Chapter 697 — Rebirth in the Netherworld

On that occasion he had snatched from Lord Earth the souls and primal spirits of those god-demons, which was why the Netherworld's messengers had come storming in fury to kill him. Today, wielding the improved Soul-Summoning Art, he drew Lady Tianyin's soul-motes from the various heavens and the Wasteland linked to the Tianyin Realm — naturally a task within his grasp.

But what he meant to do did not end there.

Besides summoning every last particle of her soul to her, he meant to remold that soul anew, to resurrect this heaven-born sacred being who had been dead for who knew how many tens of thousands of years!

Even inside the seal of the Shenzi Continent, at the depths of his third eye, his obscure and abstruse voice drifted faintly through, leaving Lord Heaven's avatar, the Crimson Emperor, and the great babe Shen Fengqing staring blankly in absorption, listening closely.

"What the bad little brother says isn't bad," said the babe, who sat on the ground and pulled his thumb from his mouth; in a milky voice he added, "When I catch him, I'll tear his head off and eat it.

" Lord Heaven's avatar looked grave and murmured, "He has begun to take advantage of me. " The Crimson Emperor, finding Shen Mu's Gloom Capital tongue inscrutably profound and hard to make out, asked, "In what way has he taken advantage of you? " Lord Heaven's avatar sighed and said, "He has upended the Heaven-Bearing Gate and stolen my light to reshape another's soul.

" The Crimson Emperor started and cried, "He dares steal your power?

Has that boy turned heaven on its head? " "What would he not dare?

" said Lord Heaven's avatar.

"He has dared to lock even you and me in here without release; what is a little stolen power to him?

Fortunately he has taken but little. He must have upended the Heaven-Bearing Gate to borrow my light for illuminating the Tianyin Realm, all for the sake of resurrecting Lady Tianyin. " The Crimson Emperor's face grew heavy.

"Is Lady Tianyin dead?

" "She died before you did. " Lord Heaven's avatar said evenly, "Back then I sensed her death, but I could not see into the Tianyin Realm, and all I could do was sigh.

I move, and the Tianyin Realm moves as well; that world has always hidden itself in my shadow, and so I could not save her.

" The Crimson Emperor's gaze flickered. "Lady Tianyin died before me?

Then she must have died in the Longhan age, since a death in the Crimson Emperor age surely could not have been hidden from me. The heavens were trisected in Longhan, and in that age three heavenly courts stood opposed.

May I ask Lord Heaven: at the hands of which of Longhan's courts did Lady Tianyin die?

" Lord Heaven's avatar glanced at him and said coolly, "You are dead; you need not ask after so many affairs.

What rouses my curiosity is the son of Shen.

This lad has devised an ability that can reknit the soul of one whose spirit has been scattered to the winds.

If he truly succeeds, it may mark the beginning of a world-shaking change.

.

. How can there be such a clever, uncanny creature in this world? " The Crimson Emperor sighed.

"It is not that he is clever and uncanny; it is that he can think what others dare not think, what others have never thought.

Where others cannot think, he can; where others dare not think, he dares.

What others take for rules, for axioms, has never existed as rule or axiom in his mind. That is the true reason he can create abilities that would make even Lord Heaven gasp in admiration. " Lord Heaven's avatar smiled.

"Many as his ideas are, whether he can succeed is not yet certain. " Just then, the voice Shen Mu sent into the Shenzi Continent suddenly became dense and staccato, bursting outward almost syllable by syllable. Lord Heaven's avatar's face turned grave again, and he said in a low voice, "If he succeeds, the great Dao's laws between heaven and earth will shift accordingly.

Crimson Emperor, do you sense the subtle change in the great Dao of heaven and earth? " At that very moment, above the Shenzi Continent, the Great Buddha, who had been sleeping in fixed absorption all this while, suddenly woke, opened his eyes, and said in astonishment, "The great Dao has undergone a subtle change? Who on earth. .

. Eh? Lord Heaven, my old friend, and Crimson Emperor — when did you two come here? " "Old Buddha, do not come down!

Do not come down!

" The Crimson Emperor waved his hands in panic to stop that great Buddha, who was even then preparing to descend from above. "If you come down, you will not get out either.

You will share our fate — beaten black and blue by that big-headed monster babe! "