Chapter 941 — The Bloodshed at Langxuan Divine Palace

Shen Mu and the others crossed the Heavenly Street and came to another street, which had long since emptied, not a soul in sight.

Yun Chuxiu said in admiration, "The Heavenly Venerable is truly magnificent: wherever he goes, not a blade of grass survives, and babes hush their crying at his name!"

Shen Mu roared with laughter. "After all, I am a Heavenly Venerable. When I travel, of course I cut a magnificent figure!"

Little Tubo poked his head out of Long Qilin's ear and surveyed the surroundings with the gravest scrutiny, looking most awe-inspiring. Fearing he might come to harm, Long Qilin hastily dropped his ear and stuffed him back inside.

Little Tubo pounded on him from within, but Long Qilin endured it and never let him out.

Yun Chuxiu noticed this Little Tubo and a look of astonishment crossed her face. Something seemed to occur to her, and the woman abruptly burst out laughing.

They arrived before the Langxuan Divine Palace. Though its grounds were not as vast as those of the Jade Pool, it ranked among the most magnificent and sprawling complexes in the Heavenly Court, palace on palace, courtyard upon courtyard.

All was gold and splendor here. The palaces hung suspended from one another, wrapped in wreaths of cloud and mist, with no ropeways to join them; one had to fly across.

In truth, this was so of most structures in the Heavenly Court: no place was entirely joined to the next. The Jade Pool, for example, floated in the heavens amid clustering clouds, connected to all else only by a tributary of the Heavenly River, and the Jade Terrace on which it stood touched nothing else in the Court directly.

The Heavenly Market, too, hung apart from the rest, and one had to fly there from elsewhere.

Nor were the Court's other buildings linked together. This was because when the Heavenly Court was first founded, in the early years of Longhan, it had not possessed its present scale. It had been composed of thirty-six Heavenly Palaces and seventy-two Treasure Halls, and each Heavenly Palace, each Treasure Hall, and the Jade Capital City was a single whole in itself.

Only when these structures were pieced together did the Heavenly Court come into being; and hence it came about that its palaces and halls were so often unconnected one to another.

Later, many of those original thirty-six Heavenly Palaces and seventy-two Treasure Halls were relocated to other corners of the universe, to hold guard over distant regions.

Add to that the merging of the Xiaohan Heavenly Court, the Longxiao Heavenly Court, and the Longhan Heavenly Court, stitched and joined together; the Court expanded ceaselessly through history until it reached its present scale.

Yet the tradition that each place within the Court stood independent of the others had likewise been preserved.

The Langxuan Divine Palace had already learned that the Heavenly Venerable Mu was hastening their way. The disciples of the Langxuan Divine Emperor within the palace dared not be negligent and reported it at once. The one who presided over the Langxuan Divine Palace was the Divine Emperor's eldest disciple, Chang Xiting; hearing that the Heavenly Venerable Mu had come to call, he was at once seized with a splitting headache.

"The Heavenly Venerable Mu has truly come?" he asked, again and again.

"Eldest Senior Brother, he is already outside the palace!"

Chang Xiting sneered. "What has he come here to do? Is he not afraid of death?"

The others exchanged glances, and one of them, summoning his courage, said, "Eldest Senior Brother, who would dare kill him? A few days ago, at the Jade Pool, even a Heavenly Venerable made his move, and still he did not die. If he dies here in our Langxuan Divine Palace, the disaster will be immense! If other powers seize upon it and claim that the Langxuan Divine Palace murdered the Heavenly Venerable Mu, we shall all be buried with him!"

Chang Xiting's head throbbed as though it would split. He waved a hand. "I know well enough what the consequences would be. I have heard that he has now lost his soul, and is sustained only by an indestructible divine consciousness; his days are numbered. Though we cannot kill him outright, we can see to it that he is thwarted, and dies all the sooner."

His eyes flickered and he smiled. "If the illustrious Heavenly Venerable Mu were to be defeated by the disciples of the Heavenly Venerable Lang — and not defeated once, but ten times, a hundred times over! What a blow would that deal to his confidence, his faith? Would he not die a good deal faster?"

The others' eyes lit up.

Chang Xiting smiled. "We are the disciples of a Heavenly Venerable. From childhood we have been guided by him, and what we cultivate are the highest arts, the highest divine powers. The Heavenly Venerable Mu is nothing but a bumpkin from the lower realms, who borrowed the Heavenly Venerable Ling's divine power to travel back to Longhan, and only thus came by the title of Heavenly Venerable. Defeating him will be no hardship. So long as he does not die here in the Langxuan Divine Palace, it has nothing to do with us."

A youth frowned. "Eldest Senior Brother, I have heard that Prince Yu and others once went to the Jade Pool to challenge him, meaning to humiliate him as well, and in the end he beat them to death. Prince Yu ranked rather high on the Divine Talents Ranking; that he could slay Prince Yu and the rest shows his strength is by no means ordinary!"

Chang Xiting laughed. "The Divine Talents Ranking and the Qinghua Ranking are toys to hoodwink children. Look at the disciples of the various Heavenly Venerables — how many of them are on those lists? The Heavenly Venerables guard against one another with the utmost severity, and have no wish at all for the others to sound out their arts. The few Heavenly Venerable disciples who do appear on the lists practice arts that are not their master's true esoteric teachings at all; they are merely little tricks to mislead the other Heavenly Venerables. You will wield our master's esoteric teachings — defeating him will be no difficulty. I mean to make him cough up blood for grief, to make him die of sheer despair!"

The assembled disciples all breathed a long sigh of relief and said, laughing, "With that word from our Eldest Senior Brother, we are easy in our minds. But what if he does not dare accept the challenge?"

Chang Xiting smiled. "Is he not of the fabled Overlord Body? They say the Overlord Body is peerless. Seize upon that. Goad him with your words, and so long as he has a drop of hot blood in him, he will accept. The man is only twenty or thirty years old; he cannot be so deep and calculating. Go and make ready; I shall go and see our Master."

The others hurried off to prepare.

In the Divine Emperor's Hall, Chang Xiting stood bowed in attendance and reported the matter. "Master, was it proper for your disciple to handle it so? Will you go in person to see him?"

The Langxuan Divine Emperor had a high crown of horns and features of great antiquity. He was the first demigod in all the world; both his parents had been ancient gods, and they had bestowed upon him eternal life, and thus he had survived down the ages.

The depth of his cultivation and strength could not be plumbed. He was older than the Heavenly Venerable Yu and the Heavenly Venerable Hao of former days; there were even rumors that he had taken part in that great battle in the Blood-Rust Belt, though whether it was true or false, none knew.

Which two ancient gods his parents had been also remained a mystery.

Most of his disciples were demigods as well. Among the demigods, the Heavenly Venerable Hao, the Langxuan Divine Emperor, and the Ancestral God King were the three great leaders, wielding immense influence, and among the demigods they were counted as the most powerful of all.

"You have handled it well. Only take care not to kill him."