Chapter 1057 — Two Thieves and One Constable Cross Blades

The Hall of Wafting Incense hung high above the Ninth Heaven of Dao Fire. This great hall was sealed under layer upon layer of talismanic script, and even when it crossed over to the Southern Pole Forbidden Zone, it remained utterly untouched by the holy fire that burned there.

It was a hall of bronze, unspeakably ancient; a million years of light and shadow had passed over it, and it wore the plainness of great age, and yet a majesty beyond measure.

The Heavenly Court's seventy-two treasure halls were likewise seventy-two artifacts of terrifying power. With this hall spanning the sky overhead, Shen Mu felt a deep, helpless weight of powerlessness.

That was a place his soul-summoning and resurrection arts could never reach.

Within the flames, the towering god walked toward Shen Mu, growing taller with every step, the blazing firelight gathering into his body.

And behind him stood a figure taller still.

Behind him stood the divine weapon, the Imperial Celestial Venerable.

The Fire Celestial Venerable was now drawing the rosy radiance of the Great Way out of the Southern Pole Forbidden Zone to swell his own strength. Having cultivated to his present stage, further advancement had long since become all but impossible.

If he wished to advance, then apart from cultivating his way up to the realm of the Heavenly Court itself, he could also draw upon the Great Way of heaven and earth that shared his own nature; and the Southern Pole Forbidden Zone, which had given birth to the Southern Emperor Vermilion Bird, was beyond question the finest treasure ground for it.

While the Southern Emperor Vermilion Bird lived, he could not seize this power by force; this was, after all, the Vermilion Bird's own nesting ground. But now that the Southern Emperor was dead, he could take all the strength here as his own.

Shen Mu watched the Fire Celestial Venerable stride out of the firelight, so tall, so towering, a figure that compelled a man to look up.

This Celestial Venerable gave him an utterly unfamiliar feeling.

"In those years, when you became a Celestial Venerable, the Four Emperors blessed you, granting you long life and enduring sight, turning ill fortune into good."

Shen Mu pressed down the wrath in his heart and said, "And now that you have killed one of those Four Emperors, is your heart glad?"

Behind the Fire Celestial Venerable's head the wheel of flame blazed ever brighter. His gaze fell upon Shen Mu, and such was his strength now that merely being looked at made Shen Mu feel as though his very primal spirit would ignite.

"The blessing of the Four Emperors was nothing if not a form of surveillance, a form of control."

The Fire Celestial Venerable said, "In truth, as early as the middle of the Longhan Era, I had already dissolved the Four Emperors' blessing. Ever since the death of the Imperial Celestial Venerable, I have understood that my fate can be held firmly only in my own two hands, and never in the hands of the ancient gods!"

He bent down to look upon Shen Mu, reached out a great hand and clenched it hard before Shen Mu's face, and said coldly, "The Imperial Celestial Venerable hoped that the ancient gods could live as equals with the human tribes and the later-born living beings. He trusted the ancient gods simply, without guile, and that is why he died! In all the years I followed that elder brother, the one thing I learned was this: you must never trust the ancient gods. Any ancient god. Never!"

He straightened up and said indifferently, "Celestial Venerable Mu, you are fortunate. Once you had won the title of Celestial Venerable, you simply left; you never received the blessing of the ancient gods. Of the Celestial Venerables who did receive such a blessing, how many came to a good end? You were lucky. You never lived through the suffering of the Longhan Era. I did. The Four Emperors blessed me for no reason but to control me. I resisted; I killed the Southern Emperor, one of those Four. Surely that is only right?"

His gaze turned grim. "I know why you have come. You want to use the power of the ancient gods; you want to stand against the Heavenly Court. But have you never considered that the Four Emperors of old were themselves fearsome beings who accepted the blood-and-flesh sacrifices of the later-born? This age is better by far than that one!"

Shen Mu said woodenly, "So long as one does not resist?"

"Yes. So long as one does not resist!"

The Fire Celestial Venerable went on absorbing the rosy radiance of the Great Way from the Southern Pole Forbidden Zone, and declared loudly, "So long as no one resists the Heavenly Court, so long as no one stirs up any of this so-called reformation, everyone may live. As a Celestial Venerable of the human tribes, I can protect you all! If the Imperial Celestial Venerable were still alive, he would surely be proud of what I have achieved!"

The corner of Shen Mu's eye twitched. "Fire Celestial Venerable, you have lived in the Heavenly Court too long. You have not seen the state of the people who live in the various Heavens and in the Yuan Realm. Every time gods and demons descend to the lower world for blood-and-flesh sacrifice, what are the offerings if not the human tribes? Not resisting does not let a people live. At best it lets a portion of those with power and wealth live!"

"It is already far better than the ancient age."

The Fire Celestial Venerable bent low again, flames burning in his eyes, and the breath that issued from his mouth became a raging sea of fire that swept past Shen Mu's side. "The future will be better still. I now have the strength to protect the human tribes. I am not like the other Celestial Venerables of the human race! The Cloud Celestial Venerable was defeated and destroyed; the Moon Celestial Venerable withdrew into seclusion; the Ling Celestial Venerable knew no flexibility and died with no ground to bury him; the You Celestial Venerable knows only to wallow in self-pity, hiding away in the You Capital; the Shen Celestial Venerable knows only to defy Heaven, and when he failed he tucked in his head and his tail and dared not show himself again. Only I!"

"Celestial Venerable Mu, I alone have spent mind and strength for the human tribes, seeking for them a chance to live! For that chance I can work with the men who disgust me most; for that chance I can keep up empty courtesies with every other cunning sort! For that chance I must borrow their strength to root out the ancient gods, to wipe out every ancient god!"

He extended his palm toward Shen Mu and said earnestly, "Stop the reformation. Do not make things difficult for me in the Heavenly Court. Come to the Heavenly Court and lend me your strength. You are Celestial Venerable Mu, the mighty one who once beat me; I know your talents. With our hands joined, that finer age will come all the sooner! And then we shall divide power with the Heavenly Court; we shall shelter the human tribes, and they will be used as offerings no more!"

Shen Mu did not take his hand. He stared at that palm and said with a half-smile, "You want the human tribes to live on, even if they must live on their knees, even if a portion of them are sacrificed to flatter the gods and demons. And I too have a dream. In my dream, people live standing on their feet, and kneel to no one."

"In my dream, every person may give full play to their talents; people may become one of the gods, may command the courses of the heavens, may turn the Great Way of heaven and earth to human use. And they may also pursue no power at all. One may read, and become a God of Books; one may paint, and become a God of Painting; one may do the things one loves, and be named a god in the field one excels in."

"I want them to live in dignity, to live in sufficiency, and so to pursue their own dreams, and not, as you would have it, to muddle along with no thought but survival."