Chapter 1755 — Half Righteous, Half Wicked: A True Wild Scholar

Her Majesty the Empress returned the salute, her gaze falling on the shadow behind him, and said mildly, "Lord Shang, in the Ultimate Void I am no match for you, but outside it, you are no match for me. Best not to try. I have come to see Young Master Xu, and bear no ill intent."

Xu Shenghua's shadow did not stir.

Xu Shenghua said, "Your Majesty has seen me."

Her Majesty the Empress looked at his face, sighed, and said softly, "There are many extraordinary men in this world, but few are like Young Master Xu. What a pity that you and I are enemies. Could we but turn swords into plowshares, and share wine and merry talk with Young Master Xu, what a fine thing that would be."

Xu Shenghua said, "If Your Majesty would forsake the Heavenly Court and come over to Jingping, then we could turn swords into plowshares."

Her Majesty the Empress shook her head: "That is impossible now. The Heavenly Court and I share honor and ruin alike; how could I forsake it for the sake of one confidante?"

From within the coffin, Shen Mu could not help saying, "If Your Majesty were willing to forsake the Heavenly Court, I could act as matchmaker and betroth Brother Xu to you. And if Your Majesty does not mind, I think I might also..."

"Foul man, shut your mouth!" Her Majesty the Empress flared up.

Xu Shenghua, betraying nothing, closed the coffin lid, and Shen Mu's voice could no longer be heard.

"Your Majesty, you and I each have our own dao; it is only that the roads divide."

Xu Shenghua bowed low to the ground and said, "Parting from Your Majesty today, when we meet again on the battlefield, I hope Your Majesty will not hold back."

Her Majesty the Empress returned the salute in tears and left, covering her face: "I hope Young Master Xu will not hold back either. How hateful that I could not have known you sooner. Had it been a hundred years earlier, or had you been born a million years earlier, you and I might have come to a different end..."

Xu Shenghua watched her vanish into the distance, then raised the coffin once more and went on his way.

Shen Mu knocked from inside the coffin; Xu Shenghua opened it a crack, and Shen Mu's voice came out: "Brother Xu, if the Empress would come over to Jingping's side, we would have an overwhelming advantage against the Heavenly Court. Why not stoop to..."

Smack!

Xu Shenghua shut the coffin fast, thought a moment, then took out other nails and drove them into the lid.

Elsewhere, Taichu sped like wind and lightning, returning to the Yuan Realm a step ahead of Xu Shenghua and Her Majesty the Empress. He went straight to the Heavenly Court's main camp, but, with no time to see the Haotian Emperor, charged directly into the Zaofu Heavenly Palace, reeking of killing intent.

In the Zaofu Heavenly Palace, brains floated all around Venerable Star An. The number of brains under his control had grown greater still, the Divine Brain Matrix ever vaster in scale, its calculations faster and more exquisite.

The killing intent upon Taichu abruptly vanished; with a face like a spring breeze he walked slowly over, smiling: "Venerable Star An, how leisurely you are. Venerable one, I fear the Dao-Burial Divine Coffin you made is somewhat off, is it not?"

Star An raised his head and glanced at him: "How so, off?"

Taichu, genial of countenance, smiled and said, "On the road as the Yulin Guards escorted the Dao-Burial Divine Coffin to the Ancestral Court, they were waylaid by a man named Xu Shenghua, who seized the Dao-Burial Divine Coffin. That Xu Shenghua opened the divine coffin outright and released Mu Tianzun. Were it a true Dao-Burial Divine Coffin, could it be opened so easily?"

Star An was astonished and stood up, saying dubiously, "I know Xu Shenghua's abilities. I once traveled to the Western Lands of the Yuan Realm to visit him; his strength is indeed great, and in those years I too was defeated by him. But he could by no means break the Dao-Burial Divine Coffin I made — he does not have the strength for it!"

A cold gleam flickered through Taichu's eyes, and the smile on his face grew broader. He said unhurriedly, "With my own eyes I saw him draw out forty-nine Dao-Slaying Divine Nails with the greatest of ease, without the slightest difficulty. And the fifty Dao-Slaying Divine Nails upon Mu Tianzun's body he likewise easily..."

"Wait!"

Star An raised a hand and said dubiously, "Forty-nine? Was it not ninety-nine?"

The killing intent in Taichu's eyes seeped out bit by bit, and the smile on his face grew yet broader: "You told me that of those ninety-nine nails, half were driven into the coffin and half into Mu Tianzun's body..."

Star An nodded: "That is right."

Taichu's smile turned cold: "That is precisely what I did, and yet it was utterly useless!"

Star An's vital essence transformed into a long nail, and again his vital essence became a coffin and the "corpse" of Shen Mu. He raised a hand and drove a long nail into the coffin, half of it within the coffin and half plunged into the "corpse of Shen Mu."

Star An drove in ninety-nine long nails in succession and said, "Simply thus, and the gravely wounded Mu Tianzun can be trapped. Never mind Mu Tianzun — even a dao-attainer would be trapped to death in the coffin, with no way out!"

Taichu was struck dumb: "You said half were driven into the coffin..."

The astonishment on Star An's face deepened, and he shook his head: "Ninety-nine — how could that divide evenly? The Retired Emperor should have thought of that. I must go on with my work. Retired Emperor, pray make yourself at home."

Taichu, dazed and muddled, walked outward, thoughts colliding in his head: "Ninety-nine, half... not forty-nine and fifty..."

Star An waited until he had walked out of the Zaofu Heavenly Palace, then clapped his hands, and the box came trotting over with a clatter.

Star An swiftly gathered up his valuables and stuffed them into the box, saying, "Taichu is too stupid and mistook my meaning, but he needs someone to take the blame, and that someone is certain to be me! After he leaves this time, once he comes to his senses he will come to kill me! This is no place to linger. Let us leave at once."

The box capered with joy, bouncing without cease.

Star An then took out some limbs of gods and demons from the box, tinkered a while, and fashioned a person; then he shifted his primordial spirit into this new body, leaving behind his original flesh.

He stuffed the box into his divine treasury and slipped away in a flash, walking all the way out of the Zaofu Heavenly Palace, vanishing among the gods and demons of the Heavenly Court.

Suddenly a great crash came from the Zaofu Heavenly Palace, and Taichu's furious voice rang out: "Venerable Star An colluded with Mu Tianzun and deserves death ten thousand times over. I have already slain him!"

Star An walked out of the Heavenly Court's main camp, smiled faintly, released the box, and with this little monster before and behind, entered the mountain forest: "I am a free man now."