Chapter 1540 — The Truth Behind the Tribulation
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 2 of 4
Clearly, then, the Platform had some measure of control over the two God-Slaying Dark Blades. Shen Mu had but just taken out the Ancestral Court's God-Slaying Platform when the Lady of Heaven Qiang sensed it; burning with fury, she burst out her divine sense without a word and came crashing down upon him in a mighty torrent!
At the same time, Shen Mu activated the Ancestral Court's God-Slaying Platform, calling forth the power of the Great Dao stored within it, and at once the two divine blades in the Lady of Heaven Qiang's hands spun out of her control, hard to hold! Great hands came grasping one after another, seizing the Dao Tree stump beneath her feet and dragging it down toward the River of Chaos.
Both her feet entered the water, and at once they were steeped in the tribulation of destruction of the previous cosmos — reduced to ashes and scattered to nothing!
In the same instant, Shen Mu, struck by her divine sense, fell into a dazed muddle, and his control over the Taiyi Staff faltered; the little boat transformed from the staff, carrying him, was about to plunge into the River of Chaos!
Both were startled at once. Shen Mu hurriedly recalled the God-Slaying Platform and steadied the boat, and saw that it had already sunk below the river's surface, the tribulation of destruction surging in and eating away his feet!
Before his fleshly body could melt, Shen Mu dashed out of the River of Chaos, and saw that both his shins were completely rotted away!
He turned to look back, and the Lady of Heaven Qiang's shins likewise were utterly annihilated.
The two gazed at each other across the distance, each still shaken with lingering fear; then Shen Mu turned his head, drove the boat off with a whistling rush, and vanished into the vast, dim chaos qi.
The Lady of Heaven Qiang pursued no more. Each had the power to destroy the other, and so they could only make shift, avoid one another, lest both perish at once.
This River of Chaos was truly vast and mighty.
The little boat traveled along its surface, direction indistinguishable, chaos qi everywhere, the eye scarcely able to see to its end.
Shen Mu halted the boat and urged the Mystic Art of Creation; his two shins gradually grew back, though in his heart there was indeed some lingering dread.
"This tribulation of destruction is too overbearing; without attaining the Dao, even strength on the order of the Ten Heavenly Venerables cannot withstand it!
" Only after his legs were restored did he go on.
Though here direction could not be told, the vertical eye between his brows could pierce the chaos; once he drew near a shore, his gaze could break through the chaos and see the far bank.
Yet Shen Mu searched long upon that great river and still did not find the far bank.
Time passed little by little, and he could not but grow secretly anxious: not only had he failed to find the far bank, he could no longer even find the way he had come!
"This is bad.
. .
" Worry grew in his heart.
If he could not find the far bank, nor find the way back, he feared he would be trapped in this place forever!
In chaos there was no distinction of north and south, no above and below; if one lost one's way, one could only rely on luck.
No map was of any use here, for there was nothing to serve as a coordinate!
"If I could be trapped here together with the Ten Heavenly Venerables, that would be a great stroke of fortune for the world of men. " His mood settled again.
The Ten Heavenly Venerables had done much evil; if he were trapped here with them, and the world were rid of them, Jingping would have ample time to grow, and the overthrow of the Heavenly Court would be a matter of time.
Nor did he give up hope, but kept searching; yet as day after day passed, he still did not find the far bank of the River of Chaos. Not only the far bank — he did not even encounter any other Heavenly Venerable.
The great river was too vast; to meet another Heavenly Venerable was very hard indeed.