Chapter 96 096 The Handkerchief I think... he seems to still remember...
Mugo was silent for a moment, seemingly trying to understand Zhiwei's words.
His head slowly lowered at an eerie angle, then slowly rose again. In this brief standoff, a fact became clear:
This god, who shared the same lineage as him, was utterly powerless against him!
His mouth broke into a wide grin again, his vertical red eyes widened suddenly, and he rushed toward the inner city barrier at an extraordinary speed, so fast that his figure almost blurred into a shadow.
Those closest to the barrier within the city screamed in terror and scattered in all directions, stumbling and crawling.
Mo Bei, the Divine Lord, waved the palace lantern in his hand. The spherical palace lantern burst forth with dazzling golden light. Thousands of golden rays transformed into thousands of identical palace lanterns, which hung between heaven and earth. Each lantern then emitted golden light, weaving a net that trapped Mu Ge within it.
Mugo seemed slightly wary of the golden light emanating from the palace lantern, but only slightly. He nimbly dodged the beams of golden light, his body twisting at incredible angles as he swiftly passed through the gaps in the light, continuing to approach the barrier.
Gongxin, the Divine Lord, opened the jar in his hand, and countless grains of grain were poured out, sweeping towards Mugo like a whirlwind.
Even with Mugo's agility, he couldn't dodge this time. His red eyes were fixed on Gong Xin. Suddenly, he crossed his arms in front of him, and blood flew from his palms, gathering into blood demons. These blood demons swelled and grew larger as they landed, opening their dripping bloody mouths like insatiable gluttons, devouring all the grains that Gong Xin had scattered.
The slow grinding sound between the blood demons' teeth was chilling. Gong Xin suddenly vomited a mouthful of blood, as if the blood demons were chewing not grains, but Gong Xin's divine essence.
Mugo continued his charge towards the barrier, his red eyes brimming with excitement.
Seeing that neither of the two deities could stop him, Zhiwei had no choice but to intervene personally. However, divine power was ineffective against him, and ghostly arts could not truly harm him. In close combat, he could not gain a decisive advantage. The two fought as they advanced, gradually approaching the barrier.
Like a slippery eel, Mugo dodged Zhiwei's outstretched hand countless times. His red eyes rolled, landing on the barrier behind Zhiwei, before he suddenly made a face and plunged into the ground. Before Zhiwei could react, he had passed through the barrier and entered the inner city of the imperial city!
Screams erupted in the streets as people jostled each other in terror, pounding on the doors and windows of shops and houses, trying to get inside. Some were so frightened they froze, rooted to the spot like quails, watching helplessly as Mugo approached them.
However, Mugo completely ignored the city's inhabitants. He seemed to have a clear destination. After entering the city, he continued to run wildly through the streets. When he encountered obstacles, he did not detour but jumped directly onto the rooftops and continued towards his goal.
The blood demons he summoned remained outside the barrier, unconsciously crashing against it. They looked terrifying, but they could never cross the barrier even an inch.
After the initial panic subsided, the people in the city realized that the demon showed no signs of harming anyone, so they gradually calmed down. Instead, they became curious about where he wanted to go, and some of the bolder people followed him along the way.
Mugo traversed rooftops and walls, getting closer and closer to the center of the imperial city. At first, everyone thought he was going to the palace to seek revenge on the emperor who had ordered his execution. However, they soon realized that he was heading towards the largest Heavenly Venerable Temple in the imperial city.
This Celestial Venerable Temple is the largest and most ornately decorated in the entire Yunchi Kingdom. It is also the only Celestial Venerable Temple for royal worship. The entire temple has nine floors, with a hollow space running through it from top to bottom. A huge Celestial Venerable statue stands in the middle, with its head located on the ninth floor. Its entire face is visible through the south-facing window of this floor, as if it is looking down on the entire imperial city.
This place is heavily guarded on weekdays, and ordinary people who want to worship here can only burn incense and pray from afar outside the temple gate, separated by several layers of walls.
Seeing Mugo charging straight towards the palace gate, the guards turned pale with fright. However, due to their duty, they could not dodge or escape, so they could only futilely wave their weapons, close their eyes, and prepare to die.
But as Mugo closed in, he merely swept over them lightly, his palms shooting out pillars of blood once more, like two ropes that clung to the temple's outer wall. Using the strength of these "ropes," he nimbly swung, leaping into the air and directly jumping into the temple from the south window of the ninth floor.
Outside the temple walls, countless citizens of the capital stood watching as Mu Ge stood on the windowsill of the ninth-floor south window. Without any hesitation, he used the rope formed from the blood pillar in his hand to bind the neck of the Heavenly Venerable statue. Then, with a slight twist of his hands, he cleanly severed the head of the Heavenly Venerable statue!
The enormous head tilted down, and Mugo impatiently used the Blood Pillar Rope to gently pull it out the window.
Seeing this, everyone hurriedly dodged, and those who were slower were almost crushed to death on the spot.
