Chapter 1116 — Reunion with an Old Friend

"Divine King."

Shen Mu calmed himself. That Langwo could summon a Void Beast surely meant that the primordial spirit Luo Xiao had taught her the summoning art. His own reverse summoning, too, had been comprehended from Luo Xiao's summoning art, and when he had designed the reverse-summoning altar, he had not kept it from Luo Xiao. What mattered more still: Shen Mu had left a summoning altar behind in the Ancestral Court! Which was to say, if Luo Xiao had passed the reverse summoning on to Langwo, then Langwo might well use that altar to enter the Ancestral Court.

"Gu Xiao, the reincarnated body of the Ancient God Heavenly Emperor, once said that a great terror lurks within the Ancestral Court. I do not know whether he meant the Void Beasts that blanket heaven and earth, or something else. But if the Void Beasts in the Ancestral Court were to come out..."

An involuntary shudder ran through him. He thought of the dense, teeming mass of Void Beast eggs in the Nineteenth Void, and a chill crept over him.

When the seal on the Ancestral Court was broken, and the void of the Ancestral Court joined with the void beyond, those countless Void Beast eggs would rain down from the Nineteenth Void, dropping into world after world, and that would be a catastrophe to end all worlds!

And the brain of every Void Beast was the Void Mother Beast.

The master of the Void Mother Beast was the Grand Emperor.

If Langwo the Divine King truly had opened the seal on the Ancestral Court, then the Grand Emperor would command every Void Beast, and devour one heaven after another, one world after another!

"Langwo, have you been to the Ancestral Court?" Shen Mu asked.

Langwo the Divine King's gaze rested on him, deep and remote, and she shook her head. "I have not. Lacking your precise space-time coordinates, I have not the strength to enter either. Holy Infant, you vanished for ten years; you must know the Ancestral Court's exact position by now, surely? Tell me, and I will go summon the Void Mother Beast."

She said softly, "With the Void Mother Beast, the Heavenly Court will be nothing to fear, nothing to trouble us, and the Creator race may return to its former age of glory!"

Shen Mu shook his head. "The Void Mother Beast belongs to the Grand Emperor. That the Grand Emperor can enter the Great Void and slaughter as he pleases is owed to the Void Beasts as well. Langwo, if you still count me the Holy Infant of the Creators, then send this Void Beast back, and whatever you do, do not meddle with such a dreadful creature!"

Langwo smiled. Her figure rose drifting into the air and came to a halt before the vast eye of the colossal Void Beast, floating there like a mote of dust, and she shook her head. "Holy Infant, you are not a Creator after all. To the Creators, the one who subdues and tames a Void Beast is a hero among Creators. You do not share that sentiment."

Shen Mu stepped forward and said in a low, grave voice, "All Void Beasts obey the Mother Beast; you have not truly tamed it! The Mother Beast's master is the Grand Emperor. You are sewing a wedding dress for the Grand Emperor; you will only serve his ends, and it will profit neither you nor the Creator race in the slightest!"

Suddenly the colossal Void Beast's eyelid rolled back, baring an enormous maw, and its body vanished from behind Langwo in a flash!

The next moment it appeared before Shen Mu, Yan'er, and the others, its bloody maw gaping wide, ready to swallow them all!

Yan'er's heart lurched; just as she was about to resist, the vertical eye at the center of Shen Mu's brow opened, and he visualized countless sharp spikes, crisscrossing every which way!

Those spikes appeared inside the Void Beast's body. The Void Beast hurriedly turned insubstantial, and the spikes visualized by Shen Mu's spirit sense turned insubstantial with it. The Void Beast turned substantial again, and the spikes turned substantial as well.

The Void Beast howled without cease, its body riddled with holes, drenched in blood.

"Holy Infant, you are no Creator, yet you have mastered the Creators' methods completely."

Langwo the Divine King waved a hand, and the spikes within the Void Beast vanished. "Spirit-sense visualization is the way to fight Void Beasts. You can deal with a Void Beast; a Creator, too, can deal with one with ease. These ancient beasts are no threat to us whatsoever; on the contrary, they will become our race's weapon. Even if the Grand Emperor holds the Mother Beast, he cannot threaten us."

The Void Beast closed its mouth, its great eyes fixed on Shen Mu; it tucked its tail between its legs, wearing a timid look, and hid behind Langwo the Divine King.

Shen Mu was about to speak again, but Langwo the Divine King had already slipped into the void together with the Void Beast, and her spirit sense came through: "Holy Infant, this was only a trial. I will summon more Void Beasts; but rest assured, I do not mean to use them against you. I mean to lead these Void Beasts to the Great Void, and there do battle with the Heavenly Court!"

She and the Void Beast disappeared, and her spirit sense gradually faded: "That way, I can buy you time to grow; is that not the best of both worlds?"

"It is you I am worried about."

Facing the cold wind high in the sky, Shen Mu said in a low voice, "The Grand Emperor has always wanted to open the Ancestral Court. Once the evil within it is released, it will be a catastrophe beyond all remedy for this age. And before that day comes, you will be disposed of by him..."

He led the Dragon Qilin and the others toward Jingping. Before he returned to the Heavenly Court to see Bai Yuqiong, he needed to repair the Heavenly Dragon Treasure Chariot first; the chariot had been damaged twice, once as far back as the Western Pole Heaven, and it must be repaired once more before it could carry them swiftly to the Heavenly Court.

Yan'er was still somewhat plump, and her flying speed could not match the Heavenly Dragon Treasure Chariot.

And before returning to the Heavenly Court, he also needed to go to Jingping to take care of certain matters.

"As for the Heavenly Master Bai Yuqiong, if she refuses to die, then I will have no choice but to break Yin Tianzi's divine art at its source."

Shen Mu pondered. To break Yin Tianzi's divine art at the source, he would need to understand the intricate structure of the Nether Capital Heavenly Gate.

"Di Yiyue has a Nether Capital Heavenly Gate there. I need only find sister Di Yiyue, and the secret of Yin Tianzi's divine art will be no secret any longer!"

His eyes flickered. Since the Jingping Calamity erupted, Di Yiyue and the others had vanished without a trace, never appearing on the soil of the Yuan Realm. Di Yiyue, Tian Shu, Emperor Shitian Wang Buddha and the rest had not gone to the Land of No Sorrow either, and the Woodcutter Sage's whereabouts were unknown as well.

"Could they be hiding in Fengdu? And where is Fengdu now? Perhaps Jingping will know where Fengdu has gone."

He was deep in thought when suddenly the earth heaved and surged like waves. Shen Mu halted. All around, soil flew up; tree after tree grew with mad frenzy, vines writhing like dragons, their growth unbelievably swift.

In the span of a few breaths, the grass and trees here had grown as though a thousand years had passed, turning into a dense primeval jungle.

If one looked from outside, one would see that the stretch of lovely mountains and clear waters where Shen Mu and the others had stood had become a green dome over a hundred li across, perfectly round, overturned there, sealing that place in, not a breath of air escaping!

"Ten years, ten years..."

An eerie voice came from the dense thicket; among the great trees vines glided with a rustle like the bodies of giant pythons, and the voice was like weeping and like lamenting, chilling to the bone.