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

"How long will it take?"

"I do not know. You have only to wait."

Yun Tianzun had no choice but to let her be. His thoughts turned again to Luo Xiao, and he wondered, "That Luo Xiao, is he truly Luo Xiao? Or is Luo Xiao not Luo Xiao, but that man...?"

Before his eyes rose unbidden the image of Mu Qing. He shook his head and murmured, "It cannot be him. Ling says he is only a shadow out of the future. And yet I dearly wish to see this shadow of the future; I have so many ambitions I would share with him..."

He stared blankly at the carefree Creators of Taixu and said in his heart, "I feel that he and I are the same kind of man. Why, then, is he a shadow of the future? In this age there is no comrade of the dao for me. Why must my only comrade be in the future...?"

He had a strange illusion, that he and that comrade of the future, across endless ages, upheld each other and advanced together, and yet stood so very far apart.

Several hundred years later, Crown Prince Qi led the Ten Guards of the Heavenly Court in rebellion, and the Heavenly Court fell into chaos. Many ancient gods rose in rebellion with him as well.

This disaster began in the inner palace. Crown Prince Qi, the mightiest of the demigods, carried the blood of both the Empress and the Heavenly Emperor, and he had come of age; he was the most terrifying of all demigods.

His fighting strength was unfathomable, greater even by far than that of Langxuan the Divine Emperor or the Ancestral God King.

The chaos he wrought was no small thing either, for this rebellion numbered not only demigods and the ancient gods who followed him, but the Empress behind his back as well.

When Crown Prince Qi unleashed the divine art of Guixu and devoured the Heavenly Court, even the ancient gods trembled at it.

Yet Crown Prince Qi was defeated all the same. Before the Heavenly Emperor of the ancient gods he did not last a single move, and was suppressed; the Heavenly Emperor cast him into the deepest reaches of the Jade Lock Pass of Youdu.

A voice from on high reached straight down to Youdu, its tone icy: "From this day, your surname is stripped from you, and only sin remains. From this day, you shall sink forever, tormented in the fire of karma! From this day, you are..."

"Xie Wuqi."

In this war the Heavenly Court's dead and wounded were grievous, certainly beyond those of Achou's rebellion; even the Empress herself was cast into the cold palace because of it.

Nearly all of the Ten Guards were dragged onto the newly built God-Slaying Platform, and the platform cut for a hundred days without cease, taking heads beyond counting.

So much was cut that this newly forged divine blade grew monstrously fierce; its two killing auras were tempered until nothing could break them, slaying primal spirits and destroying bodies as easily as slicing melons and chopping vegetables.

The Heavenly Emperor chose new champions from every race to fill out the Ten Guards, and the elites of every race were all but emptied out by the choosing.

The Ten Guards of old had all been mighty demigods; the Ten Guards of now were gods of every race who had cultivated to the Jade Capital realm.

And so, without anyone marking it, the balance of power in the Heavenly Court shifted.

After the upheavals of Achou Tubo and of Xie Wuqi, the old powers of the Heavenly Court had withered to freezing point, and a new age arrived, no one quite knowing when.

Thus the Divine Treasury Heavenly Palace system replaced the bloodline system and became the mainstream among every race throughout the heavens.

Before this, bloodline determined station, and determined strength.

After this, cultivation determined station, and determined strength.

The ancient gods had ruled the world by their bloodlines; and after these two great affairs, the Divine Treasury Heavenly Palace system rose in full!

This was a revolution of the Longhan era, quietly accomplished under the faint, barely perceptible plucking of the Heavenly Emperor of the ancient gods' fingertips.

The power that had held the Heavenly Emperor in check was precisely the other ancient gods. Now, with the strength of the acquired races and the demigods, the Heavenly Emperor pressed down these once-meritorious ministers and their descendants.

The ancient gods were weakened; he was not.

His rule became unshakably firm.

Aboard the ghost ship, Shen Mu took out the round egg he had stolen from Zhaoyang Hall, and he and Wei Suifeng studied it together.

Wei Suifeng rapped on the round egg. The sound that came from within was a dao-sound, as though someone were speaking inside it, yet the language was so obscure it was hard to make out.

Wei Suifeng studied it a while, gazing into the egg with various holy-pupil divine arts, but could not tell what lay within. He guessed, "If it were an ancient god, then by rights, all the ancient gods have already been born, and there can be no new ancient gods, unless it be a god of nature formed from a dragon vein or a mountain spirit. Could what is in the egg be a demigod?"

He leaned over the round egg and listened. The dao-sound that came from within was very strange, and the heartbeat was stranger still, sounding infinitely remote.

"Can we crack it open?" Wei Suifeng asked.

Shen Mu said thoughtfully, "I used this round egg to block the attacks of Yun Tianzun and Hao Tianzun, and it did not crack. Yun Tianzun's realm is already the Imperial Throne; and though Hao Tianzun is only Lingxiao, his bloodline power is very strong, and he is close to coming of age."

"That era you went to, Yun Tianzun and Hao Tianzun were not strong enough there. Not the equal of me as I am now!"

Wei Suifeng shouted, and above his head countless stars blazed and spun madly, like a whole firmament!

Shen Mu's heart stirred. His senior brother's fighting strength was immeasurably greater than that of the Woodcutter Sage!

The firmament turned, and a heavenly river circled it in its course, bringing about the marvel of the heavenly river hanging down from the Celestial Dipper!

The Great Heavenly River Celestial Dipper!

This was a marvel that later ages could never see; only in the Longhan era, and in ages more ancient still, could the true whole countenance of Xuandu be seen.

Clearly, when Wei Suifeng had crossed into the Longhan era and become the head of the Yulin Guard, he had seen the true Xuandu, and comprehended his own techniques and divine arts!

Wei Suifeng raised his right hand, and the power of the Great Heavenly River Celestial Dipper flowed into his palm. He made his hand a blade, struck down with all his strength, and cleaved at the round egg.

His fighting strength was indeed far greater than that of Yun Tianzun and Hao Tianzun in that era.

As Wei Suifeng's blade fell, the round egg blazed with light; and suddenly, whether Shen Mu or Wei Suifeng, or the Yulin soldiers aboard the ghost ship, all heard at their ears a tremendous sound as of great bells and mighty chimes, like the sound bursting forth at the opening of the universe!

Countless gorgeous patterns of the Great Dao flew out of the round egg, bathing the ghost ship in thick radiance of dao-patterns!

In that instant, Shen Mu and Wei Suifeng felt the ghost ship slip free of its state of unchanging matter and fall into a state where yin and yang were one, where there was form but no substance, murky and undifferentiated.

At the same time, all manner of complex dao-sounds rang out, sonorous and deafening, as though ten thousand ancient gods chanted the words of the dao at once, and as though all living beings called the same name, uncanny and holy!

Soon those grand dao-sounds faded, and the dao-patterns flew swiftly back into the round egg, and the ghost ship entered once more into its state of unchanging matter.

The corner of Wei Suifeng's eye twitched. His right hand dropped to his side, and his palm trembled without cease.