Chapter 1834 — Breaking Into the Jade Capital a Second Time

If Shen Mu truly meant to repair the runes of the Red Rope Knot Seal over and over again, then her escape was still immeasurably far off.

She could not help but feel a measure of regret.

Several hundred years ago, reckoning that her release was near at hand, she had ceased to suppress her own power, letting the surging tides of the Guixu abyss grow more terrifying than ever before, and that had drawn the notice of Shen Mu and the rest. Because Shen Mu was busy forging the Cosmic Bell, he did not come to investigate in person; instead he planted his own Guixu lotus in the Chaos Sea to suppress the strange stirrings of the tides.

Later, one great war followed another, and Shen Mu had even less leisure to come and look; Young Master Wuji therefore grew dizzy with complacency, letting the anomalies of the Guixu wax ever more violent, flaunting her might somewhat, with a note in it that threatened Shen Mu, the Miluo Palace, and Old Man Wuya alike. Old Man Wuya, having been struck down by the Miluo Palace and Shen Mu, had suffered grievous losses to both his strength and his following, and had drawn in his head and gone to ground.

The Miluo Palace, for its part, had the imminent descent of the Young Master's Dao soldiers to contend with, and likewise had no leisure to come and look. Shen Mu, by contrast, found the time; and once he arrived, he subdued her once more at a single stroke. Young Master Wuji ground her teeth in hatred.

"If ever I break free, I will. .

.

" Just then, from above one of the great abysses, a voice came laughing: "That Young Master Wuji, who holds in her hands the power of the birth and death of universes, should have come to such a pass.

It truly moves one to sigh, and to indignation. " Something stirred in Young Master Wuji's heart.

She raised her head and sneered, "Who dares mock me?

Do you dare come down? " The voice said, unhurried: "You and I are both wellsprings of all the universes. You are the Guixu Goddess who governs the birth and death of universes; I am the precious tree that props up the primordial vastness. You were suppressed by the master of the Miluo Palace, and bullied by that Seventh Brother of yours; I too have been trampled by the Young Masters of the Miluo Palace, and had that Seventh Brother of yours come beating at my door. Pitiful, lamentable, that two beings in this universe so naturally unchanging and undying should have fallen into so identical a plight.

" "Old Ghost Wuya?

" Young Master Wuji said in surprise. Old Man Wuya's voice did not come from any single abyss; it issued at the same moment from the mouth of the abyss of one Cosmic Epoch after another. Plainly the old fellow's roots and tendrils ran through the whole long river of the universes, and he was gathering up the mighty of every Cosmic Epoch on all sides, preparing to send them into the Seventeenth Epoch.

The suppression Shen Mu and the Miluo Palace had laid upon Old Man Wuya left him somewhat fretful. For three thousand years he had been pressed down by both sides in every conceivable way; and on top of that, Shen Mu's sealing of the Ancestral Court had left not one of the mighty under his banner able to attain the Dao, so that his own cultivation and strength could never be restored to their peak. It was for this reason that he had taken the initiative to seek out Young Master Wuji and seek a change in his fortunes. "Wuya, you once carried tales about me before our Teacher, calling me a blasphemer against the Dao; and now you come seeking me out, hoping we might join hands.

Old Ghost, how shameless can you be? " Young Master Wuji raised her head and said it in jest. Old Man Wuya gave a snort.

Young Master Wuji had never held a good opinion of him; from the very first moment she laid eyes on him she had used no honorific at all, always calling him Old Ghost. In truth the two of them had never gotten along.

The World Tree and the Guixu were mutually counteracting, diametrically opposed; Old Man Wuya was the World Tree that in the fullness of time had become a sage, while Young Master Wuji was the Guixu Goddess born of the Guixu abyss. The two were born deadly rivals to each other, and so had never once looked upon one another with favor. Old Man Wuya had even once believed that Young Master Wuji was someone the master of the Miluo Palace, wary of him, had deliberately cultivated for the sole purpose of restraining him; and so he had never stinted in making life hard for her. "Wuji, you are suppressed and bullied by that Seventh Brother of yours, and I am pressed down by the Miluo Palace.

In truth you and I are the two great unchanging substances of the universe. We are not like them.

They are mayfly creatures, born and dying with the universes; but to us the birth and death of a universe is a single year. They find it hard enough to live out a year, while we have endless longevity. " Old Man Wuya said, curbing his patience: "You may destroy the cosmos of a universe, but you cannot destroy me. I may prop up the void, but I cannot assimilate you.

There is in truth no reason for you and me to keep fighting. On the contrary, that ancient and sacred beings such as we should be pressed down by these mayflies is more than can be endured. " Something stirred in Young Master Wuji's heart. There was no little sense in Old Man Wuya's words; if the two of them joined hands, they could indeed break the deadlock in which both were now suppressed and pressed down.

"If you and I join hands, the benefits are many. " Old Man Wuya's voice came, neither hurried nor slow: "Because of the Dao Tree, I have mastered nearly every Dao art and divine power of the Miluo Palace.

The Red Rope Knot Seal may be a power the master of the Miluo Palace created in his later years, but with my foundations, unraveling the Red Rope Knot is no great trouble.

I can help you break free. " Young Master Wuji smiled. "And the Seventh Young Master sealed the Ancestral Court, using the Guixu abyss to lock down the void, so that none of the mighty under your banner can imprint the ultimate void and attain the Dao. If they cannot attain the Dao, you cannot recover your peak strength.

But I am the Guixu Goddess; I can break open the Seventh Young Master's seal, and let the mighty under your banner imprint the ultimate void and cultivate the Dao Tree anew. " Old Man Wuya laughed. "In that way, you break free and I recover my peak strength, the best of both worlds. Wuji, your dealings with the Kaitian Host, your playing along with the Seventh Young Master, all of that is petty skirmishing.

Only in joining hands with me can you have what you desire! " His voice rumbled and shook, coming from above the Guixu of sixteen Cosmic Epochs: "You would destroy the cosmos of a universe and open a new epoch. Everyone else will stand in your way, but I alone will not.

I too would borrow the birth and death of universes to grow myself; I would rather be glad to see it done! You and I can find no reason at all to be enemies! " He spoke in a way that stirred the heart greatly; yet in truth both knew full well that they might join hands, but that they would remain absolute enemies, and could never go on joined forever. For their powers were born to counteract one another, to press each other down, to destroy each other!

Young Master Wuji's eyes rolled. She smiled.

"Since we are to join hands, then Old Ghost Wu.

. .

Old Man Wuya, you must show some sincerity, and let me see whether you can unravel the Red Rope Knot Seal.

" "Good! " Old Man Wuya said, with fine readiness.

"But you too must show some sincerity.

I need to see one of the mighty under my banner attain the Dao in the ultimate void!

" "Naturally!