Chapter 1057 — Two Thieves and One Constable Cross Blades
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 1 of 4
The Hall of Wafting Incense hung high above the Ninth Heaven of Dao Fire. This great hall was sealed under layer upon layer of talismanic script, and even when it crossed over to the Southern Pole Forbidden Zone, it remained utterly untouched by the holy fire that burned there.
It was a hall of bronze, unspeakably ancient; a million years of light and shadow had passed over it, and it wore the plainness of great age, and yet a majesty beyond measure.
The Heavenly Court's seventy-two treasure halls were likewise seventy-two artifacts of terrifying power. With this hall spanning the sky overhead, Shen Mu felt a deep, helpless weight of powerlessness.
That was a place his soul-summoning and resurrection arts could never reach.
Within the flames, the towering god walked toward Shen Mu, growing taller with every step, the blazing firelight gathering into his body.
And behind him stood a figure taller still.
Behind him stood the divine weapon, the Imperial Celestial Venerable.
The Fire Celestial Venerable was now drawing the rosy radiance of the Great Way out of the Southern Pole Forbidden Zone to swell his own strength. Having cultivated to his present stage, further advancement had long since become all but impossible.
If he wished to advance, then apart from cultivating his way up to the realm of the Heavenly Court itself, he could also draw upon the Great Way of heaven and earth that shared his own nature; and the Southern Pole Forbidden Zone, which had given birth to the Southern Emperor Vermilion Bird, was beyond question the finest treasure ground for it.
While the Southern Emperor Vermilion Bird lived, he could not seize this power by force; this was, after all, the Vermilion Bird's own nesting ground. But now that the Southern Emperor was dead, he could take all the strength here as his own.
Shen Mu watched the Fire Celestial Venerable stride out of the firelight, so tall, so towering, a figure that compelled a man to look up.
This Celestial Venerable gave him an utterly unfamiliar feeling.
"In those years, when you became a Celestial Venerable, the Four Emperors blessed you, granting you long life and enduring sight, turning ill fortune into good."
Shen Mu pressed down the wrath in his heart and said, "And now that you have killed one of those Four Emperors, is your heart glad?"
Behind the Fire Celestial Venerable's head the wheel of flame blazed ever brighter. His gaze fell upon Shen Mu, and such was his strength now that merely being looked at made Shen Mu feel as though his very primal spirit would ignite.
"The blessing of the Four Emperors was nothing if not a form of surveillance, a form of control."
The Fire Celestial Venerable said, "In truth, as early as the middle of the Longhan Era, I had already dissolved the Four Emperors' blessing. Ever since the death of the Imperial Celestial Venerable, I have understood that my fate can be held firmly only in my own two hands, and never in the hands of the ancient gods!"
He bent down to look upon Shen Mu, reached out a great hand and clenched it hard before Shen Mu's face, and said coldly, "The Imperial Celestial Venerable hoped that the ancient gods could live as equals with the human tribes and the later-born living beings. He trusted the ancient gods simply, without guile, and that is why he died! In all the years I followed that elder brother, the one thing I learned was this: you must never trust the ancient gods. Any ancient god. Never!"
He straightened up and said indifferently, "Celestial Venerable Mu, you are fortunate. Once you had won the title of Celestial Venerable, you simply left; you never received the blessing of the ancient gods. Of the Celestial Venerables who did receive such a blessing, how many came to a good end? You were lucky. You never lived through the suffering of the Longhan Era. I did. The Four Emperors blessed me for no reason but to control me. I resisted; I killed the Southern Emperor, one of those Four. Surely that is only right?"