Chapter 1447 — May the Good Prosper

The Dao of the Netherworld has long since wanted you erased! The more people you revive, the heavier the punishment! When the punishment falls, not only will those you revived die—countless others will be dragged down with you! " Shen Mu stood up. "The great Dao of the Netherworld knows nothing of human feeling. " The Netherworld Heavenly Venerate said, "The great Dao of Heaven and Earth has never known human feeling. " "I am too idealistic; you are too realistic. " Shen Mu suddenly roused his soul-pulling divine art.

The Heaven-and-Earth Mystic Gate stood upright behind him, and he laughed aloud. "Because I am too idealistic, I often dash my head bloody against reality! Because you are too realistic, you have shut yourself away! " The Netherworld Heavenly Venerate raised an eyebrow. "Lord Tu will not lend you his power, and neither will the Lord of Heaven lend his to revive these soldiers of the human race. " "I do not need it! " Shen Mu laughed aloud.

His divine treasury gaped open, and the Ancestral Court appeared—above it the Mystic Capital, below it the Netherworld. The towering power within his divine treasury surged forth!

"The Great Dao Rises from the Ancestral Court"; "Creation Opens the Primeval Dark.

" These were his two divine arts of entering the Dao, the fourteenth heaven and the fifteenth heaven.

"The Great Dao Rises from the Ancestral Court" evolved the great Daos of the Netherworld and the Mystic Capital; "Creation Opens the Primeval Dark" used the Dao of Creation to repair the bodies of these fallen warriors, to rouse their blood, to make the dead blood in them surge with life once more!

The Netherworld Heavenly Venerate watched him in silence, offering no hindrance, letting him do as he would. The Jingping soldiers gathering the dead on the battlefield stared blankly as one comrade after another rose to his feet. Bloodstains still clung to them, yet their bodies began to recover: their wounds closed, their hearts beat again, and the dead organs of their bodies came back to life.

Some cheered, seizing their newly revived comrades in tight embraces, laughing until the laughter turned to sobs. The battlefield was too vast, the fallen too many.

Even Shen Mu felt himself growing more and more strained; reviving these warriors drained too much of his dharma power and spirit.

His breath failed him.

At the same time he felt the agitation of the great Dao of the Netherworld: he had defied the Dao, reversed life and death, and the great Dao of the Netherworld had issued the command to eradicate him.

He sensed Lord Tu in the Netherworld forcibly suppressing the great Dao of the Netherworld, and he sensed the Netherworld Heavenly Venerate resisting the Dao's command.

At last, the fallen warriors of Jingping on this battlefield rose one by one.

Every last power within Shen Mu seemed spent; he collapsed with a crash, so weak he could scarcely rise. The Netherworld Heavenly Venerate, still resisting the command of the Netherworld's great Dao, passed by his side and stepped once more onto the paper boat. "Do not go to the Netherworld.

Once you enter it, Lord Tu will not protect you—he will kill you.

There, the power of the Netherworld is too strong. " "Thank you," Shen Mu said faintly. The Netherworld Heavenly Venerate's body stiffened slightly. He did not turn his head.

"Do not thank me.

You have done a thing that reverses life and death; I will report it faithfully to Lord Tu. Lord Tu is just and impartial; he will record your misdeeds and settle all accounts in time. " Shen Mu smiled and strove to raise his voice.

"Two and a half years—two and a half years at most—and it will be the Battle of the Mystic Capital, with the life and death of the Lord of Heaven at stake! Will you go? " He spoke too hastily and broke into violent coughing.

"What business is that of mine? " the Netherworld Heavenly Venerate said coldly, and steered the paper boat into the Netherworld.

Yet Shen Mu smiled, gazing up at the sky. In the east the dark was giving way to white; the sun was about to rise. He murmured, "He will go.

He will surely go. . . The Netherworld Heavenly Venerate may have shut himself away in his rationality, may have grown cold believing he has seen through all things, but he will go.

His heart is still warm, still burning.

. . " Zaifu walked around to stand before him.

In the east the clouds were brightening, and a red sun rose slowly from the glow. "In those days I did not have your divine art of reversing life and death. Had I possessed it, I too would have defied Lord Tu, and I too would have revived my comrades.

" He looked straight at the rising sun and was silent a long while.

Then suddenly he chanted softly: "Frost falls on the southern hills, autumn's fruit; the wind sweeps the northern neighbor's night fires; the world's affairs hurry on. Who can question Heaven's will? I only wish the good may prosper. The Dao of the blade—it is the Dao of man. .

. Shen'er, you have rested long enough, have you not? Come, let us press on! " Shen Mu staggered to his feet and strove to keep pace with him, walking toward the light of the rising sun.

"Any acquired Dao is the Dao of man! " he said, his tone firm. Zaifu glanced back at him and smiled.