Chapter 1788 — Bloodshed Without End
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 1 of 4
Behind Shen Mu, the Guixu Lotus swelled in the space of a single instant to an immense size, a thousand times over his own body; the lotus took the Calamity of Destruction as its Sea of Chaos, drawing upon the power of the great kalpa of destruction! The chaos qi within the Calamity of Destruction condensed into a sea that stood upright behind Shen Mu, its lotus leaves drifting upon the surface.
Crack!
A violent tremor swept out; with Shen Mu at its center, space itself warped, becoming a great Guixu abyss — and seen from without, that abyss was boundless darkness.
Yet from Shen Mu's vantage, space was shattered, and the wind of heat death made this place unbearably bright. He stood within the abyss and swung his sword in fury!
The power surging in from the Sea of Chaos rushed all at once into his body, coursing through him, and was transmuted into the might of the Heaven Capital Genesis Chapter!
Beneath his feet, vital essence took form, fashioning an altar in imitation of the one where Heaven Capital had opened the heavens; the altar rose, its myriad gorgeous patterns blazing with light, magnifying the power of this strike.
Behind him, the Hall of Chaos appeared within the Calamity of Destruction; the chaos qi of the kalpa surged madly, driving his cultivation higher and higher!
Never before had he unleashed such terrifying power! The abyss quaked; the might of the Heaven Capital Genesis Chapter erupted to its utmost, becoming a snow-bright beam of light that slashed out from Guixu!
Old Man Wuya had not anticipated this turn at all; Shen Mu's response was beyond his reckoning.
By his estimation, Shen Mu's best choice would have been to cast himself willingly into the Calamity of Destruction under his pressure, using the Heaven Capital Genesis Chapter to clear a path and cleave through the destruction kalpa of the Sixteenth Era.
Then Shen Mu would have entered the great kalpa of the Fifteenth Era.
If he still had strength left to break through the Fifteenth Era's kalpa, he would enter the great kalpa of the Fourteenth Era. The greater his strength, the more ancient the era to which he would be exiled; if Shen Mu's strength reached the level of a Young Master, he ought to exhaust himself in the great kalpa of the First Era and fall into the First Era. And then Shen Mu would never be able to return to the present.
To return, Shen Mu would need the Third Young Master's blood sacrifice — a blood sacrifice of the Seventeenth Era, a conversion of mass and energy.
And given Shen Mu's character, he would never do such a thing.
Nor would the Third or Fourth Young Master ever help him perform the conversion; thus Shen Mu could only remain forever in the past. Yet Shen Mu had not only refused to enter the kalpa of his own accord — he had struck at him instead!
The power of this sword was immense; at the moment the blade light swept out from the warped and shattered spacetime of the Guixu abyss, its radiance pierced the boundless space beneath the World Tree, and the strike was bent on severing him and the World Tree together!
Old Man Wuya's white hair streamed in the sword light; before it even touched the radiance, strand after strand snapped in midair.
Crack, crack, crack!
His severed white hairs, in midair, transformed into tiny cosmos newly opened; in an instant they underwent the transformations of the Five Primes, stars were born in swift succession and drew apart from one another, forming gorgeous heavens that hung in the sky beneath the canopy of the World Tree!
And behind him, the surface of the World Tree burst open with cracks; sword marks appeared upon its trunk!
If Shen Mu's sword truly landed, the World Tree might well be severed! "Chaos, you are still obstinate in your delusion!
" Old Man Wuya's figure blocked the path this sword must take to reach the World Tree; he had to stop it.