Chapter 1607 — The Remains of the Sages

The two of them stood upon a lotus leaf, and awe rose unbidden in their hearts.

Upon that sea of chaos drifted lotus leaf after lotus leaf, and twin lotuses on single stems plunged into the pure darkness, linking one prehistoric universe to another, while streams of light came surging up from time to time.

Only by coming here in person could one feel such grandeur and magnificence, could one come to know the wonder of the vast worlds and be shaken by it.

"So by that reckoning, we were born even earlier than Tiangong and Tubo — earlier, perhaps, by a great deal, than the so-called Innate Five Great Ones..."

Suddenly Yuanmu's voice came drifting over, murmuring, "Elder Sister, marrying that lecher Taichu truly was a loss for you."

Her Highness the Empress gave a humph. "I lost out, did I? And what of you? You threw yourself at him — how utterly shameless."

Lady Yuanmu giggled without cease.

Shen Mu's eyes flickered as he looked all around, and suddenly his gaze fell upon a set of dry bones.

It was a corpse of immense size, collapsed upon another lotus leaf — a mountain of bone, though beside the lotus leaf it seemed much smaller.

Upon that skull's brow lay a Taichu divine stone, still glittering; Guixu had not ground all of its power away.

"A Creator! Could this be Boyang?"

He sprang up in a single bound and alighted beside the bones.

Her Highness the Empress leaped over as well, and studying the remains, she said in admiration, "We threw the God King Boyang in here back then to plug the sea eye. To think he did not die in the fall, but held on until he reached this place before he perished. Worthy of the foremost God King of the Ancient Era — such strength would not be reckoned weak even today."

Shen Mu came to the God King Boyang's side and looked him up and down. As the first Creator, the life of the God King Boyang had been full of legend.

He was the first to gather the Taichu divine stones, and the first to discover their mystery.

In that age, the Creators were not yet Creators, but the giants of the Ancient Era. Though born mighty and counted among the wise races, before the ancient behemoths they seemed weak.

Floods and savage beasts made life hard for the people of that age, and after Boyang uncovered the secret of the Taichu divine stones, he selflessly taught the method to the world, giving the people the strength to stand against flood and beast, and the power to subdue the ancient gods and to create them.

In that age of ignorance, that they should have wrought a brilliant civilization of divine consciousness was no small feat, and it owed much to the selfless devotion of this ancient God King.

"The old fellow was a hard bone to gnaw. It cost us no small trouble to kill him."

Lady Yuanmu kicked at Boyang's bones. "To deal with the Jade Register of the Grand Heavenly Emperor, all it took was one night between our brother-in-law and Gong Yun, and Gong Yun turned coat and shattered the Taichu primal stone in the Grand Emperor's brow. But this old fellow was another matter. He was an old hand of the world, his divine consciousness boundless, able to see through every scheme we laid. Had we sisters not joined hands, I doubt any of the other ancient gods could have dealt with him."

The Empress too recalled those glorious years, and sighed, "That must have been the last time we sisters fought side by side — and our most splendid battle."

Lady Yuanmu felt the same. Remembering those days, and thinking of how the two sisters were now as incompatible as fire and water, she was moved to no small reflection.

But spilled water cannot be gathered up again, nor a broken mirror made whole; the two of them could never return to what they had been.

"Elder Sister, this deadlock between us will get us nowhere. You cannot refine me to death, and I cannot refine you to death."

Lady Yuanmu proposed, "Why not this: this body is yours for a day, mine for a day, and we take turns. So long as we do not meet, we will little by little recall each other's kindness, little by little wear away the rancor between us, remember the depth of our sisterhood — and perhaps we may yet return to the way we were. What say you?"

Her Highness the Empress seemed much moved as well, and sighed, "I had the very same thought. We sisters cannot go on fighting forever. If we make peace, who in this world could stand against us? Since you are willing, little sister, then it is settled."

Lady Yuanmu blinked, and sent her voice into Shen Mu's divine consciousness: "My dear, when that old hag falls asleep, pass the dao of reincarnation to me, and we will refine the wretch to death!"

Shen Mu's divine consciousness rippled faintly. "Rest easy, Yuanmu. I understand."

Suddenly the Empress's divine consciousness stirred, and she sent, "That little slut is ruled by her whims. Does Heavenly Venerable Mu think it better that a madwoman walk the world, or a sane one? Heavenly Venerable Mu should be able to judge."

Shen Mu's divine consciousness rippled. "Rest easy, Your Highness. I understand."

He suddenly looked doubtful; he glanced at Boyang's skull, then followed the direction in which the skull's eye sockets pointed and looked where they gazed. "Before he died," he said in surprise, "Boyang seems to have been looking at something."

Her Highness the Empress came to stand upon Boyang's enormous skull and peered toward the place he had watched in death. All was the vast blur of chaos; only immense lotus roots and stems could be seen rising out of the chaotic mist and plunging into the endlessly turning darkness.

Shen Mu opened the vertical eye in his brow and looked that way, and his heart gave a leap.

At last he saw what Boyang had seen before death!

Beneath that twin lotus on its single stem, dao chains of incalculable thickness hung down, twisting and falling from the mouth of the great abyss of Guixu in a universe of the past, all the way down to this place.

The chains sank into the sea of chaos; they must have been joined to the roots of the twin lotuses!

Suddenly those chains shook violently, scattering the mist of chaos around them, as though some colossal thing within the sea of chaos had stirred up wild winds and towering waves.

Above the sea of chaos, the wind of heat-death came howling and surging at once, waves rose to the heavens, and lotus leaves were flung up from the sea!

Shen Mu and the Empress, standing upon their leaf, at once found their footing unsteady, and nearly were thrown off.

The two hurried to steady themselves, and then saw the air of chaos part: from beneath the roots where the twin lotuses pierced the sea of chaos, a disheveled head floated up, countless white hairs like silver threads drifting upon the surface.

Those silver hairs moved like living things, swimming in the sea, rising, stabbing again and again at the dao chains, trying to sever them!

Countless fine dao markings surfaced upon the chains, quivering without cease, and from all across the sea of chaos came dao sounds like the tolling of the great bells of antiquity, as though some being of boundless power and majesty were chanting the supreme dao!

Boom!

A vast head rose slowly from the sea of chaos, wild hair flying, fighting the suppression of the chains. Chain after chain ran through the front of her face, entering and emerging from her nostrils, her mouth, her ears, locking her fast.

It was a woman, no smaller in body than the God King Boyang; sunk in the sea of chaos so long, she had been so eroded by it that her features could hardly be made out.

The woman seized a lotus leaf, resisting the chains' suppression, forced her way up onto it, and took the chance to pant and gasp for breath.

Shen Mu and the Empress stared dumbstruck: here in the great abyss of Guixu someone was imprisoned still — and that someone was alive!