Chapter 893 — An Old Acquaintance of the Star River

Meanwhile, in the ruins of the Shanghuang Heavenly Court above Fallen God Valley, the blind old man Yi Shisheng was fishing Ling Tianzun's corpse out of the celestial river. He had been here for more than forty thousand years.

Suddenly the blind old man showed astonishment and murmured, "The water of the celestial river has grown shallow... The water of the celestial river has never diminished. How could it suddenly grow less?"

He grew agitated. "Could it be that my teacher is about to escape her bonds? About to be freed from endless death?"

After a moment, the celestial river's water returned to its former level.

Yi Shisheng was stunned.

Another moment passed, and the celestial river's water diminished again, then returned to normal, then diminished once more.

Yi Shisheng stood by the celestial river, and this blind old man too was utterly bewildered, not knowing what had happened.

And in the World Within the Flower in the Guixu Great Abyss, Shen Mu finally stopped experimenting. He scratched his head and muttered to himself, "The hairpin's power is strong enough, but that is surely not why Ling Tianzun gave it to me. She would not hand me such a treasure for no reason. Yet how am I to draw out the hairpin's true power? Immutable matter, immutable matter..."

He paced back and forth, pondering bitterly, when suddenly his eyes lit up and he said urgently, "What would happen if I used Ling Tianzun's divine art to activate the hairpin? Immutable matter meeting an immutable divine art—there must be some other change!"

He had deduced Ling Tianzun's divine art aboard the ghost ship and gained a fair amount, yet he was still immensely far from reproducing it. And at that time, Ling Tianzun's divine art had only just taken shape in embryo; one could well imagine how complex Ling Tianzun's divine art of immutable matter truly was.

Shen Mu gripped the peach-wood hairpin and tried to perform the surviving fragments of the embryonic form of Ling Tianzun's divine art.

Seeing him grip the hairpin again, Yan'er and Long Qilin felt their scalps go numb and hurried to take cover.

This time the celestial river appeared again, yet it was not as terrifying as before. A stretch of the celestial river's surface appeared in the sky, seemingly very far from them.

The celestial river was shrouded in heavy mist, and on the river's surface a woman in a leopard-skin skirt and straw sandals stood faintly within the fog.

"Ling Tianzun!" Shen Mu called out loudly.

The woman in the leopard-skin skirt and straw sandals seemed to hear him. She turned to look, and the astonishment on her face became a smile.

She opened her mouth to speak, and just then a colossal shadow suddenly appeared in the mist behind her.

Shen Mu's expression changed drastically. "Look out behind you!"

A flash of light appeared, piercing through Ling Tianzun's chest, lifting her up, then smashing her heavily onto the celestial river.

Shen Mu stood frozen, his whole body ice-cold.

On the celestial river, Ling Tianzun's face was still turned toward him. What had pierced her body was a long spear, held in the hand of that colossal shadow.

The smile on her face had still not faded. A faint, barely audible voice came: "Save me."

The shadow in the mist drew near, as though it wished to break through the bonds of Ling Tianzun's divine art and charge toward Shen Mu. It wanted to be freed from the endless cycle of reincarnation.

"Who are you, really?"

Shen Mu shouted in a loud voice, "Let me see your face!"

The figure rushed to the broken edge of the celestial river and leaped, springing outward. Just then the celestial river surged, sweeping him up together with Ling Tianzun, and they vanished.

Shen Mu was dazed. He swung the peach-wood hairpin again to activate the divine art, and the broken section of the celestial river appeared once more, yet the scene repeated just as before.

Ling Tianzun was killed again, and the shadow in the mist charged toward the broken edge again, only to be drawn back into the cycle by Ling Tianzun's immutable divine art. This time, however, he was closer to the broken edge, and Shen Mu could faintly make out his face, though not clearly.

This figure was trapped by Ling Tianzun's divine art and could never leap out of the celestial river, out of the cycle of reincarnation.

"Young Master, the undercurrent of the Great Abyss is surging!"

Yan'er's cry came, waking Shen Mu. "The World Within the Flower is rising. We must leave this place!"

Shen Mu turned a deaf ear. He activated the divine art once more. The World Within the Flower rose, the dome split open, and the twin lotuses on one stem were about to bloom.

And before him, the surging celestial river raged and swelled. The scene of that colossal shadow slaying Ling Tianzun in the mist appeared again. The shadow blotted out heaven and earth, charged toward the broken edge once more, and rushed at Shen Mu.

The World Within the Flower bloomed fully. Beyond it lay Guixu. The dark celestial river hung suspended, motionless in the air, and within the river the twin lotuses, one red and one black, seemed profoundly still.

Yan'er and Long Qilin looked at Shen Mu anxiously. Long Qilin said, "Sect Master, if we do not leave now, who knows how long we must wait for the next surge of the undercurrent!"

At last, the enormous shadow in the celestial river rushed up before Shen Mu. His face slammed hard against an invisible barrier; he still could not break free of Ling Tianzun's immutable divine art.

He let out a furious roar and was swept away by the celestial river once more, sinking into the next cycle of reincarnation.

Shen Mu stared blankly at that face. This time, he finally saw clearly whose face it was.

Yan'er rushed over, transformed into a great fat bird, seized him and Long Qilin, and flew toward the sky that was about to close.

At last, before the twin lotuses on one stem closed, she burst out of the World Within the Flower.

Outside, the dark celestial river had begun to flow back, faster and faster, and the Great Abyss's pull grew stronger and stronger. Yan'er did all she could, driving her primordial spirit to transform into a dragon sparrow that held up the sky, fighting the pull and the pressure, beating her wings outward.

Boom—

She crashed into the Empress's detached palace, smashing through countless halls and corridors along the way, and finally came to a stop.

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