Chapter 1540 — The Truth Behind the Tribulation

Taidi's primordial spirit had been trapped by Heavenly Venerable Ling within the Unchanging Divine Art and had never yet escaped it; hence no primordial spirit dwelt within the Lady of Heaven Qiang, whereas Yuan Sheng's rod of instruction was aimed precisely at the primordial spirit, and never failed to strike true. Once struck, any whose Dao Heart could not withstand it would be controlled by the caster.

Against a freak like the Lady of Heaven Qiang, however, who had no primordial spirit and relied wholly upon her divine sense, the rod was utterly without effect.

Shen Mu looked toward the Lady of Heaven Qiang and saw her standing upon the stump of a Dao Tree, crossing the vast River of Chaos by means of the woman within that Dao Fruit, charging at him with a savage, surging momentum.

A moment before, the woman in the Dao Fruit had failed to block Yuan Sheng's rod, which showed that her cultivation was no match for his — though it was certain that she was a Dao-attainer of prehistoric times.

Shen Mu pondered a moment, then urged his boat, transformed from his staff, to steer clear of the Lady of Heaven Qiang, rather than keep up the dogged, tangled fight.

With his present strength, killing her would not be easy; and even killing her would not be killing Taidi — to be truly rid of Taidi, he would have to fight his way up into the Great Luotian and root out his Dao Tree and Dao Fruit.

Earlier, the Lady of Heaven Qiang had had the weakness of her Dao Tree, and so, when she attacked, she was hampered and hemmed in, forced to avoid it. And Shen Mu, calculating with intent against her unwittingness, had let her take it as given that the Tribulation Sword was a Dao weapon he had obtained from Jade Capital City out of sheer luck, so that she wished to snatch it — and thus she fell into his scheme and lost the initiative.

But such a stratagem could be used once; a second time it would surely fail.

If it came to force against force, Shen Mu would have to face those two God-Slaying Dark Blades. Those two divine blades were truly too ferocious; even the Heavenly Lord's fleshly body could not withstand them — the most ferocious weapons under heaven, by any reckoning.

To face them, Shen Mu would have to do as he had done against the Dao-attainer in Great Black Mountain: lay down scores of Unchanging Divine Arts beforehand, so that in the instant the God-Slaying Dark Blades wounded him they could be triggered, and only so escape death.

Yet upon the River of Chaos, that uncanny place, was plainly no place to array the Unchanging Divine Art; one slip, one fall into it, and body and Dao would surely both be annihilated. His purpose in coming was not to fight the Lady of Heaven Qiang to the death, but to seek out the whereabouts of Taiyi and to ascertain the state of Jade Capital.

"Taidi's road is still too narrow. To think he would join hands with a prehistoric being — he means to cut himself off from all under heaven.

" Shen Mu took out the God-Slaying Platform and tried to activate it, to see whether he could draw away the Lady of Heaven Qiang's two God-Slaying Dark Blades.

Though the Lady of Heaven Qiang was a Heavenly Venerable, her own cultivation was relatively the weaker among the Ten Heavenly Venerables; she had no primordial spirit, and even having fused with Taidi's head, her cultivation could only rank at the lower reaches of the Ten.

But those two divine blades were truly formidable; the reason the Lady of Heaven Qiang carried the Ancestral Court's God-Slaying Platform with her was precisely to guard against some among the Ten Heavenly Venerables seizing the two blades away by vast magic power.

A moment earlier, when Shen Mu had trapped the two blades with his Void-Form Taiji, it was she who used the God-Slaying Platform to recall them and counterattack him.

Clearly, then, the Platform had some measure of control over the two God-Slaying Dark Blades. Shen Mu had but just taken out the Ancestral Court's God-Slaying Platform when the Lady of Heaven Qiang sensed it; burning with fury, she burst out her divine sense without a word and came crashing down upon him in a mighty torrent!

At the same time, Shen Mu activated the Ancestral Court's God-Slaying Platform, calling forth the power of the Great Dao stored within it, and at once the two divine blades in the Lady of Heaven Qiang's hands spun out of her control, hard to hold! Great hands came grasping one after another, seizing the Dao Tree stump beneath her feet and dragging it down toward the River of Chaos.

Both her feet entered the water, and at once they were steeped in the tribulation of destruction of the previous cosmos — reduced to ashes and scattered to nothing!

In the same instant, Shen Mu, struck by her divine sense, fell into a dazed muddle, and his control over the Taiyi Staff faltered; the little boat transformed from the staff, carrying him, was about to plunge into the River of Chaos!

Both were startled at once. Shen Mu hurriedly recalled the God-Slaying Platform and steadied the boat, and saw that it had already sunk below the river's surface, the tribulation of destruction surging in and eating away his feet!

Before his fleshly body could melt, Shen Mu dashed out of the River of Chaos, and saw that both his shins were completely rotted away!

He turned to look back, and the Lady of Heaven Qiang's shins likewise were utterly annihilated.

The two gazed at each other across the distance, each still shaken with lingering fear; then Shen Mu turned his head, drove the boat off with a whistling rush, and vanished into the vast, dim chaos qi.

The Lady of Heaven Qiang pursued no more. Each had the power to destroy the other, and so they could only make shift, avoid one another, lest both perish at once.

This River of Chaos was truly vast and mighty.

The little boat traveled along its surface, direction indistinguishable, chaos qi everywhere, the eye scarcely able to see to its end.

Shen Mu halted the boat and urged the Mystic Art of Creation; his two shins gradually grew back, though in his heart there was indeed some lingering dread.

"This tribulation of destruction is too overbearing; without attaining the Dao, even strength on the order of the Ten Heavenly Venerables cannot withstand it!

" Only after his legs were restored did he go on.

Though here direction could not be told, the vertical eye between his brows could pierce the chaos; once he drew near a shore, his gaze could break through the chaos and see the far bank.

Yet Shen Mu searched long upon that great river and still did not find the far bank.

Time passed little by little, and he could not but grow secretly anxious: not only had he failed to find the far bank, he could no longer even find the way he had come!

"This is bad.

. .

" Worry grew in his heart.

If he could not find the far bank, nor find the way back, he feared he would be trapped in this place forever!

In chaos there was no distinction of north and south, no above and below; if one lost one's way, one could only rely on luck.

No map was of any use here, for there was nothing to serve as a coordinate!

"If I could be trapped here together with the Ten Heavenly Venerables, that would be a great stroke of fortune for the world of men. " His mood settled again.

The Ten Heavenly Venerables had done much evil; if he were trapped here with them, and the world were rid of them, Jingping would have ample time to grow, and the overthrow of the Heavenly Court would be a matter of time.

Nor did he give up hope, but kept searching; yet as day after day passed, he still did not find the far bank of the River of Chaos. Not only the far bank — he did not even encounter any other Heavenly Venerable.

The great river was too vast; to meet another Heavenly Venerable was very hard indeed.

Suddenly Shen Mu's gaze fell upon the water below, and a strange look came over his face.