Chapter 1411 — The Heavenly Dao Is Unfathomable
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 1 of 4
"A punitive expedition against Lord Heaven?
" Shen Mu's heart lurched.
Was Lord Heaven going to die? By Lord Heaven's own reckoning, to fully unravel his Heavenly Dao would take a hundred years at the very least, and barely more than twenty had passed!
Why were the Ten Heavenly Venerables so eager to be rid of him?
"Lord Heaven himself must be fanning these flames!
" Shen Mu's eyes flickered. Not long ago, Lord Heaven and Tu Bo had journeyed to the Hundred Thousand Black Mountains to call upon Tai Yi, and now the Ten Heavenly Venerables had hauled the matter of condemning Lord Heaven before the Alliance Council. Venerable Hong was surely pushing it forward in silence.
For Venerable Hong was Lord Heaven. Lord Heaven had asked Tai Yi whether he might break free of the Heavenly Dao's shackles, and Tai Yi had told him: You will succeed.
Doubtless it was those words that gave Lord Heaven his confidence, and so he had moved his own death forward of his own accord!
As for the other Heavenly Venerables, because they had driven the forces of Carefree Land and the Creator into the Far Shore Void, the two sides now faced one another across the Void Bridge. The Void Bridge was a death-ground, easy to hold and hard to storm; the Heavenly Court could not force its way into the Far Shore Void in a moment, but by the same token the Far Shore Void could not retake the Void Bridge. The two sides were locked in stalemate. Since the forces of Carefree Land and the Creator could no longer threaten the Heavenly Court, the Ten Heavenly Venerables had their hands free to deal with Lord Heaven with all their strength!
"And as for making me carry the blame, that is a chance to drag me aboard the Ten Heavenly Venerables' pirate ship. " A smile hung on Shen Mu's face, but in his heart he thought: "To eliminate Lord Heaven, to eliminate Tu Bo, to eliminate the three emperors of the ancient gods, to uproot every ancient god—even to do away with the Ancient God Heavenly Emperor in name—the Ten Heavenly Venerables need a man to carry the blame.
That scapegoat must be weighty enough; they will not shoulder it themselves, and I, founder of the Heavenly Alliance, of no great strength and no great following, am precisely suited to the part.
" Only by declaring the condemnation of Lord Heaven at this Alliance Council could Shen Mu board their pirate ship and become one who shared in the spoils of the Ancestral Court and of what lay behind it. And moreover, those orders would be issued by Shen Mu himself, and so a handle would fall into the hands of the Ten Heavenly Venerables. If in days to come Shen Mu proved disobedient, the mere title of slayer of Lord Heaven and Tu Bo would suffice to doom Shen Mu and all his forces to death with no ground left to bury their bones. In this way Shen Mu would be reckoned to have joined the Ten Heavenly Venerables' camp, becoming one of them. The Ten Heavenly Venerables had failed to bend Venerable Shen Kaihuang and force him to their side, but by threat and by lure they could force Venerable Mu to join them.
To share in the spoils—very well, but the precondition was that he must become a man like them! "So then.
.
. " Shen Mu smiled.
"Divine Emperor, what other great matters are there at this Alliance Council?
" Seeing him still so calm and composed, the Divine Emperor Langxuan could not help but admire the depths of his mind. "The third matter is this: Crown Prince Mingya has betrayed the Heavenly Court and gone over to Xie Wuqi, wreaking havoc in Youdu.
Therefore the Crown Prince is to be deposed and a new Crown Prince installed.
" Shen Mu's brows lifted.
"A new Crown Prince?
Then this new Crown Prince is Venerable Hao? " The Divine Emperor Langxuan said with feeling, "Though Venerable Hao has never been granted any official standing, these years he has labored tirelessly for the Heavenly Court, and he is a son of His Majesty the Heavenly Emperor. That he should be raised to Crown Prince is only natural.