1031 Freeing the Crown Prince (2/2)

Qin Mu relaxed and thought, 'It's a relief that he's freed.'

Deity Wu's liking of him increased as she looked at him more and more. She smiled and said, ”Your brother-in-law, that glutton, never thinks about other people. He stutters when he talks, and he beats around the bush in handling affairs.”

Qin Mu solemnly said, ”Sister, you wrongly blamed Brother-in-law. When I met him, he gave me 200 Five Thunder Pots and sent several hundred sword gods to support Eternal Peace.”

Deity Wu was full of doubts. ”He would be so generous? When he was with me, he was stingy as hell. How would he be willing to give you 200 of those?”

Qin Mu blushed and whispered, ”He wanted to give only one originally. He lied to me about having only 16, so I told him you gave 200, and he became more generous.”

Deity Wu laughed heartily. ”You may be honest, but you're also cunning. That glutton was probably determined to give you this much after seeing my generosity. He probably felt heartache when doing it. Relax, Brother, I won't be as petty as that glutton.”

With her words, Qin Mu felt assured. 'It's enough to form an army with 300 Five Thunder Pots. When this army is mobilized, thunder will rain!'

Deity Wu was more freehearted than Deity Xuan, and she gave Qin Mu 201 Five Thunder Pots before saying, ”My gift can't pale in comparison to the hundreds of true martial sword gods that glutton gave you. When Founding Emperor came here to learn my abilities, in exchange, his most powerful formation experts designed the Connected Snake Rampart Formation for me, which needs thousands of female gods to deploy. It can even go up against strong practitioners of the Emperor's Throne. I will send you one of this formation.”

Qin Mu was delighted and said hesitantly, ”When Brother-in-law got the sword gods to help me in the lower bound, he took their surnames back and chased them out of the North Pole so they wouldn't burden him…”

Deity Wu understood him and said, ”Are you worried that my palace maids would use their bloodline to bully the people of Eternal Peace? Relax, I will arrange the same for them.”

Qin Mu gave a sigh of relief. It was comfortable to talk to a smart lady like her.

”Speaking of this, this is our second meeting. We met for the first time on the ghost ship, and it was only because of your wisdom that I could get off.”

Deity Wu laughingly said, ”Sister Vermillion Bird talks about you all the time. She even talked about how you mentioned the Heaven Alliance when she met you in the first year of the Dragon Han.”

Qin Mu's heart tightened as he nodded gently.

”The ten Celestial Venerables of today are the Heaven Alliance. Did you know how great of an impact your careless act would have?”

Deity Wu seemingly said on accident, ”Almost every major event after then had something to do with the Heaven Alliance. As one of its oldest elders, you should lead the effort to quell the internal strife too.”

”Sister, do you think there would've been a Heaven Alliance had I not mentioned it?” Qin Mu asked.

Deity Wu was stunned.

”There would still be a Heaven Alliance. Perhaps it would have a different name, such as the Earth Alliance or the Ghost Alliance, but the Heaven Alliance wasn't formed because of me. It was formed because of the ancient gods.”

Qin Mu walked with her and whispered, ”If the ancient gods treated the Postcelestial lifeforms and half-gods better, there wouldn't have been the Heaven Alliance. The great amount of pressure left them with few ways out, which is why the Heaven Alliance was born. If I eliminate the ten Celestial Venerables with the ancient gods and you all still do things the old way, there will be another Heaven Alliance.”

Deity Wu thought about it in silence and then said, ”The ancient gods of today are better than those in the past. Besides, the half-gods of the celestial heavens today are no different than the half-gods of the past. People worship and sacrifice to them. The Heaven Alliance became the ancient gods after eliminating them. Brother Mu, you should instead think about how not to become a leeching ancient god that feeds off the people.”

Qin Mu was stunned. He bowed and thanked her, ”Many thanks for your reminder!”

Deity Wu returned the favor and said, ”I've seen the replacement of too many dynasties, seen life and death splitting people apart, and seen disaster killing people. I can't help but feel despair after seeing so much. I think it's a large cycle, one I can't change. But you have the energy to do it. Perhaps you can do it. I shall hold you back no more.”

Qin Mu bade her farewell and left.

Deity Wu sent him off to her half of the Southern Heavenly Gate and watched him leave. After a while, the maids brought Prince You Ming over. He became a humanoid, then kneeled down and kowtowed to Deity Wu to thank her.

”Stand up.”

Deity Wu lifted her hand and said, ”Celestial Venerable Mu went through a lot of effort to get me to free you. I had to oblige him since he's a Celestial Venerable. Your father whipped you 99 times because you were too talkative, so you would remember to not be so naive after you finished fulfilling your punishment.”

Prince You Ming nodded, climbed up, and said, ”Where's Celestial Venerable Mu? I haven't had the chance to thank him.”

Deity Wu said, ”He has left, presumably to meet West Deity in the West Pole. You might've been freed, but you still made a mistake. Since you owe Celestial Venerable Mu a favor, you shall head down. You lost the Glassy Sky Pagoda, so you shall only return after finding it.”

Prince You Ming kowtowed again.

Deity Wu sighed and held him up. ”You are my son. Although you look like that dumb father of yours, I still can't bear to watch you risk your life. You are too naive. If I hadn't suppressed you in the North Pole, you probably couldn't have survived the Dragon Han Era. This Eternal Peace Era is even harder. You must be careful.”

She retrieved a sack made out of snakeskin and said, ”This is forged from the skin I shed. It can store anything and forge anything. You can use it to defend yourself. Also, go see your dumb dad one more time so he can do the same.”

Prince You Ming choked, turned around, and left.

When he reached the Xuan Celestial Palace, Deity Xuan was furious. He hollered, ”Stupid women! You freed Ming'er! How long can he live in this dishonest world?”

Prince You Ming bowed and said, ”Father, I know I was wrong.”

Deity Xuan came forward and held him up, then sighed. ”You aren't wrong. It's fine that you lost the Glassy Sky Pagoda. I didn't blame you for that. I punished you because, during the fracturing of the celestial heavens then, you were too naive and a son of mine that could be fooled by anyone. You were too close with bad friends like Celestial Venerable Hao and Son of Heaven Yin, and they are ruthless. You would have died being with them, so I locked you up! I can do nothing about your mother freeing you.”

He shook his head and retrieved a mirror before saying, ”This is the Eight Trigrams Mirror that Founding Emperor forged from the Eight Trigrams Diagram on my back. I imprinted a Black Tortoise marking on it for you to take out for self-defense. If someone calls for you after you leave the North Pole, walk forward without turning back. If you don't turn, no one will dare to hurt you. You will be d*mned if you turn. Remember, remember!”