Chapter 1790 — The Adept Wades Through the Water
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 2 of 4
A miss by a hair's breadth leads astray by a thousand leagues, and this single thread of change could throw the entire sealing system of the Dao-Burying Divine Coffin into disorder and collapse! The reason he had pledged to Shen Mu that in six months he could perfectly undo the Dao-Burying Divine Coffin was that he needed time to calculate the changes of the tenon-and-mortise structures and deduce the form of the primal structure, and needed time to watch and record the moment of its appearance.
Time hurried swiftly by.
The Box circled round Xing An and the coffin, now and then halting to study its own shadow.
Now the half-year term was very near; the sun slowly rose, and when it reached the crown of the sky the appointed hour with Shen Mu would come. Xing An had ever been punctual and true to his word, and the Box had taken on the same habit.
Yet Xing An still stared fixedly at the Dao-Burying Divine Coffin, motionless.
About the Dao-Burying Divine Coffin, holy eyes great and small floated in the air, also staring fixedly at the coffin.
He had long since ceased to calculate; for these two months he had only stared fixedly at the Dao-Burying Divine Coffin, watching the shifting of its runes. At this moment Xing An's eyes were wide; for two months he had never blinked, keeping them open all the while, his eyes filled with bloodshot veins. The sun climbed higher and higher.
The Box took out a straight thighbone, thrust it into the earth, and watched the shadow of the bone.
The shadow crept by degrees, and the sun was about to stand overhead.
At that very instant Xing An abruptly urged his vital qi, shaping it into an exceedingly minute rune, and with a flick of his finger stamped the rune upon one of the Dao-Slaying Divine Nails of the Dao-Burying Divine Coffin.
He breathed out, rose to his feet, and began to pack his things, gathering those holy eyes into the Box.
The lid of the Box opened, yet it still kept staring at the shadow of the thighbone, quite solemn.
The shadow still moved little by little, until at last, when Xing An had packed all in order, the sun also came to high noon.
Snap.
The Box shut its lid and looked toward the Dao-Burying Divine Coffin, within which there was not the least stir.
The Box grew doubtful and was about to step forward, when suddenly from within the divine coffin came a creaking, and those Dao-Slaying Divine Nails were seen to turn of themselves, withdrawing outward little by little!
The nails spun ever faster, more and more urgently!
This was because the primal tenon-and-mortise structure had been broken, so that thereafter whenever each tenon-and-mortise structure exchanged its rune lore, the lore it received in exchange was wrong.
Thus no tenon and mortise could clasp perfectly together! Like a plague it swiftly infected every tenon-and-mortise structure, until at last the Dao-Slaying Divine Nails could no longer join with the Dao-Burying Divine Coffin; instead the two repelled each other, and so the nails spun swiftly and backed out of the coffin!
Clang, clang, clang.
One by one the Dao-Slaying Divine Nails fell to the ground, and Xing An raised his brows, a trace of joy showing between them.
After months of study, his triumph had required but a single exceedingly minute rune to crack the Dao-Burying Divine Coffin that had suppressed Taiyi!
To him this too was a vast achievement.
Suddenly the Dao-Burying Divine Coffin burst open with a bang; within, chaotic mist churned, the qi of Chaos abruptly scattered, and a youth sat bolt upright from the coffin, his neck twisting to face Xing An.
This was a youthful Taiyi. Xing An eyed him twice, then bent to pick up the nails.
The youthful Taiyi lay back down, and when he rose again, a giant strode forth from the coffin, saying in a muffled rumble, "Where is Lord Mu?
" Xing An shook his head. "I do not know.