Chapter 1868 — The One Who Shepherds the Gods

In the Hall of Chaos, Shen Mu conversed long with Shen Ye, the Founding Sovereign, and at last had Zhanji escort the Founding Sovereign away.

"Jingping—he should be well, shouldn't he?" Shen Mu murmured.

*All is well with you* had been his first words upon meeting the Founding Sovereign earlier. To Shen Ye, the phrase was mere polite pleasantry, but to Shen Mu it meant so very much more.

He and the Founding Sovereign and the others had been parted for sixteen cosmic epochs—a trillion years of time. He had walked through endless wind and rain, witnessed sixteen universes arise, abide, decay, and empty.

The history he had lived through was more magnificent than Jingping's, more splendid by far, and no less wondrous.

He feared forgetting Jingping, forgetting old friends. After all, he was only three and a half billion years old in the Seventeenth Epoch—far too brief beside a trillion years.

But that place was home.

"Jingping—he must be well."

Shen Mu broke into a smile, rallied his spirits, and strode out of the Hall of Chaos: "Lingyun and I, Ling Tianzun and Yue Tianzun—we have prepared for so long. Jingping cannot possibly be otherwise!"

He stood before the hall and gazed toward Miro Palace. Its gates remained tightly shut.

"Teacher, the future you saw never came to pass."

Shen Mu spoke softly: "Because when you turned and returned to the Calamity of Destruction of the Sixteenth Epoch, the future was no longer the shape you had seen. But in one thing you were right—if I wish to surpass you, I must indeed return to the First Epoch. Not to the Calamity of Destruction of the First Epoch, but to its Calamity of Creation. Seventeen cosmic epochs, and only sixteen Calamities of Creation—truly most strange..."

In former days, Shen Mu had lacked the necessary cultivation to return to the very beginning of the First Cosmic Epoch. Now he had reached the required measure.

Within the Calamity of Destruction of the First Epoch, Miro Palace rang with Dao-voices on every side—the ripples of Shen Mu's Chaos Dao searching for the fluctuations of the First Epoch's Calamity of Creation. The Calamity of Creation is the great calamity of heaven-splitting and earth-rending. The First Epoch possessed a vast history of eight hundred billion years. By rights, within the Calamity of Destruction of the First Epoch, none could sense such fluctuations. Yet for Chaos, the ripples born of that sundering had never ceased. Such ripples were branded deep into the fabric of the universe, grown infinitely faint, and even the Calamity of Destruction could not erase them.

After a long while, Shen Mu's expression stirred. One after another, Chaos Samsaras spun, slicing madly into the past—slicing into the eight-hundred-billion-year history of the First Epoch.

Shen Mu walked within the Samsara, and at last entered the interminable reaches of the First Epoch's time.

The magnificent epic of the First Epoch unfurled before him. Within the Chaos Samsara he traced time backward, and beheld the tears and triumphs of ages past.

Shen Mu did not halt, did not linger, but continued his reverse ascent.

At last, when his power was nearly spent, he arrived at the time before the First Epoch had yet been opened.

Perhaps the key to unraveling the Great Silence of the Seventeenth Epoch could be found here.

After Shen Mu's departure from the Seventeenth Epoch:

The war between Jingping and the Miro Palace's Dao Achievers and hall masters continued. With the Third Young Master Lingxiao and the Fourth Young Master Zixiao gone from Jade Capital, and with Shen Mu gone from Jingping's side, the war saw reversals. Jade Capital even pressed its attack to the vicinity of the Yuan Realm. Because Jingping now faced this formidable enemy, his reforms flourished anew.

After several hundred million years, the Dao Ancestor Lan Yutian at last penetrated the Young Master Taishang's Heaven-Reaching Well, shattered it, and resolved the Taishang treasure, leaving the Miro Palace's hall masters and Dao Achievers without their crutch.

At this time, the Elder Without Bounds reemerged, occupying the Beast Realm on the reverse side of the Yuan Realm. The World Tree's roots pierced through past time and space, causing prehistoric powerhouses to descend without end.

Those prehistoric powerhouses attained the Dao. More Great Luotians appeared in the Ultimate Void. Battle after vicious battle erupted between the two sides.

Jingping faced enemies on two fronts, forming a three-way melee. His reforms continued with magnificent momentum, his Dao Achievers growing ever more numerous, overwhelming the two great forces.

At this juncture, the reincarnation of Wuji attained the Dao a second time, rebuilt the Great Abyss of Guixu, and slaughtered in all directions. Among the Dao Achievers of the three powers, few could match her.

Just as Young Master Wuji was about to stand invincible beneath heaven, Young Master Taishang and Taiyi finally revealed their terrifying battle prowess, fighting Wuji head-on.

Young Master Wuji was no longer invincible, yet Taishang and Taiyi could not overcome her either.

Elsewhere, Miro Palace established firm footing and began to encroach upon a portion of the Heavens, selecting outstanding divine ability users and teaching them divine abilities and Dao arts, seeking to take root in the Seventeenth Epoch.

The Elder Without Bounds likewise rooted himself in the Beast Realm, carving out his own domain. The three-way war, joined by the opposition between Wuji and Taishang and Taiyi, made the Seventeenth Epoch ever more dazzling.

Jingping once attempted to annihilate Miro Palace, to annihilate the Elder Without Bounds. Yet just when success was near, the Elder Without Bounds would aid Miro Palace, and Miro Palace would aid the Elder.

And Taishang and Taiyi would actually aid Miro Palace or the Elder Without Bounds against Jingping!

But when Jingping faced a death trap, Young Master Wuji—or Taishang and Taiyi—would likewise come to his aid!

This drove Lan Yutian, Xu Shenghua, and the others to frenzy.

Time is merciless; matter evolves. Even with Great Luotians in the Ultimate Void, the void's expansion could not be halted.

One after another, the Heavens grew broader, vaster; the distances between Heavens stretched farther. Xuandu became immeasurably vast, shrouding the Four Extremes Heaven, shrouding the Heavens and all realms. New stars surged forth without end, filling the boundless starry sky.

Even one as mighty as the Heaven Duke could not govern so vast a Xuandu. Miro Palace and the Elder Without Bounds seized the opportunity, invading Xuandu and occupying territory.

This was the first hundred billion years of the Seventeenth Epoch's universe. Its vastness had already surpassed the First Epoch.

As the master of Miro Palace had foreseen, so vast a universe made the Seventeenth Epoch as resplendent as the First—heroes rising on all sides, none able to unify the cosmos. Even Jingping's Heavenly Court could not govern so boundless a starry sky.

This was precisely what the Elder Without Bounds most wished to see. His World Tree cast its shade over an immense range; wherever Jingping could not rule became his domain.

Yet as time passed, even the Elder Without Bounds found himself strained by an ever-growing universe.

The Seventeenth Epoch's vastness surpassed the First Epoch's and continued to expand.

The wars between the various powers continued, yet the scale and frequency of battle dwindled. For they discovered a terrible truth.

As the universe grew vaster, the spiritual energy and power between heaven and earth grew ever thinner. Most wars were no longer contests of ideology, but wars to seize holy lands rich in spiritual energy.

Gradually, for billions of years, no new Dao Achievers appeared in the universe.