Chapter 872 — Driving the Gods to Solicit Votes
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 1 of 5
Shen Mu's eyes flew wide.
The Ancient God Heavenly Emperor had a wisp of soul that had never scattered—and that wisp had become an elder of the Heavenly Alliance?
Did this not mean that the Ancient God Heavenly Emperor still occupied a high post in the Heavenly Court?
All around him were the very people who had once killed him, killed him until his soul had nearly scattered entirely to the winds!
These people had also seized his throne as Heavenly Emperor and taken over his physical body.
His power, his position, his wife—none of it belonged to him anymore. And he still had to dissemble before these people, to call them brothers, to scheme alongside them against the ancient gods, to help them become the rulers of the whole universe. Perhaps, when the masters of the Heavenly Alliance slew the Primordial Earth Mother back then, he had been among them—perhaps he himself had struck her down, had even raised a new Primordial Earth Mother to take her place!
Only this could explain why, after the Heavenly Alliance eliminated the Primordial Earth Mother, the Primordial Wood should have fallen into the Heavenly Emperor's hands instead. Because he himself was in the Heavenly Alliance; to defend the Alliance's interests was to defend his own! And he was still biding his time, still scheming for resurrection, scheming to reclaim his power and his station, scheming to borrow the strength of the Heavenly Alliance to restore his rule, scheming to destroy his enemies within the Alliance!
This affair was stranger than any strange affair Shen Mu had ever encountered—more garish, more grotesque, more inconceivable! Shen Mu could not help laughing, laughing out loud, the laughter growing louder and louder and echoing without end through the vast hall of Tianyin Palace.
He laughed until his breath went awry, coughing without cease: "An old hand at the game.
. . cough, cough!
So this is what the village head meant by an old hand at the game! What talk of gallant vengeance—it is all scheming and machination!
What talk of the order of the mortal world—it is all a plaything in your hands! What talk of justice in the mortal world—it is merely something for you to trample underfoot!
" His laughter subsided, and he said with a faint, ambiguous smile: "I find the Heavenly Court unspeakably ugly. Jingping, that pellet-sized realm struggling between death and survival, is the true mortal world, where one can feel warmth and cold. The Heavenly Court is nothing but a cesspit for filth. " The slovenly old Daoist said not a word, seemingly lost in meditation.
Lady Tianyin's expression shifted slightly as she warily studied the phantom silhouette of the Heavenly Emperor within the black sand of souls. The figure in the black sand betrayed no emotion, and said: "Then why does Lord Shepherd still wish to see me? " "Because Jingping lacks the time and opportunity to grow. " Shen Mu said: "Jingping needs time.
The Kaihuang Era lasted twenty thousand years, yet could not overturn heaven and earth, because it was extinguished all too soon.
Jingping has barely had a few hundred years, and already it shows signs of being extinguished.
I need helpers like Your Majesty to share the burden.
And Your Majesty needs my help, to reshape your soul.
" The figure in the black sand laughed: "You and I are using each other. I hold considerable power in the Heavenly Court and can buy Jingping time. I will set the old and new Primordial Earth Mothers at odds, and Jingping will have a chance to live. But I rather suspect that if I should one day return to the great throne, and Jingping has grown strong by then, Jingping will instead become a canker at my heart. " Shen Mu said with complete earnestness: "Does Your Majesty have another choice?