Chapter 1712 — The Empress and the Demon Sovereign
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 2 of 4
She intoned softly: "One marsh of the Pool of Chaos; plant it, and the golden lotus blooms. Attain that, and one has attained the Dao through Guixu."
Heavenly Emperor Hao was overjoyed. "I beg the Empress Mother to teach me the Mirror of Guixu!"
The Empress did not conceal the method of the Mirror of Guixu, and taught it to him.
The Lingguan Hall Master stood nearby, pondering the Mirror of Guixu closely as well, but he had never cultivated the Guixu path, and could not tell whether the art was genuine or false.
Heavenly Emperor Hao pondered it carefully and felt that the method of the Mirror of Guixu was indeed profound and vast, impossible to have been forged. Yet doubt stirred in his heart: "My mother, Lady Yuanmu, is one who delights in nothing so much as the world's disorder. Why would she be so kind as to teach me the Guixu Dao-attainment? And yet this Mirror of Guixu seems genuine enough..."
He dared not cultivate it rashly.
The Empress said, "Your Majesty may comprehend it step by step. This Palace has but just attained the Dao, and must also ponder it carefully."
Heavenly Emperor Hao nodded and continued to ponder the Mirror of Guixu, his doubts growing deeper all the while.
The Empress turned and walked away, thinking: "This Mirror of Guixu was taught to me and to that little wretch by the Second Young Master. Back then the little wretch and I each told Lord Mu of the Mirror of Guixu we had received; Lord Mu said that what the two of us had been given differed from each other, and that he could see hidden trickery in them. That Second Young Master meant to seize our bodies while we cultivated it!"
At the time Shen Mu had tested the Mirror of Guixu within a dream, and the Shen Mu in the dream had become a woman with a great bosom, becoming exactly like the Second Young Master Wuji — possessed by Wuji!
Only then had the Empress and Yuanmu known that Shen Mu had not spoken falsely, that the Second Young Master had indeed harbored treacherous designs.
"If Heavenly Emperor Hao cultivates the Mirror of Guixu, he will be possessed by the Second Young Master."
The Empress's eyes flickered. She thought: "But the Second Young Master cannot possess him completely, for Heavenly Emperor Hao is one body with two faces, and has cultivated attainment through power as well; the Second Young Master can possess only his Guixu face. They will be crowded together in one body, just as this Palace and that little wretch are."
She gave a low laugh, delight flickering in her eyes: "Little wretch, your son ruined my son — so this Palace will ruin your son!"
She was not Yuanmu but the Empress. When Lord Yun entered the great abyss of Guixu to rescue Lord Ling, he had used the Dao of Reincarnation to suppress Yuanmu and release the Empress, so that the Empress might lurk at Heavenly Emperor Hao's side under the guise of Lady Yuanmu, and throw his camp into disarray.
And now, at last, the fruit was showing.
Unwittingly the Empress had walked outward, into the battlefield between the Heavenly Court and Carefree Village. She stirred the Dao of Reincarnation and went deep into the field of battle, where both sides slaughtered with terrible ferocity; yet whether the Heavenly Court's hosts of gods and demons or the armies of Carefree Village, all seemed not to see her, letting her pass through the battlefield at will.
Though her Dao of Reincarnation was not the equal of Shen Mu's, nor of Lord Yun's, yet foe and friend alike, upon seeing her, were touched by that Dao, and took her for one of their own without realizing it.
Such was the subtlety of the Dao of Reincarnation.
Without disturbing a single soul, the Empress passed through Carefree Village and came to its rear.
She stood upon Taihuang Heaven and looked out. Across the eastern continent sun-boats were everywhere, artificial suns chained fast, bringing light to the people of Jingping.
Yet not far from Taihuang Heaven there was a place that even the sun-boats would not approach.