Chapter 1044 — The Sacred Emperor and the Four Directional God-Kings

"Acquired living beings who dare to steal the authority of the ancient gods, who dare to alter the laws and throw the Way into chaos—such is treachery most heinous, a crime beyond pardon!"

"This is not merely my own thinking; it is the thinking of all ancient gods!"

Crown Prince Yuanlong shuddered and lowered his head, not daring to speak.

"In those years we ancient gods made use of Kaihuang Shen Ye, intending to cultivate Shen Ye and set him against the Ten Heavenly Worthies. But Shen Ye would not walk the path. We ancient gods toiled to cultivate him, yet he led the elite and fled."

The East Emperor gave a cold snort and crushed the armrest of the imperial seat to powder, saying coldly, "To cultivate him and the Kaihuang era, how much heart's blood did we ancient gods expend? When we looked forward to his battle with the Heavenly Court, his Kaihuang Heavenly Court was a pile of loose sand within! He likely also understood our intent in pushing him out, and so he gathered up the elite of the Kaihuang era and fled. And he even passed his swordsmanship to Shen Mu to wound me—truly, repaying kindness with enmity!"

Crown Prince Yuanlong's body trembled, cold sweat beading on his forehead.

Some of these things he had lived through himself. In those years the East Emperor Azure Dragon had treated Kaihuang quite well; he had even descended to the mortal realm to fund Kaihuang's rise.

Kaihuang had sent Di Yiyue, asking the East Emperor to cultivate her, and the East Emperor had taken Di Yiyue as a disciple and taught her divine arts.

For a time, even the East Emperor's reincarnated body had personally descended to the mortal realm, and he and Kaihuang had addressed each other as fellow cultivators.

When Kaihuang established the Thirty-Three Heavens and forged the Kaihuang Heavenly Court, the East Emperor and the other three Great Emperors had personally attended to offer congratulations.

Yet Crown Prince Yuanlong had never considered the schemes hidden within all this.

Now that he thought of it, he could not help but feel a chill run down his spine.

This stretch of history he had personally lived through had concealed so much peril!

The East Emperor's tone slowed, and he smiled gently. "You need not worry. You are my son; I will not do anything to you. Do your work well, and in the future, when the Heavenly Court is rebuilt..."

He said leisurely, "It is not impossible that you too might have a chance to ascend the imperial throne. This Longhan Heavenly Court—it is time to wash it in blood, and change its master."

In the Northern Pole Heaven, the Heavenly Dragon Treasure Chariot appeared upon the altar of the spirit-energy translocation bridge.

Like the Eastern Pole Heaven, the Northern Pole Heaven's altar stood at the edge of this vast heaven and earth.

The spirit-energy translocation bridge had been designed and built by Shen Mu in concert with the Black Tiger God, who served beneath the Woodcutter Sage. At the time, the Black Tiger God was merely an honored god, called the Tiger Venerable, while Shen Mu was then but a minor practitioner of divine powers.

That two such inconspicuous figures could design and build a tool that would affect the arrangements of the Heavenly Court and the various heavens was truly a wonder.

For this alone, the two of them were already worthy of having their names recorded in the annals of history.

Six heavenly dragons drew the treasure chariot onward. The Northern Pole Heaven was somewhat cold and gloomy; thunderclouds spread across the sky, sun and moon rarely seen, and fierce astral winds blew shrill. Amid the wind and clouds, thousand-winged soaring serpents wove through the layers of cloud.

The great serpents spread their wings, shifting and transforming, fierce and battle-ready.

Shen Mu looked down and saw that the geography of the Northern Pole Heaven was not a single contiguous continent, but a vast marsh. The celestial river gathered here into a great marsh, and within the marsh were many divine turtles, with dragon heads, ghost-god bodies, and crocodile tails, of immense and towering size, each bearing a continent upon its back as it swam through the celestial river marsh, their roars like thunder.

Those dark turtles opened their mouths and spat out thunder-light; the thunder-light gathered and surged, rising higher and higher, while the soaring serpents that wove through the air opened their mouths and spat out glistening pearls, which met the thunder-light and burst forth in peal after peal of thunder.

The Heavenly Dragon Treasure Chariot passed through wind and thunder, and the soaring serpents and dark turtles, whenever they glanced their way, would transform into young men and women, standing either in the air or upon the great marsh, casting aside the lands upon their backs.

Then again, young men and women might descend from the sky or rise from the great marsh, embrace in the air, and upon landing transform into Black Tortoises—strange demigods of turtle and serpent intertwined.

Or they might take human form, monstrous beings with turtle shells coiled about by serpents.

Shen Mu clicked his tongue in wonder. He had long heard of the North Emperor Black Tortoise, and had once even met him face to face.

In the years just before the Jingping Calamity erupted, a divine artifact had descended from the heavens—the Five Thunder Gourd—falling upon Jingping. That Five Thunder Gourd was the treasure of the North Emperor Black Tortoise; besides the Five Thunder Gourd, there were also the weapons of the other ancient gods' Four Emperors.

Shen Mu had revived Di Yiyue, and Di Yiyue had dispelled that great calamity of celestial phenomena. Only then did Shen Mu learn that Di Yiyue had once taken the ancient gods' Four Emperors as her masters, and had deep ties with them.

Aboard the ghost ship, Shen Mu had also once stolen the power of the North Emperor Black Tortoise to break open the ghost ship. At the time he had been caught, and from afar he had glimpsed the North Emperor once.

The Heavenly Dragon Treasure Chariot traveled deep into the Northern Pole Heaven, and Shen Mu saw another divine artifact, the Heavenly Worthy Regent. He halted the chariot and stepped down to observe.

This Heavenly Worthy Regent's physique was likewise immensely towering, its face bearing a smile that somehow seemed rather bewitching, with a vital vigor steaming behind it, quite capable of melting away the cold gloom of the Northern Pole Heaven.

"So Blue Yutian can be charming and alluring too. I wonder which female Heavenly Worthy's divine artifact this is?" Shen Mu could not help but laugh.