Chapter 1404 — He Too Wants a Share

Shen Mu's robes streamed about him as his own magic power surged violently upward, and within his nineteen heavenly palaces one primordial spirit after another strode toward the Yao Terrace, their auras growing ever stronger! The realm of the Yao Terrace no longer held any obstruction for him!

More than that, he could even feel that his great primordial spirits might step across the Yao Terrace and enter the Yao Sea, cross that sea in a single passage, and reach straight for the God-Severing Terrace on its far shore!

If he could pass through the God-Severing Terrace without dying, he could then cross the Nine Prisons Platform in his great heavenly palaces with effortless ease! At that time, he would stand but one step from the Jade Capital realm!

In the space of a brief moment, Shen Mu's great primordial spirits had already arrived upon the Yao Terrace, and his cultivation strength was rising at a terrifying speed, the surge of power brought by his entry into the Yao Pool realm! In palace after palace his primordial spirits waded across the sea, the Yao Pool churning with towering winds and racing waves, and his cultivation climbed as straight as a drawn line.

The heavenly palace system had every kind of flaw, yet the advance it gave in sheer power was plain to see!

Soon, however, Shen Mu halted in the middle of the sea and pressed no further forward. "The heavenly palaces of the gods all imitate the heavenly court, and the Yao Terrace and Yao Pool of the heavenly court imitate the Yao Pool and Yao Terrace of the Ancestral Court. Since I have come to the Ancestral Court, visit the Yao Pool and Yao Terrace I must, whatever it takes, and strive to bring this realm to perfection.

" He forced down the impulse to break straight through the Yao Pool realm. The palace realms created in imitation of the heavenly court prized power alone, with no elevation of the Dao realm, and were incomplete.

But here in the Ancestral Court he could unfold the Dao realm hidden within these realms, and that would surely be a matchless elevation, leaving every realm without regret!

Not only the Yao Pool, but the other three heavenly gates, as well as the God-Severing Terrace and the Jade Capital City, he would have to walk through one by one.

If his strength grew too great, so great that he could no longer sense the Dao realm harbored in the three heavenly gates and in the Yao Pool and Yao Terrace, the loss would outweigh the gain. His gaze swept about, and finding neither Long Xiao nor Long Qilin, he understood at once the reason. "Several Heavenly Venerates of the heavenly court have likely already reached the Ancestral Court.

Long Xiao may seem headstrong and self-willed, but knowing the Ten Heavenly Venerates have descended, they will surely seek him out and strike him down at the first chance.

" Shen Mu pondered a moment, reined in all his strange phenomena, and alighted before Long Xiao's throne. There he quietly forged his own Ancestral Court Nine Prisons Platform, raising it upon the back of the Ancestral Court, and besides that Nine Prisons Platform there was also the South Heavenly Gate.

"Heavenly Venerate Mu! " Suddenly one Heavenly Venerate after another descended and came to the Nine Prisons Platform, none other than Heavenly Venerate Hao, Heavenly Venerate Huo, Heavenly Venerate Xu, Heavenly Venerate Gong, Heavenly Venerate Hong, Zu God-King, Langxuan God-Emperor, Qiang Heavenly Consort, Heavenly Venerate Yan and the other eight, nine in all, each looking about with faintly knitted brows.

"There is something strange about this place. " Heavenly Venerate Xu rose into the air and studied the Nine Prisons Platform in detail, her face growing graver still.

She dropped down and hastened straight to the second terrace, then soon reached the third and fourth terraces. "What is Heavenly Venerate Mu doing here?

" Heavenly Venerate Hong asked with a frown.

Shen Mu smiled. "Naturally I came here to break through. Let me inform you all that I am already of the Yao Pool realm!

" Zu God-King said coldly, "I am on the verge of cultivating a true heavenly court!

Is attaining the Yao Pool realm anything to boast of? " Langxuan God-Emperor said with kindly warmth, "For Heavenly Venerate Mu to attain the Yao Pool is still worthy of pride.

Heavenly Venerate Mu is fifty this year, is he not?

To cultivate to the Yao Pool realm by fifty and become a heavenly god is already a rare speed. " Shen Mu kindly reminded him, "I have just turned seventeen. " Zu God-King laughed.

"Fifty is already long life for a mortal man, and apart from Jingping and Nantian, few of the human race live to fifty.

Even among Jingping folk, common men live only to eighty.

Heavenly Venerate Mu is already an old man, with thirty years of striving left.

" Qiang Heavenly Consort smiled.

"Has Heavenly Venerate Mu met Long Xiao? " Shen Mu shook his head.

"I have not seen him. I had thought to pick up a bargain, to wait until Your Ladyship and the other Heavenly Venerates had gravely wounded him and then snatch the kill cheaply, but after I found my way here my vital energies suddenly stirred and I broke through, attaining the Yao Pool.

I attained the Yao Pool at seventeen. . .

" At the words 'pick up a bargain,' Heavenly Venerate Hao and Qiang Heavenly Consort both felt inward displeasure.

They were the ones Shen Mu had once bargained off, one chased by Shen Mu for six hundred thousand li until he had to borrow Lady Taisu to save his life, the other with his head seized by Shen Mu and refined into a treasure seal. Clearly Shen Mu had also meant to pick Long Xiao's bargain, but had failed only because he had to break through. Zu God-King coughed and reminded him, "Heavenly Venerate Mu is fifty, a man grown old. " Shen Mu's face darkened.

At that moment Heavenly Venerate Xu flew up from the Nine Prisons Platform with a strange look and said, "There is something uncanny inside.

My dao heart was suppressed within, but thanks to my deep cultivation I passed through without peril. " The other Heavenly Venerates exchanged glances and entered the Nine Prisons Platform together. Heavenly Venerate Xu glanced at Shen Mu and said softly, "Why did Heavenly Venerate Mu choose to break through here. " "The feng shui here is superb, a treasure land born of heaven.

The moment I came here I felt this place was fated for me.

. .

" Heavenly Venerate Xu had long known his love of wild talk, with not a true word in his mouth, and paid it no mind.

Not long after, the other eight Heavenly Venerates rose from the Nine Prisons Platform, saying one after another, "Uncanny indeed.

A pity it cannot suppress a Heavenly Venerate, else even a Heavenly Venerate could be imprisoned in this place!

" Heavenly Venerate Hao suddenly said, "As for the back of the Ancestral Court, how does Heavenly Venerate Mu think it should be divided? " Shen Mu smiled. "Naturally I too want a share.

" The other Heavenly Venerates each raised their brows, and at that very instant the sky shook violently as a Divine Artifact Yu Tianzun fell from the heavens and crashed down upon the back of the Ancestral Court!

The nine Heavenly Venerates stared tongue-tied, exchanging looks full of startled doubt.

"Who dispatched a divine artifact to this place? " Heavenly Venerate Hao asked in a low voice.

Heavenly Venerate Hong shook his head.

"This divine artifact comes neither from us nor from Heavenly Venerate Xiao. Can it be the one in Tu Bo's hands? " Shen Mu gazed at that Divine Artifact Yu Tianzun, startled and uncertain, then suddenly said, "It could also come from an eleventh Heavenly Venerate among the Ten Heavenly Venerates!

" Hearing this, the nine Heavenly Venerates felt a chill in their hearts and hastened away, swiftly vanishing, while Heavenly Venerate Gong's voice drifted back from afar.