Chapter 1825 — The Heavens Return to Their Rightful Places

"Who could possibly pass through the Ruins of Return?

" Shen Mu had only just formed this thought when the sky suddenly bulged, as though a vast round sack had been let down from the heavens.

The sack swelled and shrank; when it contracted, no trace of anything amiss could be seen, but when it swelled, it very nearly touched the highest peaks of the Ancestral Court! Kaihuang, Shen Ye, Taishi and the others noticed it too, and one after another lifted their heads to watch.

When that vast sack in the sky swelled, it seemed as though a cosmos of stars were hidden inside it, ring upon ring of starry rivers coiling about; when it contracted, it was as though a vast black hole had devoured the stars. Shen Mu's expression shifted slightly.

"Someone is fighting inside the Ruins of Return.

The power of their divine abilities is extraordinary. The seals I left behind are seals bound to the power of the Ruins of Return, and this force can break through my seals! Can it be that one of the Young Masters is about to slip through from the Ruins of Return?

" In the sky the sack swelled and shrank without cease. Within the fluctuations emanating from the Ruins of Return there were the Dao arts and divine abilities of the Ruins of Return, yet they were not wholly of the Ruins of Return; there were other Dao arts and divine abilities besides, such as he had never seen before. "This fluctuation of divine ability.

.

.

" Shen Mu's expression changed slightly.

At last a possibility occurred to him. The Heaven-Opening Host! He had once witnessed the divine abilities of the Heaven-Opening Host, bizarre and unfathomable, impossible to guard against.

And the divine abilities transmitted from the Ruins of Return bore a certain resemblance to those of the several members of the Heaven-Opening Host who had blocked his way home upon the Primordial Chaos River. Only, the divine abilities transmitted from the Ruins of Return were mightier than theirs, and stranger still, their power raised a hundredfold!

"The Heaven-Opening Host numbers only thirty-six.

Could Heavenly Venerable Ling be among them? " No sooner had the thought come to Shen Mu than he shook his head. Were Heavenly Venerable Ling among them, then with her strength she would surely have become their leader; and had that been so, there would never have been that incident in which the Heaven-Opening Host sought to seize the body of his daughter, Shen Lingyun.

"Heavenly Venerable Ling is not among them. With only those thirty-five members of the Heaven-Opening Host, they ought not to be able to bring forth such horrifying power.

Unless. .

. " Shen Mu grasped the crux of it. In that year the Lord of the Heavenly Capital had gathered the Dao-attainers of the Heavenly Capital City to open the heavens; he had raised an altar and gathered the strength of all the Dao-attainers, and only thus had the Seventeenth Epoch been opened up. The Lord of the Heavenly Capital was dead.

Without the Lord of the Heavenly Capital to preside over it, the rest of the Heaven-Opening Host could not bring the Heaven-Opening Altar to its full power. But if these members of the Heaven-Opening Host formed a formation akin to the Heaven-Opening Altar and unleashed a combined strike, they could gather their strength as one and bring forth inconceivable power!

He suddenly rose to his full height and charged toward the Ruins of Return.

At the very instant he moved, Tai Yi, who had been healing his wounds, abruptly rose and likewise charged toward the Ruins of Return in the sky. Shen Mu's heart stirred.

Tai Yi must have recognized the divine abilities of the Heaven-Opening Host of the Heavenly Capital as well!

Beneath the World Tree, Old Man Wuya's injuries were also gradually mending, and the anomaly wrought by the Heaven-Opening Host of the Heavenly Capital forcing their way into the Ruins of Return had naturally not escaped him. "Dao-blasphemers!

" Old Man Wuya's face darkened and cleared by turns; then he abruptly made up his mind. Reckless of healing his own Dao wounds, he rose to his feet and made for the Ruins of Return.

In the Jade Capital City of the Ancestral Court, the fifth Hall Master of the Miluo Palace had already descended, and four more Dao-attainers had arrived besides.

The five Hall Masters and the assembled Dao-attainers gazed up at the sky, each face grave. "No one is to go to the Ruins of Return! " Suddenly the Cloud Dragon Hall Master, who led them, darkened his face and shouted, "The Third Young Master already knows what has happened.

The Heaven-Opening Host forced their way into the Ruins of Return and did battle with the Second Young Master.

The Third Young Master's command is to let them wound each other unto death. The more of them die, the more it profits the descent of the two Young Masters! " The other Hall Masters and Dao-attainers were chilled at heart, and assented one after another. The Cloud Dragon Hall Master looked up at the Ruins of Return, a strange light in his eyes, and murmured, "This time the Heaven-Opening Host have borrowed the road through the Ruins of Return and done battle with the Second Young Master; they will surely lose a few.

These Dao-blasphemers deserve death a hundred times over. Young Master Wuji too has done much evil, slaughtering his fellow Daoists, betraying our teacher, betraying the Miluo Palace. Best it would be if they destroyed one another. .

.

" Beside him the Eight Effulgence Hall Master said, "Even if the Heaven-Opening Host come out of the Ruins of Return, they will only fall into the Ancestral Court trap laid by Young Master Chaos and be imprisoned here.

Once inside this arena of cornered beasts, they will have nowhere to go, and the only road left to them is to slaughter one another. Then Young Master Ling Xiao and Young Master Zixiao will be able to descend without hindrance. " The Hall Masters and Dao-attainers in the Jade Capital City sat upon the mountain to watch the tigers fight, holding their ground and taking no action.

At this very moment, Shen Mu, Tai Yi and Old Man Wuya were still charging toward the great abyss of the Ruins of Return. In the sky, the many layers of seals Shen Mu had laid down began to crumble.

Earlier, when the waves of divine ability from the clash between the Heaven-Opening Host and the Second Young Master Wuji burst out of the great abyss of the Ruins of Return, they had only broken through his seals; the seals had not come apart. But now the seals were dissolving, and the great abyss of the Ruins of Return stood revealed. Yet Shen Mu's seals had not been wholly destroyed, so that in the sky above the Ancestral Court some places were pitch dark while others remained azure, the darkness mottled and spreading ever wider.

The three were just about to plunge into the Ruins of Return when suddenly an earthshaking roar rang out: the remaining seals Shen Mu had laid down shattered into fragments, and a face bearing a bizarre smiling visage abruptly lowered itself from the sky, blocking the great abyss. That face, and the master of that face, were like a vast water droplet.

It sank downward a little, then drew back, then sank out further still. His body was so immense that it seemed wedged in the Ruins of Return, or as though someone behind were gripping his ankle, and he was struggling with all his might.

Thus again and again, until of a sudden that immense smiling man dropped whole out of the Ruins of Return.

Tai Yi's expression shifted slightly, and he said to Shen Mu, "Fellow Daoist, you should go back!

" Shen Mu was momentarily startled, puzzled as to his meaning.

Tai Yi's aura grew stronger and stronger. The twenty-odd Dao-slaying divine nails driven into his lower body suddenly began to spin with a squeal, working their way outward from his flesh.

"Tai Yi, you are still wounded!

Draw out those divine nails and you will not be able to suppress your Dao wounds!