Chapter 893 — An Old Acquaintance of the Star River

"I will not save you!"

Shen Mu flung the sheepskin scroll to the ground and stamped on it twice, grinding it with his toe, then sneered, "Save you? Save your ass! You are so very capable, you listen to no one—save yourself!"

He turned to go, then thought better of it, picked the scroll back up, brushed off the dust, and stuffed it into the Taotie Pouch, muttering sullenly, "You want me to save you, then say clearly where you are trapped. If you will not say, how am I supposed to save you?"

He walked out of the Black Palace and came to the Red Flower World. Long Qilin hurried up to meet him, craning his neck to peer past him, and said, "Sect Master, where is that female corpse?"

"She turned undead just now, so I threw her to my brother to look after."

Shen Mu studied the blue sparrow perched on Long Qilin's head, and saw that it had puffed up as though inflated. It had once been a very cute little bird; now it was somewhat round and plump, but still quite cute.

"Young Master, I am Yan'er," said the round blue sparrow.

Shen Mu laughed. "Sister Yan'er, of course I know you. Did you eat the Beauty Snake?"

He looked toward the Red Flower World and saw that the thick, straight stamens had vanished without a trace, plucked utterly clean. He laughed. "Was the ancient god hard to digest?"

"The big worm tasted wonderful."

The round blue sparrow's voice was clear and bright, and she sounded a little embarrassed. "It took me a long time to finish. I forgot to save you a bit to taste. Long Qilin would not eat any either, so I ate it all."

Shen Mu's eyes went wide. She ate it all?

The Beauty Snake was transformed from the stamens of the World Within the Flower; each stamen was like a pillar propping up heaven and earth—and she had eaten them all?

Long Qilin said in a low voice, "I am not fat at all. You, on the other hand..."

The blue sparrow pecked his forehead, clang, clang. Long Qilin yelped in pain and hastily shut up.

Shen Mu looked beyond the sky. The dome of the Red Flower World was still sealed; they must still be inside the Great Abyss, and would have to wait for the undercurrent to surge before they had any chance to leave.

He took out the geographical maps he had drawn and spread them all out. These maps were the ones Wei Suifeng had left for him in the canyon outside the Ark of the Other Shore; several of them he had already visited.

For example, the Dragon Village Map—from Old Man Qinghuang he had obtained the Yulin Army token. The Alien Star Map—on the God-Slaying Platform he had met the god-man Chixi and obtained the God-Slaying Mystic Blade.

And the Taiming Tianhuang City Map—underground he had encountered Ying Zhao's mightiest divine brain, and with it the blueprints of the Ark of the Other Shore.

The Guixu Great Abyss Map—from it he had obtained Ling Tianzun's peach-wood hairpin.

In truth, it was his eldest senior brother Wei Suifeng's maps that had led him here, step by step.

Shen Mu set aside the maps of places he had already visited and studied the others, trying to find where exactly Wei Suifeng was trapped.

Meanwhile Yan'er and Long Qilin were whispering together. "The Young Master just said he handed the female corpse to his brother to look after. The Young Master has a brother? How come I have never seen him?"

Long Qilin glanced at Shen Mu, raised a claw to point at his own head, and lowered his voice. "The Sect Master's brother is actually the Sect Master himself. The Sect Master always imagines he has a formidable and ferocious brother. Do not expose him."

Yan'er lifted a wing and drew the tip of it across her little head, incredulous. "You mean the Young Master, up here..."

Long Qilin nodded.

Yan'er looked at Shen Mu, who was studying the maps, and her gaze filled with pity. "The Young Master is so lonely that he has begun to see illusions."

Shen Mu studied them for a long while. These maps were all unfamiliar to him; he could not tell at all where Wei Suifeng had fallen, much less how to search for him.

"In the past I showed the maps to my teacher the woodcutter, and he seemed to recognize many of them. Perhaps I can go find him. To recover his own eldest disciple, he would surely be even more attentive."

Shen Mu put away the maps and took out Ling Tianzun's peach-wood hairpin, examining it.

Ling Tianzun's hairpin was the simplest, most ordinary peach-wood hairpin, with nothing distinctive about it, and no runes branded upon it. Shen Mu probed it and found no great dao divine art hidden within.

With a little force, the peach-wood hairpin bent slightly, as though it might snap at any moment.

"There is no divine art of Ling Tianzun in this hairpin either. How could a thing belonging to a Heavenly Venerable be so ordinary?"

Shen Mu tried to channel his mana; vital essence poured into the peach-wood hairpin, and still nothing changed. Yet he sensed that hidden within the hairpin was an extremely powerful and extremely peculiar force.

His mind stirred, and he employed the art of creation. The red hairpin returned to life, quickly sprouting branches and buds, growing in his hand, and before long it had become a peach tree.

The peach tree bloomed, bore fruit, and the peaches ripened.

Shen Mu picked one, brushed off the fuzz, and tasted it. It was very sweet.

"But I still have not drawn out that force. Perhaps a more profound creation art is needed..."

Suddenly the peach tree flashed with light, vanished, and became a hairpin again, falling at his feet.

"Immutable matter!"

Shen Mu's heart stirred. He picked up the hairpin. He had used his creation divine art to alter the hairpin's material structure and make it grow, yet a peculiar force within the hairpin had restored it to its original state.

This was precisely the hallmark of immutable matter!

Not only did the peach tree revert to a hairpin—Shen Mu also saw that the peach pit and the peach he had eaten had vanished as well, returning to their original substance.

"This hairpin has become immutable matter, eternal and unchanging, impossible to damage by any means!"

Shen Mu employed the creation divine art once more. Suddenly a vast flood of water surged out from the hairpin, mighty and boundless, forming a celestial river, incomparably heavy. Where the celestial river struck, even the World Within the Flower was shaken and set adrift!

Nearby, Long Qilin and Yan'er could not keep their footing. Struck by the celestial river, they were flung the next moment to the far edge of the World Within the Flower and slammed with a boom against the flower wall.

The pressure of the celestial river was too strong. Long Qilin could not hold out and was nearly crushed. Yan'er hastily spread her wings and sheltered him beneath her feathers.

Suddenly the celestial river snapped shut and vanished. All the river water disappeared without a trace, as though it had never existed, leaving only Shen Mu examining the peach-wood hairpin with curiosity, murmuring to himself.

Long Qilin and Yan'er dropped from the flower wall at the far edge, still startled and uncertain, when suddenly the celestial river appeared again and sent them slamming back against the flower wall!

Yan'er shielded Long Qilin again, feeling the pressure mounting, when suddenly the celestial river vanished once more and the two of them fell to the ground again.

Yan'er cried out, transformed with a shake into a dragon sparrow, enormous in body, plump and round, raising two great wings before her as a shield, warily guarding against everything around.

Suddenly the celestial river came again, nearly quenching the Vermilion Bird sacred fire upon her, and slammed them against the flower wall at the far edge once more.

"How strange. Where does this celestial river water come from?"

Shen Mu experimented again, and Yan'er and Long Qilin were tormented half to death.