Chapter 1433 — That Detestable Tai Emperor

The Langxuan God Emperor held the Dao Fruit on high, turning it over and over as he appraised it, boundless delight swelling in his heart. When he turned to look again at Shen Mu, the man's looks no longer seemed so loathsome; there was even something rather endearing about him.

"Mu Heavenly Venerable, serve me well under my banner!"

He could not help laughing. "I do so love watching you play the treacherous minister, the court fool, forced to fawn on me!"

Shen Mu offered him a good-natured warning. "God Emperor, this Dao Fruit holds the divine consciousness of a prehistoric power. Beware of being possessed. Though if you truly can refine from this fruit the Dao of eternal, undying life, then serving as your scheming minister and your court fool is no great hardship for me." With that, he burst out laughing.

Langxuan laughed as well. "That prehistoric being may have hidden a portion of his consciousness inside the Dao Fruit, but so long as he cannot lodge himself in the ultimate void of our universe, I can knead him however I please. If he cannot reach the ultimate void, he is nothing but a soft persimmon."

Seeing him pleased, Shen Mu seized the moment. "God Emperor, consider this. I helped you restore the Jade Pool to its ancient glory, and I helped you come here to subdue the Dao Fruit and draw near the final realm. Then might your Jade Pool perhaps..."

"No." The Langxuan God Emperor put the Dao Fruit away, and the smile drained from his face. His voice was flat.

Shen Mu said hastily, "What I mean is that, having rendered such a great service, might Your Majesty permit the gods under my command to come and comprehend the Dao of the Jade Terrace?"

"It costs money."

The Langxuan God Emperor spoke briskly. "Calling me Your Majesty is no use to you. You extorted twenty percent of my Hongmeng Primordial Fluid, and the mere thought of it still makes my flesh ache. If you want your people to enter the Jade Terrace and comprehend the Dao, it costs money."

"Not even a shred of regard for old ties?" Shen Mu said, furious.

The Langxuan God Emperor nodded, smiling, and held up two fingers. "If you want your people to come to the Jade Terrace and comprehend the Dao, give me back my twenty percent of Hongmeng Primordial Fluid."

Shen Mu gritted his teeth and held up a single finger.

The Langxuan God Emperor thought it over, then laughed. "That 'Your Majesty' you called me just now did sound sweet to the ear. Very well, the other ten percent stays with you."

Shen Mu breathed a silent sigh of relief. Never mind one tenth of the Hongmeng Primordial Fluid; had Langxuan demanded the full twenty percent, he would have handed it over. Hongmeng Primordial Fluid was a renewable resource, and precious beyond measure though it was, in his eyes it could not hold a candle to the nurturing of talent in Jingping.

Talent, and talent alone, was what mattered most.

"I wonder whether Xu Shenghua and Lan Yutian have finished charting the Four Great Heavenly Gates. I must have them come — not only to comprehend the Jade Pool and cultivate their Dao-hearts, but to survey and map the whole of the Jade Pool and the Jade Terrace!"

He said silently in his heart, "Once the grand unification of the Dao Realm and the Heavenly Palace system is established, I will never again have to watch Langxuan's face."

The two left that fragment of the Daluo Heaven. Shen Mu took his leave at once; eager to refine the Dao Fruit, the Langxuan God Emperor did not press him to stay.

"If the Langxuan God Emperor refines the Dao Fruit and obtains the knowledge of the previous cosmic epoch hidden within it, I fear he will become the mightiest of the Ten Heavenly Venerables. And yet..."

Shen Mu left the Jade Pool, glanced back at it once, and a faint smile touched the corner of his mouth. "A Dao Fruit is not so easily refined. And even if it is refined, so what? Must one not still cultivate step by step on one's own? If a man simply takes another's Dao Fruit and claims it for his own, then he is not so very different from the Tai Emperor."

His heart was utterly serene, utterly composed.

The Langxuan God Emperor's rise in strength was a good thing. Among the Ten Heavenly Venerables, it had once been Hao, Qiang, and Xiao who stood the best chance of contending for the final victory. Now that Langxuan had waded in, the already muddy waters of the Ten would grow muddier still.

"If Heaven Duke dies and Hong Heavenly Venerable reaps the greatest benefit, then we may well have to add Hong Heavenly Venerable to the tally."

Shen Mu raised his head and looked at the sky above the Ancestral Court. Surely Heaven Duke was watching the Ancestral Court at this very moment?

Yet Heaven Duke had not come to see him.

He withdrew his gaze and said silently, "I drove Hong Heavenly Venerable's Dao-heart into the Nine Prisons. If Hong breaks open my Nine-Prison Heart Lock, then although he will still harbor selfish desires, he will also draw closer to the heart of Heaven, closer to the Way of Heaven, and keep a portion of the Way of Heaven's heart. Even if Heaven Duke dies, we will still be fellow travelers on the same road. But if Hong Heavenly Venerable fails to break the Nine-Prison Heart Lock..."

The corner of Shen Mu's eye twitched. "Then when Heaven Duke dies, the one who reaps the greatest benefit will most likely not be Hong Heavenly Venerable! At that time he may not be able to contend with the Ancestral God King! And then the muddy waters of the Ten Heavenly Venerables will have to take in both the Ancestral God King and Hong Heavenly Venerable!"

As for Heaven Duke, he no longer held out any hope at all.

Heaven Duke was doomed to die.

Once the proclamation calling for Heaven Duke's punishment was issued at the Heaven Alliance Council, Heaven Duke's death was sealed. To have met him before the Council would have left room to turn; now there was no longer any need.

His imprisoning of Hong Heavenly Venerable's Dao-heart had been a preparation for the worst. He could not allow Hong — a man stuffed full of ambition and desire — to seize all of Heaven Duke's power and steal the Way of Heaven for himself.

The Way of Heaven was selfless. For Hong Heavenly Venerable to steal the Way of Heaven for his own ends was the greatest of betrayals against the Way of Heaven!

"Tai Yi said Heaven Duke would succeed, would leap free of the Way of Heaven's bonds and liberate himself — what in the world did he mean by that?" He frowned in thought.

Suddenly another violent radiance blazed up ahead and shot into the sky. Shen Mu walked forward and saw that it was Qiang Heavenly Consort's domain, where yet another Great Spirit-Energy Transfer Bridge had been raised. The Daoist priests of the Heavenly Court's Daoist sect were packing their bags, hurrying off to another site.

Many of the Heavenly Court's tower-ships and great vessels flew out from this new Spirit-Energy Transfer Bridge, laden with the gods and demons under Qiang Heavenly Consort's command and with power-wielders of every race, migrating through the bridge into the Ancestral Court. These tower-ships scattered in all directions, seeking suitable places to settle.

Shen Mu looked up at the sky. Three Spirit-Energy Transfer Bridges now linked to the Heavenly Court; once all of them were built, the Heavenly Court itself could be hauled into the Ancestral Court! The Heavenly Court had once dwelt above the Primordial Realm, then flown out of it, and now it was returning to the Ancestral Court — the thought left Shen Mu awash in emotion.

"A Divine Artifact Heavenly Venerable!"

Shen Mu's heart lurched. He suddenly saw a Divine Artifact Heavenly Venerable stride out from the Spirit-Energy Transfer Bridge. Lofty and imposing of frame, it gazed far off at Qiang Heavenly Consort's domain and gave a cold sneer.

"This must be Lady Yuanmu's Divine Artifact Heavenly Venerable, surely?"