Chapter 1778 — The Warrior's Gelding

Palace Lord Huanxi was flying at full speed, and only her upper body remained, for Shang Jun had struck at her out of the painting and worsted her, forcing her to roll up her own Dao tree and Dao fruit and flee. Yet even so she had been gravely wounded by Shang Jun, both her legs hewn away.

She had meant to seek out Palace Lord Chuge nearby, but before she could reach the place of Chuge's descent, Palace Lord Chuge was already dead.

She therefore decided at once and went instead to meet Palace Lord Changfeng.

Suddenly a Hongmeng Dao light came flying toward her, and Palace Lord Huanxi started in fright.

Wounded by Shang Jun, she was like a bird startled by the bow, and hastily dodged, only to see that Hongmeng Dao light bend in midair and give chase after her. "The Seventh Young Master!

" Palace Lord Huanxi felt a chill to the bone, for word that Shen Mu had slain Palace Lord Chuge had already reached her ears.

She had not yet fully descended into the Seventeenth Era, and a part of her still remained in Jade Capital City of the Ancestral Court in the Sixteenth Era, and thus she knew that Palace Lord Chuge had died at the hands of the Seventh Young Master Shen Mu. That Hongmeng Dao light from Shen Mu looked to have no great power, yet she dared not meet it head on, and could only abandon all thought of meeting Palace Lord Changfeng and rush with all her strength toward the Ancestral Court. "Changfeng must also have had news that the Seventh Young Master struck and killed Palace Lord Chuge, and he will not linger.

I need not join him, I will go straight to the Ancestral Court. Once there I will be safe!

" Her speed was extreme, and as her magic power turned, space folded layer upon layer and she tore through the void. And that Hongmeng Dao light of Shen Mu vanished together with her.

Palace Lord Huanxi left the Yuan Realm far behind, folding the starry sky as she went, faster and faster.

Each of the seventy-two Palace Lords has his own divine power, and Palace Lord Huanxi cultivated the Dao of space above all, so that the vast universe could be reached with ease, only the Ancestral Court was too far, and even with her terrifying skill she would need days to arrive.

Yet to her surprise, that light followed always behind her, and however fast she went she could not shake it off.

Palace Lord Huanxi grew secretly anxious. "The Seventh Young Master's power is so swift, I fear that before I reach the Ancestral Court his power will catch me.

More crucial still, I do not know how many strokes of his power he has sent.

If I stop to meet this one blow, but a hundred more follow behind it, must I not die? " Her speed was unmatched in the world, or Shang Jun would never have given up hunting her. It was precisely because he had seen her speed and knew he could never catch her that Shang Jun had returned to the supervision yard to keep laboring for pay.

But this Hongmeng Dao light of Shen Mu had a speed no less than hers, even surpassing it, leaving Palace Lord Huanxi both terrified and bewildered.

"I attained the Dao by the art of space, and if I wish to leave, no one can hold me, nor should the Seventh Young Master's power be able to catch me.

Could it be.

.

. " With a stirring of thought her Dao tree appeared, and a leaf fell from the tree and flew out.

That leaf drifted through the starry sky and suddenly took on the form of Palace Lord Huanxi to meet the Hongmeng Dao light.

With a swish, that Hongmeng Dao light passed straight through the body of the leaf-turned Huanxi as if it had touched nothing at all.

"It is divine consciousness!

" Palace Lord Huanxi's mind went blank, and then she halted her flight, only to see that Hongmeng Dao light come with a swish before her and pass straight through her own body.

She saw herself smashed to pieces by the blow, her soul ground away, her Dao tree cut down, all swept into nothing.

And yet she felt herself still alive and whole.

This was divine consciousness at mischief.

In truth that Hongmeng Dao light of Shen Mu was not the Hongmeng power of Miluo Palace, or it could be called Hongmeng power, but it was a divine consciousness power built from divine consciousness knit into Hongmeng runes. From the very moment Palace Lord Huanxi saw the Hongmeng Dao light, she had already been struck.

Only this power was not meant to wound her or kill her, but to fashion for her an unspeakably dreadful illusion, forcing her to retreat, so that she could not join with Palace Lord Changfeng.

"The Seventh Young Master has no sure grip to deal with Changfeng and me together, so he uses divine consciousness power to frighten me away, that he may slay Changfeng at the least cost! " To an existence of palace lord rank, divine consciousness power was but a petty trick.

She was incomparably ancient, and not to speak of the Dao of divine consciousness, she had seen even the complete Five Tai Daos. She should never have been struck so easily, but she had been gravely wounded by Shang Jun, and had heard that even so mighty an existence as Palace Lord Chuge had died at Shen Mu's hand, and so she had taken it as given that Shen Mu had come to kill her and that she could never withstand him.

Grasping this, Palace Lord Huanxi sensed her own great Dao, then drove her magic power and broke Shen Mu's divine consciousness power. With a boom like the sundering of heaven and earth in her mind, the divine consciousness power was broken, and all the strange visions before her eyes vanished.

Flesh, soul, Dao tree and Dao fruit were all there, without the least harm. "Then, should I rush back to meet the Seventh Young Master together with Changfeng?

" Palace Lord Huanxi could not help but hesitate.

She had already plunged deep into the starry sky, at an unknown distance from the Yuan Realm, and rushing back now would likely come too late.

Though she knew full well that Palace Lord Changfeng was very likely not yet dead, and that if she returned she could still join hands with Changfeng to beat back Shen Mu, what if all went wrong. What if Palace Lord Changfeng had already been slain by Shen Mu, and her return was only to walk into a net.

"We three palace lords were commanded to descend into the Seventeenth Era, that the two young masters of Miluo Palace and the other palace lords might descend.

That aim is of utmost import! " Palace Lord Huanxi flashed away, saying silently in her heart, "Fellow Daoist Changfeng, it is not that I fear death and will not save you, but that saving you is too great a risk.

For the great plan of Miluo Palace's descent, you must suffer this wrong.

.

.

" Shen Mu came to Flying Wheel Fort and looked about, seeing ruin on every side. The World-Crossing Golden Ship had smashed through the relics left by Yan Yunxi and Bai Yuqiong, crushing the third palace lord beneath it all the way out of the Yuan Realm into the starry sky beyond.

Shen Mu sensed the aura of the World-Crossing Golden Ship, and in a few strides followed the traces it had left and walked beyond heaven, thinking to himself, "That Palace Lord Huanxi's skill just now was indeed supreme, her speed peerless in the world, even faster than mine. Like Tianzun Yue, she too cultivates Zaichi Void and attained the Dao through space.

Yet in foundation she is far stronger than Tianzun Yue. Such an existence is most perilous. . .

" In the starry sky the World-Crossing Golden Ship was bound tight by countless roots. Those roots were like coiling dragons climbing over the hull, and some had even pierced through palace after palace upon the ship, strange and uncanny to behold.