Chapter 970 — Three Battles at the Heavenly Origin

Luo Wushuang looked at Shen Mu. Shen Mu's face shifted bright and dark by turns as he gazed far off at the Great Emperor's brow, where Heavenly Venerable Cloud's mortal body lay. Plainly Heavenly Venerable Fire had discovered this as well, and that was why he would stop at nothing to press on to that place.

Shen Mu had no thought of rescuing Heavenly Venerable Fire. The Heavenly Venerable Fire of old had been simple, rash, upright — but a million years had passed, and who could swear that the Heavenly Venerable Fire of today was still the one of those years?

His aim was simply to draw near Heavenly Venerable Cloud's mortal body!

He meant to summon Heavenly Venerable Cloud's soul, and ask after certain matters of the past.

Yet if they went on, the Great Emperor's Seal could not bear it, and in all likelihood they too would be trapped here.

Just then Shu Jun's voice sounded in his mind. "Little brat, the Great Emperor's Seal alone cannot stand against the Supreme Domain of Divine Consciousness — but add the altar, and it should serve."

Shen Mu's heart stirred, and he promptly brought out the altar.

But in the very moment he took that altar out, the star ring had already turned a dozen circuits. To them it was a brief instant; outside, half a month had gone by!

The corner of Shen Mu's eye twitched. He set the altar out, his divine consciousness quivering a little, and asked, "Shu Jun — and then?"

"Hang the seal above the altar. Drive it with the Three Enclosures Superior Consciousness, and call up the Great Emperor's supreme divine consciousness!"

Shu Jun's tone was grave. "But be careful," he said.

Shen Mu was briefly taken aback. "Careful of what?"

Shu Jun hesitated — and in that brief hesitation the star ring turned a dozen more circuits. From the moment they had set foot in this place, more than a month had passed!

"Careful of what?" Shen Mu urged.

"Be careful of the Great Emperor."

Shu Jun hesitated no longer. "Do you think the Great Emperor is truly dead? I do not. If even I could survive, the Great Emperor surely has means to preserve himself. I do not know why the Creators of Taixu moved against him — but the Great Emperor is the one who destroyed Taixu. He only seems dead now; in truth he waits to revive. If you use the altar to call up his supreme divine consciousness, he will seize the chance to snatch your mortal body and live again through it!"

Shen Mu looked back over his shoulder. Another ten-odd days had gone by.

The information Shu Jun had let slip was truly terrifying. Shen Mu had once suspected that the one who destroyed Taixu and brought death to countless Creators was the Great Emperor, yet he had never seen the face of Taixu's destroyer. Shu Jun had.

That Shu Jun admitted with his own lips that the man was the Great Emperor still shook him deeply.

"I will teach you an art called the Heavenly Origin Three Battles — though whether it can stop the Great Emperor from shattering your divine consciousness, I am not so certain."

Shu Jun's divine consciousness surged, swiftly transmitting into Shen Mu's mind an art of marshaling divine consciousness into formations. "What I cultivate is the Three Enclosures Superior Consciousness. Even in the Primordial Era it ranked among the supreme arts of divine consciousness — but the strongest thing of the Primordial Era was the Great Emperor's Daluo Supreme Divine Consciousness! Whether the Heavenly Origin Three Battles can hold off his invasion of divine consciousness, I dare not swear. You will have to modify it; best if you can fuse in your own knowledge. You are well versed in modifying my arts."

Shen Mu swiftly sorted through the art of the Heavenly Origin Three Battles that had been transmitted to him, and with the depth of his own knowledge revised and perfected it, fusing in the Undying Divine Consciousness of the Three Primal Gods, and adding the ancient-god Great Dao runes of the Heavenly Court's Daoist sect.

While he perfected the Heavenly Origin Three Battles, the star ring upon the cliff turned another hundred and seventy circuits — half a year gone by!

Cold sweat broke out on Shen Mu's brow. He steadied himself, then drove the improved Heavenly Origin Three Battles, forming three Heavenly Origin Seals within his third eye. The first took the form of the Duke of Heaven, white-browed and white-bearded, hands clasped together like a funnel; the second took the form of the Earl of Earth, ox-headed and human-bodied, likewise forming a funnel-shaped seal.

The third Heavenly Origin Seal took the form of the Heavenly Emperor, also a funnel-shaped seal.

The three seals formed. Shen Mu decided on the instant, driving the Three Enclosures Superior Consciousness, his divine consciousness pouring into the altar Heavenly Venerable Cloud had left behind.

Upon the altar, the Great Emperor's Seal blazed with light. Within the Great Emperor ahead, divine consciousness churned like raging flame; vast radiance like the many-colored wings of a phoenix streamed in countless strands toward the altar.

From the altar a pillar of light shot skyward, rushing at the Great Emperor's Seal.

Hummmm—

The Great Emperor's Seal shook violently. A ring of snow-white light, circular, surged out on every side; then came the second ray, the third...

Ring after ring of light spread out flat, and suppressed the Supreme Domain of Divine Consciousness.

Yue Tingge, Luo Wushuang, and the others hurriedly looked to the star ring on the cliff, and were overjoyed. "The star ring's rotation has returned to normal! Heavenly Venerable Mu, your method works! Heavenly Venerable Mu?"

Yue Tingge looked at Shen Mu, and saw him frozen where he stood, his three eyes wide open, utterly motionless, veins standing out on his brow, beads of sweat rolling down like rain.

Yue Tingge and Luo Wushuang were startled; both could see that something was gravely wrong with Shen Mu.

"Something is trying to invade his brow!"

Yue Tingge was, after all, a being at the perfected Emperor Throne. He saw the signs at once and said gravely, "One Hand, you and I must lend him our strength!"

Luo Wushuang snorted, none too pleased at being called One Hand.

The two of them drove their vital essence together, marshaling their cultivation, and sought to force their way into Shen Mu's brow.

The moment their magic power and divine consciousness rushed into Shen Mu's brow, they beheld a sight of incomparable grandeur: a majestic Great Emperor standing amid boundless space and time, who had slain the Duke of Heaven and shattered the stars with his blows, and was now charging at the ox-headed, human-bodied Earl of Earth!

In the next instant the Earl of Earth's head was severed, and the Great Emperor tore him in two!

Yue Tingge looked ahead, and there beheld the vast phantom form of the ancient god Heavenly Emperor — that was the third seal — and behind that third seal lay Shen Mu's Primordial Fetus Divine Treasury and his Spirit Fetus.

"This is bad!"

Yue Tingge and Luo Wushuang rushed at once toward Shen Mu's Primordial Fetus Divine Treasury, their vital essence and divine consciousness sweeping on in mighty flood, and came to stand beside Shen Mu's Spirit Fetus, one to the left and one to the right upon the Taiji Diagram. They raised their heads, and saw the Heavenly Emperor's seal tottering beneath the attacks of that majestic Great Emperor!