Chapter 1425 — Turning the Palm Brings Clouds, Flipping It Brings Rain
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 3 of 5
" The last time Kaihuang had split the Heavenly Court open with a single sword stroke, he had challenged the Heavenly Emperor and mocked him, saying that the Heavenly Emperor of today was a puppet, and that the true Heavenly Emperor had long ago been slain by the Ten Celestial Venerables.
The information revealed in this made men's blood run cold! But the Ten Celestial Venerables' power reached the heavens, and they quickly suppressed the matter.
Now, from Crown Prince Mingya's defection to Hao Celestial Venerable's becoming Crown Prince Hao, it seemed there was no smoke without fire.
The order in which Shen Mu promulgated these four great matters was carefully considered. The campaign against the Heavenly Duke was placed first, to shock; it showed that the killing of the Heavenly Duke had nothing to do with him.
The opening of the Ancestral Court and the founding of the Beast World were placed in the middle, to buy men's hearts.
And the investiture of the crown prince was placed last, to set the rulers of the myriad worlds pondering. When the Heaven Alliance assembly ended, this fourth matter would keep the rulers of every realm discussing it for a long while, imperceptibly diminishing Hao Celestial Venerable's standing in men's hearts and lowering the prestige of the Ten Celestial Venerables as well.
Moreover, once word that the Heavenly Emperor was already dead spread, all manner of rumors would race abroad, and the image of the Ten Celestial Venerables would suffer greatly.
This was a war upon the heart; had the order of these four announcements been altered even slightly, the effect would not have been the same. It was precisely because Shen Mu had passed through the baptism of the Nine Hells Terrace that his heart of the Dao was pure and his wisdom clear, and so he could, without seeming to try, summon clouds and call down rain, turning the Ten Celestial Venerables' excellent position into a disadvantage in a few words. The heart of the Dao and the realm of the Dao — through the ages, divine arts practitioners and gods had paid them little heed; but from now on, more and more would prize the heart of the Dao and the realm of the Dao.
There were also those who saw further, and said silently in their hearts: "If the Heavenly Emperor is a puppet and not the true Heavenly Emperor, and the Ten Celestial Venerables hold victory in their grasp, then when the great matter is settled in the future, who will be Heavenly Emperor? After all, there are eleven of the Ten Celestial Venerables.
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In the future we shall have to choose sides not only between the Heavenly Emperor and the Ten Celestial Venerables, but among the Ten Celestial Venerables themselves!
" "One wrong step, and there is no recovery from ten thousand kalpas! " "Even if the Ten Celestial Venerables level the ancient gods in the future, the world will not be at peace; on the contrary, the strife will grow fiercer and bloodier!
We too must prepare early!
" At the grand assembly of the Heavenly Court, the Ten Celestial Venerables wore faces as mild as a spring breeze, but none of their hearts was calm.
Imperceptibly, Shen Mu had become a formidable opponent — and this opponent had even slipped in among them, calling them brothers, dividing up the spoils with them! "Still, in years past, the Cloud Celestial Venerable, a harder man to deal with than he, also died at our hands; the Mu Celestial Venerable of today is not yet the equal of the Cloud Celestial Venerable.
If he thinks to overturn the heavens with one hand, he is surely deluding himself! " Each of the Ten Celestial Venerables had his own abacus in his heart, reckoning his gains and losses.
After this grand assembly, the myriad worlds would all see the potential of the Jingping Reforms and the Kaihuang Reforms, and it was to be feared that more and more would yearn for them and try to absorb the fruits of the reforms.