Chapter 975 — Power That Reaches Heaven

"The Void Heavenly Venerable is dangerous?"

Shen Mu could not help sinking into thought. What exactly did the Fire Heavenly Venerable mean by that?

Did he mean that the Void Heavenly Venerable, the woman, was dangerous? Or that something was wrong with the Void Heavenly Venerable as a person?

"The Fire Heavenly Venerable is as hot-headed as ever, and he never says a thing clearly."

Shen Mu shook his head. In the old days the Fire Heavenly Venerable had been of a fiery temper; he had once come to blows with Shen Mu over some trifle, and had been soundly beaten for it, and now he was still the same.

"But he did not strike to kill me, and he told me to look after the Cloud Heavenly Venerable's body. Back at the Jade Pool, among the three Heavenly Venerables who raised their hands to shield me, was he one of them?"

Shen Mu sighed. He had meant to ask the Fire Heavenly Venerable who that sword-mastering enemy he had met in the Creators' city was, and whether it was Kaihuang; but the Fire Heavenly Venerable had left so fast that he had had no time to ask.

If Kaihuang was also in the Great Void, then it meant the Land of No Sorrow was here as well.

They walked out of the Supreme Divine Consciousness Domain, and saw before them a rootless fire blazing fiercely, flames two or three zhang high, now swelling, now dwindling.

Above the flames hung a golden rope, its upper end tethered to a cloud in the sky, its lower end binding a man whose hands and feet were trussed behind his back; he dangled over the fire, and the rootless flames burned him till his screams came without cease.

Shen Mu and Luo Wushuang looked closely: it was Yue Tingge, Celestial Master Yue.

Seeing the two of them, the Daoist hurriedly choked down his pain and cried out at the top of his voice: "Mu Heavenly Venerable, young friend Luo, I offended the Fire Heavenly Venerable and could not escape him. He never forgives the least slight; he seized me and hung me here, meaning to roast me for a few hundred years to avenge himself, and only then will he let me go! I beg the two of you to save me, and this humble Yue will be endlessly grateful!"

Shen Mu turned a blind eye and stopped his ears.

Luo Wushuang, being kind of heart, said, "The Fire Heavenly Venerable hung you here instead of killing you, so he must have his reasons. If we untie you on our own account, will we not have offended him? Celestial Master Yue, just burn through the rope and you will be free. Rub yourself against the fire a little..."

Yue Tingge raged: "This rope is a treasure he refined, and this fire is his fire. How could it possibly burn through? You are even worse than the Mu Heavenly Venerable!"

The two were about to leave when Yue Tingge said hurriedly, "I know a secret!"

Shen Mu and Luo Wushuang kept walking. Yue Tingge cried, "I know where the rest of the Creators went!"

Shen Mu halted, turned around, and said in astonishment, "How is it that Celestial Master Yue is hanging here? Who is so bold as to put Celestial Master Yue on a fire to roast? Divine Blade Luo, quick, lend a hand and get Celestial Master Yue down!"

Yue Tingge glared, eyes wide and round, staring fixedly at him.

Shen Mu's face did not change. He wrought a teleportation formation and sent that rootless fire dozens of li away; Luo Wushuang, for his part, tried to untie the golden rope, but could not. Instead the rope bit him, and the web of his hand between thumb and forefinger came away dripping blood.

The head of the golden rope was a dragon's head; small though it was, it was most vicious.

Shen Mu came forward and studied the golden rope. "This golden rope is a dragon. Most likely it was the Fire Heavenly Venerable's mount or his belt, and he has refined it into a weapon. It will not be easy to undo... Just now Celestial Master Yue said he knew where the Creators went. Perhaps Celestial Master Yue would be so good as to tell us in detail."

Yue Tingge's eyes rolled. "I have been trapped here for more than fifteen thousand years. I know this place like the palm of my own hand. I have been to the Supreme Divine Consciousness Domain, and to other perilous places as well. I found the last gathering place of the Great Void's Creators, and they have migrated. Set me free, and I will tell you what I know."

Luo Wushuang shook his head. "I cannot untie this golden rope."

Shen Mu pondered a moment, then bowed to the golden rope. "Fire Heavenly Venerable, will you grant me this courtesy?"

The golden rope slipped loose of itself and became a golden dragon; it opened its great mouth, sucked in the distant rootless fire, then flew off shaking its head and wagging its tail into the clouds, where it hung its head down and did not leave.

Luo Wushuang was struck dumb.

Yue Tingge dropped to the ground, scrambled up, patted the dirt from his clothes, glanced at the golden dragon and still felt a chill of fear. "I found the last assembly of the Creators, and there I saw their arrangements. They opened up a void within the Great Void, evolved heaven and earth, and at the last departed through the void. By my reckoning, since the Great Void was collapsing and no longer fit to dwell in, they must have left in the middle and late years of the Longhan Era, and there must have been a great man of Longhan to guide them."

Shen Mu said thoughtfully, "Could that great man be the Cloud Heavenly Venerable? Otherwise, why would the Cloud Heavenly Venerable have left Kaihuang a map of the Great Void?"

"That, I do not know."

Yue Tingge said, "They went to another void, and the road they took was the Void Bridge. I too have been to the Void Bridge, but it is truly perilous; a man cannot set foot on it, and so I am trapped here. There is one more thing..."

He hesitated, unsure whether he ought to speak.

A look of doubt came over Shen Mu's face.

Yue Tingge gritted his teeth. "At the far end of the Void Bridge, I once saw a ship sailing in from the very end. It was about thirty years ago. On that ship were a husband and wife, and they were not Creators. The ship flashed past; I had no time to give chase before it had already sailed out of the land of the Great Void."

Shen Mu's heart jolted. "More than thirty years ago?"

Yue Tingge nodded. "About thirty-five years ago. Judging by the bearing of those aboard, they should be heirs of Kaihuang's line. Perhaps for this very reason the Heavenly Court has kept exploring the Great Void; in the last thirty years or so, more and more people have entered it. But very few live to come this far. For most of the last ten thousand years I have been alone here, though I did once see Mahabrahma; that white-browed monk came here as if sleepwalking. I am a Daoist, and I do not care for monks..."

Shen Mu glanced at the golden dragon and went on, "Then let Celestial Master Yue lead the way, to the Void Bridge."

Yue Tingge shook his head. "I will not go there. I fear truly meeting Kaihuang. It was by my hand that Kaihuang's Heavenly Court was destroyed. I can draw you the route; you may go on your own."

Shen Mu took out paper and brush. Yue Tingge bent his head and drew a map of the geography of the Great Void. Luo Wushuang could not help asking curiously, "Does Celestial Master Yue not intend to leave the Great Void and return to the Heavenly Court? If we can cross the Void Bridge, perhaps we may find a way back to the Heavenly Court."

"Leave the Great Void and return to the Heavenly Court?"

Yue Tingge did not raise his head, and sneered. "Go back to the Heavenly Court and die? The moment I leave the Great Void, I will die. There are those who will not let me leave this place..."

He finished the map, then suddenly raised his head and looked warily at Shen Mu and Luo Wushuang. "Who are you?"

He had gone mad again.