Chapter 939 — Song and Dance to Celebrate the Peace
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 2 of 4
The palace maids on the island screamed in alarm and fell back, surging toward the Manhui Corridor Pavilion, lest they be ground away by the Heavenly Venerables' dreadful aura.
Though the Manhui Corridor Pavilion where Shen Mu lodged stood by the sea, with Tiangong, Tubo, the Empress and others secretly guarding it, it would not be touched for the moment. But this Heavenly Venerable's arrival once more broke the balance; the island beneath them could not hold long before it was ground into ash, and they with it reduced to powder, their souls scattered!
Then another Heavenly Venerable descended, coming to Yaohai. His arrival restored the balance, and the island stopped crumbling.
"Among the ten Heavenly Venerables, there is even one who stands against the Heavenly Court!
" A Heavenly Venerable whose face was hidden in layer upon layer of radiance laughed coldly. "In vain we called one another fellow Daoists; who would have thought a man's face may be known but not his heart.
But you are, after all, the minority! " Then another Heavenly Venerable arrived, the balance broke once more, and the island resumed collapsing!
Yet hardly had this Heavenly Venerable halted his steps when another Heavenly Venerable came walking up; the balance was restored again, and the island's collapse stopped at once.
The Heavenly Court's ten Heavenly Venerables, all present!
Add Tiangong, Tubo, Heavenly Venerable You, and Heavenly Venerable Moon: fourteen supreme powerhouses in all!
Yun Jianli was filled with emotion and sighed, "A scene like this is rarely seen, a grand spectacle such as never was. Fourteen Heavenly Venerable-level beings; if they came to blows, it would be a magnificence without precedent!
" "Magnificent, my ass!
" Qi Jiuyi was beside himself, spittle flying everywhere, and raged, "Right now we should be begging and pleading, praying above all that they do not lift a hand!
If they do, we will all die quick and clean!
Second Brother, damn you, you are still asleep!
How to bring this to an end is the problem! " Shen Mu spoke suddenly.
"By my reckoning, only His Majesty the Heavenly Emperor, who rules the whole Heavenly Court, can stop this strife.
Perhaps the Heavenly Emperor's decree will soon arrive here. " Everyone felt a chill; the Heavenly Emperor was, after all, still lord of the Heavenly Court, and all the gods, ancient gods and Heavenly Venerables alike, were his subjects. Though the Heavenly Emperor had not concerned himself with governance for years, having handed the court's affairs to the ten Heavenly Venerables; though Tubo, Tiangong and the rest seldom obeyed his dispatches, he was, after all, still the nominal sovereign of the Heavenly Court.
Were he to intervene, he could surely halt this strife. Yet Shen Mu and the Empress both knew full well that the nominal sovereign of the Heavenly Court, the Ancient God Heavenly Emperor, had died back in the Longhan era; the reason the Heavenly Court still kept the Ancient God Heavenly Emperor as its nominal ruler was simply the division of interests among the ten Heavenly Venerables.
Without the Ancient God Heavenly Emperor, which of the ten would be Heavenly Emperor?
They must maintain the identity of the Ancient God Heavenly Emperor, continuing to weaken the ancient gods' power while swelling their own; only when one's own strength and following towered over the other nine could one depose the Ancient God Heavenly Emperor and take the throne for oneself. Until then, none of the ten would be the first to expose the fact that the Ancient God Heavenly Emperor was dead; they would still acknowledge him as sovereign of all under heaven.
As for Yun Jianli, he did not know the Ancient God Heavenly Emperor was dead; the Yun family had not handed this matter down.