Chapter 1643 — Handwriting Reveals Character

Before long, Shen Mu's letter of surrender appeared in Hao Tianzun's imperial study.

Hao Tianzun unfolded the letter and read it through carefully, and could not help but burst out laughing, his satisfaction plain to see.

The more he read, the more elated he grew. The curious little calculations hidden between Shen Mu's lines made him clap his hands and roar. From those lines he could read Shen Mu's unwillingness, his terror, his despair, his helplessness, and the bluster that masked his cowardice—and beyond that, his greedy attachment to power and his unwillingness to let go of rank.

"A letter of surrender barely two thousand words long, and yet Mu Tianzun can dissect his own heart with such neat clarity. His literary gift truly shines—no less than a master of letters!"

Hao Tianzun laughed and said to the Chancellor, "After I finish, you shall read it aloud to me."

The Chancellor assented.

Hao Tianzun read on, and again could not hold back his mirth. "Bring me wine!" he cried. "How can one read Mu Tianzun's letter of surrender without wine to raise the spirits?"

Soon a divine attendant presented fine wine. Hao Tianzun drank as he savored the letter, praising it: "A soaring brilliance, a soaring brilliance! It ought to be printed in hundreds of thousands of copies and sent out through all the heavens and all the worlds, so that every god and demon may read it... Mu Tianzun, you son of a bitch!"

Suddenly he flew into a rage. The wine cup in his hand burst apart with a crack, and wine splashed across the floor.

Hao Tianzun's face was black with fury. He stared hard at that one line—the words Shen Mu had indeed written: "Already asleep."

In the imperial study no one knew why he raged. They exchanged glances, not daring to make a sound.

"That damned Mu Tianzun—wasting Heaven's gifts, ruining a goddess, a crime past all pardon! And that wretch dares to come and flaunt it before me. I will have his head!"

Hao Tianzun could not master his anger. One slap shattered the writing desk to powder, and he rose raging: "No—I will not kill him yet! Drag his envoy here. I will take his head and vent my spleen on it!"

The Chancellor said in alarm, "Your Majesty, when two states are at war, envoys are not put to death—and Mu Tianzun has come to surrender besides. If Your Majesty kills the envoy, how would Mu Tianzun dare surrender at all?"

Hao Tianzun's breast was choked with rage: "If I do not kill him, my hatred will never be appeased!"

The Chancellor hesitated: "Your Majesty, he who cannot bear small things will ruin great plans..."

Hao Tianzun glared at him: "So what if I kill one envoy? Mu Tianzun has enraged me. First I will have Xu Tianzun wipe out half the people of Jingping! Go, bind that envoy and bring him to me!"

The Chancellor dared say no more, and hurried off.

At that moment, Yuchenzi was at Bai Yuqiong's Qionghua Heavenly Palace. Bai Yuqiong knew he was an envoy of Jingping, and to avoid suspicion had refused to see him.

Yuchenzi lifted the hem of his robe and dropped to his knees with a thud outside the gates of Qionghua Palace, drawing passing deities to stop and stare.

Fearing a scene, Bai Yuqiong hastily ordered him brought in, and reproached him: "Envoy of Jingping, you are far too inconsiderate. I am of the human race, and here you kneel before my gate. If word gets out, people will think I am in league with your Jingping! Did Mu Tianzun send you? That old rogue is forever trying to drag me into his dishonor!"

Yuchenzi rose from the seat and knelt again, weeping aloud: "Celestial Master Bai, please save the human race!" And he knocked his head against the ground without cease.

Bai Yuqiong hurried to raise him up. Yuchenzi knelt and would not rise, holding Shen Mu's jade pendant up in both hands, choking out: "For the sake of the human race, Mu Tianzun's hair turned white in a single night. Feeling that there is no longer any road left for humans in this world, he wept until he fainted, and woke only after six or seven days. He said that only Celestial Master Bai can save the human race and keep it from extinction."

Bai Yuqiong's expression turned complicated. She did not take the Reincarnation Jade Pendant, saying, "If Mu Tianzun surrenders, Hao Tiandi would not necessarily insist on exterminating the human race. I fear Mu Tianzun still harbors thoughts of rising again—or even of dragging everyone down with him—and that is why he believes I can help him win."

She had a pendant of the same kind, forged by Shen Mu to save her.

That Shen Mu had forged a second such pendant plainly meant he sought repayment.

But this pendant she did not dare take, and did not wish to.

Yuchenzi was shaken inwardly, and silently praised the woman's extraordinary shrewdness.

"Celestial Master Bai, Mu Tianzun truly has nothing left. There is no road for him now."

Yuchenzi wiped away his tears and said, "As one of the human race, would you truly watch the human race be exterminated? Even if Mu Tianzun surrenders, the humans will be but meat on the block, to be carved as anyone pleases!"

Bai Yuqiong sighed: "What do you want of me? I am the Celestial Master of the Heavenly Court; I will not side with the human race merely because I am human. Still, if it does no harm, I can help you somewhat—but you must not ask for too much."

Yuchenzi's spirits soared: "Mu Tianzun would not dare ask too much. He asks only that the Celestial Master go to see Celestial Master Meng Yungui."

Bai Yuqiong's gaze settled on his face. She said nothing; after a moment she said, "Meng Yungui, my senior brother Meng, is likewise a Celestial Master of the human race. Though he ranks as the second Celestial Master, even Shang Pingyin is no match for him. He would be more than qualified to be the first—but how could a human serve as the Heavenly Court's first Celestial Master? And so Shang Pingyin still holds that title securely."

She walked two paces around Yuchenzi, kneeling there on the ground, then halted: "Every scheme in Mu Tianzun's heart may be hidden from Shang Pingyin, but it cannot be hidden from Meng Yungui. Meng Yungui weighs schemes and interests more heavily, cherishes his skin and his life more dearly, and is more slippery besides. You cannot hide these little schemes of yours from him."

Yuchenzi's heart went cold. He said, "Mu Tianzun seeks nothing else. He asks only that Celestial Master Bai go to see Celestial Master Meng, and that when he raises the butcher's blade against his own kindred, he raise it a notch higher, so that a few fish slip through the net and live."

Bai Yuqiong closed her eyes and gave a long, faint sigh. Then she opened them, reached out her hand, took the Reincarnation Jade Pendant, and said, "Meng Yungui will still heed my counsel. I will go to see him. You may set your mind at ease."

Yuchenzi knocked his head on the ground again, heavily. Bai Yuqiong, her heart in turmoil, waved her hand: "Go, go! Do not come to my Qionghua Heavenly Palace again."

Yuchenzi rose and took his leave.

Before he had even left Qionghua Palace, the Chancellor suddenly came in at the head of a great host of heavenly soldiers and generals, filing into Qionghua Palace. The whole palace was in an uproar.

"Bind him!" the Chancellor waved his hand and shouted.

The heavenly soldiers and generals surged forward and, without a word, had Yuchenzi locked in chains and bound fast.

Bai Yuqiong hurried out, frowned, and said politely, "Chancellor, this envoy sent by Mu Tianzun is also my nephew; he has come to sue for surrender. What crime has he committed, that he should be seized and charged?"

The Chancellor said, "There is a problem with the letter of surrender he delivered. His Majesty flew into a rage when he read it and wants to behead him with his own hand. Ordinarily I would not dare barge into a Celestial Master's residence, but His Majesty has given the order, and I had no choice but to intrude. I ask the Celestial Master to grant me this small courtesy."