meng Yungui and the surviving soldiers of the Feather Transformation Camp into them. Meng Yungui and his men found themselves landing on various treasures, stunned and uncertain.
They had thought they were doomed, but instead, they had been saved.
“Good thing I wasn’t too late.”
A familiar voice reached Shang Pingyin’s ears. His face changed drastically, and he quickly followed the sound. At the top of the jade pillar and the twenty-eight heavens stood a young man with a qilin head and a human body, his robes fluttering in the wind.
“The Scattered Man of Dragon Mountain!” Shang Pingyin blurted out.
“Indeed, it is I, Long.”
Long Qilin stood at the highest point, looking at Shang Pingyin from afar, and said with a smile, “Shang Pingyin, it’s been six hundred thousand years. We meet again.”
The Heavenly Court’s vast army marched toward the Primordial Realm. Ahead, the waters of the Heavenly River had already flowed downstream into the Primordial Realm.
Suddenly, a supervisor from the Heavenly Monitoring Department hurriedly reported, “Your Majesty, strange phenomena are occurring at the Southern Heaven. The stars are shaking, the Heavenly River is turbulent, and a heavenly realm is forming, resembling the phenomenon of the world’s greatest treasure, the Lapis Lazuli Heavenly Canopy.”
The Heavenly Sovereign Hao pondered for a moment and said, “The Lapis Lazuli Heavenly Canopy was refined by Mu Tianzun in the Great Black Mountain of the Ancestral Court for decades. It is different now, but it’s no longer the world’s greatest treasure. Countless treasures surpass it in power. However, if the Lapis Lazuli Heavenly Canopy has reached the Southern Heaven, Shang Pingyin may not be able to withstand it. Pass my order: have the Northern Heavenly King Yi Luo and the Third Heavenly Master Bai Yuqiong take the Southern Heavenly Gate to the Southern Heaven to suppress Meng Yungui and the rebels.”
He thought for a moment and added, “Instruct Yi Luo to be wary of Bai Yuqiong. If there is any unusual movement, activate the Southern Heavenly Gate and kill her directly. You may go.”
—The Scattered Man of Dragon Mountain makes his reappearance! Scatter flowers!! Tonight at ten o’clock, there will be a lottery on Zhai Zhu’s public account. Don’t forget! Ten o’clock, remember to go draw on time—it only takes a few seconds, and who knows, maybe your luck will be explosive!