Chapter 1191 — Frank and Open

Shen Mu watched Yun Chuxiu come bouncing over, the girl's two ponytails swinging from behind her back to the left, then from the left to the right. He laughed: "I came from the Ancestral Court with eight Heavenly Venerables. I nearly died at the hands of this sister of yours in the Ancestral Court."

Yun Chuxiu rushed up to them, lively and energetic, laughing: "Brother-in-law is here too? I do so love seducing brother-in-law!" With that she wrapped her arms around Shen Mu's arm and pressed herself against him.

She had sworn sisterhood with Ling Yuxiu, Gongsun Yan, Divine King Langwan, and Lianhua Hun. By age, Ling Yuxiu was the youngest, and therefore had to address her as elder sister.

Ling Yuxiu was right there beside them. Shen Mu hurriedly tried to pull his arm free but could not, and was forced to say: "I still have proper business. Don't fool around. Madam Yuanmu framed me and nearly locked me away in the Ancestral Court. This time I intend to retrieve Yuanmu's physical body and summon her soul, to see just where she is hiding!"

Yun Chuxiu shuddered, then hugged his arm and swayed left and right, giggling: "Brother-in-law, I was only joking with you. Don't be angry! Good sister, quick, talk some sense into your man!"

Ling Yuxiu stood to one side, smiling without a word.

Shen Mu sneered repeatedly: "I treated Madam Yuanmu with utter sincerity, yet she has harmed me time and again. This time she schemed against me once more—I will most certainly expose her identity!"

Yun Chuxiu looked pitiful, gazing up at him, and said plaintively: "Brother-in-law..."

"Shut up!"

Shen Mu flew into a rage: "We are allies, yet you have repeatedly harmed me and deceived me. Do you really think I don't know your identity? I have plenty of ways to find out exactly who you are! You once said you took Yue Tingge to explore the Great Void in search of the Land of No Sorrow—yet Yue Tingge only ever said that the ten Heavenly Venerables ordered him to lead a great army into the Great Void to find the Land of No Sorrow. He never once mentioned that any Heavenly Venerable accompanied him!"

He laughed in his fury: "You did indeed enter the Great Void together with Yue Tingge. You simply never imagined that Yue Tingge did not die—he is hiding in the Great Void! I need only find him, and exposing your identity will be as easy as turning over my hand! What's more, I also have Yuanmu's true body. Seeing through your true form will be even easier!"

He sighed and said with utter sincerity: "Since you and I are allies, we ought to treat each other with candor—yet this is how you treat me. It wounds me deeply."

Yun Chuxiu also sighed, and said with resentment: "I told you my identity long ago. You simply did not think it through carefully."

Shen Mu was about to speak when Yun Chuxiu said with a smile: "I once told you that Jingping's spiritual-energy teleportation bridge connects to my palace. Do you still not know my identity?"

Shen Mu was stunned, and stammered: "That spiritual-energy teleportation bridge..."

Yun Chuxiu sighed faintly: "That spiritual-energy teleportation bridge was manufactured by Zaofu Heavenly Palace. Zaofu Heavenly Palace charged me a hundred times Jingping's price, which is why I handed the work of forging the spiritual-energy teleportation bridge to Jingping, earning the price difference in between. Has brother-in-law still not figured it out?"

At this moment, a rough voice came from nearby: "Then let me remind you of one more thing—where does Jingping's spiritual-energy teleportation bridge lead?"

Shen Mu turned his head with difficulty and stared blankly at the burly, massively built master of Zaofu Heavenly Palace, Shi Qiluo, with his full beard. He was struck dumb: "You—you..."

Shi Qiluo looked at him with pity and said in a rough voice: "Jingping's spiritual-energy teleportation bridge connects to Zaofu Heavenly Palace. Moreover, Palace Master Shi of Zaofu Heavenly Palace, greedy for wealth, handed the task of forging the spiritual-energy teleportation bridge to Jingping, then resold it to other Heavenly Venerables at a hundred times their price."

Yun Chuxiu said sweetly: "And since I control Zaofu Heavenly Palace, manufacturing a divine artifact Heavenly Venerable for myself is only natural."

Shi Qiluo's rough features actually took on a certain charm as he winked at Shen Mu and chuckled: "Ling Heavenly Venerable assassinated me during the Shanghuang Era, but she never expected that I would seize the chance to escape and attach my soul to a stone."

Yun Chuxiu leaned sweetly against Shen Mu's shoulder and said tenderly: "I greatly admired Ling Heavenly Venerable's abilities, so I studied her creation arts until I became a master of the age and took control of Zaofu Heavenly Palace. When the ten Heavenly Venerables wanted to manufacture certain peculiar weapons, they all had to go through me—which made it convenient for me to tamper with them."

Shi Qiluo also leaned in and giggled: "After the Kaihuang Era passed, I was conscripted by the two Great Heavenly Masters to use my skills to imitate the Ark of the Far Shore, to cross the Great Void in search of the Land of No Sorrow. In the end, both Great Heavenly Masters perished, and only I returned alive."

Shen Mu was battered by one revelation after another until his mind was in a daze, and for a long while he could not speak.

Shi Qiluo leaned against his shoulder, tracing circles on his chest with a finger, while on the other side, Yun Chuxiu traced circles on his right chest.

Shen Mu suddenly shook his head and said through gritted teeth: "So that means—among the three Heavenly Venerables who saved me that day in the Jade Pool, you were not one of them!"

"Darling Mu—"

Yun Chuxiu and Shi Qiluo shook his right arm and left arm respectively, saying in unison: "Don't be angry."

Shen Mu smiled woodenly: "No wonder the village head said I was naive..."