Chapter 1723 — The Simplehearted Venerable

Shen Mu was briefly taken aback; he knew something of the feud between the Cyan Emperor of the Eastern Heaven and the Eastern Emperor Azure Dragon.

After the Jingping Calamity, the Martial Ultimate God Venerable had come to Shen Mu and spoken to him of the Cyan Emperor's past.

Before the Heavenly Court was founded, Yu the Heavenly Venerable had sat beneath a withered tree to comprehend the Dao, and there he had grasped the method by which the Primordial Fetus Divine Treasury is opened; the withered tree beneath which he attained enlightenment received a share of that fortune, and so the old tree met spring again and came back to life. That old tree was the future Cyan Emperor of the Eastern Heaven — though the road it walked was a tortuous one.

Because it had become a divine tree, men felled it and refined it into a treasure; passing from hand to hand, it came at last to the Jade Pool Grand Gathering in the early years of the Longhan era, where it heard Shen Mu and Heavenly Venerable Hao transmit the method of becoming a god. Afterward the divine tree's owner was slain, and the tree fell into the Yuan Realm and took root there, drawing on the spirit of heaven and earth, its cultivation rising ever higher. Yet in the Chiming era it was felled once more, by humans, and refined into a treasure, which came into the hands of Emperor Ming, who forged it into an Imperial Throne divine weapon of tremendous power.

Then came the Shanghuang era. By then the Cyan Emperor was the mightiest divine weapon under heaven, and had bred a spirit within itself — only to be broken by the Eastern Emperor Azure Dragon, who nearly shattered both its form and its soul. Reduced to a worthless thing and cast aside by men, the Cyan Emperor survived nonetheless by sheer force of conviction, shed the body of a treasure, and cultivated its way to the Imperial Throne, where it was valued by the Heavenly Venerable Xiao of that day and granted the title Cyan Emperor of the Eastern Heaven, to serve as a check upon the Eastern Emperor Azure Dragon.

From this, too, sprang the feud between the two. The Eastern Emperor was master of the Eastern Pole Heaven, the Cyan Emperor the great emperor of the Eastern Heaven; of course the two set themselves against each other, and grievance piled upon grievance, deeper and more numerous with every passing year.

In the palace of the Martial Ultimate God Venerable, the mural of the Eastern Emperor Azure Dragon showed him crawling at the Cyan Emperor's feet, lingering on the edge of death, fawning and begging for life — so deep was the Cyan Emperor's hatred of the Eastern Emperor. Heavenly Venerable Yun said, "The Imperial Preceptor of Jingping is demanding the Eastern Emperor's dragon scales.

He must mean to revive the Eastern Emperor, so that the Eastern Emperor will draw out the Cyan Emperor and force him into all-out war, and thereby create the chance to shatter the armies of the Eastern Heaven and wipe out its gods and devils in one stroke. Only so can he free his own hands to aid Carefree Village.

" Shen Mu glanced at Ling Yuxiu, and she rose at once to go in search of the Eastern Emperor Azure Dragon's dragon scales. "The Eastern Emperor Azure Dragon," he said, "was arrogant and untamable, holding himself above all others, yet his methods were base and filthy, and men held him in contempt.

He was the first to surrender to the Heavenly Court and take the title Heavenly Venerable Azure Dragon, thinking he could keep his life — but how could Heavenly Emperor Hao ever let him off? " Shen Mu laughed. "To kill Heavenly Venerable Fire, Heavenly Emperor Hao sacrificed him.

When my wife and I were married, Taichu sent men with the Eastern Emperor's dragon scales, to test whether I had truly lost all heart; so I did not revive him.

And when Yan'er and the Southern Emperor came to see me, they never once raised the matter of reviving him either, so I put it from my mind. Reviving the Eastern Emperor now can count as repaying the debt I owe him for helping me forge my sword back then.

" Heavenly Venerable Yun said, "I once heard it said that one must never accept a favor from Heavenly Venerable Mu, and must never, ever accept a note of debt from him — otherwise one's life is in danger. " "Slander, all of it! " Before Shen Mu could speak, Ling Yuxiu came up with the Eastern Emperor's dragon scales and said coldly, "All of it is rumor spread by the Ten Heavenly Venerables to ruin my husband's name! When many mouths melt metal and piled slander dissolves bone, his reputation was destroyed by them — so thoroughly that even Heavenly Venerable Yun believed it!

" Heavenly Venerable Yun said hurriedly, "I never believed it, truly! " Shen Mu said with feeling, "My wife knows me.

" He took the Eastern Emperor's dragon scales and cast a spell to summon the soul.

Suddenly astonishment showed on his face. "The Eastern Emperor's soul is not in Youdu, nor in the Tianyin Realm! " Heavenly Venerable Yun and the others were briefly stunned.

If the Azure Dragon had been killed and his soul survived, it ought to fall into Youdu; if his soul had been shattered and turned to black sand, it must fall into the Tianyin Realm.

Yet Shen Mu said the Azure Dragon's soul was in neither place, which was strange indeed.

"Of course. " Shen Mu laughed.

"Taichu killed the Eastern Emperor Azure Dragon, so the Azure Dragon's soul must have fallen into Taichu's hands. It must be that Taichu has hidden it away.

" Heavenly Venerable Yun's heart stirred.

"The Ultimate Void — the One Qi Great Luotian!

" "Or perhaps one of the Ancestral Court's treasured halls that Taichu obtained. Both places can block my divine sense.

" Shen Mu mused, "If it is Taichu's One Qi Great Luotian, then so be it.

Taichu's Luotian has already descended upon the Yuan Realm, to overawe Jingping.

Forcing a spell through to reclaim the Azure Dragon's soul will not be difficult. But if the soul is suppressed within a treasured hall of the Ancestral Court, that will be trouble. " He drew a long breath and strode out, unable to hide the excitement in his voice.

"Taichu sent the dragon scales, and hid the Eastern Emperor's soul — he means to scheme against me while I work the spell! Very well, then.

I shall give him what he wants! " Ling Yuxiu hurried out of the hall, and Heavenly Venerable Yun hurried after her — and there they saw Shen Mu standing upon open ground, his divine consciousness surging, visualizing an immense sacrificial altar.

The altar rose slowly from beneath his feet, and his vital qi transformed into runes of all the great Daos, branded upon it; the runes formed Dao patterns, the Dao patterns formed Dao chains, and thus a most fundamental domain took shape. Behind Shen Mu drifted the Great Heavenly Court, and within it rose Jade Capital City.

At the heart of Jade Capital City, before the Hall of Chaos, his spirit-origin stood; he stamped his foot, and an altar appeared before the Hall of Chaos as well — only it was the mirror-reverse of the altar beneath his fleshly body. Heavenly Venerable Yun studied it for a while and could make nothing of it. "Sister-in-law, what use is Heavenly Venerable Mu's other altar?

" Ling Yuxiu could not make it out either.

"It has its own wondrous use.

" Heavenly Venerable Yun nodded.

"Quite so. " Shen Mu's fleshly body worked the spell upon the altar, and at the same time his spirit-origin worked a spell before the Hall of Chaos. But whereas the fleshly body's spell drove the Soul-Summoning Charm to draw out the soul of the Eastern Emperor Azure Dragon, what his spirit-origin was doing defied comprehension.

Some nameless force spread outward, sinking deep into the void, elusive beyond grasp — supple, ethereal, hidden, formless.

When this force seeped outward and invaded the myriad heavens and worlds, Shen Mu at last sensed where the Eastern Emperor Azure Dragon's soul was hidden.