Chapter 1038 — The Hidden Other Side
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 1 of 4
Not many among the Ten Venerables of the Heavenly Court knew that the Heavenly Emperor's eggshell had fallen into Shen Mu's hands. After all, on the day he stole it, Shen Mu had deceived nearly every Venerable in the Court—all save Venerable Yan. The Ten Venerables had no idea who had made off with the eggshell, yet they knew a good deal about the powers of Venerable Yan's white cat.
The cat had seen the man who disguised himself as the Heavenly Emperor and stole the eggshell, and the cat had the gift of discerning who it was that dwelt within the Heavenly Emperor's fleshly body. So long as one kept watch on that cat, one could follow the vine to the melon and run the eggshell to ground. In other words, Venerable Xiao and the others had not been watching Shen Mu at all—they had been watching Venerable Yan's white cat.
The cat's visit to Shen Mu had seemed secret enough, coming by night, but it had long since fallen under the eyes of Venerable Xiao and his fellows, and the cat's hurried departure would of course touch off a war among the Venerables.
Aboard the Heavenly Dragon palanquin, Shen Mu watched the battle in the sky and knitted his brows.
"I should have handed the eggshell to the white cat," he murmured. "Only the true eggshell could make the Ten Venerables tear into one another past all mending.
And once they have fought over it and find no eggshell on the cat, they will turn their suspicion back on me. Everything will settle back into the same balance as before. " Divine King Langwo laughed. "If the Holy Infant thinks so, then he is mistaken. " Shen Mu asked humbly, "What does Sister Divine King make of it?
" "Whether the white cat lives or dies in this fight over it, the strife among the Venerables cannot be quelled.
" Divine King Langwo said, "When information is transparent, they suspect you; when it is opaque, they suspect one another.
As things stand, the cat has changed hands several times, and four Venerables are snatching it back and forth.
In all that time, any one of them might have got hold of the eggshell. And so none of them will have it, and every one of them will suspect it was taken by another Venerable. That is information in chaos. " Shen Mu blinked. "When information is in chaos, every man holds only a fragment of the truth, and so you suspect me and I suspect you. " Unhurriedly, Divine King Langwo went on: "Venerable Yan's white cat may be a great master of the Lingxiao realm, but he can never see through a construct of the Holy Infant's divine consciousness.
He will be certain he has obtained the treasure; and when he is seized by another Venerable, the construct will dissolve into nothing, and he will only think that Venerable took it from him.
Even if he survives, he too will be mired in the chaos of information. The Holy Infant, by contrast, can step clear of it all and calmly watch the fray.
" Shen Mu sank into thought as the Heavenly Dragon palanquin rolled into the distance. "Besides the four Venerables, others will join the contest and muddle the information further. As for whose hands the eggshell ends in—that no longer matters. " Divine King Langwo looked out the window. "The fifth Venerable has made his move. After this battle, the rift among the Venerables can never be mended.
" Darkness spread across the sky; it must have been Venerable Xu who had struck.
Then the figure of a sixth Venerable appeared, joining the fight over the cat. One Venerable seized the white cat and bore it away, vanishing beyond the heavens; the other Venerables vanished one after another, surely in pursuit of him. This battle had been the one in which the Venerables openly fell out with one another.
Shen Mu withdrew his gaze. "Is the Yuan World the Ancestral Court that Sister Divine King seeks?
" Divine King Langwo likewise withdrew her gaze and shook her head.
"It is not.