Chapter 1840 — The Thirty-Sixth Heavenly Dao Realm

She had indeed suffered a most grievous wound.

The Red Cord Knot Seal of the Master of Miluo Palace had been unraveled seven or eight tenths by her and Wuyai together, yet the remnant power bursting out still struck her down hard.

From the vertical eye between his brows, Shen Mu saw all that happened at the bottom of the Chaos Sea with perfect clarity.

Young Master Wuji had been driven into the seabed by the lingering might of that Red Cord Knot Seal, and the force of that single palm had nearly crushed her to pieces.

Wuji had exhausted every means to resist, but none availed. That blow from the Master of Miluo Palace had almost ground her entire being away, for the transformations of the Red Cord Knot Seal were far more than mere sealing, its runic changes exquisite beyond measure, every knot and every rune branding itself upon every rune of Wuji's vital energy and pinning her cultivation down fast.

Had the seal not already been worn away by more than half, that one seal from the Master of Miluo Palace could have dissolved Wuji's cultivation entirely and slain her outright.

It was because he had seen this that Shen Mu dared to be so certain, otherwise he would surely have abandoned the Third and Fourth Young Masters here and turned to flee at once.

The Master of Miluo Palace was beyond dispute the first among sixteen cosmic eras, his divine powers boundless beyond measure.

It was hard to imagine how mighty he must have been when alive.

Young Master Zixiao and Young Master Lingxiao fixed their eyes upon Wuji, their eyes brightening, for their chance had come at last. To rid themselves of Young Master Wuji and Elder Wuyai would suffice for both of them to descend in full.

If they could keep Shen Mu here as well, then no obstacle would remain.

Moon Heavenly Sovereign grew anxious, glancing east and west, studying every face and every subtle movement, seeking a moment to strike. At this time the World Tree and Guixu were still annihilating each other, Elder Wuyai's strength steadily falling, while the aura of Young Master Wuji grew ever more listless and faint.

Yet Shen Mu never gave her leave to act, which left her uneasy.

None within the Great Abyss of Guixu moved, only the dreadful shockwaves bursting from the mutual annihilation of the World Tree and Guixu raged unchecked.

Suddenly zither music rose by degrees, and around Young Master Zixiao the Myriad Alien Domains reappeared, becoming one solemn and sacred Grand Luo Heaven after another.

Young Master Lingxiao raised his Dao spear and thrust it into the Chaos Sea, like a sea-calming needle, stilling the surging of the sea.

Elder Wuyai strained to urge the World Tree, striving to steady the tide of mutual annihilation between the tree and Guixu, and among them all he looked the most wretched.

His peak had been the end of the Sixteenth Era, when those who had attained the Dao were many beyond counting, and his power was then at its greatest, unchallenged under heaven.

But come the Seventeenth Era, Taiyi had crossed over in secret and possessed the Taiyi of that era, split his true body open with a single axe, and burned it clean with heat-death fire.

After his rebirth the World Tree had never returned to its peak.

His present cultivation was less than one hundredth of that peak.

To die here would be too craven an end.

He looked up, and saw that the lotus leaves with which Shen Mu had sealed the mouth of the Great Abyss of Guixu had already been shattered by that Red Cord Knot Seal of the Master of Miluo Palace, which gave him hope of escape.

Yet while Shen Mu and the others did not move, he dared make no move himself.

At such a moment whoever moved first might draw the siege of all the rest. Young Master Wuji suppressed her wounds, swept her gaze around, and sneered, "My teacher could not kill me, much less can you.

You think that because my teacher gravely wounded me, and with the sacrifice of Wuyai this old wreck besides, you can do away with me.

What idle dreaming, you think far too little of me.

" Beneath her feet the shattered lotus throne reappeared, turning ceaselessly, remaking itself, and upon the sea the scattered broken lotus leaves were restored once more.

The Dao spear in Young Master Lingxiao's hand, with which he suppressed the Chaos Sea, trembled without cease, barely holding the sea down, and his face grew grave.

Even wounded to such a state, Young Master Wuji still possessed power far beyond his reach.

Young Master Zixiao slapped his hand upon his ancient zither, and with a click one end of the zither opened, revealing a sword hilt.

He gripped the hilt, the veins standing out upon the back of his hand.

The zither had been his late wife's Dao weapon, but the sword in the zither was his own.

After he became one of the Four Young Masters of Miluo Palace, longing for his late wife, he refined her Dao weapon without cease, until the zither's might had surpassed those bygone days manyfold.

Yet the weapon truly suited to his hand remained the sword in the zither, the weapon of his attainment when he had been Universal Emperor, which had suppressed a universe through its long history.

Shen Mu drew a long breath, Moon Heavenly Sovereign's heart stirred, and she hastily stepped aside, only to see within the Chaos Palace behind her the light of Dao fruits piercing through Chaos and lighting that treasured hall.

Looking back, she saw the chains of Dao within the fruits interweaving, shining upon Shen Mu's World Tree with dazzling brilliance.

Upon that World Tree the veins of a thousand branches and myriad leaves flowed unceasingly, the Great Dao like dragons, becoming the patterns of those leaves and boughs.

"Mu too has used every means. " Moon Heavenly Sovereign's heart sank.

The chains of Dao given off by Shen Mu's three Dao fruits and three Dao flowers wove into the vision of sixteen Chaos rivers, much like the sixteen rivers within the Chaos Palace. This was Shen Mu's thirty-sixth Heavenly Dao Realm, yet unfinished.

The Universe Grand Bell was Shen Mu's thirty-fifth Heavenly Dao Realm, completed three thousand years ago, but upon the thirty-sixth Heavenly Dao Realm Shen Mu had spent more than three thousand years, and it had only taken rough shape, never fully cultivated.

At the thirty-fifth Heavenly Dao Realm, Xu Shenghua, Lan Yutian, Kaihuang, Taishi and the others had aided Shen Mu greatly, yet at the thirty-sixth Dao Realm even beings like Xu Shenghua and Lan Yutian could help him not at all, and he could only comprehend it gradually by himself.

Shen Mu even felt that this realm might require him to return to the past and live through sixteen cosmic eras before it could be completed.

Still, the divine power harbored in the thirty-sixth Heavenly Dao Realm already possessed uncommon might.

That Shen Mu prepared to use this move showed that he too lacked confidence to meet the present straits.

This move was not yet mature, and to use it rashly might well see it broken by the foe and leave himself passive. With a splash, Elder Wuyai scooped up Chaos water to wash the blood from his face, breaking the stillness.

No longer kind and kindly as before, his face tinged with green, he sneered, "Wuji, we have only one road, and that is to kill them all.

Afterward I shall leave Guixu, and you can escape.

" Before his words fell, Young Master Wuji had already struck with force.

With a roar the Chaos Sea boiled, shaking Young Master Lingxiao's hands until they trembled, his Dao spear unable to hold the sea.

Young Master Lingxiao leapt high, turned once in the air, drew his Dao spear, and swung it down upon Wuji. At the same instant Young Master Zixiao drew the sword in the zither, the zither's music swelling loud as it flew circling about him, and in a flash his figure filled countless alien Grand Luo Heavens, thrusting at Wuji from all sides.