Chapter 1564 — The Attempt Comes to Nothing

Shen Mu stood at the prow, his gaze incomparably bright. He was not blind, of course — he had long since noticed the Empress.

But what he had in mind was to seize the moment when the Empress had only just broken from her cocoon and been reborn, before she had fully mastered her own cultivation, and strike her by surprise, crushing her beneath the ship in a single blow!

If the Empress succeeded in cultivating the Heavenly Court realm and mastered the power of that realm, then in strength she would reach a summit that even Venerable Hao and Venerable Xiao had never attained!

Once she had fully mastered the Guixu Great Dao, she would possess the power of creation and destruction at once, undying and indestructible.

More than that, she could combine what Lady Yuanmu excelled at, master the arts and divine powers of Venerable Hao, Venerable Xiao, Venerable Hong and the rest, and achieve the Dao through sheer force!

And if she branded her own power by force upon the Ultimate Void, then she would have no rival left under heaven!

Shen Mu did not for a moment believe the ancient Taiji gods could keep the ambitious Empress under control; if the two ancient gods were not killed and devoured by her, that would be fortune enough sent by heaven.

Suddenly the golden Ship of Salvation shuddered, and the golden ship began slowly to rise.

Shen Mu's heart lurched. The Ship of Salvation had crushed every manner of strangeness in Jade Capital City along its way, flattening even the dense Dao Tree forest — and yet the Empress, pinned beneath the ship, had actually lifted it up!

"Achieving the Dao through force — truly extraordinary! If you also brand the Ultimate Void, then you will truly be invincible under heaven!"

Shen Mu marshaled his mana and drove the golden ship; at once it became immeasurably heavy. Yet beneath it the Empress still held the ship up with both hands and slowly rose to her feet!

One treasure hall after another rose to guard her Heavenly Court. Her Heavenly Court realm was not yet truly perfect — her treasure halls numbered as many as fifty, but had not reached seventy-two, and so she could not construct the complete Heavenly Court.

Even so, the mana in her was fierce and boundless!

Shen Mu's eyes flickered; the Calamity Sword flew from his hand and stabbed down at the Empress beneath the ship.

All the Empress's strength was spent holding up the Ship of Salvation; she only sensed the Calamity Sword when it reached the back of her head, and her heart went cold: "Am I, who have only just achieved the Dao, to be killed by a sneak strike from that villain Venerable Mu?"

Just then she suddenly felt two arms grow from beneath her armpits, and at that moment her Heavenly Palace and treasure halls seemed to be invaded by another consciousness, which marshaled her power to meet Shen Mu's Calamity Sword!

"Who is behind me?" the Empress cried out in utter terror.

"It's me, sister!" came Lady Yuanmu's cheerful voice from the back of her head.

Shen Mu at once felt the power of the Calamity Sword being devoured by something. Startled, he hurriedly flew up from the ship, and there before him the Empress came flying out from under the ship, her hair in wild disarray.

The Ship of Salvation crashed down and fell to the ground.

Her face frantic, the Empress attacked the back of her own head like a madwoman, ignoring Shen Mu entirely, and shrieked, "Harlot, you're still alive? Impossible! I clearly devoured and refined you!"

And on the back of her head a face had indeed grown — none other than Lady Yuanmu!

"Sister, you are me and I am you. How could you possibly refine yourself?"

This woman had one body, two faces and four arms, each driving its divine powers in a frenzied assault on the other face, and the might of those powers was terrifying.

Before Shen Mu could even draw near, the shockwaves of the two women's divine powers hurled him flying backward!

Yet the Empress and Lady Yuanmu paid him no heed at all, but attacked each other like lunatics, fighting with all their might to put one another to death!

Shen Mu steadied himself, recalled the Calamity Sword, and struck at the bizarre woman with a single move — Breaking Calamity.

His swordsmanship was exquisite beyond compare; sword light after sword light split apart the two women's divine powers, and more than a dozen wounds appeared on the Empress's body.

"Little harlot!"

The Empress flew into a rage and tried to dodge Shen Mu's Calamity Sword, only to find her own flesh unresponsive — one of her legs had lost all feeling and was under Lady Yuanmu's control!

She was dodging Shen Mu's sword light, while Lady Yuanmu was steering her body to meet it head-on.

"Venerable Mu, help me kill her!"

The Empress suddenly turned her face — revealing Lady Yuanmu's features — and cried to Shen Mu in wild excitement, "Kill her, and I will raise you up to be the Heavenly Emperor!"

The Empress abruptly turned back and snarled, "You little slut, colluding with an outsider!"

Her face suddenly contorted, her features shifting violently, and the red mole at the center of her brow darkened and turned black.

Lady Yuanmu had seized the front, and she tittered, "Sister, the one you hate most is me, and now you have no choice but to share a body with me!"

The Empress's face shifted to the back of her head, and she screamed, "Ancient Taiji gods, what have you done to me?"

She raised a hand and struck her other face hard, and it was at once a bloody mess.

Lady Yuanmu, stung by the pain, flew into a rage and leaned back — and the Empress's face was instantly brought onto the tip of Shen Mu's sword.

The Empress shrieked, swept out a hand, and space split open to reveal a Guixu Abyss; she flashed into it and fell in.

The two women battled furiously within the abyss; suddenly the abyss vanished and reappeared several dozen li away, spat them out, and Shen Mu at once soared up onto the Ship of Salvation and gave chase.

But then the two women in that one body suddenly struck as one, each tearing the other's face off!

Shen Mu was horrified; he halted the golden ship and did not pursue.

A Guixu Abyss opened and swallowed the blood-drenched head, leaving the Empress's headless body.

"Little harlot, you're finally dead!"

The Empress's laughter came from the headless body; before it faded, a face suddenly grew from the palm of one of her hands — Lady Yuanmu — and from another palm grew the Empress's own face.

The two women kept fighting, battering the headless body into a bloody pulp.

Shen Mu shuddered with dread, and then saw the headless body suddenly roll into the abyss; the abyss closed, then abruptly appeared again in the distance.

The Empress came staggering out of the abyss, and she had actually grown two heads, crammed onto one neck, one left and one right, again dealing each other murderous blows.

They vanished once more and appeared once more, and the Empress and Lady Yuanmu had become a monster crawling on the ground, with no legs, each with her own upper body, each using her hands as feet, racing over the earth and still slaughtering one another!

Shen Mu's eyes went wide, and he saw the Empress fall into the abyss once more; when they next appeared, their bodies had undergone another bizarre change.

They had become a monster with three legs and one body, with only a single upper half, staggering and lurching as they fought.

Shen Mu drove the Ship of Salvation forward, and saw that the woman's two faces had grown upon a single face: of its four eyes, one pair sat above and one pair below; beneath the nose was another nose, and beneath the mouth another mouth.

From the two mouths poured every kind of venomous word, cursing and reviling each other.

Shen Mu gave chase, and saw that the Empress and Yuanmu could never separate, nor could they finish each other off; and so they fought and changed all along the way, growing ever more grotesque.

"Crush them with the golden ship and end their suffering!"