Chapter 1425 — Turning the Palm Brings Clouds, Flipping It Brings Rain
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 1 of 5
What set the assembled Celestial Venerables at ease was that Shen Mu pulled no further tricks; he simply read out before the assembly the proclamation against the Heavenly Duke that the Ancestral God King had drafted. Shen Mu, too, feared that if he staged another scene — the two Celestial Venerables Shen and Moon running riot through the Heaven Alliance — Hao Celestial Venerable and the rest might lose their grip on their fury and strike him down on the spot, him being the one who had started it all.
The Ten Celestial Venerables were all clever men, and every one of them could see that Kaihuang Shen Ye and the Moon Celestial Venerable had come together at Shen Mu's bidding; otherwise, no matter how great a stir the Heaven Alliance assembly raised across the myriad worlds, word of it could never have reached the Land of No Sorrow in the Void of the Other Shore and roused Kaihuang Shen Ye. And Kaihuang and the Moon Celestial Venerable had arrived too opportunely besides, working in close concert with Shen Mu in their every word, cutting down the prestige of the Ten Celestial Venerables and winning over the hearts of the Heaven Alliance — every move, every gesture, pointed like a sword.
Clearly, only a "traitor" within the Heaven Alliance could have grasped so precisely the internal situation among the Ten Celestial Venerables and the drift of feeling within the Alliance. And that "traitor" could only be the Alliance Master himself. If Shen Mu knew when to stop, well and good; if not, then the Ten Celestial Venerables would have to stop him themselves — and what they would reap, of course, was his life.
The campaign against the Heavenly Duke was of course a great matter, and it set off a mighty uproar. But the thing had already been settled among the Ten Celestial Venerables; even if there were objections, the other members of the Heaven Alliance, the Dao Ancestor and Great Brahma included, had no right to speak at all — they could only listen.
At a single command from the Ten Celestial Venerables they could only obey; and if any harbored a second thought, their fate was easy enough to imagine.
Shen Mu then announced a second matter: the addition of a new Celestial Venerable.
Shi Qiluo of Zaofu Heavenly Palace — a man of high virtue and great prestige, of unfathomable cultivation, of perfect merit — would enter the Heaven Alliance as its eleventh Celestial Venerable.
At these words there was another uproar; and when Shi Qiluo, that hulking, coarse-limbed, immensely burly man, came up onto the platform and entered the second tier of the Heavenly Court to pay his respects to Shen Mu, Hao Celestial Venerable, and the other "seniors," it drew no small amount of criticism.
Palace Master Shi Qiluo of Zaofu Heavenly Palace — many in the Heavenly Court knew his name: a knave who loved to flatter and fawn and was harsh to others. Of his cultivation and strength none could say, but to those above him he kowtowed like a pestle in a mortar, while to those below him he was all scowls and sharp words; he loved to pocket what was not his and to demand bribes, and his reputation was foul and notorious.
Were it not that he did have some real ability — the Creation Divine Artifacts that no one else could fully fathom, he alone could command — there would likely not be a single friendly face turned his way.
The Ten Celestial Venerables had always been the Ten Celestial Venerables; there had never been a new one.
And if there were to be one, in everyone's mind it should have been the Dao Ancestor or Great Brahma — certainly not Shi Qiluo, that crude and uncouth boor.