Chapter 1586 — The Maiden Who Protected You Back Then

A woman with a bamboo basket in hand fought her way desperately out of Youdu, struggling outward with the basket. She fought bathed in blood, sparing no effort to protect the basket; from within the basket came the crying of an infant, heart-rending.

It seemed the infant in the basket too sensed its own ill-fated destiny, and wept for its future.

Ling Tianzun was stunned. She looked at the Shanghuang Sword God Bai Qu'er in the distance, evading the Heavenly Court's pursuit, and then at the girl fighting her way through the Yong River with the basket, and for a moment she was lost in a daze.

Demonic qi surged on the Yong River, black waters flooding the sky.

"Reeds tall, reeds long, playing hide-and-seek in the reeds.

How many lords of fame and fortune were once cowherd boys.

Reeds tall, reeds long, gazing at each other across hill and stream. On this side of the reeds is home, on that side of the reeds the ocean.

Reeds tall, reeds long, busy weaving beside the reeds. Woven into rolls to pack in my bag, to accompany me henceforth on my voyage.

Reeds tall, reeds long, the reed flute's notes so sweet and clear.

The cowherd boy answers from afar, making one long for father and mother.

. .

" .

.

.

Mist rose on the Yong River.

Ping'er, basket in hand, rushed into the mist; she passed through the mist, the mist dispersed, and it was already day.

Ping'er had no time to ponder why it had just been night and now, passing through the mist, it was day, for she saw by the riverbank Bai Qu'er, her black hair like a waterfall, washing her sword in the river, washing the divine blood from the blade.

(See Chapter 868 for details.

) At this moment, Bai Qu'er saw Ping'er stumbling toward her with the basket. It was Ling Tianzun who guided Bai Qu'er to seek out Ping'er with the basket, and guided Ping'er to find Bai Qu'er. Sword light rose, the white dragon danced, one sword toppled a city, its radiance shining over the Nine Provinces. Bai Qu'er escorted Ping'er and the infant in the basket onward, until Ping'er exhausted all her vitality and fell, sinking into the water.

She still did not let go, still held up the infant in the basket, determined to entrust him to someone worthy of the trust.

Ling Tianzun watched Bai Qu'er and the now-corpse Ping'er drift downstream with the current.

The sky gradually darkened; the basket drifted all the way down the river and came to a small mountain village by the water.

The village was guarded by four stone statues, which in the night gave off a faint divine radiance, protecting the peace of that place. "Listen, there's a child crying outside!

" Ling Tianzun withdrew her gaze and smiled.

"I've finally waited for you! Mu Tianzun, you are truly fortunate — scarcely had you been born when three women gave their lives to protect you.

" She said softly.

The changes of matter gave rise to the illusion of time passing, but within that illusion the infant, along with the changes of matter, gradually grew.

One day, the infant who had once lain in that basket had grown into a sturdy youth.

He was troubled by his origins and wished to find his parents. He left the place that had grown up with him and came to the source of the Yong River.

Ling Tianzun watched this clever, odd youth searching at the source of the Yong River; she gave him mist, and let him see Kaihuang of a past age.

Later, the youth came again to the source of the Yong River, evading enemies in the night. Ling Tianzun watched him walk into the heavens of that year's War of the Tianzuns, and see the bones of the army of the Northern Falling Gate of the Southern Shanghuang Heavenly Court.

(See Chapter 485 for details.

) She watched again as Shen Mu traveled back to high antiquity, came to the end of the Shanghuang era, entered Bailong City, and met Bai Qu'er. After Shen Mu returned, she waited quietly again.

She was waiting for this youth to grow into the figure she knew.

At last that day came. Shen Mu and Niu Sanduo walked upon the waters of the Yong River, preparing to hurry to the Tianyin Realm.

Ling Tianzun worked her art; mist surged over the river and drowned them.

She sent them back into the past, to the early years of Longhan, to the grand gathering at Yaochi.

Mu Tianzun ought to go and fulfill Mu Tianzun's mission!

There he would meet Kaihuang, meet Yu Tianzun, meet Hao Tianzun, Huo Tianzun and the others, and also meet his own bewildered self — the self that needed someone to encourage her to keep going.

There Shen Mu would take the name Mu Qing, and become Mu Tianzun, who would influence a million years of later ages, become a monument of the human race, influencing countless people of later generations!

(See Chapters 731, 732 and others for details.

) Having done all this, Ling Tianzun waited quietly again.

She witnessed the transformation of the Wasteland Ruins, the outbreak of the Jingping Calamity, saw that youth's agonized howls, no road to heaven, no door into earth; still she waited, waiting for the return of Mu Tianzun. These years, she had pondered the Miluo Palace dao patterns and attained ever greater heights.

In truth, by this point she could already have used her own strength to dissolve the state imposed on her by the Unchanging Divine Art; the mysteries of the Hongmeng runes and the Miluo Palace dao patterns she had already unraveled seven or eight parts in ten. She began to ponder the changes within the dao patterns, and her understanding of the conservation of mass and energy grew ever deeper. One day, she saw Shen Mu come again to the Yong River.

This time Shen Mu rode a golden ship — the Miluo Palace's golden ship of deliverance across the world, the very ship that had sent her out of the Great Luotian of Divine Consciousness. Ling Tianzun rose to her feet. She knew that when Shen Mu urged her hairpin and entered the mist, that would be the day she escaped her trap, and the day Shen Mu, Kaihuang and the others returned from forty thousand years ago.

As Hao Tianzun, the Taisu Goddess and Xiao Tianzun made their painted entrances one after another, entering the mist of the Yong River and vanishing, this day had finally come!

Ling Tianzun raised her head. The sky split open, and the Great Luotian of Divine Consciousness appeared in the Ultimate Void!