Chapter 1644 — I Have a Dream: The Wayfarer's Chapter

Yu Chenzi hastened to look, and saw a rather handsome middle-aged man striding swiftly into the imperial study; this man's most distinctive feature was his beard. His mustache was trimmed with great neatness, descending from either side of his upper lip with not a single superfluous hair, while on his lower lip and chin there remained only a wisp of beard, and together the whole formed a fork.

"Meng Yungui! " Yu Chenzi knew him. Of the Heaven Court's four great Heavenly Masters, the hardest to deal with was Meng Yungui.

Yu Chenzi was in charge of Jingping's diplomacy, and he had studied the four Heavenly Masters, the four Heavenly Kings, and the four Colored Emperors of the Heaven Court, and was familiar as well with such powerful ministers as the Seven Dukes, the Three Masters, the Chief Minister, and the Junior Minister.

In Jingping he had under him a dedicated crew whose business was to study the character, tastes, weaknesses, psychology, families, and backgrounds of the great ministers who held power in the Heaven Court, keeping a dossier on every influential and weighty official.

As for Meng Yungui, the information he knew was plentiful: the man was of human descent from Yuhua Heaven; he had become a god in Yuhua Heaven, taken office at the Heaven Court, and then entered the Daoist school to pursue his studies, taking the Dao Master of the Daoist school as his teacher to learn the arts of calculation. His attainment in these arts was extremely high; he could well be called the most towering master of the arts of calculation in the entire Heaven Court.

On this score, Meng Yungui was Yu Chenzi's senior uncle by apprenticeship. After all, Yu Chenzi came from a collateral branch of the Daoist school, the Qingyun Heaven Daoist School, and the Dao Master of the Heaven Court was that school's founding patriarch. "Chaos calculation means chaotic data, and yet out of the chaos one must seek a high-probability outcome, so hazy reckoning is what is needed.

To outwit Senior Uncle Meng Yungui would be truly too difficult. His attainment in the arts of calculation is simply too high. " Yu Chenzi stepped quickly forward, kowtowed to Meng Yungui, and said, "Yu Chenzi of Qingyun Heaven pays respects to Senior Uncle Meng!

" Meng Yungui looked at him and said coldly, "A disciple of the Qingyun Heaven Daoist School?

You have some nerve! You dare to show off your arts of calculation in front of me, playing the advocate for Mu Tianzun and trying to hoodwink His Majesty!

Your Majesty, slay this villain first to consecrate the banners! " Hao Tianzun laughed. "Heavenly Master Meng, Yu Chenzi is your own disciple-nephew; why must you kill him at first sight?

" Meng Yungui hastily bowed and knelt, saying, "Your servant studied the arts of calculation under the Dao Master; the Daoist school's arts excel at precise computation. Your servant also studied the way of painting for a hundred years under the Star Lord Wenchang, and once sent more than a hundred gods and demons versed in painting to spy on Mu Tianzun and draw down every detail of his bearing and expression.

Your servant's knowledge of Mu Tianzun exceeds even Mu Tianzun's knowledge of himself! Mu Tianzun is the sort who never sheds a tear until he sees the coffin; as long as a single thread of hope remains, he will fight to the bloody last! And that man stops at nothing—every posture, every expression of his can be feigned!

" He swept an icy glance over the gods and demons in the imperial study who were versed in painting.

"These painters are all wine-sacks and rice-bags! To read from between the lines the state of Mu Tianzun's mind when he wrote his letter of surrender—sheer daydreaming! Mu Tianzun has long since learned to counterfeit his feelings and inject false emotions into his calligraphy and painting. Of the characters he writes, not one is to be believed! " His gaze fell on Yu Chenzi once again, and he sneered, "Mu Tianzun sent him here to stage a play! The best course now is to kill Yu Chenzi, seal his head in a jade casket, and send it to Mu Tianzun! " He raised his palm high and slashed it down through empty air.

"And then let Your Majesty have Xu Tianzun wipe out half of Jingping's population, warning Mu Tianzun that this is what comes of hoodwinking Your Majesty! " Hao Tianzun frowned. Yu Chenzi smiled faintly and said nothing. Meng Yungui said in a loud voice, "Your Majesty, temper authority with benevolence, and only then will the realm be at peace!

In dealing with Mu Tianzun, one must kill the chicken to frighten the monkeys! " "I fear he would rather fight to mutual destruction. " Hao Tianzun shook his head.

"Heavenly Master Meng, a Mu Tianzun stripped of every restraint is the most fearsome Mu Tianzun of all. You would have me wipe out half of Jingping's population in a single stroke, yet you have not considered that he is still the Great Master Imperishable through Ten Thousand Kalpas.

Press him to desperation, and he will resurrect those people, rekindle his Dao heart, and fight me to the death—what then?

" Meng Yungui raised his eyebrows and was about to speak when Hao Tianzun lifted a hand and said coolly, "What I want is a Mu Tianzun who is a walking corpse, a Mu Tianzun whose Dao heart has crumbled.

Press too hard, and you will rekindle his fighting spirit instead. If he abandons Jingping and leads Ling, Yue, You, and Lang in a desperate gamble with death—heh, in the Heaven Court who would dare claim he could keep himself whole?

" He rose to his feet and paced back and forth.

"There is one truth you have never understood. I intend not only to slay a man and shatter his heart; I intend also to reap the greatest profit! What I want is not only Mu Tianzun's Dao heart shattered and collapsed, groveling beneath my feet—I want a Jingping that is whole as well! " Meng Yungui frowned.

Hao Tianzun tossed the letter of surrender over and laughed. "Take a look, you, at Mu Tianzun's letter of surrender. A shattered Jingping is not worth a single coin, but a surrendered Jingping can secure my realm's peace for ten thousand generations! " Meng Yungui unfolded the letter and read it with care; when he came to the words "your servant is already asleep," he too could not help frowning. "Heavenly Master Meng, you have tallied the circulation of heavenly coin, and you have agonized over the Heaven Court's economy, feeling that the heavenly coin will in all likelihood collapse and cannot hold out for a hundred years.

" Clasping his hands behind his back, Hao Tianzun said unhurriedly, "If the heavenly coin collapses, all the heavens and myriad worlds are certain to rise in revolt. It plagues your mind, and it plagues mine as well. But once Jingping is in my hands, this pit of the heavenly coin can be filled! Not only filled—I can go on to seize total command of the economy and resources of all heavens and myriad worlds!

He who commands the economy and commands the resources—who can still resist him?

" Meng Yungui closed the letter, his face moved, and said, "Does Your Majesty mean to use this opportunity to swallow Jingping and gain complete mastery over all heavens and myriad worlds? Your Majesty's grand vision and heroic strategies far exceed your servant's. " Hao Tianzun laughed.

"Your gaze is fixed far too short.

You do not sit in this seat of mine, and so you cannot see these things. " Meng Yungui said after a pause for reflection, "If Your Majesty commands the economy and resources of all heavens and myriad worlds, how will the other Heavenly Venerables take it?