Chapter 1087 — The Emperor Tries to Cleave the Ancient Divine Egg

Shen Mu arrived at the Vermilion Bird Heaven Palace, but the Vermilion Bird, the Southern Emperor, was not there. The deity who guarded the palace gate said, "After the great upheaval, the Southern Emperor went out. She said she was going to visit the Northern Emperor, the Eastern Emperor, and the others."

Shen Mu frowned deeply, and asked that deity for brush, ink, paper, and inkstone. He wrote a letter and handed it to the gatekeeper, saying, "When the Southern Emperor returns, give her this letter, and tell her that her younger brother came here, and that she is to act as the letter instructs."

The deity put the letter away.

Before long, the theft at Zhaoyang Hall came to light, and the Heavenly Emperor was enraged. He ordered the Great Sun Star Lord to lead the true gods of all the stars of heaven to seal off the Heavenly Court and interrogate every soul within it, sparing not even the heavenly palaces of the Four Emperors.

Tubo, the Heavenly Duke, the Earth Mother, Tianyin, and the Empress's sisters all had heavenly palaces in the Heavenly Court, yet the Heavenly Emperor ordered them searched as well.

The Heavenly Court's net of heaven and earth spread wide, and dense threads of light drifted everywhere in the sky, chains of light formed by the laws of the Great Dao. Under such circumstances, it was all but impossible to leave the Heavenly Court.

"I wonder whether matter from the past can be carried into the future?"

Shen Mu pondered. By the rule that matter does not change, matter from the past could indeed be brought into the future, though he was not entirely certain of it.

Just then the heavenly soldiers and generals were about to search this place, and Shen Mu made his decision on the spot. He put out the lantern.

After the tumult in the Heavenly Court had subsided, and some time had passed, the Southern Emperor, having visited the other three of the ancient god emperors, returned to the Vermilion Bird Heaven Palace.

The deity who guarded the palace gate presented the letter, smiling. "Your Majesty, a youth with thick brows and big eyes came carrying a lantern, and claimed to be your younger brother. Strange as it is, he left a letter for you. He had no brush or ink of his own; he had to beg them from our Vermilion Bird Palace."

"My younger brother? Carrying a lantern?"

Suspicious, the Southern Emperor took the letter and walked into the palace, thinking, "The Northern Emperor and those two old foxes spoke truly. The Heavenly Emperor first ordered the Twenty-Eight Mansions to take our places and rule the Four Extremes Heavens. Now the Twenty-Eight Mansions are dead at Tubo's hand, and the Four Extremes Heavens have no god to keep order. Sooner or later, disorder is bound to break out there. And when it does, that will be our chance, the chance for us Four Emperors to return to the Four Extremes Heavens!"

She sat in the nest within the Vermilion Bird Palace. Her crimson robes spread over the whole of the nest; everywhere that gorgeous vermilion seemed to leap like flame, and it made her look very fair.

The Southern Emperor set the letter aside and thought, "The Heavenly Emperor built heavenly palaces for us, the four ancient god emperors. It looks like kindness, but in truth he has stripped away every shred of our power and penned us up in the Heavenly Court like prisoners! To leave this place, there must be a great upheaval, an upheaval greater than Achou Tubo's charge against the Heavenly Court!"

"The sky is high and the emperor is far away. Once I return to the Four Extremes Heavens, I shall be free and easy, no longer caged within the Heavenly Court."

Her face was full of care. Where would an upheaval greater than Achou Tubo's rampage through the Heavenly Palace come from?

After a while she gave a faint, long sigh, picked up Shen Mu's letter, and saw that it bore a seal, and that the seal was the mark of a Vermilion Bird.

The Vermilion Bird was astonished. The seal was lifelike, and the runes upon it were all Vermilion Bird patterns. Even one who knew her intimately could never have mastered so many runes of the Vermilion Bird's Great Dao!

Yet whoever had left the seal had done it offhand, laying down a perfectly complete Vermilion Bird seal with a casual stroke.

That seal only she could undo. Anyone else who so much as touched it would set the letter instantly alight, burning it to ash.

"The one who left the letter claims to be my younger brother? Could it be...?"

She undid the seal and opened the letter. The words on the paper abruptly leapt up and burned slowly in the air; the words turned to flame, and the flames kept rearranging themselves.

The Vermilion Bird read for a long while, until she had finished all the letter held, and the paper in her hand had long since turned to ash.

"So it is my brother Mu Qing after all."

The Southern Emperor's long, narrow eyes blinked, and she murmured, "He means to say in this letter that I shall one day meet a fatal disaster, and that I should prepare in advance. He has given me two stratagems. One: make contact with Yue Tianzun of the human race, and give a feather into Yue Tianzun's keeping. The other: divide off a soul and send it early into reincarnation, to lay plans."

The Southern Emperor reclined in the nest, her slender feet slipping out from beneath the scarlet robes, and mused, "But the Eastern Emperor would have me guard against Mu Tianzun and the other human Tianzuns, for Mu Tianzun has killed many ancient gods and is a great threat to them. And the Eastern Emperor is right; the Five Luminaries Star Lords died at my brother Mu Qing's hand..."

She was somewhat at a loss. She sat up and paced to and fro, then all at once made up her mind: "First I shall go and meet Yue Tianzun of the human race! If her character is poor, and she truly means to scheme against me, then I shall keep far from her. If her character is fine, then there is no harm in befriending her. I do know that little girl Ling Tianzun; yes, and little Ling has even joined with brother Mu and the rest to form the Heaven Alliance..."

In that same year, Yun Tianzun went to Taixu and gave the Taichu Primeval Stone to the Creators there, saying, "Luo Xiao left behind a gemstone. He said it was for you to forge the Void Bridge and the World of the Other Shore."

The Creators were greatly surprised, but they asked no further questions.

Yun Tianzun looked at these Creators, who had not a scheming bone in them, and could not help shaking his head.

If the Creators meant to fight off the coming invasion of the Grand Emperor, it would be desperately hard.

He saw Langwan again. This young Creator maiden had grown ever more beautiful, and every meeting stirred strange thoughts in him.

A notion took shape in his heart, yet he could not bear to let this girl walk into danger.

He returned to the Xiaohan Heavenly Court and saw Ling Tianzun deducing the dao of creation and fashioning all manner of strange species. His heart stirred, and he said, "Ling, can you create a true human being?"

Ling Tianzun raised her head from among countless scrolls and looked at him, puzzled.

"A perfect maiden."

Yun Tianzun's eyes flickered. "I will take you to see her."

Before long, Ling Tianzun met Langwan, and she too was captivated by the girl's beauty. She praised her, saying, "Snow-fair of face and faint of brow, a maiden of the heavens; with phoenix flute and luan wings, she would take flight. On the jade mountain her green locks rise; her steps leave no dust; her Chu waist is a willow that cannot bear the spring. A girl such as this should be named Jue Wuchen, Beyond All Dust!"

Hearing this, Langwan was overcome with shyness.

Yun Tianzun asked, "Can you use the dao of creation to make a Jue Wuchen?"

Ling Tianzun pondered a while, then said, "It can be attempted, but my dao of creation is not yet perfect, and you must wait a time. When I have perfected it and forged a divine artifact of creation, I shall be able to create a Jue Wuchen."