Chapter 1821 — Your Name

"Your disciple presumes to ask the Teacher to confer a blessing upon Lingyun.

" Shen Mu bowed and said.

"Why should I confer a blessing? " The Miluo Palace Master's voice came. "The blessings you have given her are already more than she can bear. If I were to bless her further, she would be utterly unable to endure it.

That would not be her blessing, but a disaster. Friend Mu, leave a thread of life for your child.

" Shen Mu's heart tightened. He wanted to ask in detail, but the Miluo Palace Master had sunk back into silence.

He called out, yet no word came again. Shen Mu sighed.

He knew his teacher's powers were vast beyond imagining; he could even foresee the future.

Not only that, the Miluo Palace Master could discern things Shen Mu could not perceive from the faintest of clues.

He had foreseen something, yet refused to speak of it, and Shen Mu could only let it go. Leading Ling Yuxiu by the hand and holding Shen Lingyun, Shen Mu bowed deeply and walked out of the Miluo Palace. Lady Nanxiang hesitated.

She had a bellyful of questions she wanted to put to the Miluo Palace Master, but Shen Mu had already left, and the Master had sunk back into silence; she too could only leave the palace.

She looked back, and the palace gates had shut.

Lady Nanxiang sighed, feeling bereft.

The Miluo Palace Master, teacher of all living beings for sixteen cosmic eons, was truly dead. Shen Mu came to the golden ship and smiled. "Let us stay here for a few days.

I need to raise myself to peak condition before we return. The road ahead, I'm afraid, will be many times more dangerous than when we came.

" Ling Yuxiu nodded and said, "Sister Nanxiang, you go back first. Thank you for your company on this journey.

" Lady Nanxiang hesitated, then nodded. "Young lord, my lady, I can be of no help on the road ahead.

I take my leave.

" Shen Mu thanked her.

Lady Nanxiang said hurriedly, "Do not. Take care, both of you! " With that, she rose and left. The couple watched her go. Ling Yuxiu said, "Sister Nanxiang is not a bad person.

" "Actually, almost everyone in the Miluo Palace is not a bad person," Shen Mu said with a smile. "Including me.

The Dao-achievers of the Miluo Palace, the hall masters--even the Lingguan Hall Master, for all his fierceness--all hold the ideal of saving the world.

It is not that they are unreasonable. It is only that we stand in different places and see things from different angles, and so we mistake them for villains and invaders.

" Ling Yuxiu smiled. "My husband has suddenly become so open-minded. That does not fit the Venerable Mu of legend. " Shen Mu was intrigued. "What is the Venerable Mu of legend like?

" "A complicated man.

He hates evil as his enemy, and at the same time he is utterly wicked. He is kind and compassionate, and also cruel and ruthless. He breaks his word, and yet he keeps it.

" Ling Yuxiu smiled with pressed lips. "He does not like to talk, yet he can talk someone to death.

Some say you are brilliant beyond measure; some say you are dumb as an ox. Some say your Dao heart is eternally firm, unshaken and unswerving; others say your Dao heart is a mess and you are forever changing countenance.

In short, the Venerable Mu is an infinitely complicated man. " Shen Mu laughed heartily.

The couple settled on the golden ship. Since Shen Lingyun had only just been born, she was always fussing, and the two novice parents were inevitably flustered.

"I have the ability to order heaven and earth, and no one can defeat me, yet I am defeated by a child a few days old," Shen Mu said dejectedly. Fortunately, Shen Lingyun did not cry often; when she was quiet she was very adorable, which gave the old father some consolation. After more than two months, Shen Mu's cultivation and strength had recovered to their peak. At last they set sail and headed back the way they had come.

On the ship the couple was blissful, playing with the child and washing diapers, full of fun, as if they had no idea that a storm was coming.

On the way there, Shen Mu had to control the Guixu Lotus and the World Tree to absorb the energy of the Annihilation Tribulation and nourish Shen Lingyun, and so they had moved slowly. But the return was much faster.

In three months they reached the Annihilation Tribulation of the Seventh Era.

The golden ship gradually slowed.

Ling Yuxiu noticed and looked at Shen Mu. Shen Mu was squatting on the deck, teasing Shen Lingyun and trying to teach her to walk--this father still without a care in the world. Yet the ship was indeed slowing, and slower still.

Ling Yuxiu went over, picked up Shen Lingyun, and said tentatively, "Husband, is something on your mind?

" Shen Mu stood up and looked outside. Beyond the ship, the great annihilation was sweeping through the Seventh Era; the universe that the Heaven-Opening Host of Tiandu had opened could not escape the cycle of cosmic birth and death, and was destroyed in an instant. "Having come all this way without any incident only makes me worry more.

" The smile faded from his face, and his voice was low. "The calmer the waters, the more savage the storm to come. I do not have enough confidence to protect you and our daughter.

" Ling Yuxiu looked at his face. The Venerable Mu, who had always held himself above the world, was now filled with anxiety.

The supreme confidence built since his childhood, the unshakable belief forged in the Jingping Reforms, was beginning to waver. She leaned against him, one arm holding Shen Lingyun, the other hand clasping his, as if to lend him strength and courage.

Shen Mu put his arm around her, his voice low but deep and powerful.

"Do not worry. I will protect you both.

I will not let any harm come to you.

" He looked at the Annihilation Tribulation with dark, calm eyes--so deep as to be almost terrifying.

Long ago, his parents, Qin Hanzhen and Consort Zhen, left the Carefree Village and, chased all the way by the Heavenly Court, were finally caught in the ruined wastes of the Yuan Realm. Qin Hanzhen turned to wood and sent Consort Zhen, who was already pregnant with him, to the Nether Capital. How similar the scene before him was to that scene!

Later, Consort Zhen put him in a basket and asked Aunt Ping'er to carry the basket out of the Nether Capital.

From then on, an orphan named Shen Mu appeared in the Hidden Remnant Village.

"I will not let my daughter walk my path," he said silently in his heart.

No one understood better than he the bitterness of an orphan searching for his parents.

The golden ship set sail again, heading back along one River of Chaos after another.

The Annihilation Tribulation of the Eighth Era: safe.

The Ninth Era: safe. The Tenth Era: safe.

Shen Mu's face grew more and more grave; smiles had all but vanished from his face.

No peril had appeared, which meant that when the peril did come, it would be incomparably fierce! Fierce enough to exceed even what he could bear! Vast as his powers were, with the Heaven-Opening Host of the Miluo Palace and Old Man Wuya before him, and the possibility of all manner of prehistoric forces descending upon him, great and small, he could never hold out alone!

This battle--he must not lose it, but he very well might, and lose all the beauty before his eyes!

The Eleventh Era's Annihilation Tribulation: safe!

The Twelfth Era: safe!

The Thirteenth Era: safe!

The Fourteenth Era: still safe!

At last they came to the Fifteenth Era's Annihilation Tribulation. Shen Mu's throat was dry. He drove the Guixu Lotus and the World Tree to take root in the River of Chaos, trying to draw on the Tribulation's power for his own use.

His heart sank slowly. The Guixu Lotus and the World Tree could not draw on any of the Tribulation's power.

Shen Mu took a long breath. So the Second Young Master Wuji was also waiting for their family of three!