Chapter 979 — Sanctimonious

Shen Mu turned his head, and there was Lian Huahun striding toward him.

The woman must have followed the tracks he and Luo Wushuang had left to find this place; but the weather of the Golden Sand Desert shifted like wind over water, and the desert was full of strange things besides. She must have run foul of more than a few of them, for she had arrived days late at the last gathering place of the Creators.

"That's right.

" Shen Mu, with no pretense of modesty whatever, moved his gaze off Lian Huahun and fixed it on the Void Bridge, his face calm. "There is no one left in the Great Void who can threaten me — not Your Majesty, nor Lady Yuanmu either.

" The reason he had stopped studying her was that Lian Huahun somewhat resembled Her Majesty the Empress and Lady Yuanmu: a waist narrow enough for a single hand, breasts high and full, and a walk as light as a leopard's, the muscle of flank and hip showing every ounce of its power. He found her thoroughly alluring. "Can it be that Her Majesty the Empress knows my tastes?

" A chill went through Shen Mu.

"She has studied me deeply, and she comes at me through my weaknesses.

Yet how little I know of her. " He did not know that the Empress had taken Lian Huahun's form not to deal with him at all, but to rouse Heavenly Venerable Hao's love for his mother — and that it happened to answer to Shen Mu's idea of beauty was purest accident.

Shen Mu steadied his unruly heart and kept his eyes upon the Void Bridge.

There the Void Heavenly Venerable was indeed trapped; mighty beyond measure though she was, she stood in deadly peril at the far end of the bridge.

The Void Bridge broke and resumed, broke and resumed, the gaps growing longer toward the end. Had it been mere collapse and shattering of the void, that alone could not have trapped the Void Heavenly Venerable; but there the void contracted as well, and when the contraction reached its limit there came an explosion of unspeakable terror. This contracting and swelling was like the breathing of the void itself, yet in every breath universes were born beyond the bridge and destroyed, life and death flashing by like passing light, and the power of it was beyond all reckoning.

Even a being as near to invincible as the Void Heavenly Venerable could scarcely stir a step, caught in a peril where she could neither advance nor withdraw. One after another her heavenly palaces tottered, riddled through and through by the doomsday spectacle of the Void Bridge, until her cultivation was a shadow of what it had been.

"Her heavenly palaces were opened up in truth, not conjured by visualization.

Had they been visualized, they would re-form the moment they were shattered, and she might even have had a chance of reaching the Other Shore of the Great Void.

" Shen Mu withdrew his gaze and thought, "The Void Heavenly Venerable knows nothing of the art of visualization; which means she may not be the Creator hidden in the Heavenly Court after all. " That a Creator lay hidden in the Heavenly Court was one of Shen Mu's conjectures.

There were altogether too many doubtful points about the death of the Cloud Heavenly Venerable — murdered by a Creator and laid under a Great Bloodline Curse; and when Shen Mu broke that curse for Yun Jianli, he had even encountered that Creator's divine consciousness. He had once guessed this Creator to be the Grand Emperor.

The Grand Emperor had died in the Great Void; but for a Creator, the death of body and soul is not true death — only the extinction of the divine consciousness is true death.

Whether the Grand Emperor had put on a new face and lived on in the Heavenly Court, there was no way of knowing. From the Void Heavenly Venerable's conduct on the bridge, however, she was most likely not the Grand Emperor; had she been, she could have drawn on his formidable divine consciousness to carry her across.

Of course, it was also possible that the Void Heavenly Venerable simply had no wish to reveal her identity and had never brought her true strength to bear. Lian Huahun came up, flicked a glance at Luo Wushuang, then looked away to the Void Heavenly Venerable trapped upon the bridge and said with a cold smile, "Hypocrisy.

" Shen Mu was briefly taken aback.

"Dear little sister," he said to the woman, "why do you call the Void Heavenly Venerable a hypocrite?

" "Dear little sister?

" Lian Huahun gave a cold hum and said indifferently, "You dare call this palace your little sister?

If this palace decides to take your head, no one in the world can save you. " She paused, then went on: "The Void Heavenly Venerable's strength does not end here, yet she has never once used it all, for fear someone will see through her true abilities.

To hold her strength in reserve even at the risk of her own neck — is that not hypocrisy?

" Shen Mu laughed aloud.

"And is Your Majesty any different?

If Your Majesty truly meant to deal with me, you need only use your own true abilities, and I would surely stretch out my neck and take my punishment. Yet Your Majesty must needs enter Heavenly Venerable Hao's tutelage to study the arts of slaying the Shepherd — which shows Your Majesty to be a hypocrite as well.

You so-called Ten Heavenly Venerables, every one of you is a hypocrite; there is not an upright man among you. " "In the Heavenly Court, upright men died out long ago. " Rarely, Lian Huahun showed a smile, and said with keen interest, "Then is the Shepherd Heavenly Venerable an upright man? " Shen Mu moved his eyes off her breasts and said gravely, "I am precisely one of the few upright men left in the Heavenly Court.

" No sooner had he spoken than he could not keep himself from stealing one more glance.

Lian Huahun drew her collar a little tighter, that he might not steal the spring sights beneath it, and said, "The Shepherd Heavenly Venerable's arts and divine powers are riddled with flaws.

From Heavenly Venerable Hao I learned the Eighteen Shepherd-Slaying Arts, and every one of them is aimed at a flaw in your arts and powers. It will be very hard for you to escape death.

Hand over the corpse of that wench, my sister, and I may spare your life. " Softly she added, "Your being alive is of great use to this palace. But this palace means to gouge out your eyes — they are sly, thieving eyes. " Shen Mu's thought stirred, and Lady Yuanmu's crystal coffin flew out from between his brows and struck the ground with a thud.

"It is nothing precious," he said.

"If Your Majesty wants it, take it. As for my eyes, gouge them out by all means — my Mystic Art of Creation can remake even a physical body. " Lian Huahun was stunned for a moment.

All the way here she had turned over countless possibilities in her mind, including every manner of killing Shen Mu, the look of disbelief on his face as he died, and the last words he would leave behind — yet never had she imagined that he would bring out Lady Yuanmu's crystal coffin so readily.

She walked forward and stretched out a hand toward the coffin, yet she was on strict guard against a sneak attack from him. Shen Mu, wholly at ease, stepped back a few paces. Lian Huahun's hand crept slowly toward the coffin, her eyes never once leaving him.

Shen Mu smiled.

"Careful, Your Majesty.

" Before the words had left his mouth, the void behind Lian Huahun split open and an abyss appeared.

From it reached a slender white arm, the fingers long and fine as white-jade scallions, forming a strange hand seal, stabbing without a whisper of sound at the back of Lian Huahun's head.

Lian Huahun seemed utterly unaware of it; and in the very instant that soft white hand came to the back of her head, her figure vanished. The pale hand struck empty air and at once withdrew, but it was too late. Lian Huahun was already beside the abyss, and with a wave of her hand she drove a seal thundering into it.

"Little wench, you plotted against me once — did you think you could do it a second time?