Chapter 1381 — The Crown Prince and Dragon Mountain

Everything Shen Mu had studied, practiced, understood, mastered, and realized, he had never once concealed from Long Qilin; in every field of knowledge, Long Qilin had at least some acquaintance. The Reverse Summoning divine art was a technique Shen Mu had founded by reforming the Creator's Summoning divine art.

The Summoning divine art used powerful divine consciousness to fix a target and, with oneself as the anchor, summoned a mighty beast to descend.

The Reverse Summoning divine art worked the other way around: with the beast as the anchor, it summoned oneself to the beast's side.

When Shen Mu first created this art, Long Qilin and Yan'er had been at his side, together with the ancestral spirit Luo Xiao; Da Hong, the Grand Emperor in a transformed body; and Gu Xiao, the Heavenly Emperor in a transformed body. Yet only Long Qilin had been able to help Shen Mu design and forge the summoning altar, and only Long Qilin had succeeded in learning Reverse Summoning.

Since Long Qilin had taught the Reverse Summoning divine art to Shu Jun, Shu Jun must surely have taken the First Ancestor, Lan Yutian, and Xu Shenghua with him, summoning them all to the far side of the Ancestral Court! "A pack of troublemakers who never give a man any peace! And is Long Xiao someone to be trifled with?

That is a being whose physical body stands on a par with a Celestial Venerable's. . .

" Shen Mu could not help shaking his head. This was certainly Shu Jun's rotten idea.

Shu Jun had long coveted Long Xiao, wanting to subdue him and make him his own mighty beast, but alone he had no confidence of success, and so he had called in the First Ancestor, Lan Yutian, and Xu Shenghua. "How long have they been gone? " Shen Mu asked.

"Three months now.

" "Three months?

" Hearing this, Shen Mu, instead, was no longer so anxious.

He had the ship's company go ashore to rest and recuperate. Wei Suifeng said, "Junior brother, are you not going to save them?

" "They have been gone for three months already. If they were going to die, they would have died long ago. If they have survived three months on the far side of the Ancestral Court, then they can certainly hold out for a while longer; there is no need to rush over this very moment.

" Shen Mu smiled. "I must make ample preparations first.

If I hurry over half-cocked, I will only end up sharing their fate. " Wei Suifeng was silent for a moment, then said in a hoarse voice, "I was trapped on that ghost ship for so many years, always asking you to follow the charts and rescue me. You never came, and you never followed the charts either.

Was that the very reason you just spoke of? " Shen Mu laughed heartily and walked off into the distance, saying in a clear, ringing voice, "Old Brother Taiyi!

Old Sister Taiyi!

Where are you?

Your little brother has come to pay his respects! " Wei Suifeng watched him go with a black face, grinding his teeth. "Shen the Beast!

" "Yes—an out-and-out beast! " Crown Prince Youming came to his side. He looked at the Glazed Azure Heaven Canopy, then let his gaze fall on Yan'er, and from Yan'er it moved to Long Qilin.

He fumed, "That shameless dog of a man and bitch of a woman!

So I have finally found you!

Dragon Mountain Recluse! " Long Qilin gave a frightened shudder, hastily turned around, and saw Crown Prince Youming bearing down on him. In a fluster he shook himself, transformed into the dragon-headed, human-bodied form of the Dragon Mountain Recluse, and fell to his knees with a thud, crying at the top of his voice, "I beg your forgiveness—" Yan'er also dropped hurriedly to her knees, kneeling side by side with Long Qilin: "My husband and I beg your forgiveness, Daoist brother!

" Crown Prince Youming descended to their side in a towering rage, yet with the two before him, he could not bring himself to strike. To be sure, Long Qilin and Yan'er had stolen the Glazed Azure Heaven Canopy and caused him to be suppressed by the Northern Emperor Black Tortoise and his wife for six hundred thousand years; but they had also saved the hundreds of thousands of Black Tortoise clansmen of the Black Tortoise Heavenly Palace and had pulled him back from the brink of death. More critically, the Northern Emperor Black Tortoise's suppression of Crown Prince Youming had little to do with the theft of the canopy.

In those days, those around Crown Prince Youming were all people of the Nether Emperor's ilk, forever plotting to murder him, to murder the Northern Emperor, and to scheme for the Northern Pole Heaven.

Had Crown Prince Youming not been locked away, he would have died long ago. That he had been able to shake off his suppression was also due to Shen Mu's intercession; after getting free, he left the Northern Pole Heaven, only to meet the Nether Emperor again on the Heavenly River and nearly be framed by the man once more, nearly stuffed into the Heavenly Emperor's harem. Fortunately, the divine art Shen Mu had left him exerted its power, letting him see the Nether Emperor's true face and sparing the Northern Pole Heaven from catastrophe.

"Please, both of you, rise. " Crown Prince Youming had once more recovered his equanimity.

He helped them both up and smiled.

"I lost my composure just now. I was originally a rich man's son, accustomed to using money to make friends, knowing nothing of sincere friendship. Only after I came to Jingping did I understand what friendship truly is. Though the two of you took my Glazed Azure Heaven Canopy, you also did me a great kindness. There is no need for this.

" Long Qilin and Yan'er rose accordingly. Crown Prince Youming smiled.

"The Glazed Azure Heaven Canopy may be heavy, but in my heart it no longer weighs so heavily. " Wei Suifeng came to his side and said, "Your Highness, your state of mind has climbed yet another step.

Truly the most outstanding figure of the Longhan Era. " In the Longhan Era, when Crown Prince Youming attained the Imperial Throne realm, there were no more than ten existences at the Imperial Throne realm in all the world. The figures of immense renown in later ages—Celestial Venerable Xiao, Celestial Venerable Hong, Celestial Venerable Gong, and Celestial Venerable Yan—had all been obscure nobodies back then.

Those who could keep pace with him in those days were only a countable few: Celestial Venerable Yun, Celestial Venerable Hao, Celestial Venerable Huo, Divine Emperor Langxuan, the Ancestral God King, and a handful of others. The Northern Emperor Black Tortoise had suppressed Crown Prince Youming for six hundred thousand years; the nobodies who had once been inferior to him were now famous throughout the world and had become Celestial Venerables, and even the Nether Emperor had become the ruler of the Northern Heaven, lofty and aloof.

To have undergone such tremendous rises and falls and yet remain in an ordinary frame of mind—Crown Prince Youming's equanimity won Wei Suifeng's admiration. Crown Prince Youming smiled. "Had I not been suppressed by the Northern Emperor, I would not have lived to the end of the Longhan Era.

Even staying alive would have been impossible, let alone becoming an existence like the Ten Celestial Venerables. The wisdom of today's Ten Celestial Venerables is far beyond what I can match; only an existence like Celestial Venerable Mu can trade blows with them.

A single intrigue of theirs could plunge me and the Northern Pole Heaven into irredeemable ruin. I know my own limits. " He recalled the experiences of those six hundred thousand years, and a thousand emotions surged within him. In those days many beings of extraordinary aptitude had kept pace with him as well—Crown Prince Xie Wuqi, for example, and Celestial Venerable Yun—yet even men with such wisdom as theirs had died. That he, a man of no great wisdom, had lived on—he understood the reason. Meanwhile, Shen Mu found Taiyi, who was restoring the Great Black Mountain.