Chapter 1089 — One Beauty, Simple and Foolish Through a Hundred Lives

Shen Mu burst into laughter and stepped out of the treasure carriage, saying, "Mu Qing pays his respects to Sister Southern Emperor!

" The girl in red was puzzled, her voice soft and sweet though her look was a little simple and dazed, and she said with a smile, "You may be Mu Qing, but I am certainly not your sister.

You fool, you have taken me for someone else. I am Que Feiyin, a disciple of Yue Tianzun.

" Doubt rose in Shen Mu's heart. "Could I truly be mistaken? This woman is clad all in red, her dress just like the Southern Emperor's, and the Vermilion Bird feather thrust in her hair is the Southern Emperor's own Vermilion Bird plume, about which I could not possibly be wrong! And the poem she just sang had a matchless spirit and breadth of heart, singing of holding a hundred rivers and being honored by all the stars, how could a simple-minded soul write such a piece?

" When he questioned her, the red-clad girl Que Feiyin said, "That is a poem by Yun Tiandi, not mine. I heard him sing it and learned it.

" Long Qilin said, "Miss Feiyin, my Cult Master is an old friend of Yue Tianzun and has come to pay a call.

Please announce us.

" Que Feiyin eyed them and said, "Master is not here. Master went out with Yun Tiandi and is not in the Celestial Court.

Are you really old friends of Master? I do not know you.

" Shen Mu walked out of the treasure carriage, the lids upon his brow slowly parting to either side to reveal his vertical eye, and in an instant he saw this woman Que Feiyin's former lives and present life with perfect clarity.

His holy pupil had fused with more of the Taichu primordial stones and held still more wondrous powers. He saw that tens of thousands of years ago, at the station of the Vermilion Bird Palace in the southern starry sky, a ball of fire fell from heaven into an ordinary household in the Yuan Realm.

Ten months later the mistress of the house bore a daughter, and when the infant was born red clouds filled the sky, and the red clouds turned into Vermilion Birds circling the birthing chamber.

After the girl was born and grew up, Yue Tianzun came, took her as a disciple, taught her Dao arts and divine powers, and brought her to the Xiaohan Celestial Court.

Yet in a battle with the Longxiao Celestial Court, the girl met Yin Tianzi in the fray, and in a single encounter Yin Tianzi seized her soul and struck her dead on the spot. Yue Tianzun was enraged, gravely wounded Yin Tianzi, and took the soul back.

That night Yue Tianzun found You Tianzun, who was gathering wandering souls upon the battlefield, and entrusted the woman's soul to him.

Ten months later another baby girl was born, and again Yue Tianzun took her as a disciple.

She was surpassingly bright, learning any divine power or Dao art at once, yet she had no memory of her former life and did not know who she was. The good days did not last, for on a journey she perished beneath a siege of demigods, when it was again Yin Tianzi leading demigods to invade human lands.

Shen Mu saw a third reincarnation, a fourth, a fifth. .

.

Each time the woman reincarnated she would die without reason, each time perishing by the hand of Yin Tianzi.

Rebirth after rebirth slowly wore away her former quickness and memory, until in this life as Que Feiyin, already the hundredth life, Yue Tianzun still took her as a disciple and taught her with care, yet Que Feiyin had grown somewhat simple and dazed, and men called her Silly Que. "Yin Tianzi does it on purpose.

His Youdu Great Dao has reached perfection, so he can see through the root of the Southern Emperor Vermilion Bird's single soul in reincarnation, and thus find her unerringly every time! " Anger stirred in Shen Mu's heart, for under the gaze of his vertical eye he had watched the reincarnated body of the Southern Emperor Vermilion Bird die ninety-nine times, and in every death she either died at Yin Tianzi's hand or her death was tied to him!

"Yin Tianzi has high attainment in the way of souls. He must have tampered with the Southern Emperor's soul, casting her into the bewilderment of the womb so she can never awaken to the knowledge that she is the Southern Emperor.

The fellow schemed against the Southern Emperor, and schemed against the Tianyin Empress and Di Yiyue too, as if he bore a deep hatred for beautiful women! " Shen Mu steadied himself, forced a kindly look, beckoned to Que Feiyin, and said with a smile, "Miss Feiyin, come over here.

I have a fine treasure to show you. " Que Feiyin half believed him, jumped down from the ship onto the treasure carriage, and asked curiously, "What treasure? " Shen Mu smiled enigmatically and thought, "That this silly girl could live to grow up is no easy thing.

" Que Feiyin laughed aloud. "You fellow, you look at people so shiftily, you are most likely a rake!

Where is the treasure?

Bring it out quickly for me to see, I will not steal it!

" Just as Shen Mu was about to examine her soul closely to see what trick Yin Tianzi had worked, someone suddenly cried, "Silly Que, how did you get onto a stranger's carriage? " Yan'er and Que Feiyin answered at once, and Yan'er hung her head, annoyed.

"Why did I answer too? " Que Feiyin hastily jumped off the treasure carriage and said, "My senior sisters are calling me, I will look at your treasure later!

" Shen Mu was tracing whence the bewilderment of the womb in her soul arose, and had only dimly glimpsed a portal, faintly Yin Tianzi's Mingdu Heavenly Gate, when Que Feiyin had already run off to join the young men and women on the tower ship.

Shen Mu pondered.

Just now he had seen a strange thing. Que Feiyin was the reincarnation of one soul of the Southern Emperor Vermilion Bird, yet in every reincarnation that soul had been slain by Yin Tianzi.

And with every death, that soul of hers had to pass through Yin Tianzi's Mingdu Heavenly Gate. After crossing the Mingdu Heavenly Gate, this soul of the Southern Emperor would gain a heaven hun and an earth hun, along with seven po, making her three hun and seven po complete.

"That is to say, the Southern Emperor reincarnates with the shen hun of the three hun, and through ninety-nine deaths Yin Tianzi has patched her three hun and seven po ninety-nine times, wearing away her divinity.

" Shen Mu looked at the young men and women at the ship's prow.

They must be disciples of Yue Tianzun, very wary of him, and were talking with Que Feiyin, likely warning her not to speak with strangers. "After ninety-nine reincarnations, the Southern Emperor has in effect been sealed ninety-nine times, and her divinity is now negligible.

After one more life, the Southern Emperor's shen hun will be utterly lost, and I fear she will never awaken again. " Shen Mu could not help but marvel.

"If the Southern Emperor's reincarnated body dies once more, she will fall to mere mortality. Yin Tianzi is indeed formidable, able in this age to devise a soul art to deal with ancient gods, truly worthy of the Black Emperor.

Yet his patience is chilling, to steel himself to scheme against the Southern Emperor ninety-nine times in succession! " As for breaking Yin Tianzi's divine power, he was already fully confident. But how to keep the Southern Emperor's reincarnated body alive in remote antiquity was the most vital question.

He had only four chances left to cross back to antiquity, and on the fifth he would be assimilated into unchanging matter, so he could not guard this silly girl again and again to dodge Yin Tianzi's assaults.

Yin Tianzi's tenacious patience gave even him a headache.

More crucial still, the fellow was handsome, and few women could stay wary before his fine looks. "The man in that carriage is plainly a villain, and villains all say they have a great treasure to cheat ignorant young girls!

" On the ship, a female disciple of Yue Tianzun was lecturing Que Feiyin, and having spoken, she glanced at Shen Mu.