Above Nine Heavens in Honggu Heavenly Realm was where the Heaven Court was located.
It was in the boundless universe. It could suppress millions of stars, rule over the sun and the moon, overlook heavens and dominate infinite realms. In short, it was on top of Honggu Heavenly Realm.
It was where moguls were, and where ordinary cultivators aspire to be and, of course, where the world’s treasures were most abundant.
The Heaven Court was akin to a world with 50 thousands households. It had four gates, leading to four different directions: the East, South, West and North. Each gate had an emperor as the governor. For example, the North Gate used to have the Northern Emperor Kunpeng as its governor.
There was also the fifth gate which was governed by the Heavenly Emperor himself. It was said to be a legend because it had never been opened before. Nevertheless, it was said that the fifth gate was very mysterious because it could connect to any part of the world.
Deep inside the Heaven Court, the Great Heavenly Venerate was sitting while enjoying his tea. Standing beside him was Star Lord Taibai.
“Have you got everything arranged nicely?” The Great Heavenly Venerate put down his cup of tea and asked.
“Yes!” Star Lord Taibai lowered his head and replied. And he asked, “Your majesty, I wonder why you not only transfer back the Sky Demon Army after the death of the Northern Emperor Kunpeng, but also the Water Army, Buddha Army and other legions over, and particularly let them stay near to the four gates of Heaven Court? Does your majesty really think that the Great Demon Venerate can make its way to the Heaven Court? Your servant can’t believe it actually.”
“How many legions does my Heaven Court have?” The Great Heaven Venerate didn’t answer but gave a rhetorical question instead.
“Your majesty, we have a total of 128 legions,” Star Lord Taibai answered directly without much thought, “Twenty-four of them are special legions in which the four emperors lead six legions each. At the same time, they are distributed to various forces throughout the heavenly realm to maintain the balance, to reveal the might of Heaven Court and to rein the world.”
“Twenty-four Guarding Legions protecting the Heaven Court. They are the best among the best.”
“Twenty-four Heavenly Punishment Legions are to fight on all sides to maintain order. They have all been transferred back now.”
“Twenty-four Ordinary Legions mainly are to train the heavenly soldiers and at the same time assist the Guarding Legions. They are the fundamental of Heavenly Warriors. Each legion has billions of members, and all of them have returned to their positions.”
“There are also 24 legions guarding the universe. They are to schedule the stars, maintain the warp and weft, and monitor all small and medium chiliocosms to prevent unforeseen events.”
“The last eight legions are known as the War God Legions and they are the pillar of the Heaven Court. Each legion is led by a Venerable Immortal. They don’t usually go on missions but when they do, they only kill.”
Star Lord Taibai told everything he knew.
“How many of them are loyal to me?”
“Your majesty, this?” Cold sweat broke out on the forehead of Star Lord Taibai.
“You are a coward indeed!” The Great Heavenly Venerate laughed, “There aren’t many. In the last hundred million years, I’ve been ruling by doing nothing and acting in a low profile. However, the Fo Sect, Dragon Clan, Demon Holy Palace, Taishang Sword Sect and etc, have been placing spies in the Heaven Court. Ha, I just don’t want to care.”
“However, the four gates each have a legion, which is loyal to me. And none dares to do anything there!”
“All the 24 Guarding Legions should be loyal to me but in these years, 12 of them no longer are and one even is controlled by the Great Demon Venerate!”
“All the Ordinary Legions have lost their loyalty.”
“The 24 legions guarding the universe still remained in my control.”
“Sixteen out of 24 Heavenly Punishment Legions are not loyal”
“Two Venerable Immortals of the eight War God Legions are in league with others.”
As the Great Heavenly Venerate was enumerating, he remained smiling.
“Your majesty, t-this…” Sweat broke out on the forehead of Star Lord Taibai as he was shivering.
No one knew whether he was scared or because he felt uneasy upon hearing such a sensitive topic.
