Chapter 890 — Greeting That Old Friend

"The Empress's younger sister.

.

. How did her body get here?

" Shen Mu's mind went blank; he could hardly believe his own eyes. The Empress's body had been hidden aboard the ghost ship, and Shen Mu's experiences on that ghost ship had been so strange that he would never forget them.

In order to solve the ghost ship's mystery, he had memorized every detail of the vessel, every reincarnation, and so his memory of it was unusually deep. On the ghost ship, the Empress and Jue Wuchen had lain in the same coffin. When Shen Mu performed the soul-summoning rite for Jue Wuchen, he discovered that Jue Wuchen had no soul at all—she was a manufactured beauty, a flawless woman created by Ling Tianzun with the art of creation in order to destroy the Ancient God Heavenly Emperor. When he performed the soul-summoning rite for the Empress, however, he was horrified to discover that the Empress was not dead at all—she was still alive in the mortal world! Afterward, he deduced the process by which the Empress and her sister had joined with the Heaven Alliance to murder the Ancient God Heavenly Emperor.

The two sisters had worked in concert. The younger remained in the Heavenly Court to hold the Ancient God Heavenly Emperor in check, while the Empress returned to her native place to visit her family.

There she made use of the nearby Longbo Kingdom, caused the King of Longbo to rebel and wound her, and had herself trapped in Guixu.

The Heavenly Emperor ordered Wei Suifeng to lead the Feather Forest Guard in putting down the rebellion and rescuing the Empress. After Wei Suifeng had suppressed the revolt, on the eve of the army's triumphant return, the incident of the Empress's ambush exploded. The dark currents of Guixu surged; in the dark night two Empresses appeared, and the true Empress died.

Wei Suifeng carried the Empress's corpse back to the Heavenly Court. On the dark celestial river, he encountered Ling Tianzun casting a spell, and Wei Suifeng at once used the fog to leave the Longhan Era and return to his own age, while the Feather Forest Guard and the towered warship were transformed by Ling Tianzun's divine power into a ghost ship that shuttled through the thirty-six time-spaces. And yet the Empress had not died—she had become Jue Wuchen. The Heavenly Court also proclaimed that the Empress had not died, and Shen Mu conjectured that the Empress in the Heavenly Court must be the Empress's younger sister.

According to this inference, both Empress sisters had participated in the plot to murder the Heavenly Emperor. Yet before him now lay the coffin of the Empress's younger sister, and her body was lying in it! What if, at the time, the younger sister had not stayed in the Heavenly Court to hold the Heavenly Emperor in check, but had followed the Empress to Guixu, incited the Longbo Kingdom to revolt, and seized the chance to strike at her elder sister—only to be killed by her sister instead? Then the elder sister hid the younger sister's body in Guixu, pretended that she herself had been ambushed and killed, had Wei Suifeng bear her own body to the Heavenly Court, and afterward used the ghost ship to slip away and transform into Jue Wuchen.

Wei Suifeng, however, discovered the catch—the one who had died was actually the Empress's younger sister—and so he left behind a map to guide Shen Mu toward the truth.

"But there is a flaw in this conjecture: why did the Heavenly Court announce that the Empress was not dead? " Shen Mu steadied himself and sank into thought.

"The Empress in the Heavenly Court is certainly one of the sisters; if so, which one?

Or perhaps there is another possibility: the sisters were playing a double act. The younger pretended to ambush the elder and killed her before everyone's eyes; the elder faked her death, slipped away, and became Jue Wuchen, while the younger returned to the Heavenly Court and was promoted from stand-in to the true Empress.

After the Ancient God Heavenly Emperor was killed, the Empress then disposed of her younger sister, sent her body here, and buried the truth! It was not until Wei Suifeng came here that the younger sister's corpse was discovered. .

. " "There is still something that does not add up! One of the sisters' bodies lies hidden on the ghost ship, the other in Guixu—so who are they now?

Is there still an Empress in the Heavenly Court? Or did the Empress not dispose of her younger sister, but rather the two sisters shared one body, remaining in the Heavenly Court to control the Heavenly Emperor's physical body?

" . .

. Shen Mu felt as if his head were about to explode. He suddenly shouted, "Fat Dragon, come down! Open the coffin! " Dragon Qilin, trembling all over, lay on the crystal coffin and did not dare move. Shen Mu raised a hand, flipped the crystal coffin over with him still on it, and threw it aside, then set the Mystic Body Three-Dan Art in motion. Behind him, the Heaven-Upholding Gate appeared, but strangely the gate was extremely dim, as if present and absent at once, unable to take form at all!

Shen Mu frowned. Guixu was exceedingly uncanny; it suppressed the divine powers of the Dark Capital, and he could not use the Soul-Summoning Art to test whether the Empress's younger sister was alive or dead. "Wei Suifeng left the Empress's younger sister's corpse here as a treasure—could it be that he wants me to take this corpse away?

" His brow furrowed even deeper as he paced around the coffin, gazing at the younger sister's body within and pondering. Was he really going to take it away? Suddenly, a sky-filling roar of water came from outside. Shen Mu gave a start, hurried out of the Red Palace, and looked up. The sound came from beyond the heavens, yet it had not seeped into the flower-world.

"The dark celestial river has been cut off—where does this water sound come from?

" Shen Mu said blankly, "Could it be. .

. " Just then, a dense mist began to drift down from the sky. It crept through the cracks of the flower-world and gradually filled it.

Yan'er and the beauty-serpent formed from the flower's stamen were still locked in battle, now visible, now hidden in the mist. After a moment, the mist dispersed and the water sound vanished.

Then a great resounding boom rang out, the flower-world shook violently, and Shen Mu felt the two great flowers slowly rising! "These two flowers are about to rise out of Guixu!

" Shen Mu's heart stirred. He turned and went back into the Red Palace, seized Dragon Qilin, and pried him off the coffin lid.

Shen Mu closed the crystal coffin and said, "Fat Dragon, stop trembling. I'm giving you an extra meal.

Quick, go call Sister Yan'er.

Let's leave this place while these two flowers float up out of the great abyss! " Dragon Qilin's spirits soared. He charged out of the Red Palace, looked around once, and shouted, "Sect Master, the flower has opened!

Sister Yan'er and that ancient god have fought their way into the dark world!

It's too dark in there—I don't dare go in!

" "Two extra meals! " Dragon Qilin plunged into the dark world to find Yan'er.

Shen Mu hoisted the crystal coffin onto his shoulder and laughed, "I don't know what tricks the Empress sisters are playing, but once I carry this coffin out, I'll know whether you're dead or alive. .

. " He had no sooner left the Red Palace than a middle-aged man came toward him. The man wore coarse cloth garments and was covered in the dust of travel.

He had large hands and feet, heavy brows, and big eyes; a belt woven of rough hemp was tied about his waist, and before him floated a sheepskin parchment, moving along with him as he moved.

In front of the parchment hung a writing brush, sketching and writing on the paper of its own accord, mapping the geography of the flower-world. When the two met face to face, both were briefly startled.

"Founding Patriarch. . .