Chapter 1724 — The Steed Treads the Heavens
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 1 of 5
Chaos reigned throughout the Heavenly Court's great camp. If the Great Luotian crashed down, the devastation it wrought would leave the Heavenly Court's armies, every camp of them, drowned in dead and wounded.
In an instant, gods and demons beyond counting shot into the air, each driving his divine power, swelling his flesh, transforming into giants whose heads scraped heaven and whose feet propped up the earth, striving to hold aloft the falling Great Luotian. Just as they were about to touch it, a Dao flower suddenly appeared.
The flower spun, growing larger and larger, and it bore up the descending Great Luotian. Taichu's face was ashen iron.
He urged the Dao tree to fly to him; its roots and tendrils stretched out in every direction and drove into the Great Luotian, split in two, seeking to join the broken halves back together. The Great Luotian was the brand of the Great Dao upon the ultimate void, the very manifestation of the Dao.
Shen Mu had made quick work of cracking his Great Luotian open, but he could not yet ruin his cultivation. He needed only to fuse the two halves together again and he would return to the peak of his powers; yet the blow Shen Mu had dealt his Dao heart could not be healed in a moment or an hour.
He had schemed to stab Shen Mu in the dark, and had made his preparations long in advance; but to his vexation, Shen Mu was no longer the Shen Mu of the Jingping Calamity. In wisdom and in method alike, he had long since surpassed him by a great measure.
Back then Shen Mu had been his to knead and mould as he pleased, seething with pent-up fury, like a muddle-headed child. Now everything seemed turned on its head: the stratagem he had brooded over for more than twenty years looked, before Shen Mu, like the antics of a muddle-headed urchin, broken with ease, and himself gravely wounded into the bargain.
Suddenly the Great Luotian split open once more.
Taichu gave a muffled grunt; blood surged up into his throat. He shut his mouth, and the blood came up through his nasal passage instead, spurting from his nostrils.
He was wounded after all. Not only had Shen Mu snatched away the Azure Dragon's soul, he had gravely injured him!
"Retired Emperor, the next time you act, you had best inform me beforehand.
" Emperor Haotian came to stand behind him and said indifferently, "Every failure of yours is a blow to the Heavenly Court's morale.
The Heavenly Court can permit no further failures now. " The muscles of Taichu's back drew taut.
He did not turn, nor dared wipe away the blood running from his nose. In a low voice he said, "Your Majesty's reproof is just; I understand. But Heavenly Venerable Mu must be wounded as well. To strike me from the shadows, he had to summon the Azure Dragon's soul and work his calculations against me at the same time, and had no way to shield himself; he must have been gravely hurt by my divine power!
" Emperor Haotian said with a half-smile, "You think he was truly gravely hurt by your divine power? Retired Emperor, you are as self-important as ever. In all the world today, there is no one left who can gravely wound him by a sneak attack. You are old, and you cannot best him.
All you need do is honestly await my orders, and stop presuming so much. " Emperor Haotian raised his hand; vast magical power poured forth, helping him steady the Great Luotian that was about to split once more.
"That set of tricks of yours is an old thing, and it will not serve against him.
" Taichu fell silent.
After a moment he said, "I believe he was wounded too. " Emperor Haotian said no more.
Having steadied the Great Luotian for him, he turned and left. At the same time, Shen Mu summoned the three souls of the Eastern Emperor Azure Dragon, sealed them within a dragon scale, and handed it to a soldier from Jiangling. The soldier departed at once with the dragon scale, returning to Jiangling through a teleportation gate.