Chapter 1562 — The Fourth Young Master in the Immortal Palace

In the long river of chaos, the Fourth Young Master of the Miluo Palace played his zither, and the melody would not come.

He sighed and sank into the Great Tribulation of Destruction, and however fierce that tribulation raged, it could not harm him in the least.

He stood amid the waves of the tribulation, gazing down with gentle eyes, where there was a woman — his wife.

"I will return to this moment and save you from death," he said in a low voice.

The woman turned to kalpa ash in the Great Tribulation of Destruction, utterly gone.

"No one can stop me!"

He closed his eyes, refusing to look upon that scene. "No one at all!"

The Golden Ship of Salvation sailed on and on, passing over one long river of chaos after another. Several times Shen Mu saw the Master of the Miluo Palace forging a new Jade Capital City together with many Dao-achievers; the Jade Capital City gradually took shape, contending against the Great Tribulation of Destruction, growing ever more firm.

To observe the Jade Capital City of different ages brought him many insights as well.

He knew not how long had passed before he finally came to the first long river of chaos, and there began a careful search, trying to find some trace of Tai Yi.

This was the Sixteenth Universe. Before the World Tree, many Dao-achievers and the mighty ones of the Sixteenth Universe rushed toward the World Tree, only to see the phantom of the giant Tai Yi felling the World Tree, so that they could not steal passage.

There were also countless Dao-achievers struggling in the catastrophe, trying to board the Jade Capital City, and never able to come ashore.

Shen Mu searched minutely, more carefully than when he had first come here, and suddenly his heart stirred, his gaze falling upon the roots of the World Tree.

To this day he had never seen who it was that had laid the blood sacrifice of the Ancestral Court. By rights, at the moment the Sixteenth Universe was destroyed, that person should have laid the sacrifice; yet looking only from the long river of chaos, he could not tell who had done it.

"By this time the Miluo Palace must have split into several factions. Some argued for entering the next universe by way of the Jade Capital City; some tried to steal passage to the next universe through the World Tree. Beyond these, there should also be the Chaos Space. But why can I not find even the Chaos Space?"

He searched again and again, and never in the long river of chaos did he find any of it: he did not see who had laid the blood sacrifice, nor find the Chaos Space, nor any trace of Tai Yi.

"Could it be that someone has veiled it all?"

A chill rose in his heart. What manner of being had such power as to veil everything even as the universe perished?

Was it the doing of the Master of the Miluo Palace, or of Tai Yi, or of one of the young masters of the Miluo Palace?

Suddenly Shen Mu withdrew his gaze. He sensed that someone was walking across the river.

On the long river of chaos, thick with chaos qi, two ancient gods of Taiji crossed the river riding a Dao tree, sailing up from the depths of the long river.

They did not see the Golden Ship of Salvation, nor Shen Mu aboard it; they simply sailed past it.

Upon the Dao tree there was also a great silkworm cocoon, and within the cocoon some creature seemed to squirm.

"The merging of the Empress and Yuanmu is more complex than we imagined."

The two ancient gods were heavy with worry. The goddess said, "After the fusion, who will emerge — the Empress or Yuanmu? What if it is Lady Yuanmu? By then she will have achieved the dao; will she not turn upon us?"

"We need only comprehend our own path of fusion from their path of fusion. As for who emerges, that is of no concern."

The god upon the Dao tree consoled her: "Whichever of them survives in the end, the Empress or Yuanmu, she will have to be grateful to us. Without our meddling, could they ever have achieved the dao?"

Shen Mu set the golden ship in motion and quietly followed after them.