Chapter 1224 — Fellow Cultivator, Wait a Moment

On this day, a great upheaval shook the Primal World. Ling Venerable, Moon Venerable, and Fire Venerable joined hands with Xiao Weisu, the first Supreme Emperor, to slay Earth Mother and fell the Primal Tree.

The fifteenth Southern Supreme Emperor led a great army against the Northern Supreme Emperor's Heavenly Court, rooting out this cancer of the Primal World at a single stroke.

In that battle the Southern Supreme Emperor unified the Primal World, and within it were countless tales worthy of song and tears that cannot be told one by one.

On the day Earth Mother's head was taken, strange signs appeared in the heavens, and many inconceivable things came to pass. The fall of the Primal Tree was one matter; beyond it there were also the derangement of space and the descent of the divine. Some said it was Hao Venerable, a renowned elder of the Outland Heavenly Court, who led the Heavenly Court's mighty ones down to aid Moon Venerable, Fire Venerable, and the rest in slaying Earth Mother.

Others said that Moon Venerable's divine power had run out of control, that she had been gravely wounded by Earth Mother, turned into a cripple, her face ruined. Still others said that Xiao Weisu had won the favor of Moon Venerable and Ling Venerable, and that the felled Primal Tree had been given into his keeping.

And others said that Ling Venerable and Fire Venerable had decreed that Xiao Weisu should rule the Primal World. But from that time on, few ever saw Moon Venerable again.

Ling Venerable likewise entered seclusion once more, showing signs of one who retires once his work is done.

What actually happened that day has already become history, unknown to outsiders.

That day, Moon Venerable fled back to her palace.

Had she wished to leave, no one in all the world could have stopped her; yet to rescue Ling Venerable, she did just as she had done in the dream.

She gave up her own legs and her face in exchange for Ling Venerable's chance to escape.

She all but crawled back into her palace, and at once laid down all manner of space seals and prohibitions, so that Hao Venerable and the others could not find her. "Yan'er, bring a screen.

Do not let outsiders see me," she said in a trembling voice.

The screen concealed her, and Yan'er, with great thoughtfulness, lit a lantern for her behind it. Trembling, Moon Venerable picked up a mirror.

Gazing at the ugly face within it, she flung the mirror away with a shaking hand.

Just then a figure came without a sound, yet Yan'er and the other palace maids seemed not to see him at all.

Shen Mu walked toward the screen.

Moon Venerable covered her face and said in a hoarse voice, "Do not come over.

I do not want you to see me as I am now. " Shen Mu pushed at the screen; Moon Venerable screamed.

No matter from which direction Shen Mu moved toward what lay behind the screen, the screen always barred his way. "Moon.

" Shen Mu, standing before the screen, said softly, "I am going back.

" Moon Venerable said nothing.

Shen Mu went on, "As of now I still cannot save you.

I cannot break Xiao Weisu's Innate Primal Qi, nor can I break Fire Venerable's divine power. But in the future, when your peach trees have grown throughout the myriad heavens and worlds, when I return again with this painting, you will regain the face you once had. And then you will still be Moon Venerable. " He bowed and turned to go.

"Fellow Daoist, wait for me.

" Behind the screen there was silence.

After a long while, the woman behind the screen, seated in the shadows, inclined herself ever so slightly.

Time flowed on.

The fall of the Supreme Emperor Era was now settled.

With Earth Mother dead and Moon Venerable gravely wounded, only Ling Venerable remained, one support unable to hold up the whole. Yet Ling Venerable's divine powers were vast, her abilities inconceivable, and especially in the final years of the Supreme Emperor Era, once she unleashed her divine power, none could stand against her. But a spear in the open is easy to dodge, while an arrow from the dark is hard to guard against.

Ling Venerable was ambushed by the Heavenly Emperor, and in the end she met her death in the Heavenly River.

A flourishing dynasty that had lasted three hundred thousand years thus became a thing of the past.

That year, a girl of the White Dragon Clan, carrying a long sword on her back, led countless ragged remnants of the Supreme Emperor Era through untold hardships, evading the pursuit and slaughter of the gods and demons of the Outland Heavenly Court; cutting a path through the wilds, she endured countless sufferings before at last reaching the East Sea. She led the Supreme Emperor's remnants out to sea. After a time none could measure, they came upon a floating island on the sea, and upon that island peach blossoms were in full bloom, exquisitely lovely.

The master of that place received them.

The master had a strange temper: he would not meet outside guests, and only hid behind a screen.

The master of the peach garden said to the White Dragon girl, "I can send you into a hidden heaven to take refuge.

When the Supreme Emperor Tribulation has subsided, you may return to this land.

" The White Dragon girl thanked him. She often danced with sword-light, and the master of the peach garden would be wheeled out in a chair by a girl, face veiled, gazing pensively as she danced with her sword.

Her sword was like fish and dragons dancing, mirrored in the East Sea.

The White Dragon girl discovered many strange things about the floating island. Wandering at random in the peach grove upon it, she would sometimes come to other heavens, sometimes into the Primal World, and sometimes even reach the Nether Capital or the Mystic Capital.

She also found that the master of the peach garden had a strange habit: he was forever asking that girl called Yan'er where the peach grove had grown to.

The White Dragon girl heard that this strange peach grove had been planted long ago by the master of the peach garden from a single peach branch, and only after a thousand years had it grown to its present size. She also heard Yan'er say that the master of the peach garden was waiting for someone. Only when the peach grove had filled the myriad heavens and worlds would that person appear.

In the end, the White Dragon girl led her clansfolk through the peach grove into a hidden heaven, where they settled and multiplied and lived on. And the White Dragon girl often came out to walk the world, teaching the people of the Primal World the arts of the Dao and divine powers, spreading the ideals of the Supreme Emperor Era.

She was reverenced by the people as the Supreme Emperor's Sword God. She would still often pass through that peach grove.

The grove had little by little grown into many heavens, yet the master of the peach garden had still not waited for the person she awaited. The White Dragon girl met a youth named Shen Ye; met Wen Tiange, who could fell firewood; met Di Yiyue, ill-tempered; and met Yan Yunxi, dashing and elegant, who dressed as a man.

She still walked the world. The master of the peach garden was waiting for someone, and she too was waiting for someone.

Before anyone knew it, twenty thousand years had passed.

The Heavenly Court of Kaihuang had turned to dust; past glory had become ruins.

The master of the peach grove had still not waited for that person, and she had not found that person either. Another twenty thousand years of dark years passed, and the White Dragon girl searched bitterly for clues to that person.

One day, she came by the source of the Yong River. Mist was rising over the water, and the girl bearing the divine sword on her back could not help but sigh in boundless emotion: this river had buried too much history, so much that its rushing waters had become the sobbing of time itself.

Just then she saw the gods of the Heavenly Court charging in to kill.