Chapter 1617 — Tumult Among the Myriad Heavens

"The Celestial Master who oversees the Heavenly Court's finances must be in a dreadful fix by now. " Long Qilin caught up with him. "What if the Heavenly Court abolishes the heavenly coins and replaces them with a new currency? " "If the Heavenly Court abolishes the heavenly coins, it cripples its own power. " Shen Mu said unhurriedly, "Then the Dafeng coins could seize the moment to rise, swallow whole the heavens that circulate heavenly coins, and take their place as the new currency. And so the Heavenly Court can neither let the heavenly coins flood the market nor abolish them.

" Long Qilin pondered for a long while. "Then the Heavenly Court could abolish the spirit-energy translocation bridges and sever all trade with Jingping and the newly rising heavens. " Shen Mu smiled.

"To put down the chaos across the myriad heavens, the Heavenly Court must keep buying goods from Jingping.

How could trade be severed so easily? The very moment Madam Yuanmu hauled the spirit-energy translocation bridges to the Heavenly Court, the chaos in the myriad heavens was already fated!

" Long Qilin's face showed admiration.

The spirit-energy translocation bridge was a concept Shen Mu had proposed and, together with the Black Tiger God, brought to completion—a singular innovation.

It was also Shen Mu who had brought the translocation bridge to the Heavenly Court, where it fell into the hands of Madam Yuanmu, then Master of the Zaofu Palace, who spread it throughout the myriad heavens. Madam Yuanmu had surely never imagined that this translocation bridge would become a weapon to shake the very foundation of the Heavenly Court's rule! When she had promoted the translocation bridges, it was only to secure the Heavenly Court's rule over the myriad heavens.

"Then the Heavenly Court has nothing left but to resort to force to prolong its own life. " Long Qilin thought for a moment.

"The Heavenly Court possesses supreme martial might," he said. "It stations troops throughout the myriad heavens, and it still commands the most powerful force in the entire cosmos. If the Heavenly Court turns its weapons on Jingping. .

. " "That is precisely what I fear. " Shen Mu stepped into the spirit-energy translocation bridge and made his way back toward Jingping. "If Jingping, Carefree Township, and the newly rising heavens join forces, their strength still falls short of the Heavenly Court's, but they already have the power to deter it.

Kaihuang, Langwan, Ling Tianzun, Yue Tianzun, Yun Tianzun, You Tianzun, and myself, along with Tianyin, the Azure Dragon, the Black Tortoise, the White Tiger, Gongsun Yan, and the Ming and Chi Emperors—at the level of our highest combatants, we can already mutually deter the Heavenly Court. But at the middle and lower ranks, we remain far inferior.

The Heavenly Court need only tie down our high-level fighters and Jingping can still be easily destroyed.

Only if the alliance of the myriad heavens collapses will there be any chance of resisting the Heavenly Court.

And yet Youdu is about to fall into the Heavenly Court's hands. . .

" He frowned tightly again.

If Youdu fell into the Heavenly Court's hands, there truly would be no hope of turning the situation around! If the Earl of Earth could grant him another hundred years, perhaps things would not be so urgent, so fraught with difficulty. What a pity. . . "Fat Dragon, go back. Go to the Beast Realm. " Shen Mu stepped out of the spirit-energy translocation bridge. "Once you reach the Beast Realm, manage things carefully, and be on your guard against your foster father, Long Xiao.

Long Xiao is not reliable—he is a reed that bends with every wind.

If in the future he betrays the pact between us, you must have means at hand to meet the unforeseen.

" "Rest assured, Master.

I have cultivated at your side until now and learned a great many things.

I will not disgrace your name! " Long Qilin transformed into human form and rose, cupping his fist and bowing. Shen Mu embraced him firmly. A vortex of dark light appeared in the sky, revealing the vast and boundless lands of the Beast Realm.

Long Qilin's form slowly rose and vanished into the vortex. The vortex vanished.

Shen Mu withdrew his gaze and walked into Gongsun Yan's Earthly Virtue Heavenly Palace.

In the Wendao Academy of the Earthly Virtue Heavenly Palace, Langwan and Yue Tianzun were already waiting, trading idle words now and then. Ling Tianzun sat to one side, leafing through the academy's texts, paying the others no heed at all.

Kaihuang, meanwhile, was reading the *Sword Codex* compiled by Lizheng and other sword-path masters of Jingping.

Lizheng stood to one side, quietly awaiting his guidance. When Shen Mu arrived, Kaihuang raised a sword-like brow, his gaze lifting from the *Sword Codex* and settling on Shen Mu. Shen Mu touched his own face.

"Have I grown better looking than before? " he asked, surprised.

"No.

Ugly as ever.

" Kaihuang lowered his head and went on reading the *Sword Codex*, though the corner of his mouth twitched.

His eyes were on the exquisite sword-path arts within the Codex, but his thoughts drifted unbidden to what had befallen him in the Jade Capital of the Ancestral Court.

That day, he had followed an old woman across sixteen chaos rivers to the Miluo Palace standing above the great calamity of the First Universe's destruction, and there he had entered the Chaos Hall. There he had met the Seventh Young Master—a Seventh Young Master weathered by time and brimming with wisdom, a Seventh Young Master who left him so shocked he could not speak.

The Seventh Young Master, Shen Mu.