Chapter 908 — The Calamity Sword, Part Three: Meeting the Tribulation

Within it the Shen-character continent lay vast and empty, holding only a few mountain ranges and the abyssal iron he had looted from Guixu, and beyond that nothing but Lady Yuanmu's crystal coffin. Heavenly Duke, Tubo, the Crimson Emperor, the Great Sun, the Old Buddha and the rest had all vanished.

Shen Mu's heart brimmed with feeling. He took out a silk ribbon, threaded the pendant upon it, and hung it around his neck.

"Heavenly Duke and Tubo have both gone back, the Great Sun Star Lord has returned to Youdu, the Crimson Emperor found the Crimson Bright Divine Son and returned to the Suspended Void Realm, and the Great Brahma of the Buddha Realm has woken and taken the Old Buddha away. " The old underworld envoy said, "The Slaughter Cauldron is the possession of Achou Tubo.

Tubo says he is no longer Achou; you are. He gives it to you.

Perhaps it will help you through a few more trials.

" He looked at Shen Mu, and after a long while he suddenly bowed and said, "Heavenly Venerable Mu, take care! " Shen Mu returned the salute. By the time he straightened up, the old underworld envoy and the ghost boat had vanished without a trace.

"Do not stir your vital qi rashly; it will damage your consciousness," the old underworld envoy's voice came from another world.

Shen Mu coughed violently, and felt his Spirit Treasures rock violently with the coughs; even his undying consciousness could hardly hold steady. After a moment the Spirit Treasures returned to stillness, but he still felt his vital qi seeping away. Without a soul, the fleshly body is a tree without roots.

Even an undying consciousness could scarcely bind the vast vital qi within him, so that the vital qi drained away little by little.

The Sutra of Immeasurable Kalpas of the Great Brahma Heavenly King Buddha could slow this draining, but only slow it. Had Shen Mu cultivated to the realm of the Imperial Throne, he could, like the Crimson Emperor, have cultivated his undying consciousness to its utmost and endured long without a soul; but he was far from reaching that step.

He could only rely on the Sutra of the Three Primordial Spirits' Undying Consciousness and the Sutra of Immeasurable Kalpas to hold himself steady, so that his consciousness would not scatter.

Shen Mu sat on Dragon Qilin's great head, resting with his eyes closed, and unknowingly fell asleep. Dragon Qilin wandered on without purpose, walking from night into day, and from day into night.

Shen Mu woke now and then, and Yan'er had already cooked the meal, and it tasted very good, and the days were rather pleasant. One day a waning moon rose in the sky, and in its light a woman extended an invitation. Dragon Qilin ran up onto the moon.

This moon was a corner of the Heavenly Map, and within it there was still a Moon Palace.

The Heavenly Map that had once shrouded Jingping had been destroyed in the fires of war, leaving only scattered formation charts.

Shen Mu and the others stayed in the Moon Palace for a time.

His vital qi was still draining, and his cultivation declined day by day. Only when the spirit fetus joins with the soul is there a primordial spirit.

His spirit fetus had originally stood upon the Heavenly River, very close to the Southern Heavenly Gate; now, without a soul, his magic power could not bind it, and the spirit fetus drifted farther and farther from the Southern Heavenly Gate.

Seen from the vantage of his spirit fetus, the Southern Heavenly Gate grew ever more indistinct. The girl in the Moon Palace said to him, "Stay. I can look after you for a lifetime.

" Shen Mu still chose to leave, and laughed.

"My life or death is uncertain; I cannot hold you back. " That girl stood before the Moon Palace and cried aloud, "I do not care! I have waited forty thousand years, I do not care—" "I care.

" Shen Mu waved to her and turned away. After descending from the Moon Palace he was dispirited for a time, and his cultivation drained away faster. His spirit fetus had already fallen from the middle reaches of the Heavenly River onto the Jianmu, and was still sinking lower.

Sink further, and it would sink down to Youdu, sink into the Life and Death Spirit Treasure. That day Shen Mu suddenly grew spirited, sweeping away his former dejection, and urged on the Profound Body Three Elixirs Art, cultivating with all his might. Yet he would have been better off not urging it: once he did, his vital qi drained even faster! Shen Mu stopped at once and began muttering incantations.

Dragon Qilin and Yan'er heard him, but what Shen Mu spoke of were keys to cultivation, methods and techniques of every kind, without system, as though he had fallen into a demonic obsession. Two more days passed, and Shen Mu sank into heavy sleep. Dragon Qilin and Yan'er saw a formless bubble surge out from between his brows, and countless tiny Shen Mus drilled out of Shen Mu's head, chattering in the bubble world in a language no one could understand. Those Shen Mus each cultivated a different art: the Profound Body Three Elixirs Art, the Three Primordial Spirits' Undying Consciousness, the No-Leak Creation Profound Sutra, the Ancestor Dragon Grand Mystery Art, the Emperor Shakra Heavenly King Sutra, the Heaven and Earth Heart Sage Formula, the Martial Combat Heavenly Art, the Youdu Demonic Way, the Dark Demon Kagya Sutra; there was even a tiny Shen Mu cultivating the Sutra of Immeasurable Kalpas, creating one smaller bubble world after another inside the bubble world! "Dragon Fatty, what is he doing?

" Yan'er asked.

Dragon Qilin thought for a moment, then said, "The Cult Master is calculating the possibilities of his own survival, searching out a single road to life among countless possibilities. " "Dragon Fatty knows so much.

" Yan'er praised him greatly, stuffed a spirit pill into him, and went on watching the Shen Mu in the bubble world with anxious fretfulness. In the bubble world, one tiny Shen Mu after another died, in every manner of death, too horrible to behold.

Some, in the midst of cultivation, suddenly had their consciousness scatter and died with their tongues lolling out; some suffered cultivation deviation and burst with a bang; some died in dreams; some suddenly caught fire and burned away to nothing! The tiny Shen Mus in the bubble world grew fewer and fewer.

After a dozen or so days, corpses lay strewn through the bubble world, yet one tiny Shen Mu survived stubbornly, his breath faint, but a smile on his face. Suddenly the bubble world burst with a pop and vanished. Shen Mu opened his eyes, woke from his sleep, yawned, and laughed.

"Sister Yan'er, I am hungry again. " Yan'er hurried to cook. After Shen Mu ate his fill he sank back into deep sleep.

The world in the dream once more turned into a bubble, and again many tiny Shen Mus drilled out from Shen Mu's eyes, ears, mouth and nose. This time, though, the Shen Mus did not seek a way to live; they gathered gravely together, chattering in words no one could understand. Then those little figures practiced swordplay in the dream world, fighting one another, move after move of sword art bursting forth, and many tiny Shen Mus died in the mutual slaughter.

"Dragon Fatty, what is the young master doing?

" Yan'er asked. Dragon Qilin could not understand it either, and shook his head. "I do not know either.

" Yan'er narrowed her eyes, cut his rations, and gave him no spirit pills. Dragon Qilin hung his head in dejection.

In the end a single sword light burst forth.

The one remaining tiny Shen Mu actually brandished his sword, and in an instant cut open Shen Mu's dream world, killing his way from the dream into the waking world!

Shen Mu abruptly woke from his sleep, scrambled up, and that tiny Shen Mu had vanished as well.

"I turn, and startle the Ox and the Dipper; I murmur, and answer the tribulation late!

" Shen Mu drew his sword and howled long, and a sword stroke came out of nowhere, slashing at his own Spirit Treasures and Heavenly Palace!