Chapter 1416 — Grand Ceremony of the League, Golden Light Fills the Palaces

"Venerable Hao's confidence grows stronger by the day.

" The smile never left Shen Mu's face. "It seems Tai Su has swayed him deeply, rekindling his faith. With Tai Su's aid, he is certain he can overcome all others and seize the final victory.

" By what means Tai Su was helping him, Shen Mu did not know; yet judging by all that Tai Su had done, Venerable Hao must be paying a staggering price. "Tai Shi, you too are an ancient god, and Tai Su is an ancient god as well.

Look at what Tai Su has done — and then look at what you have done. " Shen Mu roused the egg of Tai Shi within his divine treasury and said, sick at heart, "All day long you know nothing but refining that worthless stone.

When will you lend me the kind of aid Tai Su lends Venerable Hao? " "Why not look first at Venerable Hao, and then look at yourself? " And with that single sentence, Tai Shi left Shen Mu half-choked to death.

In a muffled, booming voice, Tai Shi said, "Tai Su emerged ahead of her time; her powers end where they end.

I, however, am still growing, and one day I will surpass her by more than you could ever reckon. Besides, Tai Su helps Venerable Hao only in order to control him. You see Venerable Hao brimming with confidence now, but in truth he has little by little fallen into Tai Su's grasp. When the day of reckoning comes, he will regret it beyond recall. " Something stirred in Shen Mu's heart. "How does Tai Su control Venerable Hao?

" "Tai Su grants whatever is asked of her.

She can reforge Venerable Hao's celestial palace, help him become the first to cultivate a Heavenly Court, and even bestow upon him whatever treasures he desires. " Tai Shi said, "I once spoke with Tai Su of the powers each of us holds, and I know that she was born with — accompanying her — a supreme treasure of immense might, one that can transform into any other treasure, endlessly mutable.

But all of it comes at a price. The power Tai Su gives, she can also take back; and more than that, to borrow Tai Su's power is to grow slowly addicted, until one is controlled by her. " Shen Mu felt a chill run through him. In years past he too had obtained the divine egg of Tai Su, and felt that granting-of-every-request invade his very heart of Dao; the reason the Lapis Lazuli Azure Heaven Banner could become the foremost supreme treasure was thanks to nothing but Tai Su's divine egg! "Tai Su's supreme treasure can transform into any treasure, endlessly mutable?

" Shen Mu abruptly recalled what he had seen on the first occasion his spirit-consciousness invaded the egg of Tai Su: amid the primordial chaos qi, visions of treasures of every kind — the great bell whose walls were stamped with the myriad phenomena of heaven and earth, the great cauldron borne upon terrestrial qi with gods and living beings stamped upon its walls, and the bright mirror that shone upon the great thousand worlds!

"Can this supreme treasure transform into a creation artifact? " Shen Mu asked abruptly. Tai Shi was slightly taken aback.

"Of course it can.

" Shen Mu's eye corners twitched wildly. At last he knew whence came the confidence of Venerable Hao, whose wounds were still unhealed! It was the supreme treasure of the goddess Tai Su that could transform into creation artifacts and forge artifact-wielding Venerables! And not only artifact-wielding Venerables: it could forge the flesh of a Celestial Emperor, the flesh of the Lord of Heaven, the flesh of the Earth Lord!

This was the wellspring of Venerable Hao's confidence.

The man who possessed the most artifact-wielding Venerables was likely not Shi Qiluo — it was him!

"If I possessed such a treasure.

.

. " Shen Mu was filled with envy.

Then, suddenly coming to himself, he probed, "Did Tai Chu, the Celestial Emperor, have a supreme treasure born with him?

" Tai Shi said, "Tai Chu, the Celestial Emperor, had his accompanying supreme treasure as well.

But when he was still the adopted son of the Great Emperor, the Great Emperor took that treasure away.

Whether he later recovered it, I do not know.

" Shen Mu blinked and said carelessly, "Then does our brother Tai Yi possess such a treasure too? " "By rights, he should. " No sooner had Tai Shi said this than he realized his slip and hastily corrected himself: "Brother Tai Yi has long since transcended.

Whether or not he has a supreme treasure is beyond my knowledge.

In any case, I certainly have no—" "Then, brother Tai Shi, what is your supreme treasure?

" Shen Mu cut him off. Tai Shi laughed in alarm.

"I truly have none.

Speak no more of it. If I had such a treasure, could I still be trapped inside this eggshell?

I would have smashed my way out long ago and roamed free and easy. " "The reason you have not cracked the shell is that you must stay within the egg, waiting for me to find you more divine stones and more yuan liquid to digest.

" Shen Mu said earnestly, "What is your supreme treasure, brother?

Why not bring it out and widen my eyes?

" "I have none! " Tai Shi said angrily.

"I have not yet emerged into the world. Even if I had one, I could not bring it out for you to see! Stop scheming after me! " Shen Mu's eyes flickered.

He smiled. "So it really is hidden in the egg?

The Dao of Tai Shi is form without substance; to you, the eggshell is likewise form without substance, and your treasure is most likely form without substance as well. That being so, why not send it out and let me widen my eyes?

" Tai Shi huffed, "None means none!

If I brought it out, would you ever give it back?

I am no three-year-old child! " Shen Mu laughed heartily, thinking, "So there really is one. .

. I wonder what form the supreme treasure of this stingy ancient god takes? " The more he wondered, the more curious he grew; but Tai Shi knew him far too well, and had resolved not to let him lay eyes on the treasure.

Shen Mu had no choice but to let the matter drop. On the second day, the council of the Heavenly League at last formally opened.

The gods and sages of the myriad heavens and worlds gathered in a splendid throng, divine light soaring to the heavens, auspicious signs of every hue. The primordial spirits of the assembly rose into the air, heavenly palaces hung on high, and their primordial spirits stood towering above those palaces.

Gods great and small, of cultivation strong and weak, their primordial spirits stood before the Hall of Lingxiao, or within the Jade Capital City; and their primordial spirits were of every strange shape, each answering to the spirit-body of its race.

Unlike Jing Ping's four spirit-bodies, their spirit-bodies came in countless kinds — some in the form of ancient gods, some in the form of demon gods, and every variety besides. The gods and sages of the heavens flew up and took their seats in the air one by one, and there were countless heavenly palaces joined into a single expanse, like the most magnificent of Heavenly Courts — even the true Heavenly Court would have seemed small in that moment!

Even the grandeur of the Heavenly Court in the days of Longhan could not compare with the glory of this day! In those years the Longhan Heavenly Court was led by the ancient gods, and the ancient gods great and small numbered no more than three hundred and some, not even four hundred.

What is more, the ancient gods of that time were for the most part weaker than the lords of the heavens today; even the weakest lord of the heavens was far mightier than the lowliest ancient gods of those days. Then, above that boundless expanse of heavenly palaces, the Four Emperors and the Four Celestial Masters flew in and took their seats, each with a stretch of heavenly palaces rising behind his head — three palaces, five, more or less.