Chapter 1827 — Subduing the Multitude of the Heaven-Opening Host

The eyes of the Heaven-Opening Host fell upon Shen Mu and upon that Dao-Burying Divine Coffin. Shen Mu had reached this place a step ahead of them — not only earlier than they, but bearing the Dao-Burying Divine Coffin with him.

The Dao-Burying Divine Coffin had been forged by the First Young Master, Taishang, to suppress Taiyi.

Presumably, after arriving here, Shen Mu had awakened Dongyang and the others, and had persuaded Dongyang to lay the mortal body of the Lord of Tiandu — that paralytic — inside the Dao-Burying Divine Coffin.

As for the obelisk steles, Shen Mu had come many times before and knew the way like an old hand; and since the Heaven-Opening Host and Taiyi had been delayed a while upon the road, Shen Mu had instead stolen a march on them, arriving first and setting his arrangements in place.

"Young Master Hundun — unyielding through a hundred setbacks, never once giving up hope."

The Smiling Man, Shijing, said, "You have already tasted our Dao arts; you should know that you are no match for us. Not you — even the Second Young Master, Wuji, is no match for us. And even if you have laid the Leader in the coffin, what of it? To strike you down, open the coffin, and invite the Leader out is no difficult matter for us of the Heaven-Opening Host."

"If you wish to strike down the Seventh Young Master, you must first strike me down."

The woman at the side stopped pounding the clothes, rose to her feet, shouldered her washing mallet, and said with a fearsome air, "Heaven-Opening Host of Tiandu, you have become twisted monsters. This place will not suffer your insolence!"

"And me as well!"

The old crone rose, trembling, and said, "Though this old body has had few dealings with the Seventh Young Master, and has heard that his name stinks to the heavens, compared with that Seventh Young Master whose crimes are full to bursting, this old body finds you even harder to stomach!"

"And me — Zhu Santong!"

The pig hanging upside down from the tree at the village mouth suddenly burst its ropes, dropped to the ground, transformed into a burly man, and came striding over with a cold laugh: "I have always set myself against Miluo Palace, and for those so-called Young Masters I have nothing but contempt — meet one, and I would wash his face with a mouthful of thick phlegm. But the Seventh Young Master is a freak of Miluo Palace, and I find him rather easy on the eye. You lot, on the other hand, I cannot abide! If you want to deal with the Seventh Young Master, you will have to trample heavy over my corpse!"

"Very well." The Smiling Man, Shijing, laughed heartily, yet no change came over his face.

"You will have to strike me down as well."

The old man Dongyang said mildly, "It was Ling who asked me to come, to protect the mortal body of Tiandu, and to let no one do it harm. For Ling, I hold her in the same admiration as I hold Tiandu. What I promised her, I will surely accomplish. Even though I too was once of the Heaven-Opening Host of Tiandu, even though I was once one of you, still I will stop you."

The girl sighed, slid down from the tree, and said plaintively, "Yaya neither admires the Seventh Young Master, nor knows the Lord of Tiandu, nor has any notion of your grudges. But during the time Yaya was locked up, she became good friends with Zhu Santong and Dongyang and the rest. If good friends are going to stand against you, then Yaya has no choice but to do the same. When you step over Yaya's corpse in a moment, do be gentle."

The Smiling Man, Shijing, sighed: "You are all sick. Sick in the brain. You need treatment."

Zhu Santong cursed him roundly: "You're the sick one! Your whole family's sick! Your skulls are all rotted through!"

The Heaven-Opening Host paid his abuse no mind at all. Though they had strayed from the path, their attainment in the Dao-heart was immeasurably strong; they simply regarded Zhu Santong and the others as patients in need of treatment.

And the more it was so, the more it made the heart quail.

"Brother Taiyi, do you wish to become the Lord of Tiandu, or to be yourself again?" Shen Mu asked abruptly.

Taiyi was silent. The eyes of the thirty-five of the Heaven-Opening Host fell upon him one after another, and the Smiling Man, Shijing, said, "Leader, you are ill. Only by returning to the identity of the Lord of Tiandu will you be cured."

Taiyi sighed and said, "Daoist friend Mu, will you let me become the Lord of Tiandu?"

Shen Mu shook his head: "No. When I first entered Miluo Palace and met its master, my teacher told me to beware of Taiyi. I doubted his words and thought he was lying. But later I understood: what he bade me beware of was not you, but the Lord of Tiandu. For you, brother, I feel only admiration and reverence. While you are Taiyi, you are that transcendent master who guarded the Seventeenth Epoch for six billion years; but if you become the Lord of Tiandu, you may well become the one who destroys the Seventeenth Epoch."

Taiyi fell silent.

After a long while he opened his eyes, smiled, and said, "I understand. You may begin."

Light blazed from Shen Mu's eyes. In an instant his Primal Chaos vital essence stirred, and within the space of a breath countless Primal Chaos runes formed inside his body, arrayed in a strange and wondrous pattern!

In the blink of an eye, the impression he gave was as though he were a towering, majestic obelisk stele!

Of the Obelisk Forest laid down by the First Young Master, Taishang, one stele had been sent out of the Squalid Field by Shen Mu and delivered into the Ancestral Court, where it was destroyed by the hand of Her Highness the Empress.

With the forest incomplete, it could no longer bring forth the suppressive power of this place.

Yet Shen Mu had studied the obelisk steles deeply. Each time he entered the forest, he used Primal Chaos runes to simulate an obelisk stele and slip into the formation.

This time he transformed his own body into an obelisk stele — the very method the First Young Master, Taishang, had used when last he entered the forest and became a stele to suppress Dongyang and the others.

The Obelisk Forest rumbled into life. One stele after another blazed with light in an instant, countless runes surfaced, and the formation left behind by the First Young Master, Taishang, began to turn!

The thirty-five of the Heaven-Opening Host shifted their steps, their forms weaving in and out. Their reactions were swift beyond measure: the moment Shen Mu roused the suppressive power of the Obelisk Forest, they in that same instant roused the formation of the Heaven-Opening Altar!

At the same moment, the old man Dongyang, Zhu Santong, the girl, the woman, and the old crone all made their move, attacking the thirty-five of the Heaven-Opening Host, striving to break their formation!

They fought for every second. It would take time for Shen Mu to rouse the Obelisk Forest and drive its suppressive power to its utmost; before that, they must hold the Heaven-Opening Host back, and not let them bring out the full might of the altar formation!

This was the stratagem Shen Mu had settled upon with them.

The Heaven-Opening Host possessed a set of joint-strike arts with which they could stand head-on against the Young Masters of Miluo Palace — arts with which they had even gravely wounded the Second Young Master, Wuji, in the Ruins of Return!

The Second Young Master, Wuji — her strength was very likely above even that of the First Young Master, Taishang; and though she was bound by the red rope knot, to wound her gravely was no easy thing.

That the thirty-five of the Heaven-Opening Host could gravely wound her in the Ruins of Return, the very place of her birth, and fight their way out of the Ruins — Shen Mu had already come to regard these thirty-five as beings on the level of the Young Masters!

To rouse the Obelisk Forest took time; to drive the formation of the Heaven-Opening Altar took time as well. Whoever seized the initiative first would have the chance of victory!