Chapter 1572 — Fighting Our Way Out of the Land of Comfort

Seeing the smile on his face, Shen Mu could not help but smile too.

After Kaihuang stepped down from the God-Slaying Platform, the two God-Slaying Mystic Blades upon it slowly drew themselves back together and were restored as before. Yet they had once been severed by Kaihuang's supreme sword dao, and though they had now recovered, the two blood-fiend dragons were spent and listless, no longer wearing their former ferocity.

Shen Mu felt a secret pang of regret and said, "On my journey to the Jade Capital of the Ancestral Court, I also took all the dao soldiers of the Heavenly Dao from the Langxuan God-Emperor. Add to them the heavenly bale within the God-Slaying Mystic Blades, and that makes fifty Heavenly Daos. I mean to fuse the fifty into one and forge a supreme treasure of the Heavenly Dao, one of a kind in all the world. Do you think it can be done?"

Surprise crossed Kaihuang's face. "You slew the Langxuan God-Emperor as well?"

"I would not dare claim I slew him," Shen Mu said modestly. "I merely defeated the seven Heavenly Venerables. The seven of them joined hands to besiege me, so I gave them all a thorough drubbing. Langxuan was only one of them. Of course, I never had the chance to kill Langxuan, so I had to settle for wresting forty-eight dao soldiers of the Heavenly Dao from him."

Kaihuang's astonishment deepened. "You defeated the seven Heavenly Venerables? And they were besieging you together?"

Shen Mu was not a little pleased with himself.

Kaihuang mused, "There must be something strange about the Jade Capital of the Ancestral Court. It restrained the strength of the seven Heavenly Venerables but did not restrain yours. They had no power to resist, and that is why you were able to defeat them. The Jade Capital of the Ancestral Court... I have never been there myself."

"I did not come here to hear you analyze the reasons," Shen Mu said, disgruntled. "Have you a way to forge a supreme treasure of the Heavenly Dao or not?"

Kaihuang shook his head. "Every craft has its master. The Heavenly Dao is not my forte."

Shen Mu hesitated. The one in all the world most skilled in the Heavenly Dao was, of course, the Lord of Heaven. But the reborn Lord of Heaven was now within the Dark Capital, suffering in the fire of karma.

And Shen Mu, of all men, could not set foot in the Dark Capital.

"The Jade Capital of the Ancestral Court," he said. "I want to go and have a look."

Kaihuang said, "I sense that within the Ancestral Court there are two places that hold a powerful pull for me, one who has attained the Dao, places that lure me to go. One of them is your domain. The other is the Jade Capital of the Ancestral Court."

Shen Mu's expression shifted slightly, turning grave, and he said flatly, "You do not want to go to the Jade Capital of the Ancestral Court!"

Kaihuang glanced at him, doubt in his eyes.

"Taiyi went there," Shen Mu said heavily, "and ended up stranded in the Fourth Universe, unable to return. The Jade Capital of the Ancestral Court is far more terrible than you imagine. There are Divines there, and the dao trees of those Divines hang with seven or eight dao fruits apiece! If you go there, you will likewise never come back alive!"

Kaihuang fell silent a moment, then laughed. "Rest easy. I know my limits."

Shen Mu glared at him ferociously. Kaihuang said, "I truly will not go. If you say I am not to go, then I will not go."

Shen Mu snorted and let out a foul breath. "You are like a silly roe deer: the more one tells you not to go, the more surely you will go. If you must go, then that is up to you. But you may only go after we have rescued Heavenly Venerable Yun and Heavenly Venerable Ling. After that, go, and die however you please."

He paused, then asked curiously, "You said just now that you sensed two places in the Ancestral Court that draw you. My holy land, naturally, is a remarkable place. But what I want to know more is this: apart from the Ancestral Court, have you sensed any other place that draws you as well?"

Kaihuang said, "The Great Luotian is everywhere, countless times vaster than this universe. When my own great dao was imprinted upon the Great Luotian, I did indeed sense wondrous places within the universe. One of them, as you surely know, is the place where the Chiming Remnant Clan dwells."

Shen Mu's expression stirred. "Now that you have attained the Dao, did you sense anything strange there?"

"There are extraordinary fluctuations of the great dao."

Kaihuang said, "But like the Jade Capital of the Ancestral Court and the Black Mountain Holy Land, I cannot fathom its depths."

Shen Mu's heart skipped. "Could that be the place where Taiyi wants me to follow the map and rescue him?"

"Apart from there, there is one other place whose depths I cannot fathom."

Kaihuang went on, "That place even fills me with a certain dread."

Shen Mu's eyes glittered. He stared at Kaihuang, waiting for him to continue.

Suddenly Kaihuang said mildly, "Who is the silly roe deer?"

"I am!"

Shen Mu admitted it readily and urged him on. "Hurry and tell me. Just which place is it that you find unfathomable?"

"Beneath Guixu."

Kaihuang said, "That, too, is a place my sword dao cannot enter."

Shen Mu was startled and raised his brows. "Guixu?"

"Not Guixu. Beneath Guixu."

Kaihuang said, "I have noticed that when my sword dao reaches there, it is swallowed by a lightless dark mouth, and every sensation vanishes. That place can even make my sword dao quail and shudder."

Shen Mu frowned slightly and paced to and fro.

He had been to both of the places Kaihuang spoke of. He had entered the Hanging Void of the Chiming Remnant Clan to join hands with the Chiming God Clan, yet he knew nothing of that place, save that Heavenly Venerable Moon had once gone there and had nearly failed to walk out alive.

As for the Guixu Abyss, it was there he had found the corpse of Le Yuanmu and the hairpin of Heavenly Venerable Ling. He had gone into the depths of the abyss as well, though it was only by way of the Twin Lotuses that he had reached those depths.

What exactly lay within the abyss, he did not know.

"Both of these places are indeed fine places to hide things. Kaihuang speaks of them so solemnly, ranking them alongside the Jade Capital of the Ancestral Court and the World Tree. It seems both may be places marked on Taiyi's map..."

Kaihuang shot him a glance and said, without much warmth, "You had best give up any thought of exploring these places. The perils there are beyond your imagining. Even I would not claim I could walk away unscathed."

"Rest easy," Shen Mu said carelessly. "I know my limits."

Kaihuang frowned, as though it had just occurred to him that he had fobbed Shen Mu off with those very words a moment ago.

Shen Mu noticed it too. The two fell silent for a moment, then suddenly said in one voice, "Neither of us is allowed to go!"

The words had barely left their mouths when the two looked at each other and burst out laughing together.

Shen Mu rose, put away the God-Slaying Platform and the God-Slaying Mystic Blades, and said unhurriedly, "As for rescuing Heavenly Venerable Ling, there is no time to lose; the sooner the better. Make your preparations!"

Kaihuang nodded lightly.

Shen Mu leapt into the air and landed upon the Golden Ship of Salvation, and in passing caught sight of a figure aboard the ship once more.

Kaihuang noticed this as well and knit his brows slightly. He had already attained the Dao, yet he still could not make out who that figure on the ship was.

"Wait for my word. We shall meet again at Jingping and Yongjiang!" Shen Mu shook out his sleeves, and the Golden Ship of Salvation hoisted sail and set forth, leaving the Void of the Far Shore behind.

Kaihuang watched him go, then turned and went straight to the Supreme Heaven of the Land of No Sorrow, the Taiqing Realm.

With his own hands he beat the war drum, summoning the civil and military ministers of the Thirty-Three Heavens of the Land of No Sorrow.