“I can’t blame them for not being loyal. After all, most of them join the Heaven Court for power, cultivation resources, supreme laws etc. Hence, it’s common that they’d diverge their loyalty when they are offered with better stuff.” The Great Heavenly Venerate shifted his focus on Star Lord Taibai and his smiling face was replaced with solemnity, “But you, Taibai, I do take good care of you right? Why?”
“Your majesty…” The face of Star Lord Taibai suddenly turned pale as he startled for quite a while before he smiled wryly.
The sweat no longer broke out on his forehead, and he stopped shivering.
“Your majesty, you actually knew it.” Star Lord Taibai sighed, “It shouldn’t be!”
“Ya, it shouldn’t be!” The Great Heavenly Venerate rose to his feet, lifted his head and looked through the Heaven Court, into the vast and extensive universe, “You were originally a Star God birthed on the Star of Tai Bai, and I discovered you back then when I was secretly running my forces in the universe. At that time, you were only at Golden Immortal Realm. Seeing that you are a natal star ruler, and that there is no great karma as I deduced from the past, I took you with me. You were good and resourceful, so I used you to my advantage until now!”
“You were dedicated, sincere, very hardworking and attentive, always looking out for me and keeping many things in order.”
“If it weren’t because of two incidents that made me feel something was wrong, I wouldn’t check on you and discover your story!”
“It’s so unexpected that the Lord Buddha has been plotting against me a long time ago!”
The Great Heavenly Venerate exclaimed with hints of admiration.
“Two incidents!” The Star Lord Taibai sighed, “One was when your majesty just took over the Cloud Palace, you wanted to attack the Fo Sect, and the Lord Buddha declare publicly on their willingness to make obeisance to Heaven Court; the second was about the position of Western Emperor was taken by the Future Buddha.”
“Yes, it’s these two incidents!” The Great Heavenly Venerate nodded, “At that time, other than the Heaven Court, all other sects were very influential, but not as much as the Fo Sect. I was about to attack and suppress Fo Sect when the Lord Buddha came to make obeisance by declaring it publicly. This left me with no reason to attack. Obviously, he learned about it through someone serving me. I didn’t think it was you until I filtered out the others in my investigations. Oh ya, at that time there was a man who knew the insights was dead innocently, and all clues led to him. Unfortunately, I investigated in detail and suspected that you were the culprit. I was just unsure about it!”
Star Lord Taibai chimed in, “I actually didn’t realize about your suspicion. You’re indeed Your majesty, even just now I didn’t know that you already knew. The second incident was about the competition to become the Western Gate’s emperor. I played tricks. Otherwise, with you having scruples about the Fo Sect, how’d you allow the position of Great Emperor be given to the Fo Sect!”
“Exactly, this is the incident whereby I validated my suspicion.” The Great Heavenly Venerate said, “After that I gradually dissected and understood what had happened through detailed investigation about the past. While I was secretly running my forces in the universe, I fought with an expert in the depths of the starry sky and were neck and neck although I hadn’t met him in person. I later learned that he’s the Lord Buddha.”
“He learned about me and speculated about my ambition. Moreover, he knew I would go around recruiting men, hence he secretly laid you as a pawn in his game.”
“If I’m not wrong, you’re originally a disciple of the Fo Sect but you are transformed into the Star Lord by the Lord Buddha who performed the method of substation with great power.”
“Am I right?”
The final phrase he said in the affirmative tone.
“That’s right!” Star Lord Taibai admitted, “I used to be a named disciple of the Lord Buddha. Then, my soul was taken to fuse with the star spirit nurtured by the Star of Taibai, and because of Karma Law, my soul was sealed deep into the real soul and I can recover my memory only when I’m being probed. I’m arranged beside Your Majesty because the Lord Buddha sensed that the previous Heavenly Emperor was unpopular and would be overthrown sooner or later. Meanwhile, Your Majesty is a strong contender, hence, the Lord Buddha went ahead and placed me beside Your Majesty. I was also told to be loyal all the time and do nothing extra unless the matter is about the future of Fo Sect.”
