Chapter 1785 — World-Shaking Giants

Yue Tianzun glanced toward the chest, and something stirred faintly in her heart.

"What is Mu's purpose on this journey, truly? " She had first assumed that Shen Mu meant to win over the Five Elders of Fengshu, yet he showed not the slightest inclination to persuade them; on the contrary, he insisted that they return to wherever they had come from.

Later she had supposed that Shen Mu meant to wipe out the Five Elders of Fengshu in one stroke, yet again he seemed to take little interest in them, did not strike them down with any ruthless hand, and instead locked horns to the death with the Fourth Young Master's lute string. Now, at the mere sight of the chest, Shen Mu declared his purpose accomplished. Then what exactly was that purpose?

She did not know that Shen Mu's aims on this journey were not single; one of them was to muddy the waters.

Had he and she not come, Emperor Haotian might well have subdued the Five Elders of Fengshu, and then Jingping would have been in dire peril.

The reason Shen Mu had brought her here was to make certain there was no possibility whatsoever of the two sides joining hands. Though Shen Mu had neither sown discord nor played any underhanded trick, his very arrival would give the Five Elders of Fengshu the illusion of a three-way balance of power, and so lead them into a wrong judgment. The triangle is the most stable of structures; therefore, to preserve a three-way balance and keep the Five Elders of Fengshu from leaning to either side, standing on their own, was the best move for holding that stable structure intact.

Hence Feng Hualian's grand declaration that he would bar Miluo Palace from descending, while at the same time refusing to join hands with Shen Mu. But his judgment was wrong.

Miluo Palace was too powerful; a three-way balance was utterly impossible. And so Feng Hualian died. This is Chaos. Had Shen Mu not come, such a seemingly stable state of chaos could never have taken shape.

Shen Mu, the Seventh Young Master, Chaos, left chaos and disorder in his wake wherever he went, naturally so.

Yue Tianzun stroked the lute strings and played the Purple Empyrean Dao-Proving Melody, and the divine power that came through the Fourth Young Master's lute notes ceased.

With the Fourth Young Master's divine power halted, Yanxiu Pavilion at once charged at Emperor Haotian; the Master of the Hall of Joy broke free of Li Shu's One-Mu Yellow Field, and seeing this, immediately swept Emperor Haotian up and fled in a flash.

Huang Tang was not yet dead.

That strike of the Fourth Young Master's had severed his dao tree and cut off his head, but because the Fourth Young Master had been occupied blocking their attempt to kill Emperor Haotian, he had instead escaped with his life.

His cultivation art was peculiar, precisely able to counter the Master of the Hall of Joy's dao of space; he brought the two of them down, and another round of slaughter followed. Li Shu and Cang Yancui charged at Shen Mu and Yue Tianzun.

Yue Tianzun sat at ease, stroking her lute, while Shen Mu stood beside her, pacing round and about her, front and back, left and right, fending off the attacks of Li Shu and Cang Yancui. The four Elders of Fengshu had killed until their eyes ran red; asking neither right nor wrong, neither black nor white, they struck at them with murderous intent.

Shen Mu frowned, caught sight of the chest receding into the distance, and said in a low voice, "Yue, it is enough. " Yue Tianzun put away her ancient lute.

At her fingertip a peach blossom bloomed, its petals drifting down, more and more of them, until by the time Li Shu and Cang Yancui had dispersed the peach blossoms, Shen Mu and Yue Tianzun had vanished without a trace. "The four Elders of Fengshu are truly fierce. " Yue Tianzun brought Shen Mu outside the Heavenly Court and looked back: the four Elders of Fengshu were battling the Master of the Hall of Joy and Emperor Haotian, a scene of utter carnage, the fighting having nearly reduced the Heavenly Court to a wasteland.

"These four Elders are men of surpassing ability, but they are still no match for that lute string of the Fourth Young Master's.

" Shen Mu gazed into the distance, worry on his face.

"What troubles me is that the Fourth Young Master slaughtering all before him will only make Miluo Palace descend the sooner. " When the Fourth Young Master first plucked the string, it had been breathtaking beyond measure, a single strike annihilating even a Dao-Achiever.

That, of course, had been a blow gathered and released with accumulated force, not his ordinary means.

But even so, the four Elders of Fengshu were in no way the Fourth Young Master's match, and there was still the Master of the Hall of Joy to reckon with besides. Just then came a clatter of tap-tap-tap, and the chest came running briskly out of the Heavenly Court to Shen Mu's side, nuzzling affectionately against his shin.

Shen Mu smiled slightly, took out the lower half of the Chu Ge Hall Master's body, and said with a laugh, "Want it?

" The chest hopped about in a fluster, trying to take this treasure into itself, yet always falling a little short. Shen Mu laughed heartily, then glanced at the unfamiliar man approaching: a man with a full beard, very burly, and not of the human race, scales of a lizard upon his face and several upright lizard bone plates atop his head.

"Xing'an," Shen Mu said with a smile. The man studied the lower half of the Chu Ge Hall Master, his gaze strange, his pupils vertical slits.

"The body of a Dao-Achiever?

" "The Chu Ge Hall Master, one of the seventy-two hall masters of Miluo Palace, perhaps the most powerful of them all. " Shen Mu said, "To deal with him, I went to no small trouble.

" Xing'an nodded.

"I will take it.

What do you want me to do? " Shen Mu set down the Taiyi Coffin. "Open this divine coffin and release the one inside, safe and whole.

" Xing'an stepped forward and examined it.

"This coffin is far more perfect than the one I forged for you. In times past, I too could not have opened it.

" Shen Mu frowned.

Xing'an went on, "But this coffin has had a layer shaved off it by the Fourth Young Master's lute string; there is a flaw now.

Give me half a year, and I will undo the coffin.

" Shen Mu frowned.

"Half a year is too long. What of three months?

" Xing'an said indifferently, "In three months, I can guarantee you only a broken one. " Shen Mu's head ached; he ground his teeth and said, "Then half a year!

Whatever it takes, he must be rescued whole!

" He handed over the body of the Chu Ge Hall Master and said, "Take the coffin with you.

Half a year from now, I want to see the one in that coffin.

If I do not, you know what I am capable of. " Xing'an paid his threat no mind at all.

His gaze strange, he said, "The quality of this coffin is superb. Even if you searched the Ancestral Court for several thousand years, you would not find the materials to forge its like. Are you truly willing to give this coffin to me? Are you not afraid I will keep it for myself?

" Shen Mu laughed despite himself.

"Daoist friend, could you really seize this coffin and lie down in it yourself? " Xing'an thought it over, then nodded, staring at the coffin.

"I would very much like to try. The quality of this coffin is very fine.

" Yue Tianzun's expression turned odd; she studied Xing'an and thought, "This body of Xing'an's is surely not his true body, is it? What does he really look like? " Her curiosity only grew.

"Mu Tianzun, Xu Shenghua, Jiang Baigui, Xing'an, Hua Xuanxiu, Si Youyou, Shen Fengqing, this age has indeed brought forth no small number of Tianzuns, in no way inferior to the early years of Longhan. " These were all figures who had achieved something singular, each in his own domain; judged by their contributions to the systems of cultivation, Xu Shenghua would rank even before Shen Mu.

And Xing'an's contribution lay in the appalling work he had done in the Wendao Academy.