Chapter 1017 — The Crown Prince of the Eastern Palace

The goddesses tending the flesh of the Ancient God Heavenly Lord were at a loss, for never before had they seen the Ancient God Heavenly Lord in such panic, so utterly bereft of composure.

Now the Ancient God Heavenly Lord seemed to have lost all command of his body; the muscles of his face were contorted, and contorted in different directions besides, so that one face was divided into eight parts, each part a face unto itself, each with an expression of its own. The muscles of his body likewise seemed beyond control: his ten fingers twisted, his great sinews writhed, and muscle after muscle coiled and wrestled beneath his skin like who knew how many great dragons. So horrifying was the sight that the goddesses stood dumbstruck.

Shen Mu rose to his feet and said, "Withdraw. " The goddesses withdrew one after another and left Yangrong Hall.

Shen Mu bowed and said, "It would seem Your Majesty is unwell.

This subject begs leave to go first.

" He was about to depart when waves upon waves of fluctuation suddenly swept in; the eight Heavenly Venerables had ceased their fighting and, almost in the same instant, had left the Heavenly Lord's body, each recalling his own magic power and divine consciousness, no longer willing to entangle himself with the other seven.

Each had come to dread the others: to strike at a rival within the Heavenly Lord's body while also guarding against the attacks of the other seven left every one of them utterly spent, and there was even the chance that the rest might join forces, force his hand, and expose the true art he practiced.

Better, then, to simply withdraw; after all, to dwell together inside the Heavenly Lord's body was, for each of them, a thing of extreme peril. That the Great Emperor was hidden among them could be investigated step by step in time, but to lay bare one's greatest capital would be to lose far more than one gained.

In an instant, the Heavenly Lord's body was emptied. Without their control, the Ancient God Heavenly Lord slowly closed his eyes; the halo behind his head still turned, no longer so violent as before, and his chest rose and fell — he was still breathing. His breath had come back to steadiness, and the blood within him still flowed, like a vast river of heaven rushing through his veins.

In his heart lay the most surging power of all, as though it were the wellspring of a whole galaxy's energy — utterly terrifying!

Although this was merely a body forged with divination arts and the arts of creation, and not the Heavenly Lord's true body, it nonetheless possessed boundless power. Shen Mu was dazed for a moment: here in Yangrong Hall there now remained only himself and the Heavenly Lord's body!

He gazed at the Heavenly Lord's body, his eyes flickering.

Counterfeit though it was, this flesh could still be called the crystallization of the Heavenly Court's wisdom — the strongest divine artifact after the divine artifact, the Imperial Heavenly Venerable itself! Yet what mattered was not the might of this divine artifact, this Heavenly Lord, but the authority and station it represented!

"If the Ten Heavenly Venerables may play at it, then as the Shepherd Heavenly Venerable, whose station is higher still than theirs, may I not play at it too.

.

. ?

" As if possessed, Shen Mu walked toward the body of the Ancient God Heavenly Lord, murmuring, "The Heavenly Court hides many secrets.

Shujun says this is also the place where the Ancient God Heavenly Lord was born, and that here too are the remnant soul of the Imperial Heavenly Venerable and the creation divine artifacts of Zaofu Palace. Those places I cannot approach.

But if I take up residence in the Heavenly Lord's body.

.

. " He pressed down the pounding of his heart; his steps did not falter, and soon he came to the space between the Ancient God Heavenly Lord's brows. Though this Heavenly Lord's body was a counterfeit, judging by the make of its flesh, no trace of divination art was to be seen in it. The Daoist sects of the Heavenly Court had studied the body and runes of the Ancient God Heavenly Lord not for a day or a half but for hundreds of thousands of years; their study of this Ancient God had, one might say, reached its utmost limit.

Though Shen Mu had obtained the Great Way runes of the Ancient God Heavenly Lord, to this day he had not comprehended that Heavenly Lord's Great Way thoroughly; it was rather from the Great Way runes of the Lord of Heaven that he had profited most, and from this one could see how fine and how difficult the Heavenly Lord's Great Way runes were.

His divine consciousness surged out and poured into the Heavenly Lord's brow.

At once he "saw" that the Heavenly Lord's mind was a haze of purple light, and within that purple light the Heavenly Lord's brain seemed composed of countless minute runes, as though numberless Great Ways were linked one to another. His divine consciousness entered the Heavenly Lord's Great Way as though entering an incomparably intricate machine: which part of the brain governed the eyes, which governed the mouth, which governed the fingers — all of this he must study out for himself.

And though Shen Mu's divine consciousness was now without peer in strength, to control this body completely still cost him no small effort. The Heavenly Lord's body was too vast; each part of the brain represented a different Way and governed a different part of the body, and to mobilize those parts he must precisely control the Heavenly Lord's brain — for him, to master this body fully within a short time was difficult. What was more, controlling the Ancient God Heavenly Lord's body consumed divine consciousness without cease, and the speed of that consumption left him straining as well.

"Perhaps I can use life-borrowing, and draw on the power of this body itself.

. .

" No sooner thought than done. He had obtained the wisdom of the Creator race, and was well familiar with life-borrowing, that technique unique to the Creators.

The Great Emperor had once said that he could borrow life into whatever body he pleased, and could transform into anyone.

Though Shen Mu's attainment fell short of the Great Emperor's, he could still manage to perform life-borrowing. After a time, he felt his divine consciousness merge perfectly with the Heavenly Lord's body, as though he had become the Ancient God Heavenly Lord himself; his control over the flesh reached a degree of extraordinary keenness, as though he were moving his own body. Not only that, he could now pinpoint precisely every wellspring of power within the Ancient God Heavenly Lord's body.

Counterfeit though it was, the Ancient God Heavenly Lord's body also held nearly two thousand wellsprings of power, great and small, and drawing on these powers cost Shen Mu himself almost nothing.

And drawing on these wellsprings of the Ancient God Heavenly Lord made him feel mightier than ever before!

"The life-borrowing art of the Creators is truly formidable. I can now draw on all the power in this body! I wonder how strong the Ancient God Heavenly Lord's power truly is?

" Overjoyed, Shen Mu made the Ancient God Heavenly Lord rise with a boom; he reached up and traced a line at his brow, the brow split open, Shen Mu flew up and fell into the Ancient God Heavenly Lord's brow, and the brow closed again, and the Ancient God Heavenly Lord walked out of Yangrong Hall.

Outside Yangrong Hall, a host of palace maids knelt in salute, not daring to raise their heads. Shen Mu waved a hand and said mildly, "Rise.

" The maids all gave assent, yet they waited until he had gone far before rising.