Chapter 797 — The Enigma of Truth and Falsehood

The Divine Blade Luo Wushuang suddenly spoke, his voice deep. "The Earth Mother's divine powers are vast—she is the ancient god whose Dao arts are most complex. Even His Majesty held the Earth Mother in the highest esteem. Have you learned the Earth Mother's divine powers?"

The girl looked at him and smiled. "So it is the one-armed Luo Wushuang of the Divine Blade, of the false dynasty. The Earth Mother has thirty-six great Daos. I am quite proficient in all thirty-six."

The scholar smiled. "Words alone are no proof."

The girl said, "Celestial Master Zixi of the false dynasty, be patient. What does my true or false matter? When the Earth Mother Venerable God arrives shortly, and you all see the Earth Mother's true form, will you not know true from false?"

The scholar's heart shook slightly. "She even knows me? I am a person of the Kaihuang era. By then the Earth Mother had long been dead, the Primal Realm sealed, leaving only the Desolate Ruins. How could she know of me? She looks young, her cultivation not particularly high—she does not seem an old monster. It is impossible that she knows of my affairs. Just now she called the Southern Dynasty, the Outer Heavenly Court, and the Kaihuang Heavenly Court all false dynasties. Could she truly be from the Earth Mother's Supreme Emperor's Heavenly Court? Could the Earth Mother truly still be alive, silently watching from beneath the earth all that transpired in the Kaihuang era?"

Suddenly a demigod with a dragon's head and human body spoke in a deep voice. "The Earth Mother was killed by someone—I saw it with my own eyes. I saw the Earth Mother's flesh severed, her heart pierced through. The Earth Mother cannot still be alive. Little sister, to impersonate the Earth Mother and summon us here is a capital crime."

The girl looked at him and said solemnly, "So it is the Ancestral Dragon King. The Earth Mother was ambushed and grievously wounded, but the Earth Mother is, after all, the most ancient and most great of the ancient gods—how could she simply perish? Ancestral Dragon King, can you imagine Tubo or Tiangong being killed?"

The demigod bowed his head in thought for a moment, then said, "No. But I saw with my own eyes—the Earth Mother clearly died..."

The girl smiled. "What your eyes see is not necessarily true. The Earth Mother is still in the world. These tens of thousands of years of recuperation have finally restored her wounds, and now she has summoned everyone here. You may disbelieve me, the Earth Mother's disciple, but when you see the Earth Mother's true form arrive shortly, you will have no choice but to believe..."

At that very moment, suddenly a laugh came from outside the hall. "This elder sister, you are the Earth Mother's disciple? How is it that I did not know my master the Earth Mother Venerable God ever took a female disciple?"

Everyone turned to look. The scholar's heart leaped. "How did this brat get here? He truly does not know the height of the heavens and the depth of the earth!"

The donkey behind her showed surprise and asked in a low voice, "Hee-haw?"

The scholar nodded, suppressing her anger. "Hee! It is his voice! This little bastard—how dare he impersonate the Earth Mother's disciple and sneak in here?"

And when Bai Qú'er heard this voice, her body suddenly went rigid, disbelief on her face. She whirled around, staring transfixed outside the hall, and said softly, "Your voice... your voice has appeared again. It is not an illusion..."

In the scabbard behind the one-armed Divine Blade Luo Wushuang, the divine blade gave off low hums, exceedingly excited.

Luo Wushuang too was exceedingly excited. He looked outside the hall and laughed softly. "Forty thousand years. I have waited bitterly for you for forty thousand years. Your voice—I have never forgotten it. When I swing the divine blade, what appears in my mind is your shadow, what sounds in my ears is your voice..."

At the entrance of the Lingxiao Hall, a demigod with a qilin's head and human body pulled on a gleaming rope, leading a colossal creature into the hall.

The colossal creature was half dragon, half qilin, majestic and extraordinary, magnificent in appearance.

And atop the dragon-qilin's great head, a woman held a wooden sword, rosy light steaming around her, the radiance like a colored phoenix flowing with fire.

Another woman's halo flickered behind her head, within it a small sapling; she cradled a horsetail whisk in her arms, her bearing otherworldly, leaning against a youth's shoulder.

Behind the youth was a servant, layered flame behind his head, a great cauldron rising and falling within it, floating and sinking without cease.

And the youth himself seemed somewhat languid, looking with a half-smile toward the girl before the imperial throne in the Lingxiao Hall, not rising from the dragon-qilin's head. He smiled. "By rights, I should call you senior sister. A pity my master did not take you as a disciple. Who exactly are you?"

Within the Lingxiao Hall, an uproar. Voices of discussion rose on every side.

The Water Qilin, seeing so many divinities, trembled, its legs shaking. It summoned its courage and led the dragon-qilin toward the imperial throne, muttering inwardly, "The Heavenly Court—this is the Supreme Emperor's Heavenly Court. Ahead is the imperial throne, where the Heavenly Emperor sits! What fortune have I cultivated in this life to come so close to the imperial throne..."

The dragon-qilin yawned, looking this way and that, extending its crimson tongue to lick its lips, appearing fierce and malevolent. It thought, "A thousand hundred powerhouses, each could easily kill me. But if the sky falls, the Cult Leader will hold it up..."

Before the imperial throne, the girl was astonished, for a moment unable to react.

The dragon-qilin came before the imperial throne and stopped.

Shen Mu rose, looking down at the girl from above, and said with a half-smile, "Senior sister, can you give me an explanation?"

The astonishment on the girl's face gradually faded, and she giggled. "The Heavenly Sage Cult Leader of Jingping Kingdom, Shen Mu, Shen Fengqing—since when did you become the Earth Mother's disciple? You are truly naughty."

The scholar clenched her fist, took a small bundle from the donkey's back, and thought, "It seems only I can step in to save this brat. This brat—audacious beyond measure, daring to impersonate anyone—and now his cover is blown in an instant! You could at least have changed your appearance..."

"I am a fake?" Shen Mu laughed heartily.

"You are a fake."

Behind him, Luo Wushuang's voice came, word by word. "An old acquaintance of the Supreme Emperor's era—do you remember that night, the youth whose arm you severed with a single sword strike?"

Shen Mu turned. His gaze fell upon Luo Wushuang, then searched among the Lingxiu Army youths beside him—the youths of the Lingxiu Army were all men and women with severed arms.

Yet he still saw Zhe Huali, and his heart sank. "Furira, you betrayed us after all..."

He shifted his gaze away and paid Luo Wushuang no heed.

Then he saw another girl, who seemed very lonely in the crowd.

Their eyes met. Everything around Shen Mu seemed to vanish, as though he had returned to that night, when he and this girl had leaned together waiting for the dawn's morning sun.