Crimson Emperor, Great Brahma King Buddha, and Heaven Duke remained silent, the atmosphere so heavy it was almost suffocating.
Great Sun Star Lord shrank his head, darting his eyes around to size up the group. He thought to himself, "It seems like I'm learning more and more secrets. In my last life, it was knowing too much that got me shot in the heart with an arrow. Now that I know even more, am I going to get silenced again?"
"The Empress is Absolute Dust, and Absolute Dust is the Empress. What a clever scheme."
The old Buddha sighed, then solemnly said, "Let me lay out the causal chain. The Empress returned to her ancestral home, arrived at Home’s End Abyss, and then Drakebar Dragon Kingdom rebelled—the Empress was ambushed. The Feather-Guard Corps intervened to investigate the Empress Ambush Incident. The Feather-Guard Corps suppressed the rebellion, the Empress was ambushed a second time, and faked her death to escape. Then came the Feather-Guard Time-Traverse Incident. Absolute Dust appeared; the Empress moved her own soul into Absolute Dust’s body and used it to lure the Heavenly Emperor."
"The Heavenly Emperor reincarnated, and then Cloud-Heaven Emperor and Vast-Sky Emperor, together with Absolute Dust, assassinated him. The two Emperors rushed to the Heavenly Court to seize the Heavenly Emperor’s true body. The Empress abandoned Absolute Dust’s body, buried it together with her own true body, and placed both on this very Feather-Guard Corps ship caught in the time-traverse."
"That’s the truth as I currently reconstruct it. Heaven Duke, Tu Bo, Crimson Emperor, Star Lord—do any of you have something to add?"
Everyone shook their heads.
The old Buddha continued unhurriedly, "So here’s the problem. The Empress must have planned to murder the Heavenly Emperor even before heading to Home’s End Abyss. Why did Drakebar Dragon Kingdom rebel? Why did it happen to coincide with her return? Even if Drakebar captured the Empress to threaten the Heavenly Emperor, that would be an incredibly foolish move—he could wipe out Drakebar with ease. So, was Lord Drakebar actually the Empress’s pawn? That’s the first question."
"Second, Her Majesty the Empress once came to this Feather-Guard Ghost Ship to bury Absolute Dust, placing her own body and Absolute Dust’s together. How did she leave the Ghost Ship? If she didn’t come herself, she must have sent someone—could that person still be somewhere aboard?"
"Third, both the Empress’s true body and Absolute Dust’s body are here. Without either body, where did the Empress go? And who, then, is the Empress currently sitting on the Heavenly Court’s throne?"
He voiced his doubts, and everyone frowned deeply.
The old Buddha had asked the key questions, but no one could answer him.
Heaven Duke turned to Tu Bo and said, "Hiding inside the Netherworld Divine Son’s brow is pretty interesting, isn’t it? You get to see and hear all kinds of things we never knew before."
Tu Bo nodded. "But knowing so much leaves me chilled to the bone."
The old Buddha rose, stretched lazily, and his body floated upward. "I’m heading up to the heavens for a nap. Take care of yourselves."
Crimson Emperor immediately sensed trouble and turned around in alarm—only to see the giant-headed baby, Fenix Greenwood Keane, holding the Slaughter Cauldron and eyeing them with ill intent.
The demonic aura in the Slaughter Cauldron grew even more intense. Countless paper-thin faces floated up within the black mist, swirling around the giant-headed baby.
"Ugly Ox," they called out to Fenix Greenwood Keane.
"Old Buddha, get down here!"
Heaven Duke called out loudly, "If we join forces, we can still suppress this big fat brat!"
Great Brahma King Buddha yawned, lay down slowly, and said with lazy ease, "You can't beat him. I'm going to take a nap—good luck to you all."
Outside, Qin Mu’s eyes flickered. The Village Chief was thinking the same thing he was: Absolute Dust is the Empress.
As the Heavenly Emperor’s consort, she knew his temperament inside and out—even better than he knew himself. That’s how she could lay such a perfect trap for him.
"Heaven Alliance leader Cloud-Heaven Emperor was involved—so what about Venerable Skysoar?"
Qin Mu was lost in thought. Absolute Dust’s beauty was unrivaled, but to craft such a body would require a mastery of creation-arts beyond compare.
Back in the Dragon-Han Era, the only one with such transcendent mastery of creation-arts was probably Venerable Skysoar.
And the Feather-Guard Time-Traverse Incident happened because the Feather-Guard Corps, on their way back to the Heavenly Court, ran into Venerable Skysoar’s divine art. That’s how this ship became a time-traveling Ghost Ship.
That’s also why the Feather-Guard Corps couldn’t bring the Empress’s body back to the Heavenly Court—every shred of evidence on this ship vanished without a trace.
Venerable Skysoar’s timing on the Celestial River was just too suspicious—it was impossible not to let his mind wander.
"Maybe Venerable Skysoar taught his divine art to Cloud-Heaven Emperor—after all, Cloud-Heaven was the leader of the Heaven Alliance at the time…"
He tried to reassure himself, "Maybe things aren’t as bad as I imagine…"
The Village Chief’s wounds had improved a bit; he struggled to his feet and said, "When you summoned the soul, Her Majesty the Empress sensed it. She’s probably able to find you—she’ll most likely be able to track you down. We can’t stay here for long…"
He frowned again. Now they were trapped on the Ghost Ship, unable to leave.
"Don’t worry, Village Chief. The Empress won’t be able to find this place."
Qin Mu took out some spirit herbs and quickly refined a spirit pill on the spot to heal the Village Chief’s soul injuries. He smiled and said, "Her Majesty the Empress is immensely powerful, but the Feather-Guard Ghost Ship travels through time. By the time the Empress tracks this place down, the ship will have long since drifted into another era."
The Village Chief was stunned, then relaxed a bit. "This ship is so bizarre and dangerous—how do we get out of here?"
"No need to worry, Village Chief."
Qin Mu finished refining the spirit pill and gave it to him, then helped catalyze the medicine’s effects. "The Feather-Guard Ghost Ship isn’t impossible to break. It’s caught in a strange divine art—one I helped invent with Venerable Skysoar back when I was Shepherd Venerable. It was just a prototype then. I’ll need to find more clues before I can hope to unravel her divine art."
The Village Chief laughed, "You’re the most learned one in our village—our teaching wasn’t wasted. Since you and that Venerable Skysoar invented the divine art, it shouldn’t be too hard to—wait, what did you just say? Shepherd Venerable? What Shepherd Venerable?"
Qin Mu smiled slightly and briefly recounted how he and Founding Emperor traveled back to the ancient Dragon-Han Era.
The Village Chief's mind buzzed; his eyes went vacant, and for a long while he couldn't come back to himself.
Suddenly, the old man reached for his sword—only to forget that his divine blade had already shattered.
Qin Mu asked curiously, "What are you doing, Village Chief?"
"Kill the Dragon-Keeper Lord!"
The Village Chief was brimming with murderous intent. "This matter is far too serious. Now that the Dragon-Keeper Lord knows, we have to kill the dragon and silence him!"
The Dragon-Keeper Lord's face turned ashen.
Qin Mu laughed, "The Dragon-Keeper Lord has accomplished great things for us. How could we kill him just because he knows a bit of my secret? Don't worry, Village Chief—he's already sworn Tu Bo's Pact and the Little Earth Sovereign's Pact. He wouldn't dare betray us."
The Dragon-Keeper Lord nodded hastily.
The Village Chief could only relent. "So, do you really have confidence you can break this bizarre divine art?"
Qin Mu stretched and started walking out. "Venerable Skysoar's divine art has been broken before—by the Four Emperors!"
The Village Chief snapped out of it and followed after him. "That's right, the Four Emperors once boarded this ship. There are seals from the Four Emperors on the deck, locking down those Black Coffins. That proves Vermilion Bird, Black Tortoise, Azure Dragon, and White Tiger—the Four Emperors—were here, and they cracked this divine art and escaped!"
Qin Mu nodded. "At that time, Venerable Skysoar's art must've still been imperfect, which made the ship's material form unstable. Every time the Ghost Ship traverses, its matter is rebuilt. Since there are flaws—since the Four Emperors found a way out—then I can too!"
They left the grand hall, lanterns swirling around them, their lights shining in every direction.
From the distant deck came the mournful howl of the old dragon: "Heaven and earth may change, but the Thirty-Six Immutable Constants do not! Thirty-six constants—what does that mean..."
Qin Mu frowned slightly.
Is that old dragon the Drakebar Lord, the Dragon-Keeper Lord, or maybe the future mad Ancestral Dragon King?
A sense of foreboding rose in his heart. If that's the Dragon-Keeper Lord or the Ancestral Dragon King, wouldn't that mean there are two of them aboard?
"There must be more clues on this ship!"
Suddenly, he remembered something, stopped the lantern, and asked, "Lin Hawk, where are the other Feather-Guard? Why is there only you on this ship? Where did everyone else go?"