Chapter 965 — The Uncanny Daoist

Lian Huahun's pupils contracted.

"You have been at his side all along. Why not take it back yourself? " Yun Chuxiu laughed.

"You take it back for me.

You will hold my fleshly body, you will have a hold over me—and then we sisters can work together in good faith, and you will have no reason to distrust me. " Lian Huahun was half convinced, half doubtful. Yun Chuxiu's eyes rolled.

"Besides, it would be very hard for me to take it back from him.

If he summons the soul back into my corpse, the consciousness in this body of mine cannot hold at all—one move from him and I am dead. So I must ask you to go.

" "That is what you really mean, isn't it? " Lian Huahun's gaze flickered. "You have disciples on this journey into Taixu as well, don't you? Why not send them?

" Yun Chuxiu sighed, tears welling and falling, and said in a plaintive voice, "You do not know how strong that little nemesis of mine is.

My disciples are no match for him at all. From what I know of him, my disciples would only get themselves killed by him, let alone take my fleshly body back from him.

" Lian Huahun thought of how Shen Mu had triggered the Fire Heavenly Sovereign's brand the night before, and could not help but feel a flutter of dread. Had the sisters not been quick to see their chance and hidden themselves away with the divine power of Guixu, they would surely have perished in that city like Pan Chunjin, Xiu Youfang and the rest!

The Heavenly Sovereign's brand was too terrible.

Fortunately, the divine power of Guixu had subtleties of its own, and most crucially, the great Dao of Guixu had never yet been unraveled by anyone. It was precisely because of the nature of Guixu's divine power that they had survived the upheaval of the previous night. Lian Huahun had crossed hands with Shen Mu once; she had broken all four of his arms, and she was confident she could defeat him and take back Yuanmu's fleshly body. Yet what was most fearsome about Shen Mu was not his strength, but his skill at borrowing every force he could lay hold of and turning it into his own weapon—the Fire Heavenly Sovereign's brand of the night before, for instance.

"Be ready to fetch my fleshly body back from the ghost ship, in exchange for your own.

" Lian Huahun flicked her sleeve and turned to leave. "One more thing you would do well not to forget: you are Heavenly Sovereign Hao's own mother. Stop calling him 'little nemesis' this and 'little nemesis' that, like some shameless woman!

Have you no breeding at all?

" Yun Chuxiu was furious, then suddenly burst out laughing, and with a flicker of her form vanished from the Creators' city. "Sister, you have breeding, you are a model for all under heaven—you are just a bit of a fool. Hee hee.

You go and seize my fleshly body, and then I will finish you off and take it back.

The mantis stalks the cicada, unaware of the oriole behind! " The land of Taixu was vast beyond measure.

Shen Mu and Luo Wushuang walked for several days and still did not find that city. "I wonder whether that dragon you visualized was blown to death?

" Luo Wushuang said absently, thinking of the divine dragon that had caused them to be discovered by the Empress sisters. Shen Mu was checking the spirit medicines in his Taotie Pouch. Hearing this, he shook his head.

"It was born of visualization. In a place like Taixu, it cannot die.

" Luo Wushuang was taken aback.

He ventured, "You mean the divine dragon you visualized could withstand the Fire Heavenly Sovereign's divine power and survive? That cannot be. You do not have such tremendous strength. " Shen Mu took out some spirit medicine seeds and scattered them on the ground, then worked his art. The seeds sprouted and grew with astonishing speed, and soon a whole herb garden spread out before them. "It cannot live through it, but it will be reborn. " As he worked, he said, "In this strange place, Taixu, things created by visualization have a strange property: once shattered, they reassemble. The Taixu monsters are like that.

The consciousness they use to revive is the consciousness of the whole world of Taixu.

So I guess that the divine dragon may have died in the city, but it will be reborn through Taixu's consciousness. Because the entire world of Taixu was visualized into being by the Creators with their consciousness; as long as Taixu endures, these visualized beings will have an endless supply of consciousness to revive them.

Of course, once they leave Taixu, they are easy enough to kill. " The herbs ripened. He began to harvest them and store them up for later use.

Watching his technique, Luo Wushuang thought he handled it like a very skilled herbalist, while his method of roasting and refining the herbs was that of an alchemist. He thought to himself, "Shen the Overlord Body has truly dabbled in everything. " These days Shen Mu had been wounded many times, and the herbs were consumed quickly; Luo Wushuang was an even greater consumer, for healing the wound in his Heavenly Palace would require still more spirit medicine. "The divine dragon I visualized—though I only visualized the creature—my consciousness was in effect contributed to Taixu.

Taixu thereby gained an extra measure of consciousness, enough to constitute the energy of a divine dragon. There must be a law of conservation of consciousness-matter in this world, so even if it dies, Taixu will revive it. " Shen Mu put the herbs away and continued on his way, saying with full confidence, "After it revives, it may well come after us again. Right now it is probably behind us, following our trail.

Everything that has happened since we came here has confirmed my guess.

My guesses are always accurate.

" He thought of Yun Chuxiu and Lian Huahun, and the corner of his eye twitched. His confidence wavered a little.

As for the identities of those two women, he had guessed wrong. Luo Wushuang asked, "You are skilled in visualization too. Why not simply visualize spirit pills and wonder drugs directly, instead of using the art of creation to grow them?

" The corner of Shen Mu's eye twitched again.

He looked somewhat dispirited, and there was bitterness in his heart. He said in a low voice, "My consciousness is not strong enough. I am only at the level of a newborn infant Creator.

I have failed the name of the Overlord Body.

. . " Luo Wushuang was astonished.

This fellow Shen Mu had always given him and everyone else the impression of a confidence like a torrential downpour, sweeping and boundless, or like a flood that once loosed could not be contained. How had he turned modest now? And not merely modest, but dejected, crushed, unable to rally.

He did not know that in the eye at the center of Shen Mu's brow dwelt a Creator who belittled Shen Mu every day, telling him how worthless his consciousness was; and in time Shen Mu himself had come to believe his consciousness truly was worthless, and so he was somewhat self-abasing. But in the blink of an eye Shen Mu was full of confidence again. He laughed.

"Fortunately I am an Overlord Body. So long as I work hard enough, my consciousness will soon grow to the level of a grown Creator, and it will only grow stronger!

I will become another Great Emperor!

" Luo Wushuang had not had much contact with him, and this was the first time he had seen the fellow's blind faith in the Overlord Body.

He could not help shaking his head and thinking, "Overlord Body?

Don't you know the Heavenly Court treats the Overlord Body as a joke? " As for the legend of the Overlord Body, word in the Heavenly Court had it that the Heavenly Sovereigns had long since realized that all the Overlord Bodies in history came from one and the same person: Shen Mu. The Longhan Overlord Body was Shen Mu.

The Shanghuang Overlord Body was Shen Mu too.

And the present Jingping Overlord Body was still Shen Mu. In truth, through the long river of ancient history, no Overlord Body had ever accomplished anything earth-shaking.