Chapter 892 — Seeking Aid by the Map

"Ling Tianzun's hairpin was actually meant for me, yet it was Senior Brother who pulled it out."

Shen Mu hurried to the spot where Wei Suifeng had vanished; the hairpin had vanished along with him, and he could not help but frown.

By the time he realized the hairpin had been left for him by Ling Tianzun, it was already a step too late—Wei Suifeng had gone to the ancient past in his stead.

"Senior Brother will remain in the ancient Longhan Era for who knows how long, and become the Right Lang General of the Yulin Guard of the Longhan Heavenly Court. Only when the case of the assault on the Empress Consort and the Ghost Ship case erupt will he return."

Shen Mu laid the corpse of the Empress's younger sister back into the crystal coffin and waited in silence, thinking, "When he returns from the Longhan Heavenly Court, he ought to appear here again. I can wait for him to come back. Perhaps Ling Tianzun will tell him certain things before he returns."

On the other side, there was no movement whatsoever in the Dark Flower World. Long Qilin had gone to find Yan'er and still had not returned; there was no telling how the fighting fared.

Shen Mu kept watch beside the crystal coffin, took out his mirror, and continued sorting through the ancient god runes while he waited for Wei Suifeng to return.

He waited several days, and never once saw Long Qilin or Yan'er come back. Only then did worry take hold of him, and he rose, meaning to go search for the two of them.

He came to the edge of the Dark Flower World. Just as he was about to step into the darkness, he abruptly halted, cold sweat springing out on his forehead.

"The Flower World of the Great Abyss has no cycle of day and night, and yet the Red Flower World and the Dark Flower World do have day and night!"

He gazed at the Dark Flower World, which held not a glimmer of light, took out a piece of jade, and with light flowing at his fingertips carved upon it the words "Wait for me," then cast it into the Dark Flower World.

But the moment the jade fell into the Dark Flower World, it vanished in an instant; not even the sound of it striking the ground came back.

That vanishing was a complete and utter disappearance from this era!

"The Red Flower World belongs to day, and the Dark Flower World belongs to night. Walking from day into night, the crossing halts, and one returns to one's original age. Fatty Long and Sister Yan'er have both gone back to the era we came from. Only I did not walk into the darkness, and so I remain in Senior Brother's era."

Shen Mu drew back his foot and sat down again beside the crystal coffin. So long as he did not willingly step into the Dark Flower World, he would not return to the age he had come from.

But to be safe, he first sorted out the Great Way runes of the Great Sun Star Lord, transforming his yuan qi into a sun that he hung in the sky of the Flower World.

Day after day passed. Shen Mu had already recalculated the runes of the true gods of the celestial stars among the ancient gods' Great Way runes using the Taiwei Calculation Sutra, and the beard on his face had grown all the more flourishing.

The time he had spent in this era now exceeded the time he had spent in the Longhan Era.

During this span, several more remnant stars fell into the Great Abyss, triggering eruptions of the undercurrents and the blooming of the Great Abyss's flowers; yet the place seemed to have fallen entirely to ruin, and no one came in.

One day, as he was sunk in research and calculation, heedless of all else, the female corpse in the crystal coffin slowly opened her eyes.

The corpse soundlessly turned her head and quietly took Shen Mu's measure.

Over these months, the wound at the back of the corpse's head had somehow healed without his noticing.

Shen Mu suddenly felt a stir in his heart and turned to look, only to find the corpse still lying quietly there, no different from before.

"Strange. I clearly felt a gaze upon me."

Shen Mu shook his head and went on with his research, but he propped the mirror upright so that it reflected the crystal coffin behind him.

He directed his calculation yuan soldiers to keep computing, studying those runes with self-forgetful absorption. After a long while, the corpse in the coffin opened her eyes once more.

The corpse lay within the coffin, yet at this moment her head soundlessly twisted around, twisting at a horrifying angle, her eerie gaze coming to rest on Shen Mu's back.

The lid of the crystal coffin flew up without a sound, and the corpse within likewise floated up level and silent.

Shen Mu was in the midst of his calculations when the corner of his eye suddenly twitched.

Behind him, the corpse drifted down noiselessly, her body suspended in the air, her fair head bowed low, her beautiful hair cascading like a waterfall past her snow-white neck.

Her head drew gradually nearer to Shen Mu's neck.

Shen Mu still seemed wholly unaware, yet beads of sweat trickled from his forehead. In the Taotie Pouch at his waist, the sword pellet seemed to have turned to quicksilver, slowly flowing out, quietly reaching the back of the corpse's head, little by little taking the form of a sword tip aimed at the wound on the back of her head that had healed not long ago.

Just then, light swirled ahead, and a middle-aged man clad only in white undergarments—a middle robe and trousers—stepped out from the radiance.

This middle-aged man had a stern countenance. The instant he appeared, he saw the corpse floating behind Shen Mu, and his eyes flew wide with fury. Behind him one divine treasury after another surged forth, and a heavenly palace rumbled into being above the piled divine treasuries.

Within the heavenly palace, above every hall great and small, stood phantom images of gods and demons, standing in serried ranks, appearing above the heavenly palace like a river of stars!

His primordial spirit, like an ancient god wielding the power of the starry river and possessed of boundless might, appeared before the imperial throne within the Lingxiao Hall, thrust out a palm, and the palm came crashing through the heavenly palace, booming toward the corpse behind Shen Mu!

"Lady Yuanmu, since you are dead, why haunt the living?"

When the corpse behind Shen Mu heard him call out her true name, she loosed a shrill, desolate shriek; her hanging hair flew up, and at once the various Great Ways of Guixu within her body seemed to revive. In the Dark Flower World, the darkness surged and came rushing toward this place!

Shen Mu immediately felt an immense oppressive might.

That was the power of an ancient god awakening within the corpse—a dreadful force, as though it would devour all things in the world, erupting behind him. Yet the middle-aged man's primordial spirit pressed a palm to her forehead, and that power burst forth, driving all the darkness surging behind her down into the Dark Flower World in one fell sweep!

The corpse fell back helplessly and landed with a thud inside the crystal coffin. The crystal coffin closed, suppressing her within.

The corpse struggled and shrieked inside the coffin, her delicate features turning hideous, yet she could never break free of the middle-aged man's suppression.

The middle-aged man walked toward Shen Mu and bowed in greeting. "Second Junior Brother, eight thousand years since we parted—eight thousand years without seeing each other—and you have grown a beard. Lady Yuanmu, has your corpse undergone a transformation?"

The corpse flopped about in the coffin like a fish on dry land.

Shen Mu returned the greeting and said with a smile, "Missing an old friend, I forgot my beard. Senior Brother, you have been gone eight thousand years, while I have been here less than half a year. I have already seen the journal you wrote in the mist, aboard the Ghost Ship. Senior Brother, have you found your Way of the Sage?"