Chapter 1574 — Only After the Calamity Is There Life to Spare

At this moment two Heavenly Rivers appeared above the channel of the Yong River. One was the original Yong River, drifting in the air; the other had sailed in from forty thousand years ago, its surging waters rolling and stretching forward, wrapped in thick mist.

Within the mist the long river stretched on, growing ever longer, and in but a brief moment it had already spanned Jingping and reached into the depths of space.

Where the Heavenly River vanished into that space was the Fallen God Valley Shen Mu had discovered in those years, the seat of the Supreme Heavenly Court.

The Heavenly River of Fallen God Valley likewise flowed through the air, running on toward the Supreme Heavenly Court; yet the Supreme Heavenly Court had long since been sealed, and the blind old man Yi Shisheng kept watch there, day after day, year after year, gathering up Lord Ling's corpse.

With one hand Shen Mu channeled Lord Ling's hairpin; with the other he traced a great circle in the air, which became the divine art Taiji Evolution of Yin and Yang, to fend off the pouncing charge of the Vermilion Bird's flesh body.

A massive Taiji diagram surfaced in the air, and the Grand Emperor, mastering the Vermilion Bird's flesh body, thrust out both claws and tore the diagram open; blazing fire set the Taiji diagram alight.

Scarcely had he torn the Taiji diagram apart when he saw that Shen Mu had already left the gate tower and stepped into the mist.

Without another word the Grand Emperor drove the Vermilion Bird's flesh body plunging into the mist. The flesh body flew swiftly within the fog, yet strangely, this mist and the Heavenly River within it stretched unspeakably far.

At the very moment the two entered the mist, Lord Hao also arrived above the Yong River.

The mist hung dense and would not disperse for a long while.

At the same time, the Palace Heavenly Lord, the Void Heavenly Lord, the Ancestral God King, the Divine Emperor Langxuan and the rest sped toward the Land of Taixu. Before they had even arrived, they saw two Taiji ancient gods rushing there as well, the Taiji Sand Tables behind the two ancients' heads glittering with starlight, star after star trailing in their wake.

The Heavenly Lords exchanged a glance. "Lord Xiao has sent these two ancient gods. It seems he too sets great store by Carefree Land, and will not tolerate Kaihuang walking out of the Other Shore Void."

With Kaihuang and Carefree Land bottled up inside the Other Shore Void, they were like rats trapped in a rat hole: they could be wiped out whenever one pleased.

But if Kaihuang and Carefree Land came out, netting them all in a single sweep would not be so easy.

Though Lord Xiao and Lord Hao had all but torn each other's faces, where profit was concerned they remained of one mind; and so, should Kaihuang walk out of the Other Shore Void, both Lord Hao and Lord Xiao would have to send their mighty ones to block him.

The Heavenly Lords traveled shoulder to shoulder with the two Taiji ancient gods, and had only just reached the Land of Taixu when they saw, head-on, a burning man of fire hurtling backward, his body bearing a thousand sword wounds, blood spurting and hissing.

The four Heavenly Lords and the two ancient gods were startled, and suddenly sword light came sweeping at their faces. The four Heavenly Lords roared in unison and struck out to block it, yet the instant they touched that sword light, their divine arts were broken.

The Palace Heavenly Lord channeled her horn to swell everyone's blood and qi; the next moment the horn was severed, and the rousing call of the horn fell suddenly silent.

The Palace Heavenly Lord's consciousness erupted, and she was about to charge along the sword light when a sword's cry came ringing straight into the depths of her dao heart.

The Palace Heavenly Lord's expression changed drastically: within her dao heart Kaihuang's sword light erupted, chi, chi, chi, and sword lights burst outward from inside her body, piercing her organs and bursting through her skin; in the blink of an eye she was drenched in blood, her cultivation and strength gravely diminished.

The heavenly palace behind her head collapsed with it, her cultivation plunging headlong, and she flashed away at once, shocked and furious: "Tai Su never fully healed my sword wound. The wound Kaihuang left on me in the Battle of Xuandu is still there."

At the same moment the sword wound in her body erupted, the Divine Emperor Langxuan's Spirit Origin Finger was broken by the sudden sword light, and it was not one finger he lost: as he channeled the Spirit Origin Finger divine art, the ten fingers of his two hands dropped from his hands one after another.

He saw his Spirit Origin Finger divine art finally erupt, yet it did not burst forth from a pointing finger; rather, the blood of his heart spurted from his severed fingers, becoming arrow after arrow of blood.

The Divine Emperor Langxuan's face turned exceedingly strange. The first time his Spirit Origin Finger had been broken was when they besieged Shen Mu in the Jade Capital City of the Ancestral Court, and Shen Mu had likewise severed his fingers.

Who would have thought he would repeat the same mistake so soon?

Shen Mu had used a sword, and Kaihuang used a sword as well, almost the same swordsmanship, only more seasoned.

Back then the Divine Emperor Langxuan had been unspeakably aged, whereas now he had recovered to his peak, and still a single sword had taken his fingers.

At the same moment his ten fingers fell away, Kaihuang's sword light had already reached his brow.

"How is that wretch Shen Ye so strong?" Despair filled the Divine Emperor Langxuan's heart.

At that very moment, in the heavenly palace behind his head, that dao fruit suddenly came alive. Of its own accord it took command of his blood and qi, his cultivation; countless chains rose from the heavenly palace, interweaving and crossing, becoming a divine art that rose to meet Kaihuang's sword light.

A chill ran through the Divine Emperor Langxuan. In that instant he felt that his blood and qi, his cultivation, even his heavenly palace and his primordial spirit, were all no longer his own.

It was as though another person dwelt inside his body, a person of boundless depths, seizing the magpie's nest, little by little taking over his flesh and his primordial spirit.

He had never noticed it before; but now, faced with Kaihuang's killing blow, that person within him could hold back no longer, and began to seize his flesh and his primordial spirit.

"Lord Mu was not wrong. That dao fruit is deeply strange."

As the thought crossed his mind, the dao fruit had already commanded his vital essence into dao chains that blocked Kaihuang's sword.

The Divine Emperor Langxuan's brow split open in a thin line, the sword light narrowly failing to pierce into his brain, and the dao fruit, having blocked that sword, fell silent.

The Divine Emperor Langxuan seized the chance and turned to flee at once, and as he turned, he saw the other long horn on the Void Heavenly Lord's crown cut down by a stroke of sword light.

The Void Heavenly Lord's wound was almost the same as the one she had taken in the Jade Capital City of the Ancestral Court. There Shen Mu had likewise used the same sword move to sever one of her horns.

Now Kaihuang had used the same move to sever her other horn.

Langxuan fled, and then saw the Ancestral God King overtake him at even greater speed, fleeing from behind him to ahead of him.

In that careless glance, he discovered that the sword wounds on the Ancestral God King were almost exactly the same as those Shen Mu had left on him in the Jade Capital City of the Ancestral Court.

"No wonder Lord Mu and Kaihuang are both surnamed Shen, both wielders of the sword. Every stroke is aimed at our flaws. That is why our sword wounds are identical."