Chapter 1287 — The Eighteen-Layered Heavenly Gate

Lü Zheng fled at breakneck speed with the Woodcutter Sage and Yan Yunxi clamped beneath his arms, while the Black Tiger God had turned into a black cat and crouched upon his shoulder; behind them came Niu Sanduo, bearing the Heavenly Master Wudou on his back — and the Heavenly Master Wudou, who had traded two blows head-on with Heavenly Venerable Hao, was gravely hurt. Not far off, Heavenly Lord Xi staggered along, half his body still flesh and blood, half scoured down to bare bone.

Qi Xiayu's body was a ruin, her heavenly palaces all but destroyed, and in her chest stood a peach branch, already putting out roots and shoots, its thick roots piercing through her heavenly palaces and creeping from one to the next.

Xiu Zhong and the Silkworm Maiden were in a sorrier state still: one had lost his body, the other her head, and they could only run on merged into a single form. And there in the sky the Heavenly Court's third Heavenly Master, Bai Yuqiong, was likewise drawing away, spitting blood as she went.

The mantis stalks the cicada, the oriole lurks behind — Bai Yuqiong, strongest in battle of the four great Heavenly Masters, had hidden herself at the very rear, and with a spatial formation had nearly flayed Heavenly Venerable Hao alive, and with Heavenly Venerable Yue's zither strings had cut the head from his shoulders; a truly appalling tally of carnage.

Yet her own wounds were among the heaviest of them all: in his towering rage, Heavenly Venerable Hao had come near to smashing her to pieces.

The whole company fled like madmen. Having taken such a loss, Heavenly Venerable Hao would surely hunt them down to the last soul and never suffer a single one of them to escape. Yet to their astonishment, he did not give chase.

"Heavenly Venerable Hao must be too gravely wounded to hold his own injuries in check!

Follow me back and kill him! " the Woodcutter Sage cried out loudly.

No one paid him the least heed.

The Woodcutter Sage struggled a while, unable to wriggle free from beneath Lü Zheng's arm, and at last burst out in fury, "Donkey, put me down!

" This time Lü Zheng did not jeer at him as he once would have, but only kept running, head down.

The Black Tiger God could not help saying, "Master, look at who is left standing.

Apart from you, who here can still fight? " The Woodcutter Sage was struck dumb.

He looked at the others: Heavenly Lord Xi shed flesh and blood with every stride he fled; Qi Xiayu lurched and stumbled, liable to drop dead at any moment. The Silkworm Maiden and Xiu Zhong were worse off still, the Dao-wounds Heavenly Venerable Hao had left in their bodies running riot, wantonly wrecking their spirit-sense and their flesh alike.

Within Yan Yunxi every bone and every organ had been shattered; now only a single breath held her in life, and should that breath fail, the woman was gone, jade fallen and incense scattered.

The Heavenly Master Wudou had taken two of Heavenly Venerable Hao's heavy blows head-on; though he now looked the least wounded of them all, his injuries were in truth the gravest, and he had only a single severed arm left — of his whole martial prowess, nothing remained but his legs. As for the donkey Lü Zheng, the old ox Niu Sanduo, and the Black Tiger God, Heavenly Venerable Hao's silkworm silk had drained every scrap of cultivation from them, so that they could no longer even ride the clouds and mists, and must sprint on the strength of their mortal flesh alone.

In this battle they had gone up against a Heavenly Venerable Hao who was already an arrow at the end of its flight, and there had been no fewer than seven Emperor Throne-level beings among them — and this was the outcome all the same! It should never have come to this.

The Woodcutter Sage's reckoning had been faultless: Heavenly Venerable Hao dared not fight a drawn-out battle, so there was no need to trade blows with him head-on; one had only to hold out a while, and the strain of his own cultivation would crush his body. But man proposes and Heaven disposes: Heavenly Venerable Hao's oppressive might was too overwhelming, leaving them no room to join forces at all.

Under the threat of their Dao-hearts crumbling and collapsing, every one of them struck out at Heavenly Venerable Hao alone, a heap of loose sand, so that they were defeated, and defeated this swiftly. "Wait — there is still Shen'er!

" The Woodcutter Sage's spirit suddenly surged. Remembering Shen Mu, he said urgently, "Donkey, put me down!

Shen'er is still back there! " Lü Zheng clenched his teeth and said nothing, sprinting for all he was worth.

The Black Tiger God said, "Master, how shrewd is your second disciple?

If he saw how the wind blew, he would surely have fled long ago — would he still be waiting there?

Master, what matters now is how we get out of this alive! " The Woodcutter Sage ground his teeth and raged, "I know him. He will not flee.

He will seize this chance, and whatever it costs him he will try to do away with Heavenly Venerable Hao, that foe of a lifetime! This is not a chance in a thousand years — it is a chance in ten thousand, in a million years! Put me down! With the wit of this master and disciple together, perhaps we can put Heavenly Venerable Hao to death!

" Lü Zheng turned a deaf ear and hurtled on.

At that moment, in the dark valley behind them, a spirit-sense domain burst forth, and the countless inner-demon Mu Tianzuns of this moment turned themselves into part of the Divine Treasury Domain, becoming gods within that domain. All the energy in the Divine Treasury Domain gathered, and under Shen Mu's direction it evolved into one world-shaking strike.

The light that the blow burst forth scattered every shadow from the valley, so bright that it cast the silhouettes of all who fled in panic; their shadows were drawn out long, and the leaping light set those shadows leaping upon the earth too, claws and fangs bared, like devils.

The Woodcutter Sage looked back and sighed inwardly. It was true that Shen Mu was contending with Heavenly Venerable Hao, trying to cut him down — but that power was far too strong; even if he wished to go back now, he could not.

The energy released by the clash between Shen Mu and Heavenly Venerable Hao was too fierce, and with his strength he could never draw near; the aftershocks of the battle would strike him and grind him to dust. "Shen'er must be borrowing the power of the inner-demon Mu Tianzun.

He is the true Mu Tianzun, marshalling and commanding every inner-demon Mu Tianzun, and so he has the strength to fight Heavenly Venerable Hao — and perhaps even to drag him down to his death.

" The Woodcutter Sage smiled and murmured, "You have grown up. You are an old hand at this game now, and in this battle you have shown me that you possess the wisdom to stand against a Heavenly Venerable.

. .

" The dark valley. Shen Mu stood at the center of the Divine Treasury Domain, and four of the surrounding five great Innate ore veins erupted in surging veins of the Dao, rushing toward the long sword in his hand!

At the same time, the Ancestral Court, Xuandu, Youdu, the Four Poles Heaven, Yuandu, Tianyin, and every Great Dao of all the heavens and myriad worlds in the domain blazed out and poured into the sword in his hand! The inner-demon Mu Tianzuns enthroned in each of the heavens drove every Dao art and divine power at once!

His eighteen heavenly palaces likewise blazed alight together, their vast cultivation pouring out as one!

This was the first time Shen Mu had ever driven his Great Heavenly Court cultivation art! With the aid of the battle between Heavenly Venerable Hao and the Supreme Emperor, he had comprehended his own eighteenth heavenly palace, the Innate Heavenly Palace, and at last understood his own Great Heavenly Court cultivation art.