Chapter 1772 — The Master Freed
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 3 of 4
Shen Mu wavered between shock and doubt, for he surely could not have hacked the Taishang Palace to pieces, nor reduced the Dao-tree of the Eldest Young Master Taishang to ashes, so what in the world had happened?
"Most likely the Eldest Young Master Taishang saw me break his seal and so took back his Dao-tree and Taishang Palace.
It must be so! " Shen Mu steadied himself and muttered, "Do not think to pin this on me.
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" He stepped forward to examine that Dao-Burying divine coffin, clicking his tongue in wonder. "This divine coffin is far better than mine, wrought still more splendidly.
I could almost lie down inside to enjoy my ease.
Brother Taiyi, shut up in there, how I envy you!
" Casting the disappearance of the hut and Dao-tree of the Eldest Young Master Taishang to the back of his mind, Shen Mu could not help laughing aloud, stroking the coffin lid as he teased, "Brother, are you comfortable in there?
" He could not hide his triumph, for Taiyi in those past years had been so arcane and unfathomable, so lofty as a mountain to be gazed up at, that even Shen Mu had dared no presumption before him and could only show reverent deference. Now that Taiyi lay suppressed within so exquisite a coffin, he could not resist a jest or two.
This Dao-Burying divine coffin was indeed far more precise and exquisite than Shen Mu's own by far and far again, for Shen Mu's had been forged by Xing An in haste over three months, with many imperfections. Moreover Xing An and Taichu had for reasons of their own held back, leaving Shen Mu a full hundred percent flaw.
But this Dao-Burying divine coffin that 'buried' Taiyi had been wrought with care by the Miluo Palace, carved and polished to leave no flaw at all! Upon the six walls of the coffin Shen Mu found a hundred long Dao-Slaying divine nails, each set not only in the manner of common Dao-Slaying nails, but with every pattern therein refined from the Hongmeng runes unique to the Miluo Palace, formidable beyond telling!
More crucial still, the nails gleamed with a purple luster, and must be some rare divine gold!
"These coffin nails, every one could be said to be no lesser than the Dao weapon of one who has attained the Dao! " Shen Mu sighed in praise, then studied the coffin wood, whose timbers were largely heavenly materials and earthly treasures from the primeval Ancestral Court, lavish and luxurious beyond measure in their use.
More crucial still, the body of the coffin had been fashioned from a Dao-tree!
"To lie within such a coffin would make this life not lived in vain. " Shen Mu was filled with envy, and looked closely, for though the Eldest Young Master Taishang seemed listless and drooping, his work was most earnest and left no opening.
To draw out the Dao-Slaying nails and free Taiyi would be a hard problem indeed. To wrench the Dao-Slaying nails out by force was all but impossible. Half of each nail was driven into the coffin and half into Taiyi's body within, so that forced extraction would unleash the might of nail and coffin together, wounding both the one who drew the nail without and Taiyi within!
"I gave the Taiyi crutch to Xu Shenghua to carry against the armies of the Heavenly Court, and had it been here I could have reached Taiyi within the coffin and asked him how to undo the Dao-Burying divine coffin.
As it stands, I can only make a journey to the Ancestral Court.
" Shen Mu set his waist, shouldered the coffin, boarded the World-Crossing Golden Ship, and set the coffin upright upon the deck. Leaning against the coffin in high spirits, he drove the World-Crossing Golden Ship away.
A moment later Shen Mu counted the nails at the upper end of the coffin, finding fourteen, and his face darkened, for he hastily turned the coffin end for end to stand upright, thinking, "Just now I seem to have set Taiyi upside down.
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. He is after all an eminent beyond the world, magnanimous indeed, and surely will not blame me.
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. yes, surely not!