Chapter 1640 — Disciples of the Mystic Sect

"Give him the least scrap of hope, and he will pull himself together again — even if that hope is so faint as to be no hope at all."

The Great Brahma Heaven King Buddha said, "That is the kind of man he is; he lets no hope slip past him. Ling Tianzun, what happened earlier?"

Ling Tianzun said, "Earlier, he had already made ready to bear brambles and beg forgiveness — to go to the Heavenly Court, kneel, and concede defeat, imploring Hao Tianzun to preserve the human race."

The Dao Ancestor and the Great Brahma Heaven King Buddha fell silent.

Had he not been driven to the last extremity, a man like Shen Mu would never in this world have made such a move.

The pressure Shen Mu had faced was too great — great enough to crush him!

What weighed on him most was not Kaihuang's death; Kaihuang's death was only the fuse. What mattered most was the fall of Youdu.

The loss of Youdu was what crushed him!

"Mu Tianzun, the Heavenly Court's armies may perhaps be held off for ten years, even several decades. But what of Hao Tianzun, Huo Tianzun and the rest coming against us in person?"

The Dao Ancestor asked, "How are they to be withstood?"

Shen Mu sank once more into thought. Granny Zhu shot the Dao Ancestor a furious glare. The Dao Ancestor flushed with embarrassment and asked the Great Brahma Heaven King Buddha, "Should I not have asked?"

The Great Brahma Heaven King Buddha said, "It should be asked, only not now. Since it has been asked, you need not weigh it on your heart. Benefactor Si's heart is simply that of a mother overfond of her child."

The Dao Ancestor praised him: "The White-browed Monk is thoroughly versed in the ways of the world."

In the Wendao Court, Shen Mu was pacing again; for seven or eight days on end he walked without pause, pondering countermeasure after countermeasure.

"Has Yuchenzi returned?"

He suddenly asked in a loud voice, "Yuchenzi!"

Yuchenzi had only just come back to the Wendao Court; he ran up, short of breath, and said, "What are the Imperial Preceptor of Jingping's orders?"

"I will write a letter of surrender, to be submitted to Hao Tianzun, declaring that I am willing to capitulate."

Shen Mu spoke swiftly: "You will carry my letter of surrender into the Heavenly Court and deliver it to Hao Tianzun. On this errand, you may die."

Yuchenzi said gravely, "To die for the state is fitting. I am willing to offer up my head for Jingping."

Shen Mu took up the brush; Yuchenzi ground the ink.

Shen Mu was about to set brush to paper, and then stopped.

Yuchenzi was puzzled. He saw Shen Mu slowly gathering his spirit, growing ashen as though dead within, every hope extinguished; two streams of tears fell first, and when he set down the brush its tip trembled twice, as though he were choking back sobs.

Then his brush began to move, writing on the paper words of surrender to Hao Tianzun — earnest in phrasing, yet within that earnestness there lurked unwillingness, a will to stake everything, even life itself, for the safety of the human race, a resolve to be shattered jade rather than a whole tile.

Yet then he lowered his posture again, saying, "Your Majesty is honored as Heavenly Emperor, and I too am honored as a Tianzun; that I should lead such ministers as Ling, Yue, You and Taishi to surrender cannot be done rashly."

In his words he earnestly begged the Heavenly Emperor Hao to send envoys, to discuss the transfer of power between the two sides and the concrete particulars of the surrender; and his language betrayed, too, a lingering attachment to power: "I would ask for a corner of land as a place of retirement, and there, leading its people, I would cast a golden image of Your Majesty and pray and bow before it day and night."

He went on to speak of Jingping's holdings as a man reciting his family treasures: what each supervisory workshop could produce, which workshops could be handed over to the Heavenly Court, which he hoped to keep for himself; he spoke of the provinces under Jingping, the heavens under its sway, what treasures those heavens yielded, how many Heavenly Coins filled Jingping's treasury, how many each province held, and so on and so forth.

Reading along, Yuchenzi shook his head.

Shen Mu had lowered himself too far; there was a hint of fawning in it.

"But why did the Imperial Preceptor of Jingping say that I might die delivering the letter of surrender?" he wondered inwardly.

Then he saw Shen Mu write on: "Langwan is the daughter of the Creator, a woman of peerless beauty and heaven-sent gifts; your servant has already slept with her. If Your Majesty should take a fancy to her and wish to make her Empress, your servant will travel night and day to deliver her to Your Majesty."

Yuchenzi shuddered again and again, his face black as iron, muttering inwardly, "So I really might die! The Imperial Preceptor of Jingping has a black heart. He says he has slept with Langwan — and Hao Tianzun, to be Heavenly Emperor, can never take a woman he has slept with, still less make such a woman his Empress! Over the first part of the letter Hao Tianzun may split his face with laughing, but over the latter part he may well have my head cut off!"

Shen Mu sealed the letter of surrender and handed it to Yuchenzi, saying, "Can Lord Yu accomplish this?"

Yuchenzi hesitated, then said with spirit, "I am willing to die for Jingping!"

Shen Mu gave him a long, searching look and said, "You need not die. With your talents, you can do all of it; only, beware of one man."

Yuchenzi's eyes flickered and he smiled. "He who knows me is the Imperial Preceptor of Jingping. May I ask who is worthy to be my opponent?"

"This man is named Meng Yungui — Master Meng, one of the Heavenly Court's four great Celestial Masters."

Shen Mu instructed him: "Meng Yungui once saw through my scheme to found a nation by forging. He is certain to see through my purpose in offering up this letter of surrender."

"The Imperial Preceptor's purpose is to use the negotiations over the surrender to delay the Heavenly Court from sending out its armies."

Yuchenzi said, "The reason the Imperial Preceptor set down how many supervisory workshops Jingping has and what each can produce is in truth to lay his own interests before the bandits. Were there but one bandit, that would be one thing; but in the Heavenly Court there are Hao, Huo, Xu, Zu, Taichu, Taiji — bandit chiefs, every one — and they must carve up Jingping's interests. How to divide the spoils will take time, time for them to contend one against another."

Shen Mu nodded. "And then?"

Yuchenzi, holding the letter of surrender, went on: "They will deliberate over how to divide it, but the Imperial Preceptor of Jingping may not be willing to give it up. Though the Imperial Preceptor has surrendered, once surrendered he becomes one of the Heavenly Court's ten Tianzun, and must take a share of the spoils as well. And a portion of Jingping's interests must be left intact besides. Only if Jingping survives can it bring the Heavenly Court greater benefit; therefore the Heavenly Court will not swallow Jingping whole in a single bite, and that leaves room for endless discussion and endless haggling."

Shen Mu nodded. "And then?"

"For the Heavenly Court's envoys to come to Jingping takes time; for them to return and report to the several Tianzun takes more time. For Jingping's envoys to go to the Heavenly Court and negotiate there takes time; for Jingping's envoys to come back and report to the Imperial Preceptor takes time again."

Yuchenzi said, "Back and forth, the time stretches longer and longer. And if the envoy the Imperial Preceptor chooses is shameless, thick-faced and black-hearted, he can drag it out longer still. This is why the Imperial Preceptor chose me to go to the Heavenly Court. What is more, the Imperial Preceptor can promise some Tianzun even greater benefits, so that the Tianzun wrangle among themselves over them. By the time they reach a conclusion, two or three years will have gone by."

Shen Mu smiled.