Chapter 666 — The Crimson Emperor's Brain

The brain-shaped light was in places very bright, in places somewhat dim, but not fixedly so, for the lights flowed in linear streams, changing without cease, as though the Crimson Emperor were still thinking, still possessed of life. "What a mighty being! Though his body is dead and his spirit extinguished, his consciousness endures, his thought is eternal!

" Shen Mu felt reverence rise in him, and bowed once to the mass of light. It was respect from the depths of his heart, with not the least pretense. The Divine Son Chiming came before the Crimson Emperor's Brain and said, "In those years Emperor Ming made sacrifice to the Crimson Emperor and obtained a thread of the Crimson Emperor's thought-consciousness, and thereby obtained the path to the Void Realm, and found a way of retreat for our Chiming people. And so I have a suspicion: perhaps the Crimson Emperor did not intend for us to find the Void Realm and use it to escape the Cataclysm.

Perhaps he meant, through that thread of consciousness, for us to find his Crimson Emperor's Brain, and obtain certain thoughts and memories within it. " Shen Mu was startled, and inwardly praised him: "Though this Divine Son says he is not truly the heaven-ordained Divine Son, he knows how to think in reverse.

His way of thinking is much like mine. " The Divine Son Chiming's expression was complex.

He lightly touched the Crimson Emperor's Brain, and at once the threads of thought-light upon it turned violent, the radiance flowing ceaselessly over the brain's surface, flickering bright and dim! "He truly does wish to tell me something. But my aptitude is dull. All these years I have often come to see him, hoping to obtain more messages, yet I have never been able to receive his guidance. " The Divine Son Chiming sighed. "Since the two of you have come here, why not try as well? Perhaps you may obtain the Crimson Emperor's guidance.

" Shen Mu reached out to wipe his hand across the Crimson Emperor's Brain. Suddenly the First Ancestor, the Human Sovereign, slapped his palm away with a crack. "Be careful the Crimson Emperor does not seize your body.

" The Divine Son Chiming said, "The Crimson Emperor is the being who opened the Chiming era. How could he do such a vile thing? If he wished to seize a body, he could long ago have seized mine.

A pity; I have the heart to give myself to him, and yet he has already had his soul scattered, and has become this Void Realm. " Shen Mu thought for a moment, then removed the golden willow leaf from his brow, held out his hand, and said with a smile, "Touching it won't kill me. .

. " The First Ancestor frowned, and at the same moment stretched out his own palm.

The two palms came to rest on the Crimson Emperor's Brain almost at once. Boom.

A tremendous sound, as of the opening of heaven and earth, came into their minds. Countless incomparably complex images and sounds rushed madly into their heads. Each voice was the voice of the same person, but the phrases were very short, only a single sentence each, and yet there were so many of them that in an instant tens of thousands of sentences sounded at once! And the images too were endlessly complex, tens of thousands of them flashing past before their eyes, scenes of the bizarre and the monstrous, as though born at the very moment of the world's creation.

Shen Mu and the First Ancestor, the Human Sovereign, their eyeballs rolled left and right as fast as a rattle-drum, so fast that their pupils could scarcely be seen! Hum.

The eye at the center of Shen Mu's brow opened, and within that eye there was yet another eye, and that eye was peering curiously outward. At this moment, in the Shen-character continent within Shen Mu's eye, the fat baby Shen Fengqing sat upon the avatar of the Lord of Heaven, thrust a hand out and peeled the seal open a hair's breadth, just enough to let one eye see the scene outside.

The giant infant, endlessly curious, peered through the eye at Shen Mu's brow at the Crimson Emperor's Brain, drooling.

Suddenly, the violent torrent of messages from the Crimson Emperor's Brain surged in, pouring all at once into his brain! "What ghost is scheming against me? " The giant infant was startled. The violent torrent of messages rushed madly into his mind and pinned him there. At the same time, the pressure on Shen Mu eased greatly, while the First Ancestor, the Human Sovereign, bled from all seven orifices; his palm loosened of itself and he fell straight back, unconscious.

The Divine Son Chiming sighed softly. "You cannot bear the messages in the Crimson Emperor's Brain either. Of course. Your cultivation and strength are a notch below mine, and even I cannot bear them, much less you. " He raised his hand, and in his hand was a transparent glove.

When he had touched the Crimson Emperor's Brain just now, he had touched it through the glove, and so had not been affected by it.

"But as for Libationer Shen. .

. " The Divine Son Chiming's gaze flickered; his three eyes opened together and fell upon Shen Mu. His voice was strange: "How have you held out until now without fainting? But it no longer matters. You have fallen into the thought-maze of the Crimson Emperor's Brain; I fear you will not wake again.

" He raised his hand lightly, and the unconscious First Ancestor, the Human Sovereign, floated up. The Divine Son Chiming turned and walked outward, and the First Ancestor, the Human Sovereign, floated behind him.

"I have seen men like you.

It is impossible for you to submit to me. Even if in the future the Emperor of Jingping fails in his reforms and dies, you will not submit to me either; you will only go to aid Princess Yuxiu.

" He walked out of the holy hall, his gaze deep and far. He said softly, "You will not die, but once your thought merges with the Crimson Emperor's thought, you will be trapped in the Crimson Emperor's maze.

Even if you walk out of it in the future, by then you will find that the world of that future is not the world in your memory, and the people of that future will not be the people you know now. . .

" He stepped downward. Just then, a faint ripple suddenly came from within the holy hall. The Divine Son Chiming was slightly startled and turned his head to look at the doorway of the holy hall.

The holy hall suddenly went dim, and Shen Mu's astonished voice came: "Gone?

How could that be. . . First Ancestor?

Divine Son? Where are you.

. . no one.

. . time to slip away! " The Divine Son Chiming saw Shen Mu sneaking furtively out of the holy hall. Seeing him just outside, the Libationer Shen's furtive manner vanished at once. The Divine Son Chiming's expression changed slightly.

At once he threw the First Ancestor to the ground, and with a flash of his body he was already inside the holy hall.

When he saw the Crimson Emperor's Brain, his hands and feet went cold, and he nearly collapsed to the ground.

The Crimson Emperor's Brain had gone out!