Chapter 1550 — Beauty Has Grown Old
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 1 of 4
"What on earth is this tree?
It can even withstand the erosion of the kalpa of destruction!
" The nine Heavenly Venerables all had flickering eyes as they looked toward Shen Mu on the little boat, each making his own guesses. They did not know there was a World Tree in the world.
Long before they were born, Taiyi had cut down the World Tree, set fire to it, and left only the Great Black Mountain. They had now been inside Jade Capital City for three years, unaware that the World Tree had revived and now grew on the Great Black Mountain, and still less did they know that Shen Mu had cut down the newly grown World Tree and transplanted it into his own Primal Embryo Divine Treasury. Now there were two World Trees in the world, one on the Great Black Mountain and one in Shen Mu's divine treasury.
By entering the ancestral court of Jade Capital, they had gained much, but they had also missed much.
On the little boat, Qiang Tianfei and Shen Mu were on guard against each other.
One had profound cultivation, the other relied on his sharp sword and deep mastery of the sword Dao, and in such a small place, coming to blows could only end in mutual destruction. Qiang Tianfei stared at Shen Mu, trying to use divine-sense visualization to repair her aging body and her heavenly palaces and courts, but the effect was minuscule. Even her divine sense was caught in the destruction, so how could divine-sense visualization help?
Shen Mu, however, was as before. His flesh remained vigorous, his primordial spirit had not declined in the slightest, and his Great Dao showed no sign of disintegrating.
Not only that, as time went on his cultivation advanced at a visible pace, deepening Qiang Tianfei's dread.
Shen Mu would occasionally reveal the World Tree inside his Primal Embryo Divine Treasury, like a male peacock displaying its tail, bringing it out to show off at every chance. Qiang Tianfei itched with hatred, but she knew Shen Mu was fishing.
He was using the World Tree to lure her, to make her keep following him until her body aged to the point where she could no longer fight him. Then his hidden blade would be drawn, and he would kill her.
"He is not only luring me. He is also luring the other Heavenly Venerables.
" Qiang Tianfei knew perfectly well that Shen Mu was ambitious, that he wanted to use his World Tree as bait to keep all ten Heavenly Venerables hooked, using the kalpa of destruction of the prehistoric universe to make every one of them decrepit and feeble. Once their combat power fell below his, Shen Mu would wipe out all ten Heavenly Venerables at one stroke. He wanted to achieve a feat no one could accomplish in ordinary times.
The ten Heavenly Venerables were all clever people, and they could naturally see the intent behind Shen Mu's actions, but no one retreated.
Hao Tianzun did not retreat, and Xiao Tianzun did not either.
The World Tree was a great temptation, and the ancestral court Jade Capital was an even greater one. With Shen Mu and Qiang Tianfei leading the way, this was their only chance to enter that ancient city and explore the mysteries of Jade Capital.
To give up this chance was to give up their future.
If Shen Mu or Qiang Tianfei reached the deepest part of Jade Capital, grasped its secret, and cultivated the true Heavenly Court realm, then they would have no hope of turning the tables.
Even if they might die on the road, they had to keep walking it. They hung steadily behind Shen Mu's little boat and crossed the sixth long river of chaos, then the seventh.
The uncanny things on the river's surface grew fewer, no longer as dense as before. But Shen Mu suddenly grew alert.
He urged the Mystic Body Three-Elixir Art, trying to convert more primordial qi into Taiji primordial qi, while staring cautiously at the river.