Chapter 1745 — A Youth's Chance Meeting with the Venerable Lord
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 1 of 4
At these words, Emperor Hao Tian flew into a rage: "Heavenly Venerable Mu goes too far in his insults!
" Shen Mu had humiliated him to his face, before the assembled armies of the Heavenly Court; the fury in his heart was only to be imagined.
Yet Taichu, the Empress, and the others said nothing, nor did the Ancient Gods of Taiji speak, and his heart went cold, for he knew at once that they had seen through his true condition. He had fallen from the realm of the Dao Tree and Dao Flower, stripped of two realms; Heavenly Venerable Yun had slain the Second Young Master's incarnation, and with it his Guixu Dao-body had been destroyed as well.
Such a collapse in strength could not escape the eyes of Taichu, the Empress, and the rest; doubtless, seeing his cultivation and power so diminished, they had begun to covet the throne! Among them were even the two Ancient Gods of Taiji!
Emperor Hao Tian was about to speak, to salvage some shred of dignity, when suddenly an obscure and incomprehensible Dao-speech issued from the Purple Cloud Hall, crushing even the urge to speak out of him. His heart trembled slightly; a warning stirred in him, and he understood at once where his problem lay.
In the past he had suffered defeat after defeat.
A million years ago, at the Jade Pool Grand Gathering, Shen Mu had beaten him like a dead dog; he had wasted a thousand years, unable even to care for himself, eating, drinking, shitting, pissing, and sleeping all from a sickbed. Even so, he had risen again, and afterward accomplished a string of earth-shaking deeds.
In the Land of Taixu, he had been intercepted by the Great Emperor; the two had wounded each other grievously, and then Shen Mu had shattered his plan to heal and advance further, hunting him six hundred thousand li across the front of two armies, ruining his reputation and nearly breaking him for good.
Later he had been coerced by the Goddess of Tai Su, forced to kneel and worship Tai Su, becoming Tai Su's puppet. Even so, he had risen again from the ashes: not only had he healed his wounds, he had spied out Tai Su's Dao arts, and in the end refined Tai Su, slain the Great Emperor, attained the Dao through sheer power, cultivated the Great Luo Heaven, overawed the other Heavenly Venerables, rooted out dissent, ascended to the throne of the Heaven Emperor, plotted the death of Kaihuang Shen Ye, turned Shen Mu's hair white in a single night, and achieved a hegemony unmatched in the world!
Ask yourself: in all heaven and earth, who else could have come so far through such violent rises and falls?
Only Hao alone! And now?
Was he to sink into ruin just like this?
He refused to accept it! He could rise again; he could borrow the power of the Third and Fourth Young Masters and then turn on them; he could seize the initiative, fight his way back to glory, defeat Shen Mu, wipe away his former shame, take the power of the Third and Fourth Young Masters for himself, monopolize the Seventeenth Epoch, and become the shadow looming over this cosmic epoch! Just then, a vast and mighty force surged from the Lingxiao Hall; Emperor Hao Tian's body was instantly beyond his control, and even his consciousness was shoved aside!
The defiance in his heart turned to despair; weak and helpless, he knew the Third Young Master was borrowing his body to speak with Shen Mu.
Such power, such unfathomably deep cultivation, was enough to shatter the conviction he had just kindled!
He was a mere appendage, a tool: when the Third and Fourth Young Masters wished to use him, they took him up without asking; when they were done, they cast him aside wherever they pleased, without his consent!
"Old Seven.
" From Emperor Hao Tian's mouth came the voice of the Miluo Palace's Third Young Master, cold and indifferent: "You cannot contend with us, so why struggle so bitterly?