Chapter 1099 — Desperate Straits, Doubtful of Any Way Out
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 1 of 3
"Just who was the first to take possession of the Heavenly Emperor's body?
" Shen Mu was so shaken that his divine sense nearly winked out of existence.
Who had seized the Heavenly Emperor's body after his death was an old unsolved case in history, and of those who knew that secret there were precious few.
Suddenly Shen Mu saw a figure flicker within the Heavenly Court, still ahead of Cloud Venerable and Hao Venerable.
"Can it be the Great Emperor?
" Shen Mu's heart went cold. So far as he knew, the ten Venerables of later ages had in truth numbered eleven: one of the Great Emperor's souls had taken up a reincarnated body, slipped into the highest ranks of the Heavenly Alliance, and become a Venerable.
It was he who, at the close of the Shanghuang era, had taken possession of the Heavenly Emperor's body and murdered Ling Venerable by stealth.
Could this one, who had rushed into the Heavenly Court ahead of Cloud and Hao, be the Great Emperor's reincarnated body?
Just then Shen Mu caught sight of Divine King Gong Yun; this Creator divine king, following hard upon the heels of Cloud Venerable and Hao Venerable, came riding the wind, passed Shen Mu and the others by, and forced her way into the Heavenly Court. Divine King Gong Yun's divine sense burst forth, and every deity of the Heavenly Court who met her sank into the illusion realm of her divine sense; not one of them could escape.
Even the Great Sun Star Lord, leading the orthodox star gods of the whole heaven, fell into the illusion and knew not where they stood.
Her coming threw the gods of the Heavenly Court into a panic, yet the instant her divine sense went forth the panic subsided; all of them, as though they could not see her at all, let her charge straight into the Jade Capital City and make straight for Lingxiao Hall.
Plainly, Divine King Gong Yun had likewise set her eyes on the body of the ancient god, the Heavenly Emperor. "Gong Yun is a primordial divine king; as things stand, Cloud Venerable and the rest are no match for her.
If they break into Lingxiao Hall, it will likely be Gong Yun who controls the Heavenly Emperor's body.
Yet in this scramble of theirs, I fear they will run into another soul of the Heavenly Emperor. " Shen Mu's mind raced. That other soul of the Heavenly Emperor had surely already reincarnated, and that person was none other than Xiao Venerable of later ages.
"Could Xiao be in the Heavenly Court as well?
A cunning rabbit keeps three burrows. Lady Yuanmu may have turned herself into Jue Wuchen, but she must covet the Heavenly Emperor's body; and perhaps even the Empress Consort, whom she murdered by stealth, has become another Venerable and hides in the Heavenly Court at this very moment, ready to snatch the Heavenly Emperor's flesh. " Shen Mu was gasping for breath, his head somewhat muddled.
Once he had thought it all too simple; now it seemed that the battle for the Emperor was far more tangled than he had ever guessed.
"In the Jingping era the ten Venerables of the Heavenly Court bickered and held one another in check, controlling the false body of the Heavenly Emperor together; that tradition must have taken shape in the middle and late Longhan era," he thought.
The struggle over the Heavenly Emperor's body within Lingxiao Hall would not be his to witness; he grieved for it, but that stretch of history was already fixed. The Longhan Heavenly Court was about to meet a great upheaval, and that was what he awaited.
After the Heavenly Emperor's death the spheres of influence would be redrawn; to hold the four ancient god emperors steady, the Heavenly Court would be divided, each returning to its own ancestral land.
And the Heavenly Court would rise ever higher, quitting the Yuan Realm, so that no one could ever again find the exact whereabouts of the ancestral shrine.