People jostled to make way for the enormous head, watching silently as the sacred and inviolable head of the celestial deity, representing supreme divine authority, rolled down the street like a broken stone ball. The exquisite paint was chipped and peeled, and a gash appeared on the bridge of its straight nose. It rolled and rolled, covered in dust and mud, until it finally rolled into a public outhouse and got stuck.
Even with such humiliation and disrespect, the Celestial Venerable's true form did not appear.
After throwing away the obstructing statue of the Celestial Venerable, Mugo stood at the smooth cut on the statue's neck and untied the bundle he was carrying on his back.
The fabric, soaked in some unknown liquid, was peeled back layer by layer, revealing the corpse of an old woman inside.
The old woman seemed to have been dead for some time; her body had begun to decompose, and yellowish-brown bodily fluids flowed from her mouth, eyes, and nose. Her skin and flesh were ulcerated, making her features almost unrecognizable, with only her pale hair indicating her age.
Mugo showed no disgust whatsoever. He abandoned his previous violent ways and carefully laid the old woman's body flat. He knelt before her, reached out and touched the old woman's face with endless affection and reluctance.
Blood-red tears streamed from his blood-red eyes. He kowtowed three times to the corpse, then used the pillar of blood to build a tomb, enveloping the old woman within it.
The world is hard, and she has spent her life wandering. He wanted to ensure that the old woman, who had never enjoyed anything in her life, could enjoy it in her death.
This is the most prestigious position in the entire Yunchi Kingdom, and also the place with the best view. How can a Heavenly Venerable who is not worthy of his position have the face to occupy it?
After Mugo finished doing all this, he stood there in a daze for a long time, a look of confusion and loss on his face, as if he didn't know where to go.
Just then, he suddenly tilted his head and caught a glimpse of something in the vast crowd.
...
Yun Tianqi, carefully escorted by guards, finally managed to slip out of the palace. He noticed a commotion coming from somewhere on the street, with a crowd converging towards the Royal Celestial Temple. He asked those around him, "What's going on over there?"
The two guards had left the palace with Yun Tianqi, so they naturally didn't know what had happened.
Yun Tianqi was afraid that something might go wrong at this critical juncture, which might displease the Heavenly Venerable, so he said, "Let's go and take a look."
He blended into the crowd, inconspicuous, and had just reached a position where he could see the top floor of the temple when he saw a huge object fly out of the window on the top floor. When he finally recognized what it was, he was so frightened that he almost fainted.
"Then...what is that?"
It's best not to tell him that it's the head of a celestial deity statue!
Unfortunately, the guards on the left and right were oblivious to the situation. After careful observation, they reported truthfully: "Your Majesty, it looks like the head of a deity statue. It was cut off and thrown out."
What could possibly climb up there, destroy the statue of the Heavenly Venerable, and then easily throw it out?
Yun Tianqi broke out in a cold sweat, quickly took out an embroidered handkerchief from his sleeve to wipe it away, turned around and left, instructing his guards, "Let's go, let's go back to the palace."
However, in that split second, he felt a cold wind behind him, and his two top-notch bodyguards fell to the ground without even making a sound, blood flowing from their seven orifices and their eyes wide open.
Yun Tianqi, on the other hand, was grabbed by the neck by Mu Ge and lifted up on the spot like a chick.
"Protect...protect...protect the king...give me..." He kicked his legs wildly, meeting Mugo's bloodshot eyes in terror. He tried to pry Mugo's cold, hard, stone-like hands open, but it was no use.
His resistance against Mugo was like an ant trying to shake a tree; with the opponent's force gradually tightening, he was on the verge of dying.
However, Mu Ge's hand, which was gripping Yun Tianqi's neck, paused slightly and did not increase its force. His eyes were fixed on the handkerchief that Yun Tianqi was holding.
"Mugo! Let go!"
Just then, a sharp shout came from afar, followed by a chilling blade of energy slashing towards Mugo.
The demon, which neither divine nor demonic power could harm in the slightest, severed the arm that was gripping Yun Tianqi the moment the blade passed.
Yun Tianqi fell from mid-air and landed on the ground. Only then did he realize that Mu Ge's severed arm was still firmly locked around his neck. He twisted and backed away while desperately using his hands to pry Mu Ge's fingers open and shake off the severed arm. Looking at the figure blocking his way, he suddenly broke down and cried.
"Eldest sister! Eldest sister, sob sob sob..."
Yun Tianjiao stood in front of Yun Tianqi, quietly looking at Mu Ge in front of him. There was no disgust in his eyes, only a complex sense of regret.
The last time I met him, he was a handsome young man.
Mugo seemed completely unaware that he had lost an arm. He just looked at the handkerchief in Yun Tianqi's hand with a puzzled expression, then tilted his head and, like an ignorant child, reached into his clothes.
"Your Highness, be careful!" Zhiwei rushed over at this moment, wanting to kick Mu Ge away, but was stopped by Yun Tianjiao.
"Wait a minute, Zhiwei, I feel... he seems to still remember me."
At this moment, Mu Ge took out a brocade handkerchief from his bosom. The embroidery on it was exactly the same as the handkerchief in Yun Tianqi's hand.
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