Chapter 894 — Peerless Through All Ages

The Empress Dowager's detached palace stood there, undestroyed for a million years, cast from divine gold—extravagant beyond measure. Yet no extravagance could withstand the impact of a powerhouse like Yan'er. The palace lay in utter ruin, nearly half of it smashed apart by the fat bird Yan'er had transformed into.

In particular, when her Dragon Sparrow spirit-primordial unleashed the Heaven-Carrying Dragon Sparrow divine ability, the Vermilion Bird's sacred fire melted the palace to slag as the spirit-primordial crashed down, molten metal streaming everywhere. That sacred fire burned all things without exception, setting ablaze whatever remained of the palace that had not been crushed. Yan'er rose from the rubble, withdrew her spirit-primordial, flapped her wings, and shook the debris from her body. A nearby long pavilion, already teetering, had been set alight by the sacred fire; now the gale from her wings swept over it, and it collapsed at once into the sea of flames.

Long Qilin also clambered up, shaking the dust from his body.

Shen Mu stood, then set busily to work again as though nothing had happened. Long Qilin watched him use the Vermilion Bird's sacred fire to melt the divine gold, refining it out, imprinting teleportation runes upon it—clearly he meant to build a large-scale teleportation formation and leave this place. Shen Mu bustled to and fro, yet Long Qilin could tell his mind was heavily burdened, for Long Qilin too was well versed in the arts of calculation, and he saw Shen Mu err several times while computing the spatial nodes. Such a thing was impossible in ordinary times.

As one of the most powerful masters of calculation in the world today, the odds of Shen Mu making an error in his reckonings were infinitesimal; consecutive errors were even more impossible.

That he now erred again and again surely meant some worry was disturbing him, preventing him from focusing.

"Sect Master, what did you see in the Great Abyss? " Long Qilin probed. Shen Mu stopped building the teleportation formation and stared blankly, lost in thought.

After a moment he said, "The Ancient God Heavenly Emperor—the one who killed Ling Tianzun. When he threw himself onto the severed face of the Heavenly River, I saw his face. It was exactly the same as the Ancient God Heavenly Emperor I saw in the Tianyin Realm.

" Long Qilin was baffled.

"Ancient God Heavenly Emperor? " "His fleshly body, rather. But who it is that controls that body, I have no way of knowing.

" Once Shen Mu began to speak, his thoughts came alive. "The Ancient God Heavenly Emperor's fleshly body is not in the Heavenly Court.

That is why the one who governs the Heavenly Court is so urgently driven to create a perfect Heaven-Subduing Celestial Venerable.

Because the Ancient God Heavenly Emperor's body is the most powerful body in all history—no single Celestial Venerable could fully unleash its entire strength. They must join forces to draw out the full power of the Ancient God Heavenly Emperor's body! " He paced back and forth, his thoughts quickening. "This body is the tool by which they check one another.

No one can fully control the Heavenly Emperor's body; instead it preserves a balance among them, so none dares strike at another.

Yet without the Ancient God Heavenly Emperor's body, who among them controls the Heavenly Court? Power will make them suspect one another, and without the body, the Lord of Heaven and the Earth Lord pose a great threat to them as well.

Therefore they need to forge a powerful weapon—a weapon that can deal with the Lord of Heaven, the Earth Lord, and the rest. " "That weapon is the Heaven-Subduing Celestial Venerable! " Shen Mu halted, pondered a moment, and said, "That is why they created the Heaven-Subduing Celestial Venerable and piloted that body down to the mortal realm. They wanted to test whether the weapon worked well, whether it could compare to the Heavenly Emperor's body. " Long Qilin asked curiously, "Sect Master, is the person trapped inside the Heavenly Emperor's body still in the Heavenly Court? " Shen Mu shook his head. "Only his body is in the Heavenly Court—not his spirit-primordial.

He is trapped by Ling Tianzun and cannot free himself. To kill Ling Tianzun, how could he not pay a price? The Ancient God Heavenly Emperor needed no weapon—his body was the strongest weapon of all. But this person must use a spear as his weapon; he should be an elder of the Heavenly Alliance.

He paid a steep price, trapped in the Heavenly River, never able to escape, and he no longer has a foothold in the Heavenly Court. " His spirits lifted, and he continued laying out the teleportation formation; this time he made no more errors. Yan'er fed Long Qilin a spirit pill and praised him. "Fat Dragon, your Human-Rearing Scripture grows more formidable by the day. " Long Qilin ate the spirit pill and laughed.

"The Sect Master is too clever.

Sometimes he gets stuck in a dead end and cannot climb out. Actually, if he simply speaks it aloud, he climbs out on his own. It is just that these clever people seldom speak up on their own. I did nothing—I only let the Sect Master talk.

" Yan'er smiled and kept feeding Long Qilin. Once Shen Mu finished building the teleportation formation, he went to gather the divine gold.

The Empress Dowager's detached palace had been burned utterly clean; the divine gold had melted into molten metal, and after Yan'er withdrew her sacred fire, it congealed again. The divine gold used in the Empress Dowager's detached palace was a specialty of Guixu: Guixu abyssal iron spewed up from the Great Abyss, found only in Guixu. Shen Mu had Yan'er melt the abyssal iron once more, refining it into square, neat metal blocks, which he stacked together. "Young Master, we cannot carry this away. " Yan'er and Long Qilin gazed up at this mountain of abyssal iron, awe-struck. Yan'er shook her head. "Abyssal iron is too heavy—even I cannot lift it. " "No matter.

I have a place to store it.

" Shen Mu parted the willow leaf at his brow and tossed the Guixu abyssal iron piece by piece into the Shen-Character Continent. In the Shen-Character Continent, abyssal iron fell like rain, piling into a great mountain.

The Lord of Heaven, the Crimson Emperor, Old Buddha, and the others stood dark-faced around the crystal coffin, letting the abyssal iron land around them. The Molten Earth Lord's face did not darken—his face was already mottled black and red. "Outrageous! This is where his brother is sealed—how can you throw just anything in here? " said the Molten Earth Lord.

Having finished dealing with the Guixu abyssal iron, Shen Mu jumped up and down, felt no weight at all, and laughed.

"From now on I can even do without the Taotie Pouch! " He drew the Carefree Sword and looked up at the sky, where the remnant stars were very close to Guixu. The Lord of Heaven and the others also saw the broken stars above Guixu, and exchanged glances.

"What is that boy up to now? " Everyone was at a loss. The big chubby baby sat in the Life-Slaying Cauldron eating, and at these words looked up. He laughed.

"Wicked little brother means to push the stars down, smash them into Guixu, and lure out those two flowers.

" The Lord of Heaven said hastily, "Know your brother best—what does your wicked little brother want to lure out those two Guixu flowers for? " "Cut them off with a sword and carry them away," said Shen Fengqing.

The Lord of Heaven's expression changed drastically.

The Earth Lord's face remained as usual, but his hands and feet trembled. The Great Brahma Heavenly King Buddha, the Crimson Emperor, and the others did not know the origins of those two flowers, so naturally they felt nothing—but the Lord of Heaven and the Earth Lord were scared half to death.

"Outrageous! Truly outrageous! " The Lord of Heaven's white beard quivered as he raged.

"Those two flowers plug the sea eye!