Chapter 1834 — Breaking Into the Jade Capital a Second Time

" The two struck their bargain at once, and each went to make ready. Elsewhere, Shen Mu left the Guixu abyss and came to the Jade Capital of the Ancestral Court, to see the descent of Young Master Lingxiao's Dao soldiers. Everyone in the Miluo Palace, as though they had known he would come, had long since drawn up their battle formation, waiting in stern array. Shen Mu walked into the city, then halted his steps.

There in the space and time of the Jade Capital of the Ancestral Court, zither strings invisible to the naked eye were spread like a spider's web, guarding Young Master Lingxiao's Dao spear. Lord Haotian stepped forward and shouted, full of menace: "Lord Mu, your death is at hand, and you still dare come here to run wild?

" Shen Mu gave a snort of laughter. The Lord Haotian of old, though hardly admirable, had at least been a man of some standing; now he had lost every last shred of ambition. Under the manipulation of the Miluo Palace's two Young Masters, Lord Haotian's ambitions and grand designs had all turned to froth and shadow; he had been brought to heel so thoroughly that one could not help but marvel at the two Young Masters' methods. Hearing that snort of laughter, Lord Haotian flushed red, ashamed and furious at once.

Shen Mu paid him no mind.

His gaze fell upon that Dao spear. The spear held inexhaustible Dao might within it, quivering without cease, spear-shadows filling the air around it!

The power of such a Dao soldier was far more formidable even than the Cosmic Bell Shen Mu had forged!

"A pity the one who wields the spear is not here.

" Shen Mu looked all around, his gaze passing over the faces of the twelve Hall Masters of the Miluo Palace and the assembled Dao-attainers. He shook his head.

"Without the spearman, none of you is a match for me.

" He stepped forward, and all at once the zither strings quivered; a Dao melody came forth from the strings hidden in space and time. Shen Mu's figure rose and fell within the Dao melody, now walking amid Young Master Zixiao's divine powers, now standing upon the quivering strings, now laying his palm on a string and plucking it softly, sinking ever deeper into the net the strings had woven! The faces of the twelve Hall Masters and the assembled Dao-attainers grew graver and graver.

Young Master Zixiao, working her divine power across the void, could no longer touch Shen Mu in the slightest, and fine beads of sweat broke out on their foreheads. Shen Mu's rate of growth surpassed their imagining.

In a mere three thousand years he could already match Young Master Zixiao in a contest of arts across the void, and with such calm and ease, that they felt the pressure keenly! "He cannot break the Miluo Dao Burial!

" Lord Haotian swiftly set out one treasure hall after another, all seventy-two treasure halls arrayed in full.

Lord Haotian stood before one of them; the other twelve Hall Masters each had their own hall. But several of the Miluo Palace's seventy-two Hall Masters were already dead, and the rest had not descended, so other Dao-attainers had to stand in their places. They laid out the formation of the Miluo Dao Burial, each gripping his own weapon, veins writhing on the backs of their hands, staring fixedly at Shen Mu as he drew nearer and nearer through the sound of the Dao melody. The Miluo Dao Burial was a joint technique the Third and Fourth Young Masters of the Miluo Palace had created together, aimed squarely at Shen Mu's Dao arts and divine powers, a killing blow meant for Shen Mu alone.

In the past, when Shen Mu had broken the Jade Capital trap, the phantom shadows of the seventy-two Hall Masters had descended into Shen Mu's divine treasury, falling into the seventy-two treasure halls of the Jade Capital of his Heavenly Court, where they worked the Miluo Dao Burial and sought to strangle Shen Mu where he stood. That time, because Shen Mu had scattered several of the Hall Masters' phantoms, only sixty-seven Hall Masters had worked the Miluo Dao Burial, and the joint technique had not been brought to its utmost.

And that time it had been phantoms that descended; the power those phantoms of the seventy-two Hall Masters could muster was in fact the power of the Jade Capital of the Heavenly Court within Shen Mu's own divine treasury. But now they had prepared long and well: twelve Hall Masters, plus more than a hundred Dao-attainers, were enough to bring this killing technique's power fully into play!

More crucially still, in these years Shen Mu had struck out in every direction, suppressing the Jade Capital of the Ancestral Court, suppressing Old Man Wuya and his forces, displaying his Dao arts and divine powers before the eyes of the Miluo Palace without the least reservation. They had spent three thousand years recording everything about Shen Mu, and Lord Haotian had carried it all before Young Master Lingxiao and Young Master Zixiao. The two Young Masters had studied it for three thousand years, ceaselessly refining and improving the technique of the Miluo Dao Burial.

The Miluo Dao Burial of today was far beyond anything the Miluo Dao Burial of old could compare to! "There is no need for alarm, gentlemen.

" Shen Mu at last walked out of the net the zither strings had laid, his face mild. He smiled.

"I too am a Young Master of the Miluo Palace, and I have never harmed a fellow of the same Dao or the same house. " One Hall Master's eye twitched.

His voice was hoarse. "Of the several Hall Masters of our Miluo Palace who fell in battle, nearly all died at the Young Master's hand.

When the Young Master says such things, does his Dao heart feel no shame. . .

" Shen Mu's gaze settled on his face, mild and growing kinder still.

"So it is Hall Master Huadu.

I forgot to tell you: I am not yet a Young Master of the Miluo Palace. After all, I have not taken a master, so I cannot be counted of your house; killing a few Hall Masters is therefore pardonable.

Even if I killed every one of you, once I return to the past I would still laugh and talk with you, and drink with you in good cheer. " The calf of one Miluo Palace Dao-attainer trembled.

Even with a Hall Master's treasure hall at his back and the mighty Dao to sustain him, he felt a thrill of dread. This was a true demon king, beyond law and heaven alike. A pity he could not return to the past and tell his former self just how wicked the Seventh Young Master was. Shen Mu's gaze swept across the great halls one after another, and there was something odd in it, as though the word 'demolish' had been painted on every wall of those treasure halls. Seeing that gaze sweep toward him, Lord Haotian hastily threw out his chest and stood ramrod straight.

But Shen Mu's gaze merely passed over him, which left him somewhat deflated. Shen Mu pressed down the itch in his Dao heart to tear down the seventy-two halls by force, let his gaze rest on Young Master Lingxiao's Dao spear, and said, unhurried: "I came this time only to see for myself the might of the Third Brother's Dao spear, not to kill.

You gentlemen help me hold off Old Man Wuya; I have not thanks enough for it, so how could I kill you? Third Brother!

" He laughed aloud. "Let me see it.

" "Seventh Brother, there is no harm in your wanting to see it.

" Lord Haotian suddenly felt his own thoughts and consciousness shoved aside, as the consciousness of the Third Young Master, Lingxiao, descended into his body.

He spoke: "This Dao Burial was prepared for you. Get past this first, and I will let you see something worth seeing! "