Chapter 1822 — The Arts of the Heaven-Opening Host

In the Jade Capital of the Ancestral Court, Shen Mu and Ling Yuxiu crossed the last long river of chaos and entered the city.

Along the way few had barred their path; they had encountered only a handful of the Heaven-Opening Host of Tian Du and traded blows a few times.

The Dao arts and divine powers of those few were utterly strange and uncanny, wholly unlike those of the Miluo Palace, and they had cost him no small loss.

"Rest assured, my lady.

I will surely return to that point in time and bring Lingyun back. " Shen Mu looked back, and saw the long rivers churning one after another, tokens of the destruction of the past sixteen cosmic epochs; and where the First Epoch's great calamity of destruction had begun, his daughter Shen Lingyun lay stranded.

When he returned there, perhaps for Shen Lingyun it would be but a brief parting from her parents, but perhaps for them a very long time would have passed. The Shen Mu of now did not yet know how long that time would be—not until he returned to the span when the First Epoch's calamity of destruction was about to come yet had not begun, not until the moment he lifted Shen Lingyun into his arms and set her upon his shoulder, would he know that he had been meant to wait so long.

"Devote yourself to your cultivation. " Shen Mu said to Ling Yuxiu, "In the future, if you attain the Dao, you will be able to pass through the First Epoch's calamity of destruction and enter the long river of chaos with me to see her.

" Ling Yuxiu nodded silently.

But she knew her own aptitude was limited; she was not a being of heaven-defying talent like Xu Shenghua or Lan Yutian, and in this life she might never attain the Dao.

She might never be able to return to the past with Shen Mu to see her own daughter.

Still, there was always hope.

Perhaps this was the tribulation the Miluo Palace Master and the First Young Master Taishang had spoken of.

Shen Lingyun had absorbed the power of the calamities of destruction of fifteen cosmic epochs; in the eyes of the old monsters of those fifteen epochs, she was the Child of the Epoch.

Perhaps she was destined to endure this ordeal.

The First Young Master Taishang had told Shen Mu not to absorb the First Epoch's calamity of destruction to nourish Shen Lingyun, and the Miluo Palace Master had been unwilling to confer a blessing—likely because Shen Lingyun's one thread of life lay in the First Epoch cosmos; once the First Epoch's calamity of destruction was absorbed, that thread of life would exist no more.

The couple walked out of the Jade Capital of the Ancestral Court.

Just then, the World-Ferrying Golden Ship flew out from the city and came to a halt behind them. Shen Mu's heart stirred; he had sent the World-Ferrying Golden Ship to escort Shen Lingyun back to the First Epoch, to see her through the calamity of destruction.

And now, the golden ship had returned.

From the golden ship, a lotus leaf drifted up and fell into Shen Mu's Guixu, linking with the Guixu Lotus.

"Lingyun is safe.

" Shen Mu's spirits surged, and he said to Ling Yuxiu with a smile, "Only when she is safe will my lotus leaf return.

This means that one day in the future, you and I returned to the First Epoch and found her!

" The lotus leaf was part of his Dao of Guixu; its mission was to guard Shen Lingyun, and only when Shen Lingyun was truly safe would the lotus leaf return. And this safety referred to the moment Shen Lingyun met Shen Mu; this lotus leaf could not coexist with the lotus leaf in the Guixu of the Shen Mu of that time, so this lotus leaf would vanish—and would be sent by that Shen Mu to his own side!

This was complicated to speak of, but for one who had attained the Dao of Guixu, it was not hard to accomplish! Ling Yuxiu let out a long breath, somewhat comforted.

Though she could not see her daughter now, she would surely see her in the future! The couple settled down in the Ancestral Court, choosing to dwell exactly midway between the Jade Capital of the Ancestral Court and the World Tree.

Shen Mu passed on his insights and attainments to Ling Yuxiu, hoping she might thereby advance by leaps and bounds to a profound realm of cultivation.

Beneath the World Tree all was chaos, with rotting corpses everywhere.

At the very moment two years ago when Shen Mu and Ling Yuxiu had boarded the golden ship and entered the Jade Capital's long river of chaos, the Fourth Young Master had been presiding over the Sixteenth Epoch's calamity of destruction, personally directing a war against the World Tree! Three hall masters of the Miluo Palace led the Dao-achievers of the Jade Capital's Miluo Palace in a slaughter beneath the World Tree; at the same time, a zither string connecting the Sixteenth Epoch to the World Tree erupted with power, bathing Old Man Wuya's forces in blood!

The Fourth Young Master's zither string was drawn by Haotian Venerable; as the zither note sounded, the Fourth Young Master used the string as a medium to transmit his divine powers beneath the World Tree!

And the three great hall masters newly descended from the Miluo Palace led more than a dozen Dao-achievers in a charge toward the World Tree amid the zither notes; that battle left countless prehistoric powerhouses beneath the World Tree dead or wounded! The deaths of these powerhouses made the power of the blood sacrifice ever richer!

Meanwhile, on another front, Kaihuang Shen Ye, the Moon Venerable, Lord Shang, and others seized the chance to cut their way beneath the World Tree; in the midst of the great battle, Xu Shenghua and Lan Yutian carried the half-dead Tai Yi forward. Their faction was the weakest of the three, yet though Tai Yi was half-crippled, his strength remained formidable, a great deterrent to both the Miluo Palace and the World Tree.

Not long after the battle began, Tai Shi, who had already attained the Dao, came to their aid with the Dao Ancestor Gongsun Yan.

Tai Shi's attainment of the Dao revealed stunning combat prowess; he could contend with Dao-achievers who possessed several Dao fruits, falling short only by a fraction of the hall-master level. The attainment of the Five Tai was the most exalted form of innate Dao attainment; Tai Shi had also followed Shen Mu for a long time, and Shen Mu had not concealed from him the insights gained from studying the transformations of the Five Tai, allowing his vision and understanding to long since exceed his own shackles.

Tai Shi had also fought the Ancient God of the Supreme Ultimate and his sister for decades, deepening his understanding of the world's great Daos and of the Five Tai.

Such was the advantage of innate power; others could only envy it. His emergence from seclusion this time was crucial to the elevation of Jing Ping's combat strength, and especially exerted great influence over the Jade Capital's blood sacrifice.

Tai Shi intercepted the energy of the blood sacrifice and transformed it into the spiritual essence and power of heaven and earth, strengthening the seal Shen Mu had set in the Ancestral Court; though he could not contend with the Third and Fourth Young Masters, intercepting a portion was still within his power. In this way, the descent of the Miluo Palace's Dao-achievers could be temporarily slowed.

This bitter battle between the two sides was also the reason the Miluo Palace's hall masters and Dao-achievers had not intercepted Shen Mu on the road.

In the end, Old Man Wuya failed in his contest for Shen Lingyun; returning from the past to the World Tree, he severed the Fourth Young Master's zither string, and only then did the battle come to an end.

By the time Shen Mu and Ling Yuxiu settled into their peaceful dwelling, the war had already ended. In that battle, Old Man Wuya's forces had suffered grievous losses; the Fourth Young Master had stormed his lair, a great loss of face for Old Man Wuya as well.