Chapter 1594 — Walking Into a Dead End

The other Heavenly Venerables each frowned; none of them was confident he could refine Shen Mu to death.

Shen Mu had always been slippery, impossible to pin down. In his youth it had been another matter—back then no one paid him any mind—but after the Jingping Calamity, Shen Mu had walked into the Heavenly Court of his own accord, and everywhere he went he stirred up wind and waves, leaving a trail of foul air behind him, yet never once giving anyone a handle to grasp. At the time, any one of the Ten Heavenly Venerables could have easily disposed of him, but it happened that the Ten were locked in bitter infighting, each coveting the title of sole sovereign of the Heavenly Court, and so not one of them was willing to strike and give his rivals an opening.

Now the situation had become clear. Of the eleven Heavenly Venerables, Hong Tianzun and Qiang Tianfei were dead, Shi Qiluo and Yan Tianfei had gone mad, and the survivors had split into two great factions.

Hao Tianzun's faction held the advantage in both power and strength, while Xiao Tianzun was left a lone man, unable to withstand the surging tide of Hao Tianzun's ascendancy. But Shen Mu, too, had changed—from a weakling into a powerhouse—and he had begun to challenge them to their faces. Apart from Hao Tianzun, there was hardly a Heavenly Venerable who could capture Shen Mu; indeed, there were faint signs that Shen Mu's strength now stood on a level with their own. And now, having finally taken Shen Mu, they found that refining him to death was a problem in itself.

"Let me try," Xu Tianzun said with a frown.

"I possess the demonic Dao; I am skilled at eroding the Dao heart and cultivation, at corroding a man's vital essence. But whether it will work, I cannot say.

The thief Mu was once the Divine Son of Youdu, and he knows the Great Dao of Youdu extremely well.

" "Fellow Daoist Xu, by all means make the attempt!

" "We can only try and see! " the others said one after another. Xu Tianzun set to work at once, using the purest demonic Dao of Youdu to erode Shen Mu.

Two or three days later, Xu Tianzun's face was ashen; she felt her vital essence draining away far too fast, more than she could afford to spend, and she cried out in dismay, "What a villain!

He is using the chance to devour my cultivation!

" Everyone's expression changed, and they all looked toward the Wheel of Myriad Daos. Within the wheel, Shen Mu was rising slowly, spinning as he rose, like a Tubo. Xu Tianzun gave an angry shout, plucked the horn from her head, and made to drive it into him.

Shen Mu sneered. Xu Tianzun did not dare thrust it in after all: this was the only horn she had left.

Kaihuang Shen Ye had cut it off, and she had gone to great pains to recover it and refine it into a treasure.

If she failed to kill Shen Mu and he snatched it away, she feared she would never get it back. Hao Tianzun reached out and pressed down, pressing Shen Mu back into the Wheel of Myriad Daos, lest he escape.

Langxuan Divine Emperor said, "I have a Dao Fruit.

It can transform Shen Mu, turn him into Taichu Qi!

" "With the Divine Emperor taking action, it is as good as done!

" the others said hurriedly.

Langxuan Divine Emperor activated the Dao Fruit. That fruit, which had been shriveled and dry, now grew round and full, and the Dao might within it grew stronger and stronger.

Shen Mu's face surfaced from the wheel, and at the sight of that Dao Fruit, a flicker of alarm crossed his features.

Seeing this, Langxuan Divine Emperor's confidence swelled.

He urged the Dao Fruit on, raising its power to its utmost limit. The Dao Fruit hung above the wheel; Dao light burst from it, and ray after ray shot into the Wheel of Myriad Daos!

The Wheel of Myriad Daos shook—plainly Shen Mu was resisting the Dao light of the fruit—and the crowd's spirits rose. Even Hao Tianzun could not help but regard Langxuan Divine Emperor with new respect, silently praising the power of his Dao Fruit. This Dao Fruit was a treasure hidden within the fragments of the Daluo Heaven beneath the Jade Pool of the Ancestral Court: a single Dao Tree, and a coffin burying a prehistoric Dao-achiever.

Shen Mu had helped Langxuan Divine Emperor find the Daluo Heaven fragment, cut the Dao Fruit from the Dao Tree, and trample the coffin back into the prehistoric Great Calamity of Destruction. The powerhouses of the Jade Capital City of the Ancestral Court all huddled together for warmth, riding out the Great Calamity of Destruction within the city; but the master of this Dao Fruit had driven the Daluo Heaven fragment directly, attempting to cross the calamity and enter the present universe to win rebirth—which showed what manner of man he was. His Dao Fruit was no ordinary thing; its power was enough to make the heart tremble, and now that the fruit had revived, its might was climbing straight upward! Within the Wheel of Myriad Daos, Shen Mu was being refined until he screamed again and again, and those screams fell on the crowd's ears as sweet music, drawing endless admiration.

Inside the wheel, Shen Mu sensed the fatal threat as well, and so, even as he screamed, his divine consciousness rippled out and touched the Dao light of the fruit: "Fellow Daoist of the prehistoric age, I am the Seventh Young Master of Miluo Palace. If you offend me, it will do you no good! I will not hold it against you—if you will stay your hand, I will lend you my strength, help you seize Langxuan's body, and let you live again!

" The Dao light's momentum slackened slightly, and an obscure ripple of divine consciousness mingled with the light: "I do not trust the young masters of Miluo Palace. You will not deceive me!

" Shen Mu laughed in fury. "Go and ask around all the heavens and myriad worlds—who does not know the fair name of Mu Tianzun?

My word is worth a thousand gold; I cheat neither the old nor the young! If you do not trust me, I will write you an IOU. With the IOU in hand, what fear have you that I will renege? I cannot smash my own golden-lettered signboard! " The consciousness within the Dao Fruit hesitated, its divine consciousness threaded through the Dao light: "It was you who helped Langxuan strike me back into the Great Calamity of Destruction.

Had I not used the Dao Fruit to transfer my consciousness, you would have destroyed me. Langxuan now guards against me and gives me no chance to seize his body.

What power have you to help me? " Shen Mu's heart stirred. "You are the Taichu of the Sixteenth Era? " The consciousness in the Dao Fruit said, "The Sixteenth Era had no Five Primes.

The Five Primes were dug out and refined before they were even born. I entered the Sixteenth Era rather early, and so I seized the Taichu Divine Egg and refined it to be reborn. I am called Venerable Lingyu. " Shen Mu laughed.

"Venerable Lingyu, you know well enough how I conduct myself; you may set your mind at ease.

Besides, Langxuan is my enemy—one of us must die. Are you my enemy? You give me a peach, and I will repay you with jade.

" Venerable Lingyu in the Dao Fruit said, "I do not believe your words. You must swear an oath upon my Dao Fruit. " Shen Mu swore upon his Dao Fruit, and Venerable Lingyu was reassured: an oath upon his Dao Fruit was an oath upon his Dao, an oath to him.

If Shen Mu meant to break his word, he would have no end of means to deal with him!

"Swearing upon a Dao Fruit is something I have never done, though I have sworn upon the teaching rod of the Primordial Sage of Miluo Palace—and did I not do that Primordial Sage to death in the end? " Shen Mu thought nothing of it.

The Dao Fruit's power grew weaker and weaker.

Langxuan Divine Emperor urged it on again and again, but its might only fell further, and at last he had to step back, his face crimson with shame. "This treasure has not yet recovered. My skills go no further.