Chapter 1125 — The New Earth Mother Yuanjun

The Earth Mother Yuanjun was beside herself with rage. This time her losses had been devastating: the Yuanmu's roots were the very foundation of her life, and now they had become Gongsun Yan's roots, and all her Hongmeng primal fluid had gone into the bargain. And this brat still had the nerve to say she had come out ahead!

Gongsun Yan woke, shook her head, and found that her body was still her own; alarm and joy rose in her together.

Then she caught sight of Tiangong and Tubei, and at once grew timid, not daring to speak. Shen Mu stepped forward, took her hand and led her over, and said with a smile, "Tubei, Tiangong, let me introduce you both.

This is the new Earth Mother, Gongsun Yan. " Tubei and Tiangong bowed in salute.

"Greetings, Fellow Daoist Gongsun.

" Gongsun Yan was all at a loss, awkward and ill at ease.

Shen Mu laughed.

"Sister Yan, are you not going to return the greeting?

" She had no choice but to return it. Tiangong said with a smile, "The Yuan World and Xuandu are one family.

In the days to come, Fellow Daoist Gongsun, you must come often to Xuandu and move about there, and deepen the ties between our two worlds.

" Bewildered, Gongsun Yan could only murmur her assent.

She did not know the weight of Tiangong's words, but the Earth Mother Yuanjun did, and her fury knew no bounds. What Tiangong meant was that he acknowledged Gongsun Yan as the new Earth Mother Yuanjun of the Yuan World, that in the future she would rule the Yuan World and stand on equal footing with him; hence he called her Fellow Daoist, and hence the invitation to visit Xuandu. This was beyond question to cast the Earth Mother aside, and in all but name to strip her of her power as the Yuan World's legitimate sovereign.

Yet she knew, too, that circumstance is mightier than the man. Gongsun Yan had gained the Yuanmu's roots, and watered by so much Hongmeng primal fluid, her future attainments would be beyond all reckoning.

Nor was Gongsun Yan an Ancient God, and so she was not bound by the many constraints that bind the Ancient Gods; and with the Jingping reforms to rely on besides, her achievements might well prove no lesser than the Earth Mother Yuanjun's own. That was why Tiangong acknowledged her.

And the Earth Mother as she now stood had only a single Yuanmu core and one bottle of Hongmeng primal fluid, far from enough to contend with Gongsun Yan for sovereignty over the Yuan World. Her life's achievements, one might say, had all gone into making Gongsun Yan. Shen Mu had been ruthless indeed: his aim was not merely to rid himself of the Earth Mother Yuanjun, but equally to create a new Earth Mother Yuanjun!

Had Tiangong and Tubei not stepped forward, whether the Earth Mother lived on would no longer have mattered, for Jingping now had a new Earth Mother. Tiangong said with a smile, "Can Heavenly Venerable Mu remove the tampering upon the Earth Mother's Earth Soul?

" "How hard is that?

" Shen Mu said boldly. "Since you two brothers in the Dao plead for her, I must needs give you face.

" His divine consciousness stirred, and the Earth Mother Yuanjun felt as though countless tiny insects were writhing in her Earth Soul, as one after another of those exquisitely fine runes came flying out. Tubei watched the infinitesimal runes fly toward Shen Mu, perishing as they flew, returning as vital breath and consciousness into Shen Mu's body, and asked, "What divine ability did Heavenly Venerable Mu employ?

" "Simple enough," Shen Mu said modestly.

"I used only micro-carving.

Upon every grain of black soul-sand I carved my runes.

The altar I used to summon the Earth Mother's soul bore the brands of those runes. When the Earth Mother Yuanjun was summoned by me, in passing over the altar the runes were branded onto every grain of her black soul-sand.

" Simple as he made it sound, the difficulty was plain to see. Black soul-sand might be called the finest of all particles; to carve upon each grain, to brand it with runes, that alone was a task all but impossible to accomplish! The Jingping reforms had begun to touch upon micro-carving and micro-branding, yet of all the myriad races of the myriad heavens and worlds, not one had ever set foot in this domain.

"Beyond the micro-carving on the black soul-sand, I feared I could not at any moment make the Earth Mother Yuanjun's soul and spirit collapse and scatter, so I also borrowed a divine ability of Heavenly Venerable Ling's, also very simple.

" Shen Mu's gaze was sincere. "It was simply the Unchanging Divine Ability. Upon that altar, before I remade the Earth Mother's three souls, I had already cast the Unchanging Divine Ability upon her three souls in their black-sand form. Thus I had a double safeguard: by either one, I could make the Earth Mother die utterly cleanly.

" Tubei and Tiangong were silent.

Tiangong coughed, reached out and picked up the Yuanmu core, and said with a smile, "Yuanjun, your frame is weak just now. Why not come first to my Xuandu and recuperate for a time?

Stay here in the Yuan World and you will be in peril morning and night. In my Xuandu there is a Heavenly Pool that can restore your mortal body; not, perhaps, to your full prime, but it is no small thing either.

" The Earth Mother Yuanjun said, "I am troubling you, Daoist brother. " Tiangong bowed slightly to Shen Mu and departed with the Earth Mother Yuanjun. Shen Mu bowed in return, and watched them fly up into the high sky.

Molten Lava Tubei looked at Shen Mu in silence, and after a moment said, "You are no longer the simple Shen Mu you once were. " Shen Mu laughed. "Does Tubei not wish to see me grow? " Molten Lava Tubei shook his head. "Of course I wish to see you grow.

It is only that I recall how Tiangong and I once appeared in your eyes.

Those times cannot be returned to. " Shen Mu said with feeling, "No, they cannot be returned to. " Molten Lava Tubei bowed, and his body sank into the earth. Shen Mu bowed to see him off, and straightened only when he had vanished. Long Qilin and Yan'er hurried over.

Shen Mu wiped the sweat from the back of his neck and said with feeling, "Standing as an equal with beings like Tiangong and Tubei, I am still somewhat faint of heart.

" Yan'er came quietly behind him and peeked, and sure enough, gooseflesh had risen on the back of Shen Mu's neck; he had only been forcing himself to seem calm.

Gongsun Yan was still bewildered, and rather at a loss.

Seeing that Shen Mu meant to leave, she caught hastily at his sleeve. On the verge of tears, her voice full of dread, she pleaded, "Young Master, don't go yet.

My heart is all in a fluster.

The Earth Mother is my mother, and then she tried to seize my body, and Tiangong and Tubei call me Fellow Daoist and talk about the Yuan World and Xuandu, and I, I. .

.

" She bit her lip, weeping like pear blossoms in the rain.

"I only wanted to plant trees here and lure phoenixes and vermilion birds to nest!

If you are short of water I can water you, I can fertilize you and catch your insects, I have never met with anything like this. .

. " Shen Mu patted her on the back, waited for her to finish crying, and said with a smile, "Yan'er, do you still not understand?

You are no longer the you of before. You are now the new Earth Mother Yuanjun of the Yuan World!

And what you have understood even less is this: every Ancient God beneath the heavens envies you! " Gongsun Yan raised her head, tears still brimming in her eyes, and looked at him in confusion. Shen Mu said with a smile, "Tiangong and Tubei, the Earth Mother, the four Ancient God Emperors, the countless other true gods, all of them are bound by their own great Daos and cannot break past their hedges. The Earth Mother seized your body precisely because she wished to borrow it to burst the shackles of the Ancient Gods.