“Your Majesty, I don’t understand why would you reveal my identity only now?” Star lord Taibai asked.
“I think you should have known.” The Great Heavenly Venerate said, “You should have sent out the information about my plan right?”
He smiled.
The Star Lord Taibai startled for a moment before he came into realization. Then, he said with surprise, “The message I sent out was that Your Majesty is deeply troubled and worried, hence transferring back many legions and personally doing the planning and arranging the defense. It’s as though Your Majesty is afraid of the Great Demon Venerate’s plot. N-Now…”
“Have you seen through the Great Demon Venerate’s plot?”
“Did you reveal my identity to have a thorough clean-up in Heaven Court?”
“No, in that case, there’s no need to reveal my identity.”
“Then y-you…”
“At the same time you do the clean-up, you plan to…”
Star Lord Taibai’s pupils shrunk into the size of a needle but before he could finish his sentence, the palm of the Great Heavenly Venerate was already on his head.
The supreme power in addition to the authority of Heavenly Emperor, and in the depth of the Heaven Court, rendering the Star Lord Taibai, who was at the early stage of the Quasi-Sage Realm, no resistant ability to the suppression.
Of course, Star Lord Taibai didn’t really resist because he knew he couldn’t.
After a while, the Star Lord Taibai remained standing beside, stupefied. However, his aura remained vaast.
Not long after that, the Great Heavenly Venerate took the Star Lord Taibai along with him and stepped up into the air, and reached the highest point of the Heaven Court. Then, he exclaimed, “No way, the Great Demon Venerate has sacrificed many middle chiliocosms, sending a world-destroying blow to destroy the Heaven Court. Ladies and gentlemen, it’s time for us to defend ourselves. Follow me to activate the Heaven Court Formation, manipulate the authority and start defending!”
As soon as he finished speaking, above him appeared an emperor’s crown and in his hand a Heavenly Emperor Sword. As he wielded it in midair, the entire Heaven Court seemed to have come alive with formations, inscriptions and palaces emanating supreme energies.
Even stars in the universe were shining brightly and the billions of stellar light fell upon the Heaven Court, further reinforcing it.
It was also at this moment that the Heaven Court was in chaos.
It was immediately followed by a light pillar stove through the void, and fell on the Heaven Court. Glaring rays of light burst out, and turned into boundless inscriptions which enveloped the Heaven Court.
Following that, the power capable of terminating an era exploded, destroying all things.
As a result, 3,000 layers of stellar lights went off, 48,000 rays of defensive immortal lights disappeared, palaces collapsed one after another, the legion mainly made up of the Fo Sect’s disciples and the legion mainly made up of the Dragon clan’s dragons were annihilated, among others.
Meanwhile, the Great Heavenly Venerate was witnessing indifferently, not even a trace of warmth could be seen in his eyes.
Nor did he continue in defending the Heaven Court.
With a sudden flicker in his eyes, the Star Lord Taibai beside him roared, “Great Demon Venerate, how dare you sacrifice so many worlds to evoke the world-destroying blow? Are you not afraid of receiving heaven’s punishment? Have you asked me before you plot against His Majesty and destroy the Heaven Court?”
“The power of stars, come into me!”
As soon as he finished his command, his body suddenly lengthened to a height of 100,000 feet. He was standing on the Heaven Court while his head reached the universe.
The duster in his hand recovered, and he evoked the supreme special ability that stove through the destructive light. At the same time, his figure also appeared in the eyes of many peeping experts, but then he was hit by a pillar of light, died on the spot.
“My Star Lord!” The Great Heavenly Venerate let out a cry of sorrow, “Sky Demon, f*ck you!”
His roar turned into thunder and rolled through the heavenly realm.
