Chapter 985 — The Holy Infant's Unspoken Sorrow

Shen Mu's face showed agitation, while inwardly he groaned: "Will Father and Mother rush here to save me? I doubt they could manage it even if they came — to cut a road of blood through so many Creator chieftains. And if Emperor Kai came in person, I do not know whether he could stand against these chieftains. And there is a Divine King besides! If I am exposed..."

After a long while, Shen Mu finally finished meeting the Creators of the Xiu people. The Xiu people's Creators were not many — old and young together, only some hundred thousand — yet meeting so many of them, young and old, had taken several days.

These Creators did not leave, but gathered around the altar in several great circles — a scene much like what Shen Mu had seen in the Blood Rust Zone.

Back then in the Blood Rust Zone, he had seen many Creator skeletons standing in circle upon circle around an altar, while at the altar's center was a pool of luminous liquid that gathered into the form of the Lord of Heaven.

Now this scene could not but rouse in him some rather unpleasant associations.

"Will these Creators visualize an ancient god to test me? Being exposed would be one thing, but if they beat me to death, then it is all over!"

Scarcely had he thought this when Xiu Zhong stepped out from behind him to the front of the altar and said in a deep voice: "People of the Xiu tribe, the Holy Infant has descended into the world! He will lead our Creator race to restore the glory of high antiquity, sweep the universe clean, and set heaven and earth in order!"

The hundred thousand Creators cheered, thunderous enough to shake heaven and earth, resounding through the clouds.

"The Holy Infant is a divine child bestowed by heaven! In the Wuyou Township next door a big-headed monster infant has appeared, arrogant and tyrannical, slaying our tribesfolk — but with the Holy Infant's descent, he will surely wipe out the monster infant with a wave of his hand!"

Xiu Zhong cried out: "My friends, join me in sacrificing to the Holy Infant, that he may grow swiftly and soon rid us of the monster infant next door!"

The hundred thousand Creators answered as one, and the Primeval Divine Stones at their brows blazed with light, brighter and brighter; beam after beam, like colored clouds flowing through the air, converged upon Shen Mu at the very top of the altar!

Shen Mu's heart lurched — this was the ceremony reserved for sacrificing to the Great Emperor!

In his mind, Shu Jun's great head raged and cursed without cease: "Back when I was one of the Three Kings, no one ever worshipped me like this! This little brat rode on my coattails to be taken for the Holy Infant, and you actually worship him as the Great Emperor! Blind as bats, not fit to be anything at all!"

Shen Mu had long since sealed the Primeval Stone with the Great Luo Supreme Divine Consciousness; though Shu Jun roared without end, he could not transmit his divine consciousness outward.

Beam after beam of the rosy light formed by the Creators' visualized divine consciousness quickly began to condense into a substantial luminous liquid, flowing toward Shen Mu's brow.

Shen Mu felt wave upon wave of terrifying energy bore into his mind, causing his divine consciousness to swell and his very flesh to rise steadily in power — at such a speed that even he found it inconceivable!

"Hold!"

Suddenly a heavy divine consciousness burst into sound in midair, shaking the hundred thousand-odd Creators, old and young, around the altar until their divine consciousness shattered, and the sacrifice could not continue.

Xiu Zhong frowned and looked toward the sound. He saw in the air the most magnificent of tower-ships, jeweled carriages, rainbow phoenixes, flying dragons, and castles come flying, with towering Creators standing upon them, light blazing from their whole bodies, the glow of the diamond-shaped vertical eyes at their brows even more fearsome.

These Creators landed, each waving a hand, and the tower-ships, jeweled carriages, flying dragons, and the rest dissolved into divine consciousness.

"Holy Infant, these are the chieftains of the various tribes."

Xiu Zhong said this quietly to Shen Mu, then went to meet those chieftains and said in a deep voice: "Chieftains, you have come from afar, and I did not receive you — I beg your pardon. But why have you interrupted our sacrifice to the Holy Infant?"

An aged Creator with white hair, white brows, and a white robe, leaning on a staff of authority, thumped the staff heavily, his gaze like lightning as he looked toward Shen Mu, and said in a deep voice: "Whether he is the Holy Infant is not yet settled. Why, Chieftain Xiu Zhong, must you be in such haste? That villain Shen Ye is full of schemes — beware that the Holy Infant you have found is a fake, one deliberately conjured to deceive us!"

Xiu Zhong said: "The prophecy says the Holy Infant bearing the Prime Stone will appear in the future. Mu Qing has the Prime Stone at his brow, so he is naturally the Holy Infant."

The white-robed old Creator craned his head forward — his vast head even more colossal than the altar — and studied Shen Mu's eye closely, drawing back only after a moment.

The other chieftains too crowded their heads forward, examining Shen Mu's third eye carefully, and nodded one after another: "It is indeed the Prime Stone."

Xiu Zhong laughed: "Since the Holy Infant's identity is confirmed, then..."

"Hold!"

The white-robed Creator shook his head: "The prophecy also says that when the Holy Infant descends into the world, besides having the Prime Stone set in his eye, he is born bearing the Seal of Authority, symbolizing the supreme power of the Creators! If he is the Holy Infant, then at his birth he must have held the Seal of Authority in his hand!"

"Exactly."

The Creators of the other tribes chimed in: "The prophecy says that Holy Infant, the moment he came into the world, held in his hand the supreme power of the Creators; when he was born, he was born upon an altar bearing that supreme power, symbolizing the highest authority! This is the prophecy the ancestral spirits received from the divine consciousness of all the forebears — it cannot be wrong!"

"That villain surnamed Shen is utterly cunning and full of schemes. Back then he said he was borrowing a piece of land — who would have thought the wretch had such wolfish ambition, and the land he borrowed was this vast!"

One Creator chieftain, seething with rage, drew a circle in the air with both hands to show it, and said: "Villain Shen said he was borrowing a sword's breadth of land — and that sword's breadth turned out to be the Thirty-Three Heavens! The wretch is sly. If this Holy Infant who has suddenly appeared cannot produce the Seal of Authority, then he is a spy that villain Shen has planted among us!"

Within the Prime Stone of Shen Mu's vertical eye, Shu Jun's great head exulted, crying: "That's right, this brat is the spy — I am the Holy Infant you are looking for!"

Xiu Zhong frowned and looked at Shen Mu on the altar.

Helpless, Shen Mu took out the Great Emperor's Seal and said falteringly: "The Seal of Authority you speak of — is it this? And the altar that bears the Seal of Authority..."

From the vertical eye at his brow flew a vast altar, which crashed down to the ground.

"Is it this altar?"

Shen Mu's face was full of helplessness, while inwardly he groaned: "I really do not want to be your Holy Infant. I want to go home — I only want to go back to Wuyou Township! But if I said that, you would surely beat me to death..."