Chapter 1307 — Ambush in the Canyon

Above the Great Black Wood, the spiritual qi and spiritual power of heaven and earth came surging in madly, rushing wildly toward a valley on its outer edge.

The valley was vast, shaped like a basin, and within it mountain ranges stretched on and on. Shen Mu now stood atop one peak, the Divine Treasury Domain all around him, the Heavenly River flowing, linking the various realms, its hidden order matching the geography of the Ancestral Court.

The divine bow in his hand had been drawn to its utmost limit; countless rays of light surged in madly, converging upon the arrowhead!

The Great Black Wood's hundred thousand Great Black Mountains spanned a vast terrain; as the spiritual qi and spiritual power of heaven and earth poured in, they formed whirlpools of every size spinning madly in the air above this valley blasted out of the earth! Stream after stream of spiritual qi and spiritual power, beneath those whirlpools, was like so many tornadoes—yet they did not suck downward; instead they surged toward Shen Mu, pouring into that divine bow.

The divine bow's power grew stronger and stronger, so formidable that even Shen Mu could scarcely sustain it, the muscles of his arms trembling despite himself. In his heart he silently counted.

The quaking from deep underground grew ever stronger, shaking the mountains in the valley until they swayed; amid the heaving earth and trembling mountains, stream after stream of dreadful divine light gushed up from below, and the strange phenomenon actually soared into the sky, erupting above the valley floor to form a curtain of light!

From that curtain came sounds of slaughter, extraordinarily loud and clear, the din of battle shaking the heavens; dimly, one seemed to see countless incomparably powerful figures fighting and contending within the light.

That was the projection of the previous universe! This ore vein belonged to the outermost ring of the World Tree's growth rings—in other words, the projections of these mighty ones came from the previous cosmic year, and were the World Tree's memory.

Shen Mu turned a deaf ear and a blind eye to it all, his gaze still fixed dead on the place where the World Tree's roots had split open. There, from the World Tree's thick roots, an even more intense light gushed forth, and it actually gave out a grand sound like the tide surging and smashing against a cliff wall, wave upon wave, crash after crash!

That light was projected onto the cliff wall behind the roots, and within the radiance a figure could be faintly seen walking out from the light, drawing nearer and nearer, clearer and clearer!

The figure had at first been very small, but as he strode forward he actually grew larger and larger, as though he meant to walk right out of the stone wall! He had no right arm, and his gait was somewhat unnatural as he walked; he must be that mighty one of the previous universe whose arm Silent Craftsman and the Alchemist and the others had broken in the daytime!

But at that time his body had held no flesh or blood, only withered bone; now, astonishingly, he had grown flesh and blood!

Yet what was strange was that although he now had skin and flesh, seen from afar he looked like a dried-out mummy, incomparably gaunt! Suddenly, one of the man's hands reached forward, and the withered, bony palm actually thrust out through the cliff wall!

The cliff wall was the Great Black Mountain, and the Great Black Mountain was part of the World Tree's growth rings! He meant to follow the World Tree's growth rings, to crawl from the past into the present, from the destroyed universe into the present universe!

Just as his palm thrust out from the cliff wall, Shen Mu happened to count from one to ten!

Thwip— An arrow's cry rang out; the divine bow quaked violently, and the arrow on Shen Mu's bow flew! In the instant that arrow was loosed, Shen Mu's whole body was shaken so violently that his muscles shuddered, his very bones nearly jarred to pieces; the arrow's light sliced through the space ahead and in a flash arrived before the cliff wall!

The arrow's fletching pierced through that six-fingered palm and, carrying an incomparably dreadful power, shot into the cliff wall, nailing that withered, gaunt figure and sending him flying backward.

Soon his figure on the cliff wall shrank to a tiny black dot, receding at flying speed!

Then his figure vanished from the cliff wall, and only an angry roar came through, shaking Shen Mu's ears until they rang and his blood and qi churned!

After the roar, the divine light in the sky abruptly fell back, returning like the tide into the valley and vanishing within the mountains.

The basin fell silent at once.

Shen Mu panted hoarsely; that one arrow had nearly drained all his cultivation.

His mana, it turned out, could produce only that single arrow—he had not strength enough for a second.

Suddenly the Alchemist appeared above the valley on the back of a dragon qilin, tossed down a basket, and said with a laugh, "Shen'er, I've refined some spirit elixirs, made from the spirit herbs gathered in the Great Black Wood.

I don't know whether they're poisonous, so I'll have you test them! Don't eat yourself to death!

" Shen Mu caught the basket; it was packed full of spirit elixirs, each one crystalline and translucent, each ringing with the tinkling of the Dao. Shen Mu was moved.

The Alchemist must have gone back and immediately gathered herbs and refined elixirs, and in so short a time had refined so many, all for his use.

He swallowed one elixir and at once felt its surging medicinal power dissolve, vital essence billowing and churning.

Shen Mu immediately roused the Mystic Body Three-Core Art and paced back and forth atop the cliff, faster and faster, until at last his figure became a streak of flowing light circling and weaving over the cliff top!

His Mystic Body Three-Core Art was unlike any other; its best mode of cultivation was not sitting in meditation in seclusion, but cultivating in motion.

The medicinal power in his body was not yet fully refined, his vital essence not yet fully restored, when suddenly the divine light in the valley gushed forth once more, vaster than the last time! Shen Mu was startled.

"So soon? " The Egg of Taishi suddenly said, "Heavenly Venerable Mu, I think we had best change locations! " Shen Mu's heart stirred; he swept up the Egg of Taishi and rose into the air, alighting on another cliff.

The severed mountain he had chosen before was in fact the best spot, the one best suited to facing the World Tree's split roots head-on, from which the whole valley could easily be seen.

The cliff he now occupied was somewhat inferior. No sooner had he moved to the other cliff than the withered, gaunt figure reappeared on the cliff wall opposite.

Shen Mu grabbed a handful of spirit elixirs, stuffed them into his mouth, and bent his bow, counting.

Just then a rainbow light shot out from the cliff wall, and with a thunderous boom, the severed mountain where Shen Mu had stood a moment before was ground to powder in a violent quake! Shen Mu broke out in a cold sweat.

He had once tested the strength of that severed mountain; even a full-force sword strike of his own could not cut it through.

He had never imagined that a mighty one of the previous universe, striking across an entire universe, could shatter that severed mountain to bits! His heart still quailed with lingering fear—had the Egg of Taishi not warned him, he too would likely have been ground to powder along with that mountain!

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Eight, nine, ten! " Shen Mu loosed another arrow!

A roar came from the cliff wall; the mighty one who sought to crawl from the previous universe into this era was once again shot back into his own age by Shen Mu's arrow!