Chapter 1795 — The Young Master's Secret Past

Within the forest of obelisks there was still no trace of life. When Shen Mu had last come here, he could yet see a sun in the sky — the eye of the First Young Master, Taishang, peering at all within the obelisk forest.

But now, coming here again, only the radiance of the obelisks remained; the sun was nowhere to be seen.

The place was stifling; the obelisks stood like so many towers, suppressing everything.

The steles were forged from Chaos Stone, and Chaos Stone could be found only in the Taiyi ore veins and in the calamity of destruction; nowhere else in all the world could such a treasure be found. Yet to the First Young Master, Taishang, Chaos Stone was merely the stuff of which treasures are refined.

Shen Mu hoisted an obelisk onto his shoulder, slung it aboard the Golden Ship of Salvation, and pushed the ship out through the portal: "Ship of treasures, oh ship of treasures — off to the Ancestral Court with you!

" Shen Mu gave it a mighty shove, and the Golden Ship of Salvation at once bore the stele away. Shen Mu's gaze flickered and shifted; he watched until the Golden Ship of Salvation vanished into the depths of the Void Filth Field, and only then did he turn, heave the Dao-Burying Divine Coffin onto his shoulder, and stride into the obelisk forest.

He had already fathomed the secret of the obelisks: by transforming the primordial chaos runes within his body into the rune-state of the steles, he could walk into the forest unhindered by its suppression.

Had he not done so, with the steles whole in number, he would have had no way to disguise himself as a stele and enter the forest. "The First Young Master, Taishang, may not permit me to take the Cripple away, nor may he permit me to merge Taiyi and the Cripple into one; therefore I set one obelisk aboard the ship and let the golden ship carry that stele off.

With this stele missing, the forest's formation is incomplete. So long as he cannot find this stele, and cannot make whole the suppressive array, I am safe.

" Shen Mu smiled, and shouldering the coffin, strode boldly in.

At that very moment, in the innermost ring of the obelisk forest, halos of light suddenly streamed across the surfaces of the steles, and upon one of them the figure of Zhu Santong surfaced. The pig-headed, human-bodied Dao-attaining one's snout abruptly bulged out from the stele, his two eyes, big as bronze bells, rolling this way and that, as he whispered, "Old monster, old monster! Do you feel it? This forest's formation is missing another piece!

" Upon another stele the image of a little girl surfaced, as though someone stood before a mirror and yet no one was reflected within.

The girl thrust a leg out from the mirror's surface and said in astonishment, "The formation truly is incomplete! " She leaped out of the mirror and cackled, "Taishang's seal is too ancient — so ancient that the seal has collapsed!

" "It is not the seal that has collapsed. " The old woman surfaced from another stele, sensing with great care, and said, "These obelisks were forged from Chaos Stone; even the calamity of destruction could not mar them in the slightest. Taishang could lock us away for several more cosmic epochs, and this seal would show not a single flaw!

" She stepped out from the stele and said, puzzled, "And yet the seal truly is missing a piece. How very strange.

.

.

" At this the woman stepped out of her stele and sneered, "Just what trick is Taishang playing?

" The old man had already come into the village and checked on the Cripple; finding the Cripple still there, he set his heart at ease and said mildly, "We have long since been no match for Taishang. Whatever trick he plays. .

.

" He gave a muffled snort: "All we can do is be played by him.

" The others were rather helpless at this, when suddenly Zhu Santong's ears twitched: "Someone's coming! " He hastily rolled on the ground and turned into a fat pig; the girl strung up a rope, and Zhu Santong's two plump white hind legs were stretched out straight and bound fast with the rope, and the girl hung him upside down from a tree.

The woman hurried to her own Dao tree and drew water from the well, pulling out her laundry bat and making as if to wash clothes; the old man hurried to the village entrance and sat on a stone, lighting his water pipe; the old woman went to sit beneath the eaves and watched the woman wash clothes.

No sooner had they finished all this than they saw Shen Mu striding like a shooting star, carrying a coffin upon his shoulder.

"What a coffin! " Each of them set their heart at ease; and beholding that Dao-Burying Divine Coffin, they all cried out in praise.

The old woman hurriedly rose and chuckled, "Wherever did the Seventh Young Master get such a superb coffin? Truly wonderful — this old body would like to climb in and lie down a while! " Shen Mu set down the Dao-Burying Divine Coffin and said gladly, "You can all see it is a fine coffin?

I have coveted it a long while myself; alas, this coffin already has an owner — I gave it to someone else.

" He seemed quite regretful.

Zhu Santong slipped off the rope, and landing, became a sturdy fellow, who came up to examine it and praised it again and again: "Truly a fine coffin! I wonder who has the fortune to lie within it. " He was about to lift the coffin lid when Shen Mu pressed his hand down and shook his head: "There is someone in the coffin.

" Zhu Santong jumped in fright, wanting to look and not daring to. The old man came forward and said, quavering, "Was it the Young Master who just now broke Taishang's seal?

" Shen Mu smiled faintly: "A mere lift of the hand.

Brother Dao, guess — who is the one in this coffin? " The old man was greatly shaken and blurted out, "Can it be that one?

" Shen Mu laughed heartily, and the people suppressed within the obelisk forest could not help but be stirred to the depths.

Of all those present, only the old man had ever laid eyes on Tiandu; the rest had only heard the name and never seen the man.

When Shen Mu had come here last time, they had learned that the Cripple was none other than the Lord of Tiandu, whose name stood beside that of the master of the Miluo Palace!

Shen Mu made plain the bond between the Lord of Tiandu and Taiyi, letting them know that the reason they had been able to escape the obelisks was that Taiyi had once come here.

The old man and Zhu Santong hurriedly bore the Cripple over, gazing at Shen Mu in expectation.

Shen Mu hesitated a moment, then told them honestly, "Taiyi is gravely wounded, and the Cripple was slain outright by the master of the Miluo Palace with a great divine power. Though the two are one body, both have taken very grievous hurts.

If the coffin is opened, they will merge into one.

The best case is that once they merge, the injuries are gone. " The girl blinked, raised her head to look at him, and ventured, "And the worst case?

" "The worst case is that their injuries fuse together and gather into a single body, making the hurt graver still.

" Shen Mu hesitated a moment, then spoke the truth: "They may even die on the spot — past all saving. " Seeing their faces change drastically, he hurriedly said, "But some time ago, I too suffered the same injury as the Cripple; the difference being that the Cripple died, while I was healed. Rest assured — in treating this sort of injury, I am well practiced. But.

.

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" The woman brandished her laundry bat and said hotly, "Seventh Young Master, can you not finish what you have to say in one breath?

" Shen Mu said, "But my injury was dealt by a divine power wielded by the Third Young Master, Lingxiao, whereas the injury upon the Cripple was dealt by a divine power wielded by the master of the Miluo Palace. Though it is the same divine power, the ones who wielded it were different, and I have no absolute certainty that I can heal the Cripple's injury completely. " "Then treat a dead pig as a live one!