Chapter 1859 — We Shall Meet Again

He saw Shen Mu's every hair stand on end, countless arms flailing, each blocking the ruins of Heaven Capital City and the Obelisk Forest, using his own flesh to stand against the collision of the two great holy grounds!

He saw Shen Mu's arms burst apart one after another under the crushing of boundless power, flesh and blood spattering, saw Shen Mu squeezed until he coughed blood, but he also saw Shen Mu continually growing new arms, fighting with all his might to hold back the two holy grounds!

At last, the ruins of Heaven Capital City gave a slight shudder and came to a halt, while the Obelisk Forest was pushed by Shen Mu's power, drawing farther and farther from the ruins of Heaven Capital City. "You bastard, Old Seven.

. .

" Third Young Master Ling Xiao's consciousness stirred once, then was wholly annihilated.

Shen Mu lay sprawled before the gateway of the Obelisk Forest, coughing up mouthful after mouthful of blood. Before his three eyes all was pitch-dark; for a long time he could see nothing. The great dao he had cultivated had been all but crushed to fragments, and his physical body was in an even more wretched state, wounds everywhere, and within the wounds broken shards of bone stabbed through his skin.

After a long while, he felt something flow into his mouth, down his throat, flowing to every part of his physical body and primal spirit, nourishing his frame. His injuries eased somewhat.

A cool liquid dripped into his eyes, and after another moment his vision slowly recovered, the scene before him shifting from haze to clarity. Shen Mu saw several figures.

After another moment, those figures overlapped into one: an unimpressive old man sitting by the doorframe of the Obelisk Forest. Shen Mu struggled to rise and paid his respects to the old man: "Elder Brother Taishang. " Eldest Young Master Taishang waved a hand and said, "Ling Xiao is dead.

Zixiao's dao heart is broken. Miluo Palace has lost its backbone.

Old Seven, your goal has been achieved.

Next, will you go to Jade Capital City and wipe out all the Dao attainers and Hall Masters?

" Shen Mu plopped down beside him, elbows pressed on his knees, panting hoarsely, his two hands still trembling. "Eldest Brother, life, this thing we call life, is more vigorous than we imagine, and also more delicate than we imagine.

" Shen Mu smiled, grinning with a heh-heh. "Three and a half billion years, only three and a half billion years, and the Jingping Reforms have already reached their exhaustion.

We Dao attainers of Jingping fight like madmen in the Ancestral Court; Jingping has no peril, no longer any driving force for progress. Jingping has no enemies left.

I once loathed the Land of No Sorrow that Kaihuang Shen Ye established, but Jingping is being turned by us Dao attainers into another Land of No Sorrow, a greater Land of No Sorrow! " With difficulty he worked his waist, his spine popping and cracking, and said, "And yet this universe is still growing, growing larger and larger, vaster and vaster.

The heavens are drawing away from one another, the stars growing ever farther apart. This is a calamity more terrifying than the Tribulation of Destruction and the Tribulation of Creation.

Jingping will be slowly killed amid its soft, gentle land, and by the time they realize the danger, they will no longer be able to stop this universe from becoming void.

I think they need some enemies to warn them, to make them continue their reforms, continue to grow vigorous and strong. " Taishang glanced at him and said, "So you will leave behind the Dao attainers and Hall Masters of Miluo Palace, to spur them on and lash them forward. " Shen Mu's expression was calm.

"I need to leave behind another possibility for the future.

Perhaps our Teacher's ideals are right after all?

" His gaze was deep and quiet. "I also did not kill Old Man Wuya, nor did I kill Second Sister Wuji. If the entire universe should grow without limit, perhaps they have means to halt the trend toward void. " Taishang looked at him, then said abruptly, "You mean to return? " Shen Mu nodded, smiling.

"I mean to return, to see our Teacher, to become Old Seven of Miluo Palace, to seek my daughter. I will still do a great many things in the past, even far more than I did in the Seventeenth Epoch. I will seek the possibility of averting the future Great Silence. " Eldest Young Master Taishang's expression turned strange. "You will indeed do a great many things when you return to the past. The things you do are incomprehensible. I, at the very least, have never once understood them.

Your reputation will not be good. " "I am used to it!

" Shen Mu clambered shakily to his feet, stretched himself, and laughed. "Seventh Young Master Chaos, if a man could be seen through at a glance, would he still deserve the title of Chaos?

" Eldest Young Master Taishang rose to his feet and said, "You say I tried to imitate our Teacher, and could never imitate him well, that I tried to enter annihilation and transform into the Dao and die as he did, and made a mess of even that. I think it is likely that I was never as despairing of the future as our Teacher.

I did not know whence that hope came; now I know.

That sliver of hope must have come from you. " His gaze was deep and quiet. "After you return to the past, I will come to the Seventeenth Epoch to transform into the Dao, to return to the universe the spiritual energy and spiritual power it was robbed of. But I will not die; I will be reborn, and I will wait for you in the Seventeenth Epoch.

" Shen Mu nodded. Eldest Young Master Taishang looked back at the Obelisk Forest and said, "Taiyi and the Heaven Openers, I will send them back before I transform into the Dao. When you return to the Sixteenth Epoch, you will encounter them.

" Shen Mu was startled a moment, then his face broke into a smile.

"Then, Senior Brother, we meet again in the future! " Eldest Young Master Taishang smiled faintly.

"We meet again in the past. "