Chapter 1354 — All Ways Return to One

Heavenly Venerable Fire's Way of Fire—one need only remove a single foundational flame rune, and the art and its divine abilities would be altered beyond recognition, opening a flaw in his soul! And judging by the conduct of the human cultivators and gods of the Southern Heaven, not one of them knew that this flame rune existed within Heavenly Venerable Fire's art!

That is to say, apart from Heavenly Venerable Fire himself, no one realized that he had no weakness in his soul at all—on the contrary, his soul was exceedingly powerful! A powerful soul meant an exceedingly powerful spirit!

Should anyone attempt to strike at Heavenly Venerable Fire through his soul, they would surely suffer greatly! "I wonder whether Heavenly Venerable Fire passed his art on to Heavenly Venerable Hao?

" Shen Mu stared blankly, lost in thought.

If Heavenly Venerable Fire had given his art to Heavenly Venerable Hao, then this flaw would follow Hao as well, preventing him from refining his soul to an exceedingly powerful degree through this art—and even from realizing that Heavenly Venerable Fire had such a weakness.

Of course, Heavenly Venerable Hao had other arts and divine abilities with which to refine his soul, but the crux was this: if he believed he had grasped Heavenly Venerable Fire's weakness, he would surely suffer greatly.

"Among the Ten Heavenly Venerables, not one is a simple figure! " He could not help but sigh in feeling. Of the Ten Heavenly Venerables, the ones who seemed simplest were Heavenly Venerable Fire and the Ancestral God King: Heavenly Venerable Fire hated evil as though it were his personal enemy, and the Ancestral God King had a fiery temper—both were men of simple character.

And yet how could a simple man ever become one of the Ten Heavenly Venerables? "The simple ones are all dead.

" He steadied his mind and began explaining to the Alchemist the sequence of dao patterns within the dao wound left by Heavenly Venerable Fire.

The Alchemist listened with great earnestness, recording every detail without the slightest negligence, then began selecting the spirit medicines he would need. Shen Mu could not help saying, "Grandpa Alchemist, when you used to mix medicines for me, you were never this careful and cautious!

" "Your hide is thick and your flesh is coarse, and you grew up soaking in all manner of spirit medicines—you're resistant to drugs," the Alchemist said offhandedly.

Shen Mu fell silent for a moment, recalling his childhood.

His memories of the other folk of Hidden Remnant Village were filled with happiness, but whenever he remembered the Alchemist, it was always the agonizing experiences that followed one drug trial after another. Back then he had been anything but thick-skinned and coarse-fleshed; on the contrary, he had been thin and frail from malnutrition.

Granny Zhu had carried him from village to village begging for milk, and only later had the wife of the Crimson Dragon city lord been abducted and turned into a cow to nurse him.

And even then, the Alchemist had already been putting him in a medicine barrel to test drugs, giving it the fine name of strengthening the body so that the little fellow might more easily survive. He shook his head, casting these memories too painful to look back on to the back of his mind, and said, "Then the next one is that sword strike of Heavenly Venerable Xiao, isn't it?

" Heavenly Venerable Xiao's sword had been the second attack: swift, it had severed Heavenly Venerable Yue's lumbar spine and run her through! Shen Mu examined it closely.

The divine ability contained within Heavenly Venerable Xiao's sword was not the Innate Qi, but came from Heavenly Venerable Yun's art, the Purple Empyrean Azure Vault Art. Shen Mu had witnessed Heavenly Venerable Yun's Purple Empyrean Azure Vault Art through Yun Jianli. The art's greatest trait was that it encompassed all things and possessed extraordinary plasticity!

Though the Purple Empyrean Azure Vault Art and Shen Mu's Mystic Body Three Cinnabar Art differed greatly, they shared one trait: both excelled at absorbing other schools and other arts, taking their strengths for their own use. That Shen Mu had been able to fuse eighteen heavenly palaces so quickly and raise the Mystic Body Three Cinnabar Art to the level of the Great Heavenly Court was owed to the foundations of the Mystic Body Three Cinnabar Art.

The Purple Empyrean Azure Vault Art possessed this same strange quality. The Emperor Throne arts contained within Heavenly Venerable Xiao's sword were many, yet between the different Emperor Throne arts there was not the slightest friction in their operation!

He examined it for a long while, hesitating and unable to decide, his expression shifting between light and dark.

The Alchemist waited quietly to one side. Shen Mu rose to his feet and paced back and forth, then suddenly halted and said, "Heavenly Venerable Yue, I need two people to assist me.

One is Emperor Yunluo, Wei Suifeng; the other is Yun Jianli, a descendant of Heavenly Venerable Yun. Both are in Jingping at this moment.

" His spirit-consciousness rippled, and Wei Suifeng— Heavenly Venerable Yue said, "Wait a moment. " Not long after, Heavenly Venerable Yue summoned a palace maid and instructed her, "Two honored guests have arrived in the peach grove outside and are searching for a path. Go to the palace gate, take down a lantern, and invite them in.

" The palace maid assented and went out, took down a lantern, and came into the peach grove. There she heard the voices of two men, exclaiming in astonishment, "Strange!

Strange! What place is this?

How did I suddenly arrive here?

" "Which divinity has acted to bring us to this place? We beg the divinity to show himself and grant us a meeting! " The palace maid raised the lantern, and its light fell upon the two men's faces.

Outside it was already night; Wei Suifeng and Yun Jianli stood in the peach grove, looking wary.

.

. .

A moment later, Wei Suifeng and Yun Jianli followed the palace maid into the palace. Seeing Shen Mu and the Alchemist, both were startled, but neither spoke. Shen Mu said, "Brother Yun, Senior Brother, this is Heavenly Venerable Yue.

She is afflicted with wounds and needs your help.

" Yun Jianli hurried forward and performed a kowtow, saying, "In my ancestor's dying instructions, it was said that should I ever meet Heavenly Venerable Yue, I must perform the great rite of kowtow, to thank the Venerable One for risking life and death to lend her utmost aid in those years! " "Rise," said Heavenly Venerable Yue, sighing faintly, and once more she recalled the past.

Wei Suifeng also stepped forward to pay his respects, saying, "Heavenly Venerable Yue opened the Seven Stars Divine Treasury, a great grace and virtue to all who came after!

" Heavenly Venerable Yue smiled. "I merely perceived the shortcomings of Heavenly Venerable Yu, Heavenly Venerable Hao, and Heavenly Venerable Ling, and made slight repairs—nothing of such great merit.

Emperor Yunluo need not stand on ceremony.

" Shen Mu described the sword wound inflicted by Heavenly Venerable Xiao, then said, "Senior Brother has collected the most Emperor Throne arts, and Brother Yun is the orthodox heir of Heavenly Venerable Yun. The two of you are best suited to decipher the dao patterns contained in this sword strike of Heavenly Venerable Xiao!

" Wei Suifeng and Yun Jianli had long since come to know each other in Jingping.

They exchanged a glance, and Wei Suifeng coughed once, saying, "Junior Brother, those geographical maps I left you—you did go searching, didn't you?

Surely you didn't fail to dig up those Emperor Throne arts I hid? " Shen Mu's face reddened slightly, and he tried to bluff his way past it.