Chapter 1494 — A Standoff Between Two Venerables

Above the Ancestral Court, the Heavenly Court pressed down upon the Ancestral Court's fortune. Not long had passed since the battle of Xuandu ended: Celestial Venerable Hong was dead, Celestial Venerable Xiao had been exiled, and only Celestial Venerable Xu was left to stand guard over the Heavenly Court. Yet Celestial Venerable Xu had not remained inside it.

She had stood the whole while upon the surface of the Heavenly Sea, gazing down at the water, which was like a mirror, mirroring the fighting in Xuandu. Only when the battle of Xuandu had finally settled did she shift her gaze away and return to the Heavenly Court. Before she even arrived, she heard an uproar within, and saw the countless heavenly soldiers and generals who guarded the place searching and questioning in every direction.

Celestial Venerable Xu went up to ask, and a divine official reported in a fluster, "Grave news!

The Heavenly Court has been robbed. Thieves have come! " "What is missing? " Celestial Venerable Xu demanded at once.

"Someone broke into Jade Capital City and went into the inner palace to steal treasures!

" At that, Celestial Venerable Xu's heart tightened.

"Can it be that Celestial Venerable Mu has come to steal the Heavenly Duke's eggshell? " The divine official went on: ".

. .

They stole a divine hall! We were on patrol just now when we found that Pixiang Hall had vanished into thin air! " When Celestial Venerable Xu heard that it was not Shen Mu come to steal the Heavenly Duke's eggshell, she let out a breath of relief. But the news that Pixiang Hall had been stolen made her heart clench again. She thought, "Pixiang Hall stolen! Pixiang Hall is said to be the place where the souls of many remarkable gods and devils are suppressed. Celestial Venerable Hao and the others are close-mouthed as the grave about that hall; they never so much as mentioned to me what is imprisoned inside, only asked me to help add seals. Celestial Venerable Huo even used that hall to take away the Southern Emperor's souls, so that Celestial Venerable Mu could not revive the Southern Emperor, and broke his reputation as the Great Master of the Undying Ten Thousand Kalpas. Could Celestial Venerable Mu be the thief?

" Then doubt crept in again. Shen Mu had taken part in the battle of Xuandu; however swift he might be, he could not have raced to the Heavenly Court so soon to steal treasures.

What was more, had Shen Mu come to thieve, he would surely have gone to the altar of the Heavenly Duke Taichu's birth and made off with Taichu's eggshell. Yet this thief had left the Heavenly Duke's eggshell untouched and stolen Pixiang Hall instead, which was most peculiar.

She did not know that between Xuandu and the Yuan Realm there ran a shortcut, the Tianyin Realm. Through the Tianyin Realm one could speed from Xuandu back to the Yuan Realm, and from the Yuan Realm's Spirit-Energy Translocation Bridge set out and reach the Heavenly Court of the Ancestral Court in the shortest possible time.

Pixiang Hall had little to do with her, so Celestial Venerable Xu was not greatly alarmed. She ordered the Divine Constabulary to search rigorously, saying, "Pixiang Hall is immense. It vanished in an instant and you noticed at once, so the thief cannot have had time to leave; he must be hiding in the Heavenly Court by way of the Dao of transformation. So long as he has not left the Heavenly Court, there is no fearing his escape.

I have the Soul-Summoning Mirror here. However he transforms, one look from my mirror will force him back into his true form! " Armed with the Soul-Summoning Mirror, the Divine Constabulary searched and questioned everywhere. Celestial Venerable Xu settled in to keep watch, thinking, "They stay behind in Xuandu carving up the spoils, and I get no share of it. . . Yes.

Thieves have come to the Heavenly Court and stolen Pixiang Hall.

Then why should I not play the thief as well? " As though possessed, she slipped quietly toward the inner palace, heading straight for the altar where the Heavenly Duke had been born. "Once Taichu's eggshell is in my hand, I can simply say that the thief who stole Pixiang Hall took it too.

A treasure like this in my grasp is no less than the profits of Xuandu!

" She set off to steal the other half of Taichu's eggshell, but when she came to the altar of the Heavenly Duke's birth and looked, her hands and feet went cold all at once: that altar too was utterly empty! The other half of Taichu's eggshell had likewise vanished into thin air! "Who dares steal my treasure?

" Celestial Venerable Xu flew into a towering rage. In the Heavenly Court, someone kept transforming without cease: now a bird or a beast, now an insect or a fish; crouching by a wall he became a tender blade of grass, standing in a garden he became a flowering tree. Through a thousand transformations he made his way out of the Heavenly Court.

The Divine Constabulary activated the Soul-Summoning Mirror and shone it about, when suddenly the mirror tore free of control.

With a whoosh it floated up into the sky, its light blazing out over a vast range, and with a hum it wrapped all of Jade Capital City in its radiance!

Bristling with killing intent, Celestial Venerable Xu stood above the Soul-Summoning Mirror, watching its surface, surveying the scenes within Jade Capital City. Anyone who was using a transformation art, once caught in that mirror light, burst with a bang back into his original form! Many of the gods and devils in the Heavenly Court were alien beings who had become gods; demon cultivators and devil cultivators were thick there, and since their true looks were savage, they usually transformed themselves into something more comely.

Now, under the mirror's glare, they revealed their true bodies one after another, and Jade Capital City was truly overrun with monsters and fiends! And in the Heavenly Duke's inner palace there were no few beautiful consorts and palace maids; some were bathing, and some, lonely in the spring palace, were secretly meeting gods in licentious trysts. Caught in the mirror light, they too were thrown at once into a flurry of chaos and confusion. Cold sweat broke out on Celestial Venerable Xu's brow.

The Heavenly Court was ordinarily sacred and majestic beyond measure, but with one sweep of her mirror every shadow in it had come crawling out, beyond any hope of setting right. The chaos here was too great; even she could not, for a time, pick out which one was the thief who had stolen the Heavenly Duke's eggshell and Pixiang Hall.

And at that very moment, a youth had already leaped into the Heavenly River and transformed into a giant kun, sinking into the water at his ease and swimming out of the Heavenly Court. When he came to the Southern Heavenly Gate, the great kun gave a leap and vaulted clean over it; the divinities guarding the gate looked up and saw it, and all cried out in admiration.

The great kun plunged back into the Heavenly River with an enormous splash, and as it sank beneath the water it became a fish-dragon and slipped away unseen. How far it swam, who can say; the fish-dragon became a giant crab of the Heavenly River and scuttled sideways along, then climbed the bank. The giant crab shook the water from its shell and became a youth, who let out a long breath, took out a divine hall and looked it over, joy rising on his face, then hurriedly tucked it back into the Taotie Pouch and pressed on in haste. The youth was swift beyond measure, skimming like light over water, racing far from the Heavenly Court, meaning to follow the Heavenly River upstream toward the Heavenly Sea.

The Heavenly River rises in the Heavenly Sea, and when he had come halfway, he suddenly felt the sky growing hotter and hotter. He looked up at once, and saw a tall, towering Celestial Venerable standing before him, the fire of the Dao wheeling like a halo behind his head, his face caught between grief and joy, his gaze fixed upon him. "Huo?