Chapter 1216 — Blossoms Crowd Every Branch

The art of that peach blossom was exceedingly subtle: its petals cut through the air, seeming to grow ever larger, until by degrees they filled all heaven and earth, so that nothing else remained in anyone's eyes. The ghost ship's energy burst forth utterly, and yet that raging, incomparable impact could not break through the worlds the peach blossoms had formed, one upon another.

But those outside the petals felt that unspeakably dreadful fluctuation, and could not keep their faces from changing. Should it reach them, the energy within their bodies and the very space and time of their being would surely blow apart entirely, and they would exist no more!

At last the fluctuation subsided. "Yue Tianzun.

. .

" Shen Mu stared blankly at the whirling petals, his mind in violent turmoil, and he hurriedly strove with all his might to steady it.

In their present state they could not afford the least surge of emotion; after all, they had no fleshly bodies left, being nothing but bodies of energy, and a surge of emotion was a surge of energy.

A surge of energy meant that the energy was unstable, and at any moment they might explode! Within their bodies no substance bound the energy; should they explode they would be utterly annihilated, everything gone without a trace, and even the black sand of their souls would cease to be.

"Perhaps this is another art that destroys the soul completely. .

.

" As Shen Mu thought this, he found it rather odd that in a state neither living nor dead he should still have the idle heart to ponder arts. Just then the whirling petals grew smaller and smaller, shrinking without cease, and a woman with long, drifting hair came flying through the air, like a goddess of the moon palace, untouched by any breath of dust; lightly she reached out her hand and drew along two stretches of the Heavenly River.

She joined the Heavenly River together, then extended thumb and middle finger and gave a light pinch, holding the bare peach branch between them. And the whirling petals came flying one after another, alighting upon the branch, until they formed a peach blossom once more, its stamens swaying gently. The woman bowed her head and sniffed at the blossom, yet the blossom crumbled away, petal by petal.

It was only an ordinary peach blossom; it was her art that had withstood the explosion of the ghost ship's energy, but how could a peach blossom bear so dreadful an impact? So it was annihilated all the same. "What a pity.

. .

" A look of regret came over the woman, and her manner was somewhat sorrowful; but in the next moment she cheered again and said with a smile, "Fallen petals are not heartless things; turned to spring mud, they nurture the flowers the more. I shall plant you, and next year you will become a peach tree; the peach tree will become a peach grove, and who knows but it may spread through all the heavens and the myriad worlds.

" She put away the peach branch and looked toward Shen Mu and the others, curiosity written on her face.

Shen Mu leaped forward and bowed in salute. "We meet again, Yue Tianzun. " This woman was indeed Yue Tianzun; as she looked at him, the astonishment on her face deepened.

"Mu Tianzun?

" she said, startled and delighted at once, testing the name. Shen Mu nodded helplessly. "It is I. " Yue Tianzun hurried forward and was about to seize his hand, but grasped only emptiness.

She was taken aback; she grasped again, and again caught nothing.

Shen Mu said helplessly, "Our present state is rather peculiar; it cannot be told in a word.

That is my senior brother Wei Suifeng, and there are a few friends.

.

.

" Wei Suifeng hurried over to pay his respects. Feng Qiuyun, seeing Yue Tianzun from afar, did not dare approach; but the corpse of the Supreme Emperor recognized Yue Tianzun, and could not help but grow agitated.

It gave a hoarse roar, and the imperial corpse grew brighter and brighter. Everyone's faces changed drastically.

Yue Tianzun frowned, plucked a leaf from the peach branch, and flicked it out with a shake of her hand. The leaf grew larger and larger, and with a whoosh it came to the side of the Supreme Emperor's corpse and wrapped him round and round like a dumpling. Boom— Another earth-shaking roar rang out, and from the dumpling a dreadful pillar of light shot up to the heavens and down to the earth, blasting through the sky and striking the ground so that an incomparably deep crater opened in it.

"Another leaf lost.

.

. " Yue Tianzun sighed and said with a frown, "The one who just exploded seems to have been a false emperor of the Northern Supreme Emperor's Heavenly Court.

Was he not already dead?

" She was greatly bewildered. A great many Feathered Forest soldiers dragged up a coffin that had turned to light; within it lay two women side by side, and without opening the coffin one could see them perfectly clearly. One had a beauty beyond compare, enough to enchant any beholder, but alas she had already turned into a body of energy.

The other was Her Majesty the Empress.

She was an ancient god, and though she was dead she still kept her fleshly body, not having been dissolved by the Way of the Great Beginning. Shen Mu was relieved.

Aboard this ghost ship, apart from everyone's lives, nothing mattered more than the bodies of Her Majesty the Empress and Jue Wuchen.

"Yue Tianzun, our condition is very unstable. Might we find a secluded place?

" Shen Mu said.

"I need to quiet my mind and think, to see whether I can solve the difficulty that now confronts us. " Yue Tianzun smiled.

"Come with me. I happen to have a place in the Yuan World where you may take shelter; you need not fear being disturbed.

Come to think of it, even Earth Mother Yuanjun fears me; she would never dare provoke me there.

" Shen Mu breathed a sigh of relief, though he was somewhat curious. "Earth Mother Yuanjun?

What era is this now? " "The age of the Supreme Emperors, of course. " Yue Tianzun turned her head and smiled.

"It has been more than nineteen thousand years since the Southern Supreme Emperor ascended the throne; in a few more years it will be the Supreme Emperor's twenty-thousand-year grand birthday.

" She was very happy, beside herself with delight.

"How timely your coming is! These years, Sister Ling and I have managed the Yuan World, and it has flourished wonderfully.

" Shen Mu breathed again and thought, "The Southern Supreme Emperor's three hundred thousand years. .

. and it is still only the twentieth millennium of the Supreme Emperor era.

The great upheaval is still far off. . . " Yue Tianzun went on, "The Supreme Emperor of this dynasty is the fifteenth; he has sat upon the throne for nearly twenty thousand years.

The Supreme Emperors before him were for the most part divinities of the human race and other later-born races.

How swiftly the peoples of our Yuan World have grown; even the Xiaohan Heavenly Court of old could not compare!

" At this she grew somewhat downcast; most likely she had thought of Yun Tianzun, who had died in battle.

"The fifteenth Supreme Emperor? " A chill ran through Shen Mu, and at once he felt the energy within him grow unstable; he hastily reined in his emotions.

The fifteenth Supreme Emperor, on the throne for nearly twenty thousand years; did that not mean that the Supreme Emperor's Tribulation was already very near? Ling Tianzun and Yue Tianzun had both met their doom in this period: Ling Tianzun had fallen into the eternal cycle of dying and living, while Yue Tianzun had lost both legs and been crippled! Yue Tianzun studied him curiously, then quietly reached out and poked at his body.

Her hand passed through Shen Mu and touched nothing at all; all it met was an exceedingly dreadful energy.

"Sister Yue, stop that," Shen Mu said helplessly. Yue Tianzun withdrew her hand; after a moment she could not resist poking him again.

Shen Mu said helplessly, "Stop it, truly.