Chapter 962 — Two Sisters Bound by Deep Affection

Luo Wushuang's face turned pale—he felt he had heard things he ought not to have heard.

For all that he was habitually cold-eyed and cold-faced, almost never smiling, bearing the look of one steeped in bitterness and grievance, the revelations that slipped from Yun Chuxiu and Lian Huahun's lips were so appalling that they stunned him senseless. "Behind these two women stand two Heavenly Lords? And who are Hao and Qi?

Hao couldn't be Lord Hao, could he? And Lord Yu—that woman actually dared to call him a pretty boy.

. .

" Luo Wushuang made a snap decision, ducking into the shadow cast by the building below and waving to Shen Mu, signaling him to take cover as well before the two women spotted them. Shen Mu was equally dumbfounded by what he had heard. Luo Wushuang rushed out, dragged him into the shadows, and lowered his voice: "Do you have a death wish? !

If we're caught after hearing secrets like these, we're dead!

I've heard that in the old days there was an ancient god in the Heavenly Court who knew too many secrets and was shot in the back as he charged onto the battlefield!

" Shen Mu followed him into the shadows, his heart churning with shock. In the early years of the Longhan era, he knew, Empress Dihou had supported Lord Yu. The Empress had been enraged because her younger sister, Lady Yuanmu, had committed adultery with the ancient god the Heavenly Emperor and given birth to Lord Hao—and what infuriated her all the more was that Lord Hao was exceptionally brilliant, having opened the Five Radiance Divine Treasury to attain the rank of Heavenly Lord, a glory her own son had never achieved.

To secure her own position, she had therefore propped up Lord Yu to suppress Lord Hao.

What Shen Mu had never expected, however, was that the remark about keeping a pretty boy named Lord Yu should have come from Lian Huahun's lips—yet it had actually been uttered by Yun Chuxiu! All along, he had assumed Yun Chuxiu was Empress Dihou, but reality had been turned completely on its head!

Yun Chuxiu was Lady Yuanmu, and Lian Huahun was the Empress!

Shen Mu had been flirting with Lady Yuanmu—Lord Hao's own mother!

"That day at the Jade Pool, when I fought Yun Chuxiu, I forced her to use her signature technique.

Since she was impersonating the Empress, that technique she revealed couldn't possibly be genuine. " Cold sweat streamed down Shen Mu's forehead.

This, too, was a trap—a grand snare!

Whoever believed that was her true technique would die a most miserable death.

"And when she saw Lady Yuanmu's corpse in the crystal coffin and immediately helped me, it wasn't out of fear that Lady Yuanmu might revive—it was fear that her own identity would be exposed! " Sweat poured from Shen Mu like rain.

Had he performed a soul-summoning for Lady Yuanmu at that moment, he would likely have summoned Yun Chuxiu instead, exposing her on the spot! And the truth that Lady Yuanmu was not dead would have been revealed to all.

"That little vixen.

.

. " Shen Mu gnashed his teeth.

The two men moved stealthily through the shadows. The Creators' city was built on a colossal scale, which made it easy for them to slip through undetected by the two women battling overhead. Above, Yun Chuxiu and Lian Huahun fought with terrifying might. Towering structures were hewn apart by their divine arts, and boulders the size of small hills came crashing down.

Shen Mu and Luo Wushuang watched with scalps gone numb—if any of that debris were to strike the Brand of the Lord of Blazing Flame or that drop of divine blood, the entire city, including themselves, would surely be annihilated! Strangely, however, the debris dissolved in mid-air before it could fall, vanishing into strange torrents of spiritual consciousness that surged back toward the heavens, and the destroyed structures were restored anew, as though an invisible divine power were rebuilding them.

Such was the marvel of the Creators' city!

The ruined buildings could not come crashing down, but the residual shockwaves of the two women's divine arts could still strike the ground.

Though both were at the Divine Bridge realm, Shen Mu knew precisely how formidable they were. On the ship, Lian Huahun had once ambushed him and snapped all four of his arms; Yun Chuxiu, too, had fought him until both were battered and bloodied. Their strength was in no way inferior to that of the True Gods—if anything, it surpassed them.

Even so, they had not yet revealed their true signature arts; instead, each sought to force the other into displaying her genuine techniques, so as to divine which Heavenly Lord stood behind her. Whoever's identity was exposed would die first.

After all, Empress Dihou and Lady Yuanmu were both ancient gods, as infamous in the Heavenly Alliance as the ancient god the Heavenly Emperor himself—surely the other Heavenly Lords of the Alliance would eradicate them.

In the beginning, the Alliance had been founded to guarantee people the right to survive, but by the middle of the Longhan era, after Lord Yun had absorbed Lord Hao and others into its ranks, its purpose had become the extermination of the ancient gods and the seizure of dominion. Thus an ancient god lurking within the Heavenly Alliance absolutely could not afford to have his or her identity revealed.

Shen Mu and Luo Wushuang sped through the empty city, hearts in their throats.

Yun Chuxiu and Lian Huahun's divine arts were too powerful—no one could say when some stray shockwave might trigger the Brand of the Lord of Blazing Flame or that drop of divine blood. It was like having a blade pressed to one's throat without knowing when death would fall.

And they, too, could not afford to be discovered—if the two women found them, they would die. Those two women would never tolerate anyone else knowing their secrets! Even Shen Mu would have to die; however useful he might still be to them, no utility, no matter how vast, could outweigh their own lives.

Shen Mu now finally understood the saying: the more you know, the sooner you die.

"Maha—" An enormous dragon's head suddenly appeared before them. The divine dragon was beaming with joy; it opened its great maw and washed the dumbstruck Shen Mu's face with its scarlet tongue, crying excitedly, "Maha! Maha!

" Shen Mu's face went the color of earth, and Luo Wushuang's hands and feet ran cold.

This divine dragon was the very one Shen Mu had created while performing Creation atop the mountain peak, intended as a mount.

But his skill had been insufficient—the dragon had been visualized into being, yet it could not fly, so he had abandoned it.

Who could have imagined the beast would track their scent all the way here? Above, the clamor of clashing divine arts abruptly ceased, and the fluctuations of divine power stopped as well.

The city fell utterly still.

Cold sweat beaded on both Shen Mu's and Luo Wushuang's brows.

Shen Mu made a silencing gesture to the dragon, and though it was dim-witted, it grasped his meaning. The two men and the dragon crept forward on tiptoe, trying to steal out of this fatal city. "So it's Lord Mu and Divine Blade Luo.

" A woman's laughter suddenly came from a palace ahead.

The two men and the dragon looked up to see Yun Chuxiu seated on the eaves, her hands braced on the edge, her legs dangling down and swinging idly. Her calves were very fair, tracing lovely curves, most enticing. Yun Chuxiu giggled.

"The Heavenly Lord and the Divine Blade, sneaking about like this—where might you be off to?

" Shen Mu cleared his throat, but before he could speak, Lian Huahun's voice came from behind, ice-cold: "How long have Lord Mu and Divine Blade Luo been here? " Yun Chuxiu said with a grin, "Does it matter how long?

" Shen Mu coughed. "We just arrived, intending to pay our respects to the Lord of Blazing Flame.

The Lord is in the city too.

.