Chapter 998 — Fleeing Helter-Skelter (Second Update!)

Shen Mu looked at the celebrating crowds below the altar, where the chiefs of the various tribes were gathering their people and working them up.

"What are they planning to do?

" Shen Mu asked, curious.

"They mean to gather the strength of every tribe and visualize you together, to swell your body and your consciousness," said the Divine King Langwan. "To make you as they once made the Great Emperor. The Creators who sacrificed to the Great Emperor in those days were beyond counting, and such a spectacle can never be repeated now; yet a million Creators sacrificing and visualizing as one is enough to send your cultivation soaring. In a mere hundred years or so, your cultivation and strength could reach the level of a Throne-tier powerhouse—or higher still—and your very flesh might be made indestructible by their worship. " Shen Mu looked at the surging crowd below, and thought again of Tubo, Tiangong, and the other ancient gods.

He shook his head. "To become a god through sacrifice places far too many constraints on a man. It may make me, but it will also bind me. I would rather cultivate on my own, and keep raising my own cultivation and strength.

" Had this been before, he would never have refused a visualization sacrifice on such a grand scale.

But now, Shen Mu suspected that the ancient gods had been visualized into being by the Creators.

The ancient gods were bound all their lives by their own Great Daos. Or perhaps they were not bound by their own Great Daos, but by the conceptions of the Creators who had made them.

When the Creators visualized Tubo, their thought was that Tubo was the deity who held death in his hand, just and impartial; and so Tubo was an ancient god condensed out of countless such thoughts, hard-pressed ever to leap free of the Creators' shackles. What bound Tubo was Tubo himself. And Tubo himself was visualized into being from the countless thoughts of the Creators.

Of course, that the Creators had made the ancient gods was only his conjecture; whether it was truly so, he did not know.

The main reason Shen Mu had come to this conjecture was the mount of the Divine King Langwan—that iridescent phoenix.

He felt the phoenix's situation was very much like that of the ancient gods, and so he was somewhat averse to the crowd visualizing him.

The Divine King Langwan glanced at him, and her consciousness rippled out to inform the tribal chiefs.

When the chiefs of the Xiumin, Zili, Zhuqiu, and other tribes heard this, they were all astonished; but it was the wish of Shen Mu and the Divine King, and they had no choice but to comply.

Shen Mu watched the crowd disperse and let out a breath of relief. The ancient gods labored under far too many constraints; theirs was a life without freedom.

If the ancient gods themselves schemed by every means to leap free of that shackle, would it not be utter folly for him to jump in of his own accord?

"Why did you refuse the Creators' sacrifice? " Shujun's great head came flying over, grumbling.

"You've thrown away your chance to become a Great Emperor!

" Shen Mu laughed.

"Become a Great Emperor?

My ambitions are far greater.

What is a mere Great Emperor, to be worth a mention? " Shujun was deeply aggrieved, and shook his head. "You don't know how powerful, how terrifying the Great Emperor was.

" "Even if I wished to become a being like the Great Emperor, the Creator race would never allow me to become another Great Emperor. Shujun, the Creators already made one Great Emperor, and it nearly wiped out their race. Why would they ever make another?

" Shen Mu said with a smile, "And if I did become another Great Emperor, how would they know I wouldn't exterminate every last Creator to secure my own rule? I am the Holy Infant of the Creator race, not a ruler like the Great Emperor—otherwise, what difference would there be between him and me?

" Shujun's eyes went wide—this time his eyeballs did not pop out. "That actually makes a great deal of sense.

But would you really be so kindhearted?

I don't believe it.

You're far too crafty, boy.

" Shen Mu smiled faintly and said to the Divine King Langwan, "Elder Sister, let these Creators rest a while and recover their strength and consciousness. Once they've recovered, we'll go to the Land of No Sorrow. " The Divine King Langwan was startled.

"All the Creators go to the Land of No Sorrow? " Shen Mu nodded. "All the Creators go.

" The Divine King Langwan knitted her brows slightly.

"Isn't that rather too great a show of force?

" She did not want to say it outright, but Shujun could not hold back and voiced her true thoughts: "All the Creators go?

Surely you don't mean to go smash up your own ancestors' house? With an army at their gates, there's no telling what other ideas your ancestors might take into their heads. " Shen Mu laughed heartily and shook his head.

"I intend to make the Creator race sit down and talk with the Land of No Sorrow and Kaihuang. If we don't show the Creators' true strength, then even if Kaihuang agrees, his ministers may not agree to live in peace with the Creator race.

" His eyes flickered, and he said leisurely, "When two colossi speak, