Chapter 1099 — Desperate Straits, Doubtful of Any Way Out
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 2 of 3
Earth Mother Yuanjun, freed from the Heavenly Court's suppression, would grow ever mightier, until at last in the Shanghuang era she could no longer hold her ambition in check, and had her son found the Northern Shanghuang Heavenly Court and proclaim himself emperor.
All of this was the fruit of today's battle.
Cloud Venerable and Hao Venerable had already broken into Lingxiao Hall, the Great Emperor's reincarnated body was ahead of them still, and Divine King Gong Yun had reached the outside of Lingxiao Hall as well. Suddenly a vast palm came from nowhere, striking from within the hall toward the outside.
At the sight of that palm Shen Mu felt at once that it could command the blue heavens, command the earth, command countless worlds.
The palm struck out from within Lingxiao Hall, still immeasurably far from where he stood, yet the impression it gave him was one of overwhelming awe, as though heaven and earth and the ten thousand daos lay wholly within the grasp of that hand. The Heavenly Emperor's hand.
The palm was aimed at Divine King Gong Yun and caught her utterly off guard; this goddess king who had swept through the primordial age, the wife of the Great Emperor, burst asunder with a thunderous crash without so much as a grunt.
"I—" Shen Mu nearly ground his teeth to splinters.
The whole purpose of his journey had been to find Divine King Gong Yun and have her heal the wound to his divine sense; who would have thought that some Venerable, he knew not which, had taken command of the Heavenly Emperor's body and with a single blow taken her life. Cold sweat poured down his brow.
"It cannot be the Great Emperor's doing," he thought.
"The Heavenly Emperor loved Gong Yun once, and would have left her body whole. Then who could have done such a thing?
Cloud Venerable?
Hao Venerable? Or Lady Yuanmu?
" The Heavenly Emperor's hand, dripping with blood, was drawn back; from within Lingxiao Hall came shout upon shout of fury, no doubt the Venerables who had entered contending against one another, each striving to hold the Heavenly Emperor's body in his own grasp. That the Heavenly Emperor's body had destroyed Gong Yun with a single blow only made them the more resolved to have it. With Divine King Gong Yun dead, the gods of the Heavenly Court whom her illusion had held woke one after another; the Great Sun Star Lord at once gathered the orthodox star gods of the whole heaven and searched in every direction, crying in a stern voice: "All of you, pull yourselves together!
The rebel traitor may yet have accomplices! Loose the Howling Celestial Hounds!
" Countless divine beings in the sky let slip the chains in their hands, and one after another the black hounds with slim waists and long legs leapt down from the cloud layers, came to the shattered remains of Divine King Gong Yun, and sniffed all about.
Then the Howling Celestial Hounds bounded off swift as the wind and searched everywhere. The Heavenly Court was in chaos, and at this moment Ancestor God King, Moon Venerable, Ling Venerable, Langxuan God Emperor and the rest arrived at flying speed, shook off the Great Sun Star Lord who pursued them, and made straight for Lingxiao Hall. Yan'er, Long Qilin and the others had already slipped into the Heavenly Court, and seeing Divine King Gong Yun struck dead by a single palm from the Heavenly Emperor, they too felt ice run through them.
"Young Master," Yan'er said, her voice trembling, "what do we do now? " Shen Mu pondered, and was about to speak, when all at once a palace maid came toward them, her gaze somewhat dull; she came up before Yan'er and spoke to the halo behind Yan'er's head: "My body is dead, and the Great Sun Star Lord means to hunt me out and put me to death for good.
" Yan'er and Long Qilin started in fright.
"You are Divine King Gong Yun? " they blurted.