Chapter 1373 — A Game of Mutual Destruction

When the Dark Emperor and the Martial Emperor saw their son, a natural warmth rose in them both, yet they forced it down, and took charge of the divine gold and divine ore of the Ancestral Court that Crown Prince Youming had brought. The Martial Emperor said, "Mu the Heavenly Venerable is thoughtful indeed.

. . And how have you been faring in Jingping? " Crown Prince Youming bowed his head and said, "I have been very well in Jingping.

I have made many new friends, and every one of them treats me with a true heart and has never schemed against me.

It is only that Emperor Yanxiu thinks my daos and divine arts out of date and ordered me to study at the Academy of Hearing the Dao. There I exchange daos and divine arts with my new friends; they are honest with me, and I am very happy. " The Martial Emperor's heart eased and he smiled.

"So long as you fare well, my mind is at rest.

" The Dark Emperor said gravely, "Though we husband and wife have severed our ties with you, you are still of the younger generation, so we cannot help giving you a word of instruction.

In all your dealings, keep an extra eye open; if others treat you with a true heart, repay them with a true heart of your own.

" Crown Prince Youming choked, knelt and bowed in assent. The Martial Emperor grew restless and waved his hand.

"Go, go quickly.

" Crown Prince Youming's tears fell; he rose and bowed his farewell. The Dark Emperor and the Martial Emperor watched him go far off, and said, "Our foolish son is still at his studies.

To my eye he has grown far steadier than before, no longer the careless boy with no depths to him at all. " "His cultivation is far deeper and more vigorous than before; Jingping has made him grow.

" Husband and wife exchanged a smile.

"Our son, too, is one with the makings of a Heavenly Venerable; he merely lacks a Heavenly Venerable's wisdom. But with Jingping at his back, it may be that he can live on.

" The two examined the treasures Emperor Yanxiu had sent, and could not help clicking their tongues.

The treasures Yanxiu had sent were exceedingly many, the gesture exceedingly grand, enough to let them forge a treasure to suppress the fortunes of the Northern Pole Heaven.

"Mu the Heavenly Venerable has grown rich in the Ancestral Court.

" The Dark Emperor murmured, "I hear our Glazed Azure Heaven Banner was taken by him to suppress the Ancestral Court.

The boy is likely using these baubles to curry favour with us. " The Martial Emperor said, "It was he who saved Youming and the Black Tortoise Heavenly Palace back then. If he borrowed it, there is no harm in it.

" Meanwhile, Heavenly Venerable Hao's deterrent came tardily at last. That deterrent was a head like a planet — the head of the Great Emperor!

That head was one of the only three parts of the Great Emperor's body that remained!

Ever since the Great Emperor escaped his bondage, all things had gone against him.

In his battle with Heavenly Venerable Hao, Hao severed one of his arms and devoured one of his heads; after he obtained the Taichu Primordial Stone from Shen Mu he restored his fleshy body, but neither the head nor the newly grown arm was as it had been before.

Next, in the Ancestral Court, the Great Emperor was set upon by four Heavenly Venerables, dismembered by them, and his body was sacrificed upon a hidden altar in the Ancestral Court, becoming nourishment for the mighty ones of the prehistoric epoch. Only one fist of his fell into the grasp of Lady Earth Mother and was preserved.

The head that had fallen into Shen Mu's hands had merely been created from the Taichu Primordial Stone, and could not compare with his original head.

And this head, together with another arm of the Great Emperor, had fallen into the hands of Heavenly Venerable Hao.

Now Heavenly Venerable Hao had refined the Great Emperor's head into a treasure, using the Great Emperor's skull to overawe the Yuan World; the pressure this brought upon the great Heavenly Venerables, and even upon Tubo and the Lord of Heaven, and the Three Emperors of the Ancient Gods, could well be imagined! The Great Emperor, a being who stood on equal footing with the Heavenly Emperor Taichu, had had his head struck off by Heavenly Venerable Hao — how mighty, then, must Heavenly Venerable Hao's strength be?

The moment the Great Emperor's head appeared, all the myriad treasures of the heavens lost their colour! The Great Emperor's head opened both eyes, and two gazes brighter than sunlight by a hundredfold and a thousandfold, buzzing and humming, swept the sky above and the earth below of the Yuan World, the four quarters and the eight directions, illuminating one heaven of the Yuan World after another.

Heavenly Venerable Hao, first among the Ten Heavenly Venerables, though rumour had it that he was gravely wounded and his strength far beneath what it once was, his flame and his majesty were still beyond compare; every other Heavenly Venerable fell a notch short.

Suddenly the gaze of the Great Emperor's head fixed upon a place of darkness and did not move away. There karmic fire blazed, turning a thousand li into a crimson wilderness; amid the roaring karmic fire a man's primordial spirit surfaced, chains binding his four limbs, tormented in the flames, howling, fierce and hideous.

That primordial spirit was the former Crown Prince of the Heavenly Court's principal palace — the Evil Emperor, Xie Wuqi!

Heavenly Venerable You's paper boat came drifting faintly into being; he stood upon the ghost ship, and his own deterrent, too, had arrived without a sound.

That was Xie Wuqi — one of the mightiest beings of the Longhan age, bearing in his veins the blood of the Empress and of the Heavenly Emperor, with the makings of a Heavenly Venerable yet outmatched in wisdom, who had contended for the throne with the Heavenly Emperor and been cast down into Youdu, imprisoned within Jade Lock Pass! And now, at Xie Wuqi's side stood another man: the present Crown Prince of the Heavenly Court's Eastern Palace, Mingya! The one controlling the Great Emperor's head was Heavenly Venerable Hao, and he cared nothing for Xie Wuqi.

In those years it was he who had incited Xie Wuqi to rebel and make chaos, borrowing the Heavenly Emperor's hand to rid himself of this elder brother of his; Xie Wuqi had been dead so many years, he was not worth a thought.

In his gaze there was only Crown Prince Mingya. Crown Prince Mingya was one of the few possessed of the makings of a Heavenly Venerable; at a young age he had captured the Crimson Emperor Qi Xiayu, forcing Qi Xiayu to bow to the Heavenly Court.

His endowments were outstanding, the highest in talent and constitution among the younger generation of the Heavenly Court — and he was, besides, Heavenly Venerable Hao's younger brother.

But in truth, Crown Prince Mingya was Heavenly Venerable Hao's son. His son.

After the Heavenly Emperor's death, Heavenly Venerable Hao took possession of the Heavenly Emperor's fleshly body, and once controlled that body into the inner palace, doing certain absurd things.

Crown Prince Mingya was the fruit of that absurdity.

Heavenly Venerable Hao had once wished to put this fruit of absurdity to death, so that no stain would remain on him, but in the end he endured it.

He liked Crown Prince Mingya greatly; in name they were brothers, in truth father and son, and Heavenly Venerable Hao looked after him with especial care and placed great hopes in him.

But after the theft of the Heavenly Emperor's eggshell, Crown Prince Mingya vanished without a trace — who would have thought he had gone to Youdu, to meet the Evil Emperor Xie Wuqi! Now the Evil Emperor Xie Wuqi and Crown Prince Mingya had been made into a deterrent by Heavenly Venerable You and brought out of Youdu.

They were Heavenly Venerable You's deterrent against Heavenly Venerable Hao! Heavenly Venerable Hao, controlling the Great Emperor's head, shifted his gaze away.