Chapter 1826 — Your Excellency Is Unwell and Must Be Treated

Tai Yi looked around at the thirty-five of the Heaven-Opening Host, and after a moment said, "Fellow Daoists, have you all been well since we parted?"

"We have been well!"

The thirty-five of the Heaven-Opening Host were greatly delighted, and said with one voice, "Please, Lord of Heaven Capital, come with us to the Abandoned Land and return to your true body!"

Tai Yi's gaze fell upon Shen Mu in the distance, then drew back. He said in a low voice, "Very well. I shall return to my true body!"

Shen Mu frowned.

The thirty-five of the Heaven-Opening Host abruptly stirred the formation of the Heaven-Opening Altar, tearing open the sky, and together with Tai Yi they shifted out of the cage of the Ancestral Court and vanished.

Shen Mu's expression darkened. He marshaled his mana and drew back the Ruins of Return, which the thirty-five of the Heaven-Opening Host had shaken so that it flew off beyond the heavens; then, wielding the power of the Ruins of Return, he laid down layer upon layer of seals once more.

Kaihuang, Shen Ye, Lord Shang and the others hurried over, and before they could ask, Shen Mu said in a low voice, "Tai Yi and the Heaven-Opening Host have gone to the Filth-Field of the Void, to seek the true body of the Lord of Heaven Capital."

Taishi asked, "If he becomes the Lord of Heaven Capital, can he still keep the form of Tai Yi?"

Shen Mu shook his head.

He did not know the answer to that question. Heavenly Venerable Ling must have tampered with Tai Yi, so that he was no longer the Lord of Heaven Capital; and the master of Miluo Palace had sent him back to the Fourth Epoch, to examine for himself the deeds of the Lord of Heaven Capital and the Heaven-Opening Host.

The Tai Yi of today had a mind wholly different from that of the Lord of Heaven Capital.

But whether Tai Yi, once fused with the Lord of Heaven Capital, could still keep the mind of Tai Yi — that was hard to say.

"Why would Tai Yi go with them?"

Lord Shang was perplexed. Both Tai Yi and the paralytic in the Obelisk Forest he held in deep respect, but he felt they were two different people. There was no need for Tai Yi to become another person.

"The Heaven-Opening Host are far too dangerous. If it came to blows, Tai Yi was not certain he could defeat them, nor certain he could keep them within the Ancestral Court."

Shen Mu glanced about and said, "I must make a trip to the Filth-Field of the Void. You stay and guard this place. While Tai Yi and I are gone, you must beware of attacks from Jade Capital City and the World Tree. I leave the Golden Ship of Salvation behind; if you cannot hold out, board the ship and take refuge."

The others nodded.

Shen Mu drew a long breath, and with a flicker of his form he vanished from the trap of the Ancestral Court.

The Filth-Field of the Void.

The Heaven-Opening Host and Tai Yi walked within it. This filthy place was full of mysteries; countless things that even the Calamity of Destruction and the Calamity of Creation could not destroy had been cast away here.

Here too were the ruins of Heaven Capital City, the place where the Dao-achievers of Heaven Capital had opened the heavens in years past; here was the Obelisk Forest where the First Young Master of Miluo Palace, Taishang, had suppressed demons and heretics; and here were all manner of other strange and uncanny things.

Tai Yi and the Heaven-Opening Host revisited the relics of Heaven Capital City. They climbed the Heaven-Opening Altar, and the Heaven-Opening Host sighed and were overcome with emotion. The Smiling Man said, "All these years we have been searching for our leader. Ling said she had sent the leader's primordial spirit into the future, but Ling is a person of great uncertainty — she joined Heaven Capital City halfway, after all, and her heart of the Dao is not as pure as ours."

Tai Yi stood with both feet upon the two footprints at the center of the altar — footprints he himself had left. Standing here again filled him with emotion.

After a moment, Tai Yi said, "Ling's aptitude and understanding were the finest among you. Why did you not follow her after my death?"

The thirty-five of the Heaven-Opening Host exchanged glances and shook their heads one after another.

"Ling was not suited to be our leader. She was too soft-hearted; she could not see the essence of life."

The Smiling Man said, "Life is nothing but an accumulation of matter and energy. She thought it should be respected, but she overlooked that we can create life — even create worlds. We can shape worlds and lives into whatever form we wish! She could not do this. We have only one leader, and that is the Lord of Heaven Capital."

Tai Yi looked at them and frowned slightly.

Once, he had thought the same way; that was why he had had such followers.

But now his thinking had changed. Since becoming Tai Yi, he had tried his utmost not to interfere in the course of the Seventeenth Epoch, letting the Seventeenth Epoch develop on its own. This was an utterly different way of acting from the Lord of Heaven Capital.

"To rescue our leader, we once influenced the future from the past, and here we showed the Seventh Young Master the scene of Heaven Capital City opening the heavens in those days."

The Smiling Man said, "A pity that Young Master Chaos disappointed us. Just as he was about to heal the leader, he hesitated. Rest assured, leader, we can surely heal you!"

"Heal me?" Tai Yi looked at the Dao wounds on his body.

Clearly, the Heaven-Opening Host did not mean the Dao wounds left from the battle with the Third Young Master and the Fourth Young Master; they meant Tai Yi's thoughts and ideals.

The Heaven-Opening Host believed that Tai Yi's present thoughts and ideals were diseased, imperfect, and in need of healing.

And the means by which they would heal Tai Yi was to make him into the Lord of Heaven Capital — to make him the leader they had in mind!

They left the relics of Heaven Capital City. Strange things drifted through the Filth-Field of the Void, but faced with the Heaven-Opening Host, those strange things shrank back.

They searched the Filth-Field for a long while, until ahead of them a vast host of coffins appeared, many coffins linked together, sailing toward them.

The last time Shen Mu had come here, he had met the host of coffins blocking his way and had simply crushed through them with the Golden Ship of Salvation, smashing many coffins to bits; the rest had fled.

"Fellow Daoists!"

The Smiling Man stood before the Heaven-Opening Host, his Dao voice shaking the air: "The day of your deliverance is at hand! The Lord of Heaven Capital is about to descend, and then you shall see the light of day again and take your revenge! Your feud with Miluo Palace, your feud with the Seventh Young Master — all of it can be settled!"

The coffins seemed able to understand his words. They rejoiced and danced, and the chains binding the coffins rattled with a clatter.

"Young Master Chaos suppressed them for a reason," Tai Yi reminded the Smiling Man and the rest of the Heaven-Opening Host. "If they are released, the harm they will do is immense."

The smile on the Smiling Man's face looked utterly dreadful: "Miluo Palace is mightier than our Heaven Capital. Heaven Capital needs them to stand against Miluo Palace. Leader, you truly are ill — the you of old would never have thought this way."

The other members of the Heaven-Opening Host chimed in: "The leader is ill. In the old days, would the leader have bothered with such things? Even if the cosmos were shattered in battle, one would simply open the heavens anew and begin the experiment from the start."

The corner of Tai Yi's eye twitched.

They went on, and at last found the gate that the Golden Ship of Salvation had smashed apart. The thirty-five of the Heaven-Opening Host escorted Tai Yi straight in, laughing: "Young Master Chaos broke the formation here, which saves us no small trouble."