Chapter 1860 — The Immortal Veteran of the Battlefield
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 1 of 5
Young Master Taishang watched Shen Mu depart, then entered the forest of obelisks. There Taiyi sat withered in stillness, and behind him the dao tree and the dao fruit shone resplendent.
Taishang bowed in salute; Taiyi rose and returned the courtesy.
"Fellow Daoist, I have already discussed the matter with Seventh Young Master: you and the Heaven-Opening Host are to be sent back to the Sixteenth Epoch."
Taishang said, "If you and the Heaven-Opening Host remain here, I fear Seventh Young Master will conceive villainous designs. He will surely slaughter the Heaven-Opening Host, and he will send you to reincarnation as well. Villainous as the Heaven-Opening Host may be, they are also one possibility for saving the future. Only, the harm they can do is too great, and I fear he will not let you off."
Taiyi said, "Is the First Young Master feeling guilty over the Miluo Palace Master's slaying of the Heaven Capital in those years, and so wishing to make amends to me and the Heaven-Opening Host?"
Young Master Taishang shook his head. "Had my teacher not slain the Heaven Capital back then, the Heaven-Opening Host would still have become the Heaven-Opening Host; nothing would have changed. The Heaven-Opening Host of the Heaven Capital possessed the power to open heaven and earth, and they did not restrain it but abused it. By comparison, Miluo Palace was more orderly and did less harm."
"Bullshit!" From obelisk after obelisk the faces of the Heaven-Opening Host emerged, all of them raging that Young Master Taishang's words stank to high heaven.
Those of the Heaven-Opening Host cursed and swore, mocking Miluo Palace for bullying others on the strength of its position: had the Heaven Capital been given time to grow, ten Miluo Palace Masters would have been beaten to death by the Lord of the Heaven Capital, and ten Miluo Palaces razed to the ground.
The Miluo Palace Master had simply been jealous of their power, and so had erased the Lord of the Heaven Capital before they could grow.
The Heaven-Opening Host jeered that the Miluo Palace Master had no room in his heart for others—had it been them, they would long since have solved the destruction and creation of the universe and made a perfect world.
They mocked the Miluo Palace Master as incompetent, exhausting himself until his dao heart died, and serving him right to kick out his legs and croak.
Young Master Taishang paid it no mind.
Taiyi frowned, helpless as well before these Heaven-Opening folk, and said, "Fellow Daoist, how will you send us back to the Sixteenth Epoch?"
"I will dissolve into the Dao and return all my power to the universe."
Scarcely had Taishang said this than the Heaven-Opening Host began to jeer again, one after another: "Young Master Taishang, you wretch, you're going to die at the heart of the Dao just like that old thief the Miluo Palace Master!"
Taishang went on, "My dao tree is of no use kept as it is; therefore I intend to borrow your axe, cut down my dao tree, and build a boat from it, and set you aboard that boat to send you to the Sixteenth Epoch."
Pressed down within the stone steles, the Heaven-Opening Host roared with laughter at these words: "Old thief Taishang, doesn't your dao tree just end up profiting us? If you've got the guts, leave your dao fruit behind too, for us to gnaw on!"
"With your little ability, you think you can keep us trapped? Once we break free of your dao boat, we'll charge into the Seventeenth Epoch and cure that dead skull of yours!"
...
Taishang said, "I will build the dao boat and send you to the Sixteenth Epoch. But before that, Seventh Young Master must first return to the past and become the Seventh Young Master; otherwise I dare not send you back."
Taiyi said, "You fear he will go back on his word, and while you are in reincarnation wheel about and kill off the whole Heaven-Opening Host?"