Chapter 1605 — Never Bowing His Head

"Heavenly Venerable Mu?"

A thunderclap went off in Taichu's mind. He stood rooted where he was, and for a long while did not move at all.

The old man turned his head and looked at him: within the pried-open crown of his skull his brains were like bean curd brought to a boil, bubbling and steaming with heat.

"Another poor wretch the Seventh Young Master has cheated more times than anyone can count. He has likely cheated his way through the whole future universe, found it dull, and so came back to our place to go on cheating."

The old man could not help shaking his head. He roused the fellow, lest he boil his own brains dry.

Day after day passed. To walk from the first long river of chaos to the sixteenth would cost even a Heavenly Venerable a year or two.

They were one step behind: Kaihuang, following that old woman, had already reached Miluo Palace ahead of them.

The grandeur and eternity of Miluo Palace left a profound impression on Kaihuang. He studied the palaces of that complex one by one; each bore a dao resonance of its own, unforgettable once seen.

These palaces stood for the different great daos, the different roads, of the different young masters. From the Hall of the Grand Supreme to the Hall of Chaos, the young masters of Miluo Palace had each chosen a different path, and yet, judging by the aura that flowed from their halls, every one of them had reached the utmost end of the dao.

"The dao markings on the walls of Miluo Palace - those must be the dao marking Heavenly Venerable Mu spoke of?"

Kaihuang surveyed the central Miluo Palace, the dwelling place of the master of Miluo Palace. It struck him as even more unfathomable, and roused in him a fear of desecration.

The old woman led him onward and said, "The Seventh Young Master came rather late, and so his standing in Miluo Palace is beneath that of the other young masters, and his followers are few. It is precisely for this that those people slander him, pinning many an ugly name upon him - but all of it is calumny."

Kaihuang frowned. The more the old woman spoke in this vein, the more uneasy he became.

He did not know what purpose the Seventh Young Master had in wanting to see him, nor whether, after he met the man, the man might strike him down should he refuse.

"Heavenly Venerable Mu once warned me not to enter the Jade Capital of the Ancestral Court, and I warned him not to enter Guixu. Now I have broken my word and entered the Jade Capital; I hope that he will not break his..."

The old woman led him to the Hall of Chaos and grinned, her mouth whistling through the gaps, a few scattered teeth showing. "Kaihuang, after you."

The doors of the Hall of Chaos opened, and a vast breath of chaos poured out from within, freighted with age and vicissitude.

Kaihuang steadied himself, trod upon the breath of chaos, and walked into that ancient hall, thinking, "With our present strength we are far from a match for the young masters of Miluo Palace, so we must borrow the power of other young masters! Let us hope this so-called Seventh Young Master is a little easier to fool..."

He walked through the magnificent hall, which was utterly empty. On the dome were branded dao markings that Kaihuang could not read, flickering bright and dim like a host of stars.

Kaihuang looked neither left nor right, but went straight on, until he saw ahead a mass of chaos slowly turning like an enormous globe.

His pupils narrowed. From afar he made out within that sphere of chaos a strange shadow. He walked on, and after a moment he saw at last that inside the sphere stood an ancient precious tree.

A World Tree!

"Is this Seventh Young Master of Miluo Palace a World Tree that took on a spirit?"

Kaihuang was astonished, and only then did he notice a figure beneath the tree, its back turned to him.

The sphere of chaos split open, revealing a path. Kaihuang hesitated, then stepped into the sphere of chaos, and presently came to the foot of the tree.

The figure beneath the tree turned around and looked at him with a smile. "Heavenly Venerable Shen, have you been well?"

"You - you..."

Kaihuang was shaken to the core. He stared dumbly at the man, stammering, unable to get out a word.

The Great Abyss of Guixu.

Shen Mu had fallen into collapse. All of his cultivation caved inward without cease, and soon even the heavenly palaces within his divine treasury, the stars and constellations and rivers of stars across the heavens, the heavens and the myriad worlds - the Ancestral Court, Yuandu, Xuandu, Youdu - everything was collapsing inward!

The dao of Guixu was mysterious and wondrous, possessed of a fascination, yet to cultivate it was exceedingly perilous. Though the runes of its great dao had been deciphered, those who could master the dao of Guixu remained very few.

Besides the Empress and her sister, there were also the Heavenly Emperor Taichu, Heavenly Venerable Hao, and Shen Mu who had mastered this path.

As for the rest, even if they cultivated it they could scarcely refine it; at most they could master one or two divine arts.

This was precisely because the dao of Guixu was so perilous: one who wished to master such a great dao could hardly be certain that the dao of Guixu would not devour him while he cultivated.

Soon the whole Primordial Embryo divine treasury was devoured to nothing; even the primal spirit that was expounding the dao of reincarnation to the Empress was dragged in by that dreadful collapse, twisted, and hurled howling into the Great Abyss of Guixu within his body!

The voice of the sermon stopped. The Empress noticed at once, opened her eyes, and looked at Shen Mu, saying sharply, "Why have you stopped?"

Crack. Crack.

Her head swiveled half a turn, revealing the face of Madame Yuanmu. "Shen darling, are you the God of Longevity hanging himself, weary of his long life? Just where your girl's heart began to itch, you stop - heaven will punish you for that!"

Shen Mu sat there withered and silent, giving off a sense of utter emptiness, without a spark of vitality about him.

Behind him there remained only a World Tree, its branches swaying faintly.

The Empress and Madame Yuanmu were puzzled, but at once they saw what was amiss: this Shen Mu had not a breath of life in him. He had simply died, right there before their eyes!

Not only had Shen Mu's heart stopped beating; he no longer had even a soul!

His incomparably powerful consciousness had been utterly annihilated as well, as though someone had refined him to death with a Guixu divine art!

"You killed him?" The Empress flew into a rage.

Madame Yuanmu too grew angry and scolded, "A moment ago you were facing him and I had my back to him. Had I struck him dead, how could it have escaped your eyes and your senses? Could it be that you are the one who did it?"

"Little wretch, I stand on the verge of having my chance to refine you to death - why would I kill him and forfeit that chance? If I am to kill him, it will be after I have refined you to death!"

The two women wrangled a while, yet neither could do anything about it. Suddenly Madame Yuanmu rolled her eyes and tittered, "Shen darling is dead and leaves us sisters as widows. It wrings the heart, it does - two sisters fair as flowers and jade, and just like that, without a lover. Sorry as I am, the dead cannot come back to life. Better that we sisters divide Shen darling's estate early and find ourselves a fine man!"

Her words were ugly to hear, yet the Empress was rather moved by them. "Heavenly Venerable Mu is a walking treasury - a country squire on an outing, decked in gold and silver. Now that he is dead, it is indeed the perfect moment to divide his treasures."

The two women reached an understanding at once and walked toward Shen Mu.

Suddenly a vigorous vitality issued from the World Tree, and the two women hastily halted.