Chapter 1289 — Erase His Name, Ruin His Form

The instant Heavenly Venerable Hao touched those rays of light it was as though lightning had struck him; the primordial spirit within the Daluo Heaven of his divine consciousness trembled without cease, and the Seven Soul Grass drew yet more of its energy away.

This Seven Soul Grass was a holy relic of the Creator, and now it had very nearly eaten its fill; its whole body gave off a milk-white radiance — it could swallow no more.

The Seven Soul Grass flew out of the Daluo Heaven of divine consciousness, bored out from between Heavenly Venerable Hao's brows, and with a single swish plunged into the earth and vanished without a trace.

"Little Grass, you truly are useless!"

The Tubo that Shen Mu had become came striding over, vast demon qi rolling about him. With a lift of his hand the Great Dao of Youdu turned into the Nether River, and the Nether River became a long whip that cracked across Heavenly Venerable Hao's body, spinning him like a top, whirling him this way and that through the great Youdu formation, so that he crashed again and again into one shaft of demonic light after another!

Within the Daluo Heaven of divine consciousness, black smoke poured from Heavenly Venerable Hao's soul. This whip was a whip that lashed souls and scourged primordial spirits; and those demonic lights were demonic lights that refined souls and primordial spirits. Shen Mu was plainly borrowing the favorable ground of Youdu to refine his primordial spirit and his soul together!

Shen Mu swung the whip and lashed down without pause. Hao had no way at all to evade; the wounds to his primordial spirit grew heavier and heavier. Within the Great Emperor's Daluo Heaven of divine consciousness his primordial spirit could still have held out, but with Shen Mu's attacks aimed squarely at the primordial spirit piled on top of it, he felt his primordial spirit withering at a furious speed!

Shen Mu's aim was not to destroy his primordial spirit by his own strength alone; nor could Shen Mu destroy it. Even another dozen stalks of Seven Soul Grass could not drain dry the energy within that primordial spirit.

Shen Mu's aim was to weaken his primordial spirit, and let the Great Emperor's Daluo Heaven of divine consciousness destroy him!

A profound dread took hold of Heavenly Venerable Hao. Shen Mu's cunning was too terrible, too deep; he borrowed every force that could be borrowed, all for the single purpose of putting Hao to death!

Yet the greater crisis was that his cultivation could no longer be held down.

If this went on, the chaotic energies within his body would surely blast him to powder, scattering his soul and extinguishing his spirit!

Whoosh —

He dispersed another heavenly palace, and then another; in the space of a few short moments, Heavenly Venerable Hao dispersed ten heavenly palaces outright, no longer grudging the loss of that cultivation.

Once those heavenly palaces were dispersed, the feeling of being on the verge of bursting at any moment eased somewhat.

His heart was bleeding. How long it would take him to cultivate those heavenly palaces back, he did not know; yet it was precisely because he had dispersed them that he had won himself a sliver of breathing room.

Then came a thunderous boom: he smashed through a great cluster of black pillars and forced his way out of the great Youdu formation.

Behind him, Shen Mu raised a fist the size of a mountain and drove it into the small of his back, sending him tumbling to the ground and rolling end over end into the distance.

Crack —

The long whip of the Nether River swept in. Caught in midair, Heavenly Venerable Hao was lashed until blood streamed from all seven of his orifices and he spun madly, the blood from those orifices flying round his body in circuit after circuit.

Shen Mu lashed the whip, and as he raised it for another stroke his huge head thrust forward; the vertical eye of Tubo in his brow opened, and countless gorgeous butterfly-wing-shaped Dao patterns spilled out in every direction.

Hummm —

A pillar-thick shaft of demonic light shot straight out, pierced Heavenly Venerable Hao's body, nailed him to the ground, and bore him sliding forward several hundred li, smashing through one great mountain after another.

The mountains touched by that demonic light were sliced clean in two!

Suddenly Heavenly Venerable Hao's figure vanished once more; he had mustered his primordial qi to flee from the Taixu Youdu into the land of Taixu.

"Run? Do you think you can run out of the palm of my hand?"

The Tubo that Shen Mu had become raced forward, and in a few strides charged from the Taixu Youdu into the land of Taixu, his body shifting from Tubo into Tiangong. Both hands raised high, the stars in the heavens abruptly emerged!

The stars grew larger and larger, seeming to draw nearer and nearer to the land of Taixu; stars as big as bushels ranged themselves across the sky, combining into the forms of Dipper, Umbrella, Seal, Crystal, Fan, Ladle, Canopy, Drive, and other celestial treasures of the Dao, and thundered down upon Heavenly Venerable Hao, who had not yet brought his body to a halt!

Forty-nine kinds of celestial treasures of the Dao bombarded down without cease; the earth quaked, and mushroom cloud after mushroom cloud rose, each hundreds of li from the next — a sight of tremendous grandeur.

In the great camp of the Heavenly Court, gods of the Heavenly Eye race peered about one after another, and their faces changed dramatically. They hurried to report to the city lords of every city, crying: "Disaster! Mu Tianzun is hunting down Heavenly Venerable Hao! He has chased him from Youdu all the way to the land of Taixu, fighting across several thousand li!"

Those who guarded the divine cities were all top experts of the Heavenly Court — Heavenly Masters, Heavenly Kings, and the Four Emperors among them — and hearing this they laughed. "Talking nonsense again! Mu Tianzun is a child; he only trades on his status to swindle and boast. What strength has he to kill Heavenly Venerable Hao? One sneeze from Heavenly Venerable Hao would kill him dead!"

"It is true!"

The generals of the Heavenly Court camp climbed the city towers or floated aloft to watch, and seeing from afar how Shen Mu hunted Heavenly Venerable Hao, they could only stare at one another, their faces the color of earth.

That scene was indeed Shen Mu hunting down Heavenly Venerable Hao!

The gulf in cultivation between Shen Mu and Heavenly Venerable Hao was more than a thousand li wide — and yet now Heavenly Venerable Hao, hunted by Shen Mu, had not the slightest strength to resist, nothing left but to flee for his life; and even flight could not save him!

The Heavenly Court's generals were aghast, at a loss what to do.

To have seen Heavenly Venerable Hao beaten bloody by Shen Mu was a matter of life and death; for Heavenly Venerable Hao had lost face before the whole camp of the Heavenly Court — a thing more unbearable to him, surely, than death itself. One could well imagine what fate awaited those who knew this secret!

"Seal off the news!"

The same thought rose in the hearts of all the Heavenly Court generals at once: the news must be sealed off; it must not spread through the whole army.

Heavenly Venerable Hao was the face of the Heavenly Court. That the man's Dao heart had been humiliated by the beating was a small matter; the morale of the Heavenly Court was a great one!

If the armies began to dread Shen Mu, or if Heavenly Venerable Hao, for the sake of his face, conceived the intent to wipe out those armies, either would be a terrible blow to the Heavenly Court!

"This must be reported to Heavenly Venerable Fire and Heavenly Venerable Void!"

No sooner had that second thought formed in their minds than they set off, each on his own, to inform Heavenly Venerable Fire and Heavenly Venerable Void. But those two Heavenly Venerables, gravely wounded, were each healing their injuries behind closed doors and would not come out.