Chapter 1717 — Death to the Oathbreaker
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 2 of 4
As a Primeval God-King, Long Xiao had been worshipped by the Creators to serve as the special bane of the Ancient Gods; whether Heaven-Duke and Earth-Mother, the Heaven-Yin Emperor and Empress, or the Four Ancient God-Emperors - all were suppressed by him.
There was but a single Ancient God he could not suppress - and by whom he was himself suppressed!
Tu Bo!
Only Tu Bo, who commanded death, could part his soul from his flesh and sink him into the Nether Capital without his ever knowing! And yet.
.
.
"The Beast Realm has no Nether Capital; Tu Bo cannot descend!
" Long Xiao's eyes bulged wide, his nine heads peering warily into the darkness all around, his heart shaking with dread: "And besides, Tu Bo is already dead!
" In the darkness before him, butterfly-shaped patterns suddenly spread outward to either side, ceaselessly shifting, growing larger and larger.
Then, at the center of the patterns, a vertical eyelid slowly opened.
Celestial Venerable Long Xiao's heart hammered wildly.
The innate suppression of a nemesis set his very soul trembling; he could not summon the slightest thought of resistance, and could only stare blankly at that vertical eye. At that moment, further butterfly patterns surged out of the darkness - a pair of eyes, set below the vertical one.
Those eyes opened, and within them karmic fire blazed, as though the souls of countless beings, countless gods and demons, writhed and struggled and shrieked in a sea of karmic flames.
The endless demonic thoughts and sundry distractions of all those beings instantly threw Long Xiao's divine sense into utter chaos, so that he could not gather himself. Before him the three eyes opened one after another, and a youth's face emerged from the darkness.
"Celestial Venerable Mu?
" Long Xiao faltered.
The face was almost exactly Shen Mu's, yet younger - and, strangest of all, this Shen Mu's crown bore a pair of long horns bent in nine turns and eighteen folds, with molten rock from beneath the myriad heavens and ten thousand worlds streaming down along those horns like a great river.
Hum, hum, hum. A vast noise boomed forth, and from the darkness six colossal wheels of samsara emerged, turning each in a different direction. "No - it is Celestial Venerable Mu's own elder brother!
" When the Compact of Little Tu Bo had been signed, Shen Mu had told Long Xiao that Little Tu Bo was his elder brother born of the same womb, vicious by nature, and that even he himself feared this brother by three parts.
Long Xiao had taken it for a jest at the time; later, when he saw the Tiny Tu Bo who lived inside Long Qilin's ear, he took the so-called Little Tu Bo for no more than that little bean.
It had never occurred to him that Shen Mu truly possessed an elder brother who looked almost exactly like him!
Yet strange to say, Shen Mu appeared many years older than this brother. From all sides came the thin murmur of the Nether Capital's demonic tongue - it sounded like the voice of that Tiny Tu Bo at Long Qilin's side, chanting something.
Shen Fengqing said not a word, listening in silence; only when the voice had finished reciting the Compact of Little Tu Bo did he speak: "Long Xiao, you have violated the compact twice. Today is the day for you to fulfill it.
Have you anything to say?
" Long Xiao crushed the terror in his breast and laughed aloud: "I am the foremost of the Primeval God-Kings; from antiquity I have suppressed the ancient gods of all the heavens, and now I am moreover the lord of the Beast Realm, Celestial Venerable of the Heavenly Court!
You little whelp, whose fuzz has not even grown full - you would take my life?
" He forced his primordial spirit into motion, marshaled his divine sense, and attempted to attack Shen Fengqing, even as he madly tried to sense his physical body! His physical body was of overwhelming might - when it had been cast into Guixu and suppressed all those years ago, he had still contrived to drag it out again.