Chapter 845 — Rebuilding the Heavenly Palace

"No need to chase him!"

The Qingyun Sect Master called back the old Daoists who were about to give chase, and shook his head: "That man is too fast, and he changes endlessly — he can alter his face at any moment. You will never catch him, and even if you did, you would not recognize him. Let the matter rest here. Do not probe further, do not spread word of it. One of you go and look for Junior Brother Feihe. Just now the old thief took Feihe's appearance; Feihe must be trussed up tight and stuffed away somewhere, heaven knows where."

At once a Daoist went to search for Feihe, while the other elders hurried to the Qingyun Sect Master's side and asked, "Just now the star signs transformed and the Lord of Heaven came back to life, activating the formation — what was that about?"

"Naturally, the Dao Ancestor made his move."

The Qingyun Sect Master said calmly: "Jingping's Overlord Body and the Heavenly Court's envoy both wish to be rid of the other, so that the Dao Ancestor is left with no choice. But what manner of being is the Dao Ancestor? Would he let two juniors decide his own future and fate? That is not the act of a wise man."

The Daoists were shaken to the core: "What does the Sect Master mean?"

"The Dao Ancestor has taken them up to the Heavenly Court; naturally he will make the decision himself. We need not worry about the future of the Qingyun Sect — the Dao Ancestor will arrange it clearly for us."

The Qingyun Sect Master said, "All we need to think about now is how to settle what comes after."

A Daoist said hurriedly, "Yuchenzi has already taken men to make preparations; he said he would prepare for both outcomes."

The Qingyun Sect Master made inquiries, and could not help praising him: "Yuchenzi has done very well. The Heavenly Court produces talent in every generation; even in a place as small as Jingping there are so many outstanding geniuses. Fortunately, our Qingyun Heaven also has a younger generation that can stand comparison with them, so we are not left too far behind."

Beyond Qingyun Heaven, the Daoist "Feihe" sped through the air with the little Daoist boy, and soon they were tens of thousands of li from Qingyun Heaven. Again and again he transformed, changing into different appearances — now man, now woman, now old, now young; sometimes he even took on a half-divine form — and he also brought out all manner of garments, until the little Daoist boy was left staring slack-jawed.

This old man not only changed his own shape at will, but was also a master of the art of transformation; he altered the boy's appearance more than ten times as well.

"Now we are safe. The Daoists of Qingyun Heaven cannot catch up with us."

The old man resumed his true form, and with his hands behind his back, his face simple and rustic, he circled Lord Yutian, sizing him up from head to foot. Sure enough, as Shen Mu had guessed, this old man was none other than the Lame Old Man.

Lord Yutian's heart was full of unease.

"A fine seedling indeed."

The Lame Old Man sighed in admiration: "You learn anything quickly — quicker even than that wicked boy Shen. Let us go thieving together, light-fingered masters, and rob the whole world clean!"

Lord Yutian shook his head in alarm: "I have to go find my brother..."

"What do you want with him?"

The Lame Old Man shook his head, somewhat displeased: "That boy was great fun when he was small, but he grew less and less fun as he grew up. I taught him the Profound Art of Stealing Heaven and Swapping the Sun, thinking he would go thieving across the world with me and be a grandfather-and-grandson pair of master thieves. But no — he goes out to play every day without taking me along, and he does not steal anything either; he learned from the Butcher until his head was stuffed full of nothing but muscle. Come, I will take you to see my treasure vault! I tell you, these past few years I have made my fortune — when Emperor Yanfeng sees me he has to call me Grandpa Thief. Can you fly? I will teach you how to tread the wind..."

Light leaped and danced. Shen Mu stood amid the streaming radiance, and his heart gave a start: "This is... a teleportation divine power? Subtler even than Teacher Woodcutter's teleportation art. It is somewhat like the Great Spatial Shift... Could it be that the Daoist sect and Kaihuang have some murky connection?"

The teleportation art had been handed down by the Woodcutter and passed on to the Heavenly Sage Sect, whereas the radiance that held Shen Mu and the others was the Great Spatial Shift, subtler than the teleportation art and employing a more refined art of calculation.

The two had something in common, and so Shen Mu suspected that the Woodcutter had once seen the Daoist sect's Great Spatial Shift.

He had been somewhat alarmed at first, but now he steadied himself and quickly sorted out his thoughts: "The Fisherman Heavenly Master said that the old generation are all crafty and sly like this... hmm, wise and penetrating, and so indeed they are. This Great Spatial Shift divine power must have been worked by the Dao Ancestor borrowing the power of the star signs. He does not want Xiao Chunfeng and me to decide the Daoist sect's stance for him, and so he has taken us up to make the decision himself."

At last the radiance dispersed. Shen Mu saw the light around them fade, and from the receding glow the figures of Xiao Chunfeng, the girl in red, and Daoist Master Linxuan emerged.

The woman in red wore a look of panic and had fallen into a defensive stance.

Xiao Chunfeng coughed and said, "Yu Hongxiu, there is no need for alarm. The Dao Ancestor has summoned us."

Daoist Master Linxuan praised: "When the Dao Ancestor moved the star signs and the Lord of Heaven, the art of calculation he employed was truly beyond compare."

Shen Mu looked around. They stood within a jade edifice of immense scale, built of fine jade, its beams soaring high. Looking up, he could make out six corners — it must be a tall tower with six-sided flying eaves.

Looking outward, he could dimly see a thousand palaces and ten thousand halls, resplendent in gold and glory.

"So that is the Heavenly Court beyond the realm?"

Shen Mu's heart stirred. He wanted to walk out of the jade tower and see whether this Heavenly Court was the Longhan Heavenly Court of old, but he restrained himself.

He went on studying the tower. Its interior was hollow, and a jade pillar that a dozen men with arms outstretched could barely encircle stood at its center; stairs wound around the pillar all the way up, and looking from the bottom one could not tell how many storeys the tower had.

On every storey, the six walls were lined with row upon row of bookshelves, also carved from fine jade, and each storey was joined to the jade pillar by several jade bridges, so that one could walk across the bridges to the six walls and read.

Yet what was strange was that this repository was utterly empty; the four of them had appeared here abruptly, and no one had come to question them.

They looked outside: around the tower there was no one either, all was desolate and bare.

"This place is... the Heavenly Court's Archive Pavilion!"

Xiao Chunfeng's eyes flickered, and he said in a low voice: "The Archive Pavilion — the supreme holy ground of the Heavenly Court's book collection. The books kept here are said to be the Heavenly Court's highest secrets! Strange — why would the Dao Ancestor summon us here? Is he not afraid the Heavenly Court will discover that he has summoned rebels from the lower realm?"

The woman in red, Yu Hongxiu, had calmed down. Enduring her pain, she said, "The Dao Ancestor has summoned us — why does he not show himself?"

Shen Mu asked with concern, "Sister Hongxiu, are your injuries serious? I am rather skilled in medicine; treated by my hand, you will soon be skipping about again."

Yu Hongxiu gave a cold snort and moved further away from him, closer to Xiao Chunfeng.