Chapter 1038 — The Hidden Other Side

Not many among the Ten Venerables of the Heavenly Court knew that the Heavenly Emperor's eggshell had fallen into Shen Mu's hands. After all, on the day he stole it, Shen Mu had deceived nearly every Venerable in the Court—all save Venerable Yan. The Ten Venerables had no idea who had made off with the eggshell, yet they knew a good deal about the powers of Venerable Yan's white cat.

The cat had seen the man who disguised himself as the Heavenly Emperor and stole the eggshell, and the cat had the gift of discerning who it was that dwelt within the Heavenly Emperor's fleshly body. So long as one kept watch on that cat, one could follow the vine to the melon and run the eggshell to ground. In other words, Venerable Xiao and the others had not been watching Shen Mu at all—they had been watching Venerable Yan's white cat.

The cat's visit to Shen Mu had seemed secret enough, coming by night, but it had long since fallen under the eyes of Venerable Xiao and his fellows, and the cat's hurried departure would of course touch off a war among the Venerables.

Aboard the Heavenly Dragon palanquin, Shen Mu watched the battle in the sky and knitted his brows.

"I should have handed the eggshell to the white cat," he murmured. "Only the true eggshell could make the Ten Venerables tear into one another past all mending.

And once they have fought over it and find no eggshell on the cat, they will turn their suspicion back on me. Everything will settle back into the same balance as before. " Divine King Langwo laughed. "If the Holy Infant thinks so, then he is mistaken. " Shen Mu asked humbly, "What does Sister Divine King make of it?

" "Whether the white cat lives or dies in this fight over it, the strife among the Venerables cannot be quelled.

" Divine King Langwo said, "When information is transparent, they suspect you; when it is opaque, they suspect one another.

As things stand, the cat has changed hands several times, and four Venerables are snatching it back and forth.

In all that time, any one of them might have got hold of the eggshell. And so none of them will have it, and every one of them will suspect it was taken by another Venerable. That is information in chaos. " Shen Mu blinked. "When information is in chaos, every man holds only a fragment of the truth, and so you suspect me and I suspect you. " Unhurriedly, Divine King Langwo went on: "Venerable Yan's white cat may be a great master of the Lingxiao realm, but he can never see through a construct of the Holy Infant's divine consciousness.

He will be certain he has obtained the treasure; and when he is seized by another Venerable, the construct will dissolve into nothing, and he will only think that Venerable took it from him.

Even if he survives, he too will be mired in the chaos of information. The Holy Infant, by contrast, can step clear of it all and calmly watch the fray.

" Shen Mu sank into thought as the Heavenly Dragon palanquin rolled into the distance. "Besides the four Venerables, others will join the contest and muddle the information further. As for whose hands the eggshell ends in—that no longer matters. " Divine King Langwo looked out the window. "The fifth Venerable has made his move. After this battle, the rift among the Venerables can never be mended.

" Darkness spread across the sky; it must have been Venerable Xu who had struck.

Then the figure of a sixth Venerable appeared, joining the fight over the cat. One Venerable seized the white cat and bore it away, vanishing beyond the heavens; the other Venerables vanished one after another, surely in pursuit of him. This battle had been the one in which the Venerables openly fell out with one another.

Shen Mu withdrew his gaze. "Is the Yuan World the Ancestral Court that Sister Divine King seeks?

" Divine King Langwo likewise withdrew her gaze and shook her head.

"It is not.

Yuandu is the birthplace of the Earth Mother Yuanjun, not the Ancestral Court of my Creator race. In the ancient memories of the Creators, the Ancestral Court was richer by far than Yuandu—teeming with abundance, with every heavenly material and precious treasure one could name.

But the Creators have suffered calamity upon calamity, and little of what was handed down survives.

" Shen Mu thought for a while.

"Could it be on the far side of the Yuan World? No one has ever gone to the far side of the Yuan World. It should be vast—no smaller than the Yuan World itself. " Divine King Langwo asked, "Has the Holy Infant been there? " Shen Mu shook his head and smiled.

"The farthest I have ever gone in the Yuan World is Guixu. What lies on its far side, I cannot say. The Heavenly Dragon palanquin is exceedingly swift—why not go and take a look?

" Divine King Langwo nodded.

At once Shen Mu gave the order, and the six heavenly dragons drew the palanquin straight for the Eastern Sea. The palanquin raced like wind and lightning, its speed unmatched, cutting a brilliant streak across the heavens. On it flew, and more than ten days later Shen Mu looked ahead and saw the sea still without end.

He began to fret.

The palanquin was faster even than he was; the distance it had covered in so long a time would have taken him half a year.

Yet still they had not found the end of the Yuan World. What they had found were many shattered continents adrift in the sea. "Guixu is near," Shen Mu thought.

The palanquin pressed on, past Guixu now, and flew another ten-odd days. Far ahead, Shen Mu saw a stretch of land rise into view, unbroken and endless, encircling the ocean, and upon it stood mostly divine mountains, exceedingly steep. "Is this the end of the Yuan World?

" Shen Mu was delighted.

He bade the palanquin fly over those divine mountains—snow-clad, frozen, utterly lifeless. And when they had crossed the endless snow peaks and he looked down, the vast Western Lands appeared before his eyes. Shen Mu was stunned.

He looked back: the ocean of the Yuan World was a flat plane, not a sphere—and yet they had crossed the sea and come straight to the Western Lands!

That was all but impossible! He had once flown with Bai Qu'er beyond the Yuan World, and looking at it from outside, the Yuan World lay essentially upon a single plane; it was no planet. Then why, sailing toward the Eastern Sea, had they failed to reach the end of the Yuan World and instead arrived at the Western Lands?

"The far side of the Yuan World has been hidden away by someone! " Shen Mu grew feverish with excitement.

"To hide the far side of the Yuan World, one would have to fold space—and fold the Yuan World's entire boundary in one sweep!

That is no easier than folding the whole Yuan World and sealing it away! Only the Ten Venerables, or the ancient Divine Emperor at his peak, could have the strength for such a thing.

So what did they mean to do by sealing off the far side of the Yuan World?

" Divine King Langwo watched him, curious, as Shen Mu stepped out of the palanquin and came to stand above the snow mountains, testing with his primal-magnetism divine art whether any seal lay there.

After a moment Shen Mu dispersed the art and shook his head. "No trace of a seal. . . Open!

" The vertical eye at his brow opened, sweeping all around, surveying the void. After another moment the eye closed.

Even his unfathomable third eye could detect no spatial seal here.

"Primordial spirit, leave the body! " Shen Mu's primordial spirit flew out and plunged into the earth, driving deeper and deeper below. Since no seal could be seen, then he would send his primordial spirit ever deeper into the ground—perhaps in that way he might find the far side of the Yuan World.

A long while later, Shen Mu's primordial spirit burst suddenly out of the earth and gazed about him, bewildered.

"What did the Holy Infant find?

" asked Divine King Langwo. Shen Mu withdrew his primordial spirit, his expression strange.