Chapter 796 — The Mighty Array
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 1 of 4
"The Red Emperor Qi Xiayu again!"
Shen Mu's expression turned strange. Just how many people had the Red Emperor Qi Xiayu betrayed?
Her lover, the Emperor Shakra Heavenly King Buddha Li Youran, had been entangled with her in ways none could quite name; Bai Qú'er pursued her to demand an explanation; and now Feng Qiuyun of the Phoenix Clan, under the Earth Mother Venerable God's command, wanted to beat her to death as well.
The moment the Red Emperor Qi Xiayu appeared on the scene, cries of "beat her, kill her" rose on every side.
"But what is strange is this: Bai Qú'er pursues Qi Xiayu because she betrayed the Supreme Emperor's Heavenly Court to which Bai Qú'er belongs. Feng Qiuyun says she betrayed the Phoenix Clan, and the Phoenix Clan is attached to the Earth Mother Venerable God, who also props up a Supreme Emperor's Heavenly Court, one with fifteen reigns of Supreme Emperors."
Shen Mu fell into deep thought. "Are these two Supreme Emperor's Heavenly Courts one and the same? Bai Qú'er has a divine dragon bloodline, and the dragon clan also belongs to the demigods. Could she too be under the Earth Mother Venerable God's command? And yet... that does not quite fit."
Bai Qú'er had once told Shen Mu that the Supreme Emperor had a saying that shook the heart: human life is greater than heaven!
Shen Mu did not know much about the Supreme Emperor's Heavenly Court that the Earth Mother propped up, but he knew that its backbone was mostly demigods, and judging by the bearing and words of these demigods, they did not much value human life. One could say they held the human race in unusual contempt, even hostility.
For instance, when the Water Qilin revived and saw Shen Mu, Yu Tianzun, and the Emperor Shakra Heavenly King Buddha, it clamored to eat them to fill its belly, and called them a lowly species.
One glimpse of the spot reveals the whole leopard: in the Supreme Emperor's Heavenly Court that the Earth Mother propped up, the human race's standing was exceedingly low.
Yet in the Heavenly Court where Bai Qú'er belonged, there was a tradition that human life is greater than heaven. Human life—even the lives of the common folk—was of the utmost importance, so much so that gods were required to guard the common people with their own lives!
This was also what moved Shen Mu most. Before he left, he had left words carved on a cliff, and the words he left were precisely this saying.
"So that is to say, the Red Emperor Qi Xiayu came from the Phoenix Clan under the Earth Mother Venerable God, then betrayed the Phoenix Clan and threw in with the Heavenly Court where Bai Qú'er belongs; after beating the former Red Emperor to death she was captured, and then threw in with the Outland Heavenly Court."
Shen Mu blinked. "In the Kaihuang Era, she took up with Emperor Shakra Li Youran, and then betrayed Li Youran too. This Sister Qi Xiayu's way of handling things seems... somewhat problematic. But the crux of the matter is not her—it is that Supreme Emperor's Heavenly Court where Bai Qú'er belongs!"
This Supreme Emperor's Heavenly Court, with its creed that human life is greater than heaven, could be said to be the cornerstone of the Woodcutter Sage's reforms and legal changes during the Kaihuang Era!
Moreover, this creed had influenced the Jingping Era.
The way of the sages that the state of Jingping upheld lay in the daily use of the common people; it was compiled by the senior brother Wei Suifeng from the Woodcutter's transmitted teachings, passed by the young Patriarch to the Imperial Preceptor of Jingping, and became the foundation of Jingping's nationhood.
The creeds of the three eras could be said to come down in one continuous line, and to develop unceasingly.
"Let us set out at once!"
Feng Qiuyun urged, "Lest that little wretch slip away!"