Chapter 1050 — The West Emperor's Perilous Predicament

"A father's love is like a mountain — and so the Northern Emperor Xuanwu and his consort, being parents, simply buried Crown Prince Youming under a mountain for six hundred thousand years.

" In the Heavenly Dragon Palanquin, Shen Mu said to God King Langwan: "To protect their son, they went to extraordinary lengths. And the Yin Son of Heaven, in scheming against the Northern Emperor Xuanwu, showed a tenacity that is frankly terrifying — he kept at it for four or five hundred thousand years. But this time he will not have his way; he will come off the worse for it instead. When I saw him tirelessly sending his insects to gnaw the gourd vine, I knew his aim was never the Five Thunder Gourd.

" God King Langwan's eyes flickered. "I had word in the divine city near the artifact Yutianzun: the Ten Heavenly Worthies are about to fall into civil war.

The gods and demons guarding the Northern Pole Heaven spoke of it, and they were badly frightened.

" Shen Mu's spirits surged. "The Ten Heavenly Worthies have finally torn away all pretense? " "Because of the business with the Heavenly Emperor's eggshell, six Heavenly Worthies were already contending, though the mask had not yet come off.

But then Heavenly Worthy Hao arrived, making no secret of who he was, and demanded that those six hand over the Heavenly Emperor's eggshell.

Naturally they would not admit it had fallen into their hands, so Heavenly Worthy Hao demanded to search them.

" Though God King Langwan's tone was utterly casual, Shen Mu heard the mortal peril in it. Heavenly Worthy Hao wanted to search them?

How exalted were the stations of Heavenly Worthy Xiao, Heavenly Consort Qiang, Heavenly Consort Yan and the rest — how could they bear such humiliation? And among them were women, and the Heavenly Emperor's own women at that!

"The six Heavenly Worthies could not stomach Heavenly Worthy Hao's demand to search them, but then Heavenly Worthy Fire descended and threw his weight behind Heavenly Worthy Hao. Heavenly Worthy Hao already commanded the greatest force, and with Heavenly Worthy Fire at his back, the other Heavenly Worthies were no match. " God King Langwan said: "Undercurrents are churning through the Heavenly Court now, and it is exceedingly dangerous. There are rumors that the Ten Heavenly Worthies even mean to recall the artifact Yutianzun that keeps the various heavens in check, return to the Heavenly Court, and prepare for war.

The heavens beneath these Heavenly Worthies are shifting troops and moving commanders; great armies of gods and demons are marching out of the many heavens and hurrying toward the Heavenly Court.

Even the Ten Guards of the Heavenly Court have been sent out! " "The Ten Guards too? " Shen Mu's heart went cold. He rose and paced back and forth, musing aloud: "No. No, that cannot be.

The Ten Guards of the Heavenly Court — the Left and Right Feather Forest, the Dragon Martial, the Divine Strategy, the Divine Awe, the Divine Martial — those ten answer only to the Heavenly Emperor.

The Ten Heavenly Worthies cannot move them.

If the Ten Guards have been sent out, it can only be by the Ancient God Heavenly Emperor's own order. Yet all ten Heavenly Worthies can wield the Heavenly Emperor's fleshly body, and with the ten of them checking one another, they cannot move the Ten Guards at all.

There is something very wrong here. .

. " God King Langwan blinked her large eyes, watching him pace, and asked: "What do you mean?

" "The civil war among the Ten Heavenly Worthies is only the surface. Their true aim is to lure the snake out of its hole.

" Shen Mu halted, struck fist into palm with a sharp crack, and said in a low voice: "If the Ten Guards had not moved, it might still be a genuine explosion of conflict among the Heavenly Worthies. But the Ten Guards have moved — so that is impossible!

" The Ten Guards of the Heavenly Court were its ten mightiest armies, each with its own specialty, under the direct command of the Heavenly Emperor.

They obeyed the tally, not the man; they acknowledged the Heavenly Emperor, not the Heavenly Worthies.

Back in the Longhan Era, Wei Suifeng had led a single Feather Forest Army of a hundred thousand gods and demons and wiped out the Longbo Kingdom — and that was when the Longbo Kingdom had held the Empress trapped in Guixu for years on end!

There was much trickery hidden in that affair, and the Empress in those days was not the fearsome thing she later became, yet even so the fighting strength of the Ten Guards was plain for all to see.

To move the Ten Guards required the Ancient God Heavenly Emperor's personal order — and for the Ancient God to give that order, the Ten Heavenly Worthies had to reach agreement among themselves.

Otherwise they would all be scrambling to ride the Heavenly Emperor's fleshly body at once, and there would be nothing but chaos. If the Ten Heavenly Worthies were at war with one another, then none of them could move the Ten Guards!

Yet the Ten Guards had now been moved. Therefore this could only be a trap to lure the snake from its hole!

"This is a trap aimed at the Ancient Gods! The schism and civil war among the Ten Heavenly Worthies are only the surface — the truth is a lure to draw out the snake!

" Shen Mu frowned and said decisively: "If any Ancient God fails to see this and believes the Ten Heavenly Worthies have truly fallen apart, then he is a dead man beyond all doubt! " Suddenly the Heavenly Dragon Palanquin jolted slightly: they had come to the Western Pole Heaven. Just then the Heavenly Dragon's voice came from outside the carriage: "Heavenly Worthy, we can go no farther ahead.

The gods and demons stationed here have sealed the road!

" Shen Mu stepped out of the palanquin and looked forward. Tens of thousands of gods and demons, a whole army, were encircling the artifact Yutianzun and building the Heavenly Rampart City.

The towering walls were a magnificent sight, joining earth to sky. The Western Pole Heaven is rich in metal, and this Heavenly Rampart City was a divine city forged of pure metal, its height terrifying — taller than the mountains of the Western Pole Heaven — and its thickness no less terrifying.

Countless gods and demons cut their wrists and let divine blood leap from the wounds to spatter the metal walls, while others skilled in talismans flew along the walls with great brushes like rafters, dipping them in divine and demonic blood, writing talismans upon the wall.

Rune after rune was branded into the ramparts, some shedding golden light, some crimson. And within the Heavenly Rampart City the alchemical furnaces of warship after warship were lit, and enormous bronze beasts spewed flame downward for dozens of li, lifting the vessels slowly into the sky. Aboard the warships hundreds of gods and demons rushed to and fro, donning divine armor and taking up divine weapons, forming great formations at the bellowed commands of their officers.

In the city itself, beast after beast strained to haul huge cloud-carts toward the walls, carts heaped with divine weapons.

Along both sides of the streets, countless alchemists fired up pill furnaces so vast that a dozen men with arms linked could not encircle them; beneath the furnaces divine dragons breathed fire, and the Heavenly Court's alchemists each plied his own art, refining pills like men possessed, while pill boys kept feeding herbs of every kind into the furnaces. The finished elixirs were carried up to the walls, to heal the wounded when the fighting came.

Watching it all from afar, Shen Mu knew the Heavenly Court had a million troops quartered in the Western Pole Heaven, and now the war machine had been set in motion; the speed at which the Heavenly Rampart City was raised was terrifying.

Rotten as the Heavenly Court might be, that speed of mobilization filled him with profound dread!