Chapter 1317 — The Old Haunt Grows Dark
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 2 of 3
The green deepened, and the saplings grew taller by degrees; something stirred in Shen Mu's heart, and at once he woke from the dream. The Taishi egg was beside him and had likewise turned alert; man and egg stood on the mountain peak and looked about, and saw the trees growing steadily taller, while on the wasteland around the divine mountain the grass and brush thickened as well. The green spread like a plague, at a speed visible to the naked eye, reaching to both banks of the rivers and climbing one mountain range after another.
Thick roots traveled beneath the ground like earth dragons writhing and twisting in the soil, and now and then a root of monstrous girth burst through the surface, then slowly sank back underground and hid its traces.
"Earth Mother Yuanjun!
" Shen Mu's face turned grim.
The corrupted Earth Mother Yuanjun had truly come to the Ancestral Court! Earth Mother Yuanjun had many enemies, but when it came to those she hated most, Shen Mu surely had a place among them.
"Her strength is far from what it once was, but after she was corrupted in the Battle of Xuandu she devoured the essence of countless gods and devils of Xuandu; her present strength is likely far above mine!
" Shen Mu drew a long breath, and was just about to slip into the void and hide himself when he suddenly saw the ground at the foot of the mountain quiver faintly, and countless trees on the ground grew with mad speed, the vines thickening until they crisscrossed like flood dragons and interwove with the trees! Soon the hundred-li forest at the foot of the mountain had become a tree altar of grand scale!
Shen Mu fixed his gaze upon it: every vein and line upon every leaf of that green altar formed a strange rune of the Dao of Yuandu!
And how many leaves went into the making of this altar?
Never before had he seen so complex and elaborate an altar!
Stranger still, what flowed within these trees and vines was not water but divine blood! The divine blood flowed through the branches, trunks and vines, shedding a divine radiance that made the trees all but transparent and lent the whole altar an uncanny atmosphere!
As the divine blood flowed, numberless runes surfaced upon the bark of branches, trunks and vines, growing ever clearer and ever brighter. Something stirred in Shen Mu's heart; he straightway put away the Taishi egg, sprang backward, vanished from the divine mountain, and slipped into the void with the Taishi egg.
His attainments in the Dao of Taichu were still far stronger than in the Dao of Taishi, so it was no great difficulty for his fleshly body to slip into the void.
Scarcely had he slipped into the void when the green altar split along a line, and a woman rose slowly forth.
The altar closed, holding her at its center, and that woman was none other than Earth Mother Yuanjun!
But this Earth Mother Yuanjun had wholly lost her former bearing as the Earth Mother whose great virtue bears all things; instead a baleful aura coiled about her, and killing intent rose from her in waves.
The blood-curse upon her was exceedingly dense, for too many wronged souls had died at her hands.
Those dead vengeful spirits were all deities the Heavenly Court had stationed in Xuandu, and the Earth Mother knew nothing of the Dao of Youdu, so she had no way at all to dissolve this baleful aura.
And the baleful aura would affect her judgment, and so affect her life.
Earth Mother Yuanjun stood upon the altar and at once began to work her art.
Shen Mu, hidden in the void, observed her for a while: Earth Mother Yuanjun's strength was far from recovered, and her fighting power should be comparable to a powerhouse of the Emperor Throne realm who possesses six or seven heavenly palaces.
Of course, she was still an ancient god, and still possessed part of her Yuanmu fleshly body.
But her strength could not be measured wholly by the Divine Treasury Heavenly Palace realm.