Chapter 1357 — Divine Lords of the Four Extremes

The stars overhead grew ever more brilliant, yet with an eerie flicker, brightening only to waver and vanish and reappear, as if they too were leaping to the music of the peach forest, springing from one world to another. The stars were tracking the peach forest, and each time they dimmed and vanished and blazed forth anew they seemed a full circle larger, a fraction nearer to the grove.

And as the notes of the peach forest leapt, the Daoist priests of the Dao Sect, busy binding the people of every city and land, suddenly saw that the giant and the Yuan Tree in the darkness were moving.

Though giant and tree still looked as large as before, as if they had not moved at all, that was only because they moved even as they shrank.

Stranger still, the giant had seized the Yuan Tree and torn it up by the roots, and he stood motionless when the notes of the peach forest leapt, and moved only when the notes ceased.

The leaping of the notes was precisely the moment light kindled above the peach forest, and then, laid bare by the light, giant and tree stood utterly still.

The ceasing of the notes was precisely the moment darkness swallowed the sky above the grove, and then giant and tree vanished into the dark, yet every priest could feel the giant gripping the tree and hastening through the blackness, hastening hither.

And that strange giant hastening with the Yuan Tree in hand was none other than Shenqi Yutianzun, who holds down the Yuan Realm. The priests of the Dao Sect shivered to the bone and flew the faster on every side, bidding all men bolt their doors.

At last the bell of the Dao Sect tolled anew, and the priests flew back one and all, sealed the mountain gate, and each withdrew to his own courtyard or palace and barred the doors.

In the city at the foot of the mountain a child quietly pushed open a window to peer out, and in that instant he beheld a sight of utter terror, a giant of towering frame standing beyond the walls with a tree a hundred zhang tall clutched in his hand.

His face rose higher than the gate tower, his profile looming above it, and as the music of the peach forest leapt, light flared and lit his countenance.

The child gaped, staring dumbly at the sight. His mother rushed over in panic, dragged the wretched boy back, and slammed the windows shut with a bang.

Then came the sound of a spanking and the child's howls, and soon the howls sank to a whimper, as if his mouth had been covered.

Beyond the walls Shenqi Yutianzun had shrunk to little more than a dozen zhang, yet still stood somewhat taller than the gate tower, standing there like a statue of stone.

Suddenly the music of the peach forest dimmed, and the city sank into darkness.

When the music brightened again, the giant already stood at the edge of the peach forest, still leaning upon the Yuan Tree, standing motionless.

A rushing rustle came, a sudden gale springing up and setting the peach forest sighing.

The wind came from nowhere and blew hard, hard enough to stir even the robes of Shenqi Yutianzun.

Strange to say, though the gale could move his robes, it could stir only the peach leaves on the outer fringe of the grove, while not a single leaf deep within so much as trembled.

Shenqi Yutianzun gripped the Yuan Tree and did not move.

And the host of stars above grew ever brighter, their starlight blazing as if they had come to hover not far above the peach forest, and among them forty-nine great stars shone most dazzling of all.

Within the palace of the peach forest the Alchemist urged forth the medicinal power of the last spirit pill, and the great chains of the Dao born of that power bored into the brow of Heavenly Venerable Moon, and in the instant those chains touched the dao patterns of Divine Emperor Langxuan's divine consciousness, they twined like two spirals locked together in a slaughter most bitter.

When the first of Divine Emperor Langxuan's divine-consciousness dao patterns shattered, Heavenly Venerable Moon's own divine consciousness and primordial spirit suffered the shock, and the music beneath her hands faltered by half a beat.

With her faltering by half a beat, the strings of light in the peach forest slowed by half a beat as well.

When the music joined again and the light blazed up, Shenqi Yutianzun, leaning upon the Yuan Tree, had come deep into the peach forest, and that strange gale had come into the grove as well, wind shaking the peach trees, leaves rattling, petals falling petal by petal and dancing upon the wind. In the sky those forty-nine great stars burned still brighter, hanging above the palace of the peach forest like forty-nine eyes fixed upon that hall, waiting for the next chance.

Through the ten thousand li of peach forest, strand after strand of light shuttled and leapt ever more urgently, and the sky turned kaleidoscopic in an instant, now day and now night, now pelting rain and now blazing sun, now snow mantling ten thousand li in silver, now fierce sun and burning summer, or bright spring, or hills red with autumn.

In a single brief instant the peach forest could pass from one world to another, from spring to summer, from winter to autumn.

Here mountains and rivers, sun and moon and stars shifted without cease, yet eerily Shenqi Yutianzun, the Yuan Tree, the monstrous wind, and the forty-nine great stars in the sky never changed. Within the hall the zither sang on, its measure ever more urgent.

Heavenly Venerable Moon's ten fingers flew, string after string leaping, leaping ever faster, as if even her fingers could not keep pace.

Suddenly Heavenly Venerable Moon rose to her feet, her ancient zither hanging suspended and wheeling about her as she trod the air and danced upon the sky. Her legs, unbeknownst even to herself, were healed, and she could stand.

Where her form moved the zither moved with her, drifting before and behind her, above and below, to left and to right without rest, and with a clang and clash sharp notes rang out, and the palace of the peach forest split asunder in an instant, leaving only row upon row of massive stone pillars.

The pillars stood like a forest, like the bridges of a zither.

The strings of that zither suddenly flew up and fastened themselves to the pillars, one string to one pillar.

Heavenly Venerable Moon, graceful beyond measure, threaded her way among strings and pillars, floating and drifting, yet her music soared high and impassioned, faintly edged with a stern and murderous air.

The Alchemist circled her like a tiny star in flight, his Medicine King primordial spirit standing erect within the Heavenly Palace, and the Heavenly Palace of the Medical Dao wheeling about Heavenly Venerable Moon as well, to keep the dao patterns within those healing spirit pills from falling into disorder.

Hum— Shen Mu spread open his Yuantai divine treasury, and within the hall there opened as it were a vast world, the Ancestral Court hanging at its center, with Xuandu above and Youdu below, the Four Extremes standing guard on every side, and all heavens and myriad worlds emerging into view.

Shen Mu's chief primordial spirit rose slowly, its frame growing ever greater and taller, so that from whatever direction one looked one saw only its full face. He was a four-faced god.

The palms of that four-faced god-king spread open, and the ruins of the great hall were upheld upon his hand, pillars and strings running a hundred li this way and that, the ruins of the hall become a great zither.

Heavenly Venerable Moon danced among pillars and strings, now skimming above a string and now diving beneath, now winding about a pillar, her long sleeves streaming as she plucked the strings.

She seemed to have become the four-faced god-king in Shen Mu's palm, able to grasp with perfect clarity every detail of the peach forest and the great zither.