Chapter 1604 — The Ancient Fiend
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 1 of 4
The Jade Capital of the Ancestral Court.
A tall figure walked into this ancient divine realm. The body he wore was battered and broken: the crown of his skull had been pried open, his brains steamed with heat, and wounds of every kind covered his flesh.
More than that, there was a sword wound between his brows. Someone had run a sharp blade through his skull and planted within him a dao tree of the sword path.
From time to time that dao tree surfaced within his body, ceaselessly wrecking the workings of his flesh, so that every step he took was a torment. The sword wound made him bleed inwardly; each step he took left a footprint brimming with his blood, and the wound would not heal.
He was Heavenly Venerable Xiao, who had reclaimed the flesh of the Heavenly Emperor - or rather, he ought to be called Taichu, for Heavenly Venerable Xiao, as a Heavenly Venerable, was dead. Heavenly Venerable Xiao's body had been utterly destroyed in the battle at the Great Luotian of divine sense, by Kaihuang and the others, and no longer existed.
What now inhabited the Heavenly Emperor's flesh was one of the three souls of the Heavenly Emperor Taichu. The Heavenly Emperor's flesh was his true body.
His reclaiming of his own flesh also signified the return of Taichu, the second of the Five Primal Supremes. Taichu walked with difficulty through the Jade Capital of the Ancestral Court.
All around was desolation: collapsed palaces and buildings everywhere, and the winds of cold silence and heat death howling through withered groves of dao trees.
His steps were heavy and steady.
After dodging a blow from Heavenly Venerable Ling and falling from the Great Luotian, all the injuries on his body had erupted at once, nearly dragging him to his death. He had to avoid the eyes of Heavenly Venerable Hao and the others.
He was very weak now; though the flesh still held boundless power, he was no longer invincible, and so he must be cautious. Only after walking so long did he finally arrive at the Jade Capital of the Ancestral Court.
The Jade Capital had been sealed by the Heavenly Venerables, and Heavenly Venerable Xiao had been one of those who sealed it. They did not want outsiders coming here.
But as the former Heavenly Emperor, Taichu had naturally left behind a backdoor, to make it convenient for himself to enter the Jade Capital.
He pressed deeper and deeper, searching for the long river of chaos.
Suddenly his pupils constricted, and his gaze fell upon a sword.
It was not truly a sword, but rather the trace of a peerlessly powerful sword-path expert who had come here and once fought in this place, doing battle with an opponent through his unmatched sword dao, so that his dao was branded into the Jade Capital of the Ancestral Court.
Taichu exhaled a turbid breath: "Kaihuang is here too. " He grew wary. As he was now, he was in no state to fight Kaihuang; if he encountered Kaihuang, he feared he could hardly preserve his own life.
He avoided the sword-path traces Kaihuang had left all along the way, and at last came to the long river of chaos.
He was about to cross when his pupils suddenly constricted. On the river's surface ahead, a figure stood with hands clasped behind his back, his back to him.
Beneath that man's feet a sword domain had formed.
Something uncanny in the river attacked him; a massive dao-bone palm of an enlightened one reached the man's brow, only to be pierced by a flash of sword light and sink back into the river. Taichu's pupils constricted, and his voice came out hoarse: "Shen Ye!
" Kaihuang turned around, glanced at him, and said mildly: "Your Majesty Taichu, you have come here through a thousand hardships, hoping to have the so-called Third Young Master of Miluo Palace repair your flesh - is that not so? " Taichu stood on the bank, gazing at this man.