Chapter 1816 — When I Attain the Dao

Third Young Master Lingxiao wore an impassive face as he flexed his right arm.

That arm had been pinned by Shen Mu with a Dao-Slaying Divine Nail into the Dao-Burying Divine Coffin, forcing him to sever it himself. But now, it had grown back whole.

Shen Mu smiled faintly; he had never supposed that cutting off Lingxiao's arm would leave the man crippled.

He had said as much only to shake the Third Young Master's confidence.

The Third Young Master glanced about, and saw Shen Mu's Guixu Lotus and World Tree rooted in the Chaos River, guarding either side of the golden ship.

The two treasures had grown ever more wondrous; the Guixu Lotus had already formed its third tier, while the World Tree stood ever more towering, its branches thick with leaves. He frowned slightly.

The change in the Guixu Lotus could have been foreseen.

Ever since Shen Mu had made it bloom, he had never set foot in the Chaos River, until Elder Wuya, beneath the World Tree, forced him to root the lotus in the Annihilation Calamity of the Sixteenth Era, whereupon it became a lotus throne, and in one leap a second-tier throne. It was Elder Wuya who had led Shen Mu to discover the method of cultivating the way of Guixu, and from then on his advance had been swift beyond measure. More than that, Elder Wuya had 'taught' Shen Mu how to wield the power of the World Tree, how to cultivate it. That was why Shen Mu had progressed so rapidly in so short a time.

Once, Shen Mu had merely been unkillable; now, he could stand against the young masters, and all of it was Elder Wuya's doing.

"Wuya is too arrogant," Third Young Master Lingxiao said coolly.

"He once thought he could control our teacher, then thought he could control the young masters of Miluo Palace, yet met a wall at every turn.

Now he tries to control you, and has suffered greatly for it. I fear he still does not know how well he has taught you.

" A trace of envy colored his words.

Shen Mu looked as if brushed by a spring breeze, quite pleased with himself. The Third Young Master's tone shifted. "Then, Seventh, you have already refined that lesser World Tree of Elder Wuya's, have you not?

" Shen Mu shook his head in surprise.

"Third Brother, whatever makes you say that?

You know my Chaos Hall as well as I do, perilous beyond measure.

If I set foot within, I would surely fall into the Annihilation Calamity. How would I dare enter?

" "Enough, Seventh. You always call me Third, and this sudden change to Third Brother tells me you are lying.

Only a man hiding malice in his belly speaks kindly to his enemy," Third Young Master Lingxiao said lightly. "You have the Guixu lotus throne and can drift upon the Chaos River without fear of sinking. To retrieve the lesser World Tree suppressed within the Chaos Hall would be easy as turning your hand.

With your strength, refining his lesser World Tree would be no trouble at all. " He smiled proudly, hands clasped behind his back.

"Even if you refined Elder Wuya himself and made him your own, you would still be no match for me. You threatened Fourth with the bowstring, but you cannot threaten me.

What are Hao's life and death to me?

" Shen Mu burst into laughter, his third eye opening as his gaze fell upon him.

"That is why I did not use Hao's life to threaten you," he said faintly.

Their eyes met, each undisguised in his loathing. In that moment, each found the other's towering arrogance utterly hateful. "You come to see our teacher, and I should not bar you. But Seventh, you should not have brought your child," Third Young Master Lingxiao said, looking away toward the wisps of Dao light drifting from the Guixu Lotus and the World Tree toward the golden hall upon the golden ship, his eye twitching. "Your child cannot bear so great a blessing.

You have already gained no small benefit.

Turn back now, and I will let you go, for we are fellow disciples after all. If you persist in your folly, this Chaos River shall be where your wife and child fall, and where you return to the past. " "Ha ha.

" Shen Mu threw his mouth open in laughter, his face expressionless.

The Third Young Master frowned, forcing patience. "Your child could live well enough in the Seventeenth Era. There is no need to drag him through this muddy water. Do you know, bringing him back to the past, how many upon these rivers of chaos covet him, pry into his power, and scheme to claim it for themselves? " "Ha ha," Shen Mu said coldly.

The Third Young Master's brows knotted as he said in a low voice, "The Elder Wuya of past ages, the Tiandu Founders, and all manner of other powers will not suffer this child to be born.

As your senior brother I tell you plainly, the birth of a child gathering the Annihilation Calamity of sixteen cosmic eras is no good thing.

Lest the child fall into others' hands and breed calamity hereafter, Miluo Palace will have no choice but to destroy him.

" Shen Mu said, "Ha ha. " "You court death," Third Young Master Lingxiao said, his face chilling, and in an instant a Dao Tree rose thundering from the Chaos River, lifting the Golden Ship of Deliverance into midair.

Upon his Dao Tree, Dao Fruits turned one by one. The fruits lay beneath the ship, yet the Dao domains harbored within each fruit erupted all at once.

Within each of his Dao Fruits hid forty heavens, and he possessed eight great Dao Fruits in all, each bearing a different Dao, each cultivated to the uttermost peak. Those heavens swelled, and in a blink a myriad gods stood ranked above the golden ship, countless deities enthroned within heaven upon heaven, three hundred and twenty heavens with their innumerable gods pressing down together.

Shen Mu drove the World Tree and the Guixu Lotus, their roots of every Dao striking deep into the Chaos River. About the lotus a great Guixu Abyss took shape, devouring all things, while above that Annihilation Calamity the World Tree held aloft a world. "Third!

" Shen Mu roared, urging the might of the Guixu Lotus and the World Tree to its limit, the torrents of their Daos pouring wholly into his body to forge an entirely new Dao.

"My child shall be taken by no one. " His Dao of Chaos took form, a never-before-seen Dao that borrowed strength from the Chaos River, and at its urging the river's turmoil stilled, the surging current seeming to freeze.

The power of the Sixteenth Era's Annihilation Calamity rushed madly toward Shen Mu, bent to his command and turned to world-ending force.

With a boom the Chaos Hall swung open, and for the instant its gates stood wide it seemed to drag the whole Chaos River into the hall, to overlap with the sixteen rivers within. "When I attain the Dao!

" Shen Mu's voice shook and burst back and forth above the Annihilation Calamity.

"The Annihilation Calamities of sixteen eras shall all be the wellsprings of my power.

My Dao shall run through sixteen eras. " Third Young Master Lingxiao's face changed, for the three hundred and twenty heavens formed of his Dao Fruits threatened to crumble and dissolve.

The gods within his heavens shattered one after another, bursting apart into wisps of chaotic qi.

"My World Tree shall bloom with Dao flowers and bear Dao fruit amid the Annihilation Calamities of sixteen eras! " Shen Mu drove the Dao of Chaos, and within the river the calamity howled aloft, wheeling about the World Tree and the Guixu Lotus.

"My Guixu Lotus shall drink world-destroying power and become a sixteen-tier throne!

" Shen Mu pointed, and the Chaos River tore through the void to crash down upon Third Young Master Lingxiao like the sky itself collapsing.

His voice detonated through the chaos.

"And I shall sit enthroned above the Annihilation Calamities of sixteen eras, and suppress you all.

" The river surged, and before it even arrived Lingxiao was pressed until his robes snapped and streamed backward, robes no common stuff but woven of his own Dao.