Cloud-Venerable Attempts to Split the Primordial Egg

Quinn Shepherd arrived at Vermilion Palace, but Southern Emperor was nowhere to be found. The god guarding the palace gate said, "After the great chaos, Southern Emperor left to visit Northern and Eastern Emperors."

Quinn frowned deeply and borrowed brush, ink, paper, and inkstone from the god, wrote a letter, and handed it over, saying, "When Southern Emperor returns, give her this letter and tell her that her younger brother came by and wants her to follow the instructions inside."

The gate god carefully put away the letter.

Not long after, the theft at Radiant Sun Hall erupted. The Heavenly Emperor was furious and ordered Great Sun Star Lord to lead the proper gods of the celestial stars to seal Heaven, investigating everyone—even the Heaven Palaces of the Four Emperors were not exempt.

Tu Bo, Heaven Duke, Earth Mother Primordial Lady, Tianyin, and the Empress sisters all have Heaven Palaces in Heavenly Court, but they too were ordered by the Heavenly Emperor to be searched.

Heavenly Court’s nets spread wide; the sky was filled everywhere with dense rays—chains of Dao-light formed from the laws of the Great Dao. Under such circumstances, escaping Heavenly Court was nearly impossible.

"I wonder if it’s possible to bring matter from the past into the future?"

Quinn pondered. According to the rules of invariant matter, it should be possible to bring things from the past into the future, though he wasn’t entirely sure.

Just then, Heavenly soldiers were about to search the area. Quinn decided instantly and extinguished the lantern.

After the turmoil in Heavenly Court subsided, some time passed before Southern Emperor returned to Vermilion Palace after visiting the other three ancient god emperors.

The gate god delivered the letter, smiling: "Your Majesty, a thick-browed youth carrying a lantern came, claiming to be your younger brother. Oddly enough, he left you a letter but had no writing tools—he had to borrow them from our Vermilion Palace."

"Younger brother? Carrying a lantern?"

Southern Emperor was puzzled. She took the letter and walked into the palace, thinking: "Those two old foxes, the Northern and Eastern Emperors, were right. The Heavenly Emperor originally ordered the Twenty-Eight Constellation Ancient Gods to take our place and rule the Four Extremity Heavens. Now the Twenty-Eight Constellations died at Tu Bo’s hands, and the Four Extremity Heavens have no gods holding the fort. Sooner or later, chaos will break out. When that happens, it’ll be our chance—the Four Emperors’ chance—to return!"

She sat in the Vermilion Palace’s bird-nest bed, her red robes covering the nest, with dazzling vermilion all around, like leaping flames that made her look especially fair-skinned.

Southern Emperor set the letter aside, thinking, "The Heavenly Emperor built Heaven Palaces for us Four Ancient God Emperors—on the surface, it looks good for us, but in reality he stripped us of all real power and keeps us trapped here like prisoners! To leave, it’ll take something even bigger than Tu Bo’s riot in Heavenly Court!"

"Heaven is high, and the emperor is far away. As long as I return to the Four Extremity Heavens, I’ll be free—no longer confined to Heavenly Court."

Her face was clouded with worry. Where would such a catastrophe, greater than Tu Bo’s rampage, come from?

After a while, she sighed softly, picked up Quinn’s letter, and saw that it was sealed—with a Vermilion Bird-shaped seal.

Southern Emperor was surprised. The seal was vivid and lifelike, its runes composed entirely of Vermilion Bird patterns—even those who knew her best couldn’t master so many Vermilion Bird Dao runes!

Yet the one who left the seal did it effortlessly, laying down a perfectly complete Vermilion Bird seal with a casual gesture.

This seal could only be broken by her—if anyone else so much as touched it, the letter would instantly ignite and burn to ash!

"The person who left the letter said he was my younger brother? Could it be...?"

She broke the seal and opened the letter. The words on the page suddenly leapt up, burning slowly in the air.

The characters turned into flames, flames that kept rearranging themselves.

Southern Emperor Vermilion watched for a long time, reading the entire contents. By the time she finished, the paper in her hand had already turned to ash.

"So it really is Mark Shepherd, my little brother."

Southern Emperor’s long eyes blinked. She murmured, "His letter means I’ll face a deadly calamity in the future—he wants me to be prepared. He gave me two strategies: one, contact the human Moon-Venerable and give her a Vermilion feather to safeguard; two, split off a soul and reincarnate early as a backup."

Southern Emperor lay sideways in the bird-nest bed, her slender feet sliding out from beneath her crimson robes, thinking, "But the Eastern Emperor warned me to beware Shepherd Heavenly Venerable and the other human Heavenly Venerables, since Shepherd Heavenly Venerable has killed many ancient gods and is a grave threat to us. He’s right—the Five Luminary Star Lords died at Mark Shepherd’s hands..."

She hesitated, then sat up and paced back and forth. Suddenly she made up her mind: "I’ll go meet the human Moon-Venerable first! If her character is bad and she’s plotting against me, I’ll stay far away. But if she’s upright, maybe we can be friends! I do know Venerable Skysoar, that little girl—and she’s joined Mark and the others in the Heaven Alliance..."

That same year, Cloud-Venerable traveled to the Grand Void Expanse and handed the Taichu Primal Stone to the Creators there, saying, "Loren Shaw left this stone, for you to build the Void Bridge and Beyond-Shore World."

The Creators were surprised, but didn’t ask any questions.

Cloud-Venerable looked at these guileless Creators and couldn’t help but shake his head.

The Creators wanted to resist Supreme Emperor Taidi’s coming invasion, but it would be extremely difficult.

He saw Langwo again, the Creator maiden, who had grown even more beautiful and captivating. Every encounter stirred strange feelings in him.

A thought arose in his heart, but he couldn’t bear to let this girl take such risks.

He returned to Sky-River Court and found Venerable Skysoar deep in deducing the Dao of Creation, inventing all sorts of strange species. Moved, he asked, "Ling, can you use Creation Dao to make a true person?"

Venerable Skysoar looked up from the countless scrolls, puzzled.

"A perfect girl."

Cloud-Venerable’s eyes flashed. "I’ll take you to meet her."

Not long after, Venerable Skysoar met Langwo and couldn’t help but be entranced by her beauty. She praised, "Snowy face, light brows—a celestial maiden whose phoenix flute and wings are about to take flight. Jade-mountain posture, dustless steps. Willow-slim waist too delicate for spring. Such a girl should be called Absolute Dust!"

Langwo blushed deeply at these words, overcome with shyness.

Cloud-Venerable asked, "Can you use the Dao of Creation to make an Absolute Dust?"

Venerable Skysoar pondered for a moment. "I can try, but my Dao of Creation isn’t perfected yet. I’ll need some time. Once I refine it and create a true artifact of creation, I’ll be able to make Absolute Dust."

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"How long will it take?"

"I don’t know. Just wait and see."

Cloud-Venerable had no choice but to let her be. He thought of Loren Shaw and wondered, "Is that Loren Shaw truly who he claims to be? Or is he someone else..."

A shadow of Mark Shepherd appeared before his eyes. He shook his head and murmured, "It can’t be him. Ling said he’s just a shadow of the future. Still, I wish I could meet this shadow—I have so many ambitions I want to share..."

He gazed blankly at the carefree Creators of the Grand Void Expanse, silently thinking, "I feel he and I are the same kind of person—why is he only a shadow of the future? In this era, I have no Dao-friend. Why must my only true Dao-friend exist in the future...?"

He felt as if he and that future Dao-friend were supporting each other across endless ages, advancing together, yet separated by an infinite distance.

Centuries later, Crown Prince Qi led the Heavenly Court Ten Guards in rebellion, throwing the Heavenly Court into chaos. Many ancient gods joined the uprising as well.

This disaster began in the rear palace. Crown Prince Qi, the most powerful demigod, possessed both the Empress’s and Heavenly Emperor’s bloodline and had come of age—he was the most fearsome of all demigods.

His battle strength was unfathomable, even surpassing God-Emperor Langxuan and the Ancestor-God King.

The chaos he caused was extraordinary, for the rebellion included not only demigods and ancient gods loyal to him, but also the Empress supporting him from behind the scenes.

When Crown Prince Qi unleashed the Ruins of End divine art to devour the Heavenly Court, even the ancient gods trembled with fear.

Yet Crown Prince Qi was defeated—before the Ancient-God Heavenly Emperor, he couldn’t withstand even a single move and was instantly suppressed. The Heavenly Emperor cast him into the deepest depths of Jade-Lock Fortress in Youdu.

A lofty voice echoed through Youdu, cold as ice: "From this day forth, your surname is stripped away, leaving only your sins. From this day forth, you shall forever sink, tormented in karmic fire! From this day forth, you are..."

"Xie Wuqi—"

In this war, the Heavenly Court suffered devastating casualties—far worse than in the Ugly Ox Rebellion. Even the Empress herself was banished to the Cold Palace.

Nearly all of the Heavenly Court Ten Guards were marched to the newly built God-Slaying Platform, where executions continued for a hundred days, severing countless heads.