Chapter 1186 — The Void Beasts Invade

In years past Tian Gong too had dwelt in the Ancestral Court through long ages, and of the Ancestral Court he knew a great deal; in the Primeval Age there had been far too many uncanny legends concerning the Great Black Mountain. Some said that place was the ash left behind when the last universe was destroyed; others said that imprisoned there was a Demon King capable of destroying the whole of creation.

Creators had once gone to explore it, yet no matter how many went, not one ever came back.

In his day Tian Gong had likewise attempted to explore the Great Black Mountain of the Ancestral Court, and had arrived at a conclusion that made his blood run cold: that the universe had been born and destroyed no fewer than sixteen times.

And the Great Black Mountain was in truth a tree that propped up all things in the universe, save that, for reasons unknown, this divine tree had died, leaving behind nothing but a stump.

It must have perished at the destruction of the last universe, leaving later generations endless room for wondering.

Yet when Tian Gong explored the Great Black Mountain he had seen many exceedingly grotesque visions that chilled him to the bone, and from that time on he kept his distance.

So far as he knew, Tubo had also been to the Great Black Mountain; but when he asked Tubo what he had seen there, Tubo sealed his lips, refusing to speak of it, and he had no choice but to let the matter drop.

Among the Heaven Venerables who had entered the Ancestral Court, who would dare be so reckless as to claim the eerie Great Black Mountain for his own? Heaven Venerable Hong did not need his toes to work out who that person was.

"Heh heh.

I need not look at his face to picture how that little bastard looks when he is courting death!

" Though Heaven Venerable Hong laughed, his face was ashen. Yet for now, upon the Great Black Peak of the Great Black Mountain, Shen Mu still felt profound gratitude toward the two ancient gods within the Taiji Divine Egg, thinking that he had not seized their vein, and that they had pointed him toward a treasure ground second only to the Five Great Veins, a bond of goodwill between them.

But it had never occurred to him that he had forced his way into the Taiji Vein, slaughtered his way to its deepest reaches, driven his divine sword into the altar, and, reeking of murderous intent, extorted a hundred Taiji Divine Stones and a piece of Taiji Origin Stone. How could they possibly have sincerely directed him to obtain such a treasure ground?

Surely they were only too eager for him to go and get himself killed, the better to take back the Taiji Divine Stones and the Origin Stone. In the span of ten-odd days, Shen Mu had deciphered four Taishi runes, and his pace of study grew ever faster. He thought to himself: "Within half a year I shall have worked out every rune within the Taishi Egg.

Then, by inducing the Taishi Egg to converse with the ancient god's egg inside the Azure Heaven Canopy, I shall be able to make out the Dao runes of that ancient god's egg as well, clear as day!

" Full of confidence, he was about to press on with his studies when a sudden premonition came over him; he waved his hand to put away the Taishi Egg and rose to his feet. Dragon Qilin came striding over, his face flustered. "Sect Master, Yan'er and I have run into something strange.

.

.

" Shen Mu raised a hand.

"I already know.

Say no more. The Void Beasts are here!

" He hurried to the center of the Great Black Peak, where stood the jade pillar of the Glazed Azure Heaven Canopy, a pillar like a mountain, propping up the sky and standing upon the earth, translucent blue-green throughout.

Dragon Qilin opened his mouth to go on, then saw beyond the Black Wood a vast, sky-blotting tide of Void Beasts charging toward them, and hastily swallowed his words.

Yan'er came running up with Little Tubo, meaning likewise to tell of what she and Dragon Qilin had witnessed, but at the sight she did not dare disturb Shen Mu.

"Young Master, I fear you do not know. The strange thing we spoke of is not the Void Beasts. It is that there is something uncanny about this Black Wood.

" Yan'er's face was troubled. Shen Mu looked at the Void Beasts surging in like a blanket over the heavens and laughed.

"Heaven Venerable Qiang will not deign to act in person.

Does she think mere Void Beasts are enough to do for me? " The first wave of Void Beasts slammed with a roar into the outermost of the Heavens; each Void Behemoth, in the very instant it crashed into the First Heaven, vanished from sight, slipping into the void of that Heaven, and in the next moment appeared beside the various rare treasures suspended within it, opening vast, blood-red maws to devour them.

The might of the Glazed Azure Heaven Canopy came precisely from these treasures. When the Two Xuanwu Emperors had refined the Canopy, because there were too many treasures, and because the artifact-refining methods of that age were crude, the power of each single treasure had never been brought to its utmost.

When the treasures of every Heaven within the Glazed Azure Heaven Canopy burst forth together, they held the might to destroy heaven and earth; yet the power of any one treasure alone was not especially great. And Void Beasts could devour even the Heavens themselves: when hundreds of them invaded a Heaven, they could swallow the sun, swallow the moon, and gnaw the continents clean.

Yet Void Beasts had little intelligence, acting only on battle instinct.

If no one controlled them, these behemoths would simply charge, devour, and destroy at random, following their instincts. But with the Heavenly Consort Qiang secretly directing the Void Mother Beast, and the Void Mother Beast marshaling tens of thousands of Void Behemoths, these behemoths became an army of unspeakable terror; wherever they passed, all was annihilated.

Now it was the Heavenly Consort Qiang pulling the strings from the shadows, and so the Void Beasts went straight for the treasures of the First Heaven. Shen Mu gave a cold laugh and bowed from the waist.

At once the First Heaven became the Second Heaven, and the Second Heaven became the First Heaven; more Void Beasts surged in, rushing into the new First Heaven.

At that same moment, in the other Heavens the various treasures blazed with light.

Before the Void Beasts could devour the treasures of the Second Heaven, thousands upon thousands of dread radiances rippled out, gathering the might of a myriad precious treasures, and swept the Void Beasts that had charged into the Second Heaven utterly away. Countless enormous corpses fell from the sky, plunging into the dark, brooding mountains below.

"Heavenly Consort Qiang, let us see whether it is your marshaling of troops and laying of formations that is the better, or whether my formations can establish the Dao! " Shen Mu's spirit soared; he roared with laughter, gathered his concentration, and marshaled the various Heavens. Borrowing the peculiar power of the ancient god's egg to answer every plea, he urged on the precious treasures of each Heaven, rousing the might of one treasure after another.

The order of the Twenty-Eight Heavens shifted without cease, dazzling the eye; the might of the various treasures burst forth, rays of every hue flashed, and the various Dao arts turned into streams of Dao patterns visible to the naked eye that lashed out in all directions, cutting Void Beasts in half at the waist, cleaving them apart, piercing their skulls, slicing them to pieces, or blasting them to bits on the spot.

Within Heaven after Heaven, corpses rained down until the fifteen growth rings of the Black Wood were heaped with bodies; only the quarter of the Great Black Peak had yet to be engulfed.