Chapter 1048 — The Crown Prince Escapes the Siege

For now he had only confirmed the Ancestral Court's approximate location; of its seals he still knew nothing. There remained also the precise spatial and geographic data of the Four Pole Heavens, Xuandu, and the Guixu Abyss, as well as the detailed dimensional coordinates of the Longhan Heavenly Court before its sundering—all of which he must likewise ascertain. Only then could he pinpoint the Ancestral Court's position with accuracy. The spatial geography of the Four Pole Heavens, Xuandu, and the Abyss could be obtained from the spirit-energy translocation bridge's data.

The translocation bridge had been designed by Shen Mu and the Black Tiger God together; since it required different spatial-geographic data to connect different worlds, acquiring such data posed no difficulty whatsoever for Shen Mu.

Only the Guixu Abyss, he feared, had never yet been linked by a spirit-energy translocation bridge—and even if one existed, it would be in the hands of the Empress Dowager and Yuanmu.

Still, Shen Mu had once been to the Guixu Abyss; he need only go again to fix its spatial dimensions. The sole difficulty lay in determining the original altitude of the Longhan Heavenly Court. On this point he had no precise data.

Once the Ancestral Court's exact position was established, he could—leaving all else aside—construct a grand spatial teleportation array and transmit himself directly into the Ancestral Court. "No wonder Youming, the Grand Crown Prince of the Northern Emperor Xuanwu, said he had seen me in the Longhan era.

I must have gone to measure the Heavenly Court's altitude. " Shen Mu's expression turned peculiar.

He thought: "Then when did I go to the Longhan Heavenly Court?

Who were the man and woman who stole the Azure Heaven Banner from the Xuanwu Heavenly Palace?

. .

. But the reverse side of the Heavenly Court is also part of the Ancestral Court's seal—why has the Heavenly Court moved upward?

If the Heavenly Court has shifted, does that not mean the seal has a flaw? " He was about to study in detail the consequences of the Heavenly Court's upward displacement when the Heavenly Dragon's voice came again from outside the carriage: "Heavenly Worthy, the Martial Emperor leads the host to welcome you! " "No time now. Once I leave the Northern Pole Heaven, I shall calculate the consequences of the Heavenly Court's ascent! " Shen Mu wasted no further thought, dispersed the Vast Cosmic Star Map, and said with a smile: "Dragon Fatty, Yan'er, come with me to meet the Martial Emperor!

" The jeweled carriage halted. He stepped out and saw before him the other half of the Xuanwu Heavenly Palace, where the Martial Emperor had already led a great company of goddess officials to wait.

The Martial Emperor bore none of the seductress's airs that Emperor Xuan had spoken of; on the contrary, she seemed far more upright and far more majestic than Emperor Xuan.

This woman wore an imperial robe of interwoven red and black, embroidered with a pattern of peonies wafting fragrance, among whose blossoms a soaring serpent coiled in a pose of rearing flight. Her brows were like spread goose-feather plumes, a dot of cinnabar at the center of her brow, her thin lips lightly powdered—and she did not, as Emperor Xuan had claimed, come forward to give Shen Mu a show of authority.

Instead she greeted him with measured grace, wholly at ease, and said: "Heavenly Worthy Mu. " Shen Mu hurriedly stepped from the carriage and returned the salute: "Elder Sister Martial Emperor.

" The Martial Emperor could not suppress a smile. "They say Heavenly Worthy Mu calls every woman he meets 'elder sister. ' Seeing you today, it is indeed so. " Shen Mu said gravely: "It is not always so.

" The Martial Emperor gave an "oh? " Shen Mu continued: "When I meet a beautiful woman, I cannot help but call her elder sister. Just now, seeing the Martial Emperor, I involuntarily fell into the habit and blurted it out without thinking.

This mouth of mine is more honest than my heart.

" The Martial Emperor laughed aloud and shook her head: "Brother Mu is an honest man. Honest men are rare among men these days.

Nothing like that blockhead of mine—he cannot even manage a sweet word, and every day he only knows how to anger me.

Two sentences with him and I am choking on a bellyful of spite. " Shen Mu said with a smile: "Brother-in-law is an honest man too; he is merely clumsy of speech and finds it hard to express his feelings. " The Dragon Qilin silently praised him: "The Sect Master truly knows how to talk. Before Emperor Xuan he called the Martial Emperor 'Sister-in-law,' and before the Martial Emperor he calls Emperor Xuan 'Brother-in-law'—both in the tone of a true younger brother.

Since reading my Classic of Raising Men, his skills have grown greater and greater; he shows every sign of the student surpassing the master! " "Enough of him. " The Martial Emperor invited him in with a smile: "Let us talk inside. " She glanced at the Dragon Qilin and Yan'er, surprise in her eyes: "Could this be the Princess of the Vermilion Bird clan?

" Yan'er hastily made her salute: "Yan'er greets Auntie.

" The Martial Emperor was most affectionate toward her, stepping forward to take Yan'er's hand. She said with a smile: "When you were small, I held you in my arms. Later your mother hardened her heart and gave you away. By the way, you came from the Eastern Pole Heaven—have you seen your father?

" Yan'er's face fell.

The Martial Emperor understood, and said with a smile: "The Eastern Emperor has many offspring; perhaps he did not recall having such a princess as you.

" Shen Mu ventured: "Elder Sister Martial Emperor, when I came to the Northern Pole Heaven I happened upon your son Youming.

I saw him laboring bitterly in the freezing cold, bearing a divine mountain on his back.

So I descended to ask, and learned he had committed a fault and been punished by you and your honored husband—for six hundred thousand years. I could not help but pity him, and could not hold back my tears. .

.

" The Martial Emperor sneered: "He lost the Azure Heaven Banner—he deserves it! That Azure Heaven Banner was forged from the lifelong savings of myself and that blockhead, and he went and lost it.

Careless and negligent—he ought to have a lesson! " Shen Mu nodded repeatedly: "He ought indeed to be taught a lesson. But a child is mischievous; once he knows the lesson, that should suffice. To speak frankly, I went just now to see Brother-in-law and raised the matter with him as well, hoping to plead for nephew Youming. Instead, Brother-in-law flew into a rage and ordered men to take up whips and go—and rewarded nephew Youming with ninety-nine lashes!

" The Martial Emperor exploded with fury: "You pleaded for him, and that blockhead not only refused but beat my son instead? That old thing is an expert at civil war and a fool at foreign war! If not for me, a woman, managing affairs outside, bustling about, running east and west, he would not have scraped together even half of this Northern Pole Heaven—he would long ago be lying in the Heavenly River drinking the northwest wind!

And now he is quite the hand at beating his own son! " Shen Mu sighed: "Elder Sister, calm your anger. Nephew Youming already knows his fault, and he has taken the whip besides—it is time to let him escape his misfortune. Otherwise, if Brother-in-law thinks of it again one day and rewards him with a few more lashes, what then? " The Martial Emperor summoned a palace maid and said: "Take my handwritten order and go.

Release the Crown Prince and have him come to me. He is not to follow his good-for-nothing father! His father has not a scrap of promise in him; whenever anything happens he pulls his four limbs into his turtle shell and tucks his tail in too, and pushes me, a woman, out to shoulder the burden! Following his father, he will be just as worthless! Go quickly, go quickly!