Chapter 1087 — The Emperor Tries to Cleave the Ancient Divine Egg
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 1 of 5
Shen Mu arrived at the Vermilion Bird Heaven Palace, but the Vermilion Bird, the Southern Emperor, was not there. The deity who guarded the palace gate said, "After the great upheaval, the Southern Emperor went out. She said she was going to visit the Northern Emperor, the Eastern Emperor, and the others."
Shen Mu frowned deeply, and asked that deity for brush, ink, paper, and inkstone. He wrote a letter and handed it to the gatekeeper, saying, "When the Southern Emperor returns, give her this letter, and tell her that her younger brother came here, and that she is to act as the letter instructs."
The deity put the letter away.
Before long, the theft at Zhaoyang Hall came to light, and the Heavenly Emperor was enraged. He ordered the Great Sun Star Lord to lead the true gods of all the stars of heaven to seal off the Heavenly Court and interrogate every soul within it, sparing not even the heavenly palaces of the Four Emperors.
Tubo, the Heavenly Duke, the Earth Mother, Tianyin, and the Empress's sisters all had heavenly palaces in the Heavenly Court, yet the Heavenly Emperor ordered them searched as well.
The Heavenly Court's net of heaven and earth spread wide, and dense threads of light drifted everywhere in the sky, chains of light formed by the laws of the Great Dao. Under such circumstances, it was all but impossible to leave the Heavenly Court.
"I wonder whether matter from the past can be carried into the future?"
Shen Mu pondered. By the rule that matter does not change, matter from the past could indeed be brought into the future, though he was not entirely certain of it.
Just then the heavenly soldiers and generals were about to search this place, and Shen Mu made his decision on the spot. He put out the lantern.
After the tumult in the Heavenly Court had subsided, and some time had passed, the Southern Emperor, having visited the other three of the ancient god emperors, returned to the Vermilion Bird Heaven Palace.
The deity who guarded the palace gate presented the letter, smiling. "Your Majesty, a youth with thick brows and big eyes came carrying a lantern, and claimed to be your younger brother. Strange as it is, he left a letter for you. He had no brush or ink of his own; he had to beg them from our Vermilion Bird Palace."
"My younger brother? Carrying a lantern?"
Suspicious, the Southern Emperor took the letter and walked into the palace, thinking, "The Northern Emperor and those two old foxes spoke truly. The Heavenly Emperor first ordered the Twenty-Eight Mansions to take our places and rule the Four Extremes Heavens. Now the Twenty-Eight Mansions are dead at Tubo's hand, and the Four Extremes Heavens have no god to keep order. Sooner or later, disorder is bound to break out there. And when it does, that will be our chance, the chance for us Four Emperors to return to the Four Extremes Heavens!"
She sat in the nest within the Vermilion Bird Palace. Her crimson robes spread over the whole of the nest; everywhere that gorgeous vermilion seemed to leap like flame, and it made her look very fair.
The Southern Emperor set the letter aside and thought, "The Heavenly Emperor built heavenly palaces for us, the four ancient god emperors. It looks like kindness, but in truth he has stripped away every shred of our power and penned us up in the Heavenly Court like prisoners! To leave this place, there must be a great upheaval, an upheaval greater than Achou Tubo's charge against the Heavenly Court!"
"The sky is high and the emperor is far away. Once I return to the Four Extremes Heavens, I shall be free and easy, no longer caged within the Heavenly Court."
Her face was full of care. Where would an upheaval greater than Achou Tubo's rampage through the Heavenly Palace come from?
After a while she gave a faint, long sigh, picked up Shen Mu's letter, and saw that it bore a seal, and that the seal was the mark of a Vermilion Bird.