Chapter 1292 — The Youth Meets Taichu
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 2 of 3
"Hao Tianzun is no man of empty reputation either. For Taisu to control him would be difficult!"
Shen Mu's eyes flickered. He ventured: "Then what does Brother Taishi think — is the Dao-realm system of the Thirty-Six Heavens a perfect system?"
Taishi in the Egg chuckled: "How could a perfect system exist in this world? Were it perfect, how would Lord Mu Tianzun, Great Patriarch Shen, carry out his reforms?"
Shen Mu laughed aloud, but inwardly he was on guard: "This Taishi is a wily old stick who has been rolled through the frying pan time and again and fished out to sit overnight! Not a drop leaks from his words."
"Back then, when Brother Taishi and Brother Taisu conversed within the egg, what was it you spoke of?" he asked offhandedly.
Offhanded as it seemed, Shen Mu was in truth deeply uneasy about the matter.
Taishi and Taisu had exchanged words and secret counsels more than once, and the instant Shen Mu's divine consciousness drew near, they had promptly fallen silent.
"That matter..."
Taishi in the Egg chuckled: "Nothing but trifles. I told her how Taichu had imprisoned me; she told me how she was nearly refined by Emperor Xuanwu; we discussed how to deal with Taichu and Xuanwu, and take our revenge."
Shen Mu did not believe a word of it, but since Taishi in the Egg was unwilling to say more, it was not fitting for him to press.
Taishi in the Egg proposed: "Even with nine palaces restored, Hao Tianzun is more than you can contend with. Better that we return to the Ancestral Court and lie low for a time. The Taishi ore vein in the Ancestral Court is in the hands of Consort Yan; Consort Yan is in the Celestial Court. Let us seize the moment to attack the Taishi ore vein and take that woman's territory! Whatever we gain, we split fifty-fifty!"
Shen Mu did not know whether to laugh or cry. This ancient god Taishi had grown far too worldly — he was a being of the same order as the Celestial Emperor Taichu, and the Celestial Emperor Taichu would never utter such a thing.
"I still have a younger brother in the Void, and I must find him."
Shen Mu smiled: "Fifty-fifty — I will remember it. Rest assured: once I find my brother, I will leave this place of trouble and set out for the Ancestral Court."
The ancient god in the egg was silent a moment, then said: "Fifty-fifty was a joke. Do not take it to heart."
The Dark Capital of the Void, the Dark City.
Hao Tianzun's wounds grew ever lighter. He opened his eyes, struggled to his feet, turned, and bowed in thanks: "My thanks to you, fellow Daoist."
He raised his head, saw the woman's face, and his expression abruptly went blank, a trace of infatuation in his gaze.
The woman standing behind him — her brows and eyes and features bore a certain resemblance to Lady Yuanmu.
"Whatever is asked is granted; whatever the heart desires comes to pass. Whoever is in your heart, you will see her likeness in me."
The woman named Taisu smiled: "Only when you no longer harbor that thought in your heart will you see my true face."
Hao Tianzun closed his eyes. When he opened them again and looked at Taisu, her appearance had changed.
In his eyes, Taisu was no longer the likeness of Lady Yuanmu, but a strange woman, proud and cold, with a light behind her head — having form and substance yet not yet a body, its radiance dark as kohl, shifting between the real and the unreal.
The laughter Hao Tianzun had heard before was not this woman's laughter, but the laughter of his own heart.
In truth, the goddess Taisu had never laughed.
The form of this ancient god was already beyond the grasp of ordinary folk.