Chapter 1099 — Desperate Straits, Doubtful of Any Way Out

"Just who was the first to take possession of the Heavenly Emperor's body?

" Shen Mu was so shaken that his divine sense nearly winked out of existence.

Who had seized the Heavenly Emperor's body after his death was an old unsolved case in history, and of those who knew that secret there were precious few.

Suddenly Shen Mu saw a figure flicker within the Heavenly Court, still ahead of Cloud Venerable and Hao Venerable.

"Can it be the Great Emperor?

" Shen Mu's heart went cold. So far as he knew, the ten Venerables of later ages had in truth numbered eleven: one of the Great Emperor's souls had taken up a reincarnated body, slipped into the highest ranks of the Heavenly Alliance, and become a Venerable.

It was he who, at the close of the Shanghuang era, had taken possession of the Heavenly Emperor's body and murdered Ling Venerable by stealth.

Could this one, who had rushed into the Heavenly Court ahead of Cloud and Hao, be the Great Emperor's reincarnated body?

Just then Shen Mu caught sight of Divine King Gong Yun; this Creator divine king, following hard upon the heels of Cloud Venerable and Hao Venerable, came riding the wind, passed Shen Mu and the others by, and forced her way into the Heavenly Court. Divine King Gong Yun's divine sense burst forth, and every deity of the Heavenly Court who met her sank into the illusion realm of her divine sense; not one of them could escape.

Even the Great Sun Star Lord, leading the orthodox star gods of the whole heaven, fell into the illusion and knew not where they stood.

Her coming threw the gods of the Heavenly Court into a panic, yet the instant her divine sense went forth the panic subsided; all of them, as though they could not see her at all, let her charge straight into the Jade Capital City and make straight for Lingxiao Hall.

Plainly, Divine King Gong Yun had likewise set her eyes on the body of the ancient god, the Heavenly Emperor. "Gong Yun is a primordial divine king; as things stand, Cloud Venerable and the rest are no match for her.

If they break into Lingxiao Hall, it will likely be Gong Yun who controls the Heavenly Emperor's body.

Yet in this scramble of theirs, I fear they will run into another soul of the Heavenly Emperor. " Shen Mu's mind raced. That other soul of the Heavenly Emperor had surely already reincarnated, and that person was none other than Xiao Venerable of later ages.

"Could Xiao be in the Heavenly Court as well?

A cunning rabbit keeps three burrows. Lady Yuanmu may have turned herself into Jue Wuchen, but she must covet the Heavenly Emperor's body; and perhaps even the Empress Consort, whom she murdered by stealth, has become another Venerable and hides in the Heavenly Court at this very moment, ready to snatch the Heavenly Emperor's flesh. " Shen Mu was gasping for breath, his head somewhat muddled.

Once he had thought it all too simple; now it seemed that the battle for the Emperor was far more tangled than he had ever guessed.

"In the Jingping era the ten Venerables of the Heavenly Court bickered and held one another in check, controlling the false body of the Heavenly Emperor together; that tradition must have taken shape in the middle and late Longhan era," he thought.

The struggle over the Heavenly Emperor's body within Lingxiao Hall would not be his to witness; he grieved for it, but that stretch of history was already fixed. The Longhan Heavenly Court was about to meet a great upheaval, and that was what he awaited.

After the Heavenly Emperor's death the spheres of influence would be redrawn; to hold the four ancient god emperors steady, the Heavenly Court would be divided, each returning to its own ancestral land.

And the Heavenly Court would rise ever higher, quitting the Yuan Realm, so that no one could ever again find the exact whereabouts of the ancestral shrine.

Earth Mother Yuanjun, freed from the Heavenly Court's suppression, would grow ever mightier, until at last in the Shanghuang era she could no longer hold her ambition in check, and had her son found the Northern Shanghuang Heavenly Court and proclaim himself emperor.

All of this was the fruit of today's battle.

Cloud Venerable and Hao Venerable had already broken into Lingxiao Hall, the Great Emperor's reincarnated body was ahead of them still, and Divine King Gong Yun had reached the outside of Lingxiao Hall as well. Suddenly a vast palm came from nowhere, striking from within the hall toward the outside.

At the sight of that palm Shen Mu felt at once that it could command the blue heavens, command the earth, command countless worlds.

The palm struck out from within Lingxiao Hall, still immeasurably far from where he stood, yet the impression it gave him was one of overwhelming awe, as though heaven and earth and the ten thousand daos lay wholly within the grasp of that hand. The Heavenly Emperor's hand.

The palm was aimed at Divine King Gong Yun and caught her utterly off guard; this goddess king who had swept through the primordial age, the wife of the Great Emperor, burst asunder with a thunderous crash without so much as a grunt.

"I—" Shen Mu nearly ground his teeth to splinters.

The whole purpose of his journey had been to find Divine King Gong Yun and have her heal the wound to his divine sense; who would have thought that some Venerable, he knew not which, had taken command of the Heavenly Emperor's body and with a single blow taken her life. Cold sweat poured down his brow.

"It cannot be the Great Emperor's doing," he thought.

"The Heavenly Emperor loved Gong Yun once, and would have left her body whole. Then who could have done such a thing?

Cloud Venerable?

Hao Venerable? Or Lady Yuanmu?

" The Heavenly Emperor's hand, dripping with blood, was drawn back; from within Lingxiao Hall came shout upon shout of fury, no doubt the Venerables who had entered contending against one another, each striving to hold the Heavenly Emperor's body in his own grasp. That the Heavenly Emperor's body had destroyed Gong Yun with a single blow only made them the more resolved to have it. With Divine King Gong Yun dead, the gods of the Heavenly Court whom her illusion had held woke one after another; the Great Sun Star Lord at once gathered the orthodox star gods of the whole heaven and searched in every direction, crying in a stern voice: "All of you, pull yourselves together!

The rebel traitor may yet have accomplices! Loose the Howling Celestial Hounds!

" Countless divine beings in the sky let slip the chains in their hands, and one after another the black hounds with slim waists and long legs leapt down from the cloud layers, came to the shattered remains of Divine King Gong Yun, and sniffed all about.

Then the Howling Celestial Hounds bounded off swift as the wind and searched everywhere. The Heavenly Court was in chaos, and at this moment Ancestor God King, Moon Venerable, Ling Venerable, Langxuan God Emperor and the rest arrived at flying speed, shook off the Great Sun Star Lord who pursued them, and made straight for Lingxiao Hall. Yan'er, Long Qilin and the others had already slipped into the Heavenly Court, and seeing Divine King Gong Yun struck dead by a single palm from the Heavenly Emperor, they too felt ice run through them.

"Young Master," Yan'er said, her voice trembling, "what do we do now? " Shen Mu pondered, and was about to speak, when all at once a palace maid came toward them, her gaze somewhat dull; she came up before Yan'er and spoke to the halo behind Yan'er's head: "My body is dead, and the Great Sun Star Lord means to hunt me out and put me to death for good.

" Yan'er and Long Qilin started in fright.

"You are Divine King Gong Yun? " they blurted.

The palace maid had a fair face, but Divine King Gong Yun's divine sense was in disarray and could scarcely take possession of her; her body looked stiff and her manner wooden as she said mechanically: "I am no match for the Great Sun Star Lord now, and cannot hold off those ancient gods besieging me.