Chapter 1545 — Beyond the Cure of Medicine, Beyond the Power to Save

The Ancestor Divine King gave a cold snort: "Come, then, if you have the nerve!

" Yet for all that, the sight of Fire Heavenly Venerable's wretched state left a lingering dread in his heart; he hurried to Hao Heavenly Venerable's side and did not dare act alone.

On the Dao tree, Fire Heavenly Venerable's face was utterly destroyed, most of the bones of his skull shattered.

Between the broken bones, threads and wisps of chaos qi still dripped from the wounds; the Ancestor Divine King could even see the man's bulging eyeballs, the inner structure of his nasal cavity, even his brain. More horrifying still, Fire Heavenly Venerable's teeth had been dissolved away, leaving only three or four; his tongue, however, had been preserved, and his mouth could no longer contain it — half of it lolled outside.

In former days Fire Heavenly Venerable had been handsome and uncommon, dignified in bearing, and possessed of a stern uprightness that filled all who beheld him with awe and reverence. Now he had become a hideous thing no one dared look at directly, a misery beyond words.

One of his arms was gone; the other had turned to white bone, and the bone was covered in sword marks, and within those marks sword light still flickered from time to time.

Hao Heavenly Venerable examined his wounds closely, then suddenly raised a hand and struck, shearing the bone arm off clean at the shoulder, and said in a low voice: "Can your Creation Mystic Art restore your arms?

" Fire Heavenly Venerable said nothing. Hao Heavenly Venerable smiled faintly and said, with an easy air: "The Jingping Reforms — you too hid a reincarnated body in Jingping and secretly stole the fruits of the reform.

Do not tell me you never studied Jingping's Creation Mystic Art. " Fire Heavenly Venerable's voice was hoarse: "Nothing escapes you, Brother Hao.

" He stirred his Creation Mystic Art; at the stumps of both arms flesh and blood swelled and broken bone sprouted, and soon two slender arms grew out, like the arms of an infant, hands and arms alike stunted and short.

The arts that circulated out of Jingping were all built upon the foundation of the Reforms; without the Heavenly River Divine Treasury, Jingping's techniques were exceedingly hard to master. Fire Heavenly Venerable had never opened the Heavenly River Divine Treasury — to open the Heavenly River was too great a risk for him — and so his reincarnated body cultivated Jingping's arts, while his true body still walked the traditional path of the Divine Bridge Divine Treasury.

His Creation Mystic Art he could only re-derive from his own understanding; but plainly the art he had derived could not yet make flesh and primordial spirit grow forth in perfection, and was nothing like Shen Mu's, so nimble and swift.

He must wait for his two short arms and short hands to go on growing before he could be restored as before — and that would take several days. Hao Heavenly Venerable laughed: "Mu Tianzun boasts that no one can heal a wound made by his divine arts.

From the look of it, that was nothing but a boast.

" Fire Heavenly Venerable's voice grew hoarser still: "The wounds on my face — the Creation Mystic Art cannot heal them! " Hao Heavenly Venerable was briefly startled, and he studied the man's face closely — and saw that Fire Heavenly Venerable's face was exactly as before, not a shred of flesh or blood had grown.

The Creation Mystic Art was utterly useless. Hao Heavenly Venerable mused for a moment, then stepped back two paces: "Divine King, cut the wounds from his face entirely.

" The Ancestor Divine King came forward and stood before Fire Heavenly Venerable, smiling: "Brother Fire, the wounds on your face hold remnants of that thief Mu's divine arts.

His arts are not easily broken, so we must cut away your flesh and blood together with the remnants.

But the wounds run deep — I fear I may slice off your eyes and tongue along with them, and perhaps half your brain into the bargain.

Do you truly want me to strike? " Fire Heavenly Venerable stood there without moving: "Strike, Divine King, and strike without fear!

" The Ancestor Divine King turned his supreme treasure of the heavenly Dao into a heavenly blade and brought it down in a single stroke, cutting Fire Heavenly Venerable's face off entirely — tongue, eyes, and half his brain went with it.

How dreadful a thing it is for a man's head to lose half of itself; the remaining half of the brain might well have slipped out of the skull — and yet Fire Heavenly Venerable stood there calm and composed, a composure so profound that even the Ancestor Divine King could not help but admire it.

Yet the very next moment, something strange happened: Fire Heavenly Venerable stirred his Creation Mystic Art, and the face that grew back had no skin, no flesh and blood at all — only broken bone, tongue, and naked eyeballs. At last Fire Heavenly Venerable could not remain calm and composed; his two newly grown short arms and hands trembled, and he raised them with difficulty, trying to touch his own face — but the arms were far too short to reach. And even had he reached it, he would only have collapsed the further into despair. The Ancestor Divine King stepped back a pace, his brows knit tight.

By rights, once the wounds were cut away, cut away together with Shen Mu's lingering divine arts, then with Mu's arts gone the face Fire Heavenly Venerable grew anew should have been restored as before; it should never have grown back exactly like the wounds.

— This could not be called a face at all. The strange thing was that the face Fire Heavenly Venerable grew with his Creation Mystic Art was still the wounded face, not his former countenance at all.

Fire Heavenly Venerable's voice was hoarse and trembling: "Divine King, cut again! " The Ancestor Divine King frowned and struck once more; the ugly face fell to the ground, and Fire Heavenly Venerable stirred his Creation Mystic Art again. A new face grew forth, exactly the same as the one before it, hideous beyond measure.

"Again! " Fire Heavenly Venerable was on the verge of collapse, his voice and look savage.

The Ancestor Divine King shook his head: "It is useless, Brother Fire. When Mu Tianzun wounded you, he surely used some uncanny divine art.

Unless that art is broken, you need not dream of restoring your features.

No matter how many times we cut off your face, it will do no good.

" Fire Heavenly Venerable gave a furious roar, and suddenly stirred the vast, mighty power of his own cultivation, surging it toward that ruined face of his; Dao fire blazed up and burned upon his countenance. He was trying to find the traces of Shen Mu's divine arts and erase them utterly.

If only he could erase Shen Mu's arts, he could be restored.

Yet however fierce his Dao fire burned, he never found any trace of Shen Mu's arts — as though no such traces existed at all.

Fire Heavenly Venerable cried out; the Dao fire bored this way and that through his ruined face, yet met no resistance whatsoever.

No enemy, no opposition — his whole store of martial power was rendered entirely useless. "This injury, I cannot heal either.

" From behind Hao Heavenly Venerable came Taisu's voice: "This is not the sword Dao, nor is it purely the Dao of Taisu, the Dao of Taichu, or the Dao of Taishi; it is a little of every kind of great-Dao divine art.

Among them are the Unchanging Divine Art and the Dao of Creation, and it seems there is also something of the Dao of Reincarnation that Yin Tianzi comprehended. " Fire Heavenly Venerable's body shuddered, and he frantically stirred his Dao fire. Taisu continued: "When Mu Tianzun's sword Dao breached your face, I fear he had already stirred his great-Dao divine arts to invade your body.

" Fire Heavenly Venerable forced himself to calm, and his blood-red eyes turned toward the space behind Hao Heavenly Venerable; he rasped: "Speak, Your Highness! I want to know how his divine arts invaded my body!