Chapter 1755 — Half Righteous, Half Wicked: A True Wild Scholar
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 4 of 4
A cold gleam flickered through Taichu's eyes, and the smile on his face grew broader. He said unhurriedly, "With my own eyes I saw him draw out forty-nine Dao-Slaying Divine Nails with the greatest of ease, without the slightest difficulty. And the fifty Dao-Slaying Divine Nails upon Mu Tianzun's body he likewise easily..."
"Wait!"
Star An raised a hand and said dubiously, "Forty-nine? Was it not ninety-nine?"
The killing intent in Taichu's eyes seeped out bit by bit, and the smile on his face grew yet broader: "You told me that of those ninety-nine nails, half were driven into the coffin and half into Mu Tianzun's body..."
Star An nodded: "That is right."
Taichu's smile turned cold: "That is precisely what I did, and yet it was utterly useless!"
Star An's vital essence transformed into a long nail, and again his vital essence became a coffin and the "corpse" of Shen Mu. He raised a hand and drove a long nail into the coffin, half of it within the coffin and half plunged into the "corpse of Shen Mu."
Star An drove in ninety-nine long nails in succession and said, "Simply thus, and the gravely wounded Mu Tianzun can be trapped. Never mind Mu Tianzun — even a dao-attainer would be trapped to death in the coffin, with no way out!"
Taichu was struck dumb: "You said half were driven into the coffin..."
The astonishment on Star An's face deepened, and he shook his head: "Ninety-nine — how could that divide evenly? The Retired Emperor should have thought of that. I must go on with my work. Retired Emperor, pray make yourself at home."
Taichu, dazed and muddled, walked outward, thoughts colliding in his head: "Ninety-nine, half... not forty-nine and fifty..."
Star An waited until he had walked out of the Zaofu Heavenly Palace, then clapped his hands, and the box came trotting over with a clatter.
Star An swiftly gathered up his valuables and stuffed them into the box, saying, "Taichu is too stupid and mistook my meaning, but he needs someone to take the blame, and that someone is certain to be me! After he leaves this time, once he comes to his senses he will come to kill me! This is no place to linger. Let us leave at once."
The box capered with joy, bouncing without cease.
Star An then took out some limbs of gods and demons from the box, tinkered a while, and fashioned a person; then he shifted his primordial spirit into this new body, leaving behind his original flesh.
He stuffed the box into his divine treasury and slipped away in a flash, walking all the way out of the Zaofu Heavenly Palace, vanishing among the gods and demons of the Heavenly Court.
Suddenly a great crash came from the Zaofu Heavenly Palace, and Taichu's furious voice rang out: "Venerable Star An colluded with Mu Tianzun and deserves death ten thousand times over. I have already slain him!"
Star An walked out of the Heavenly Court's main camp, smiled faintly, released the box, and with this little monster before and behind, entered the mountain forest: "I am a free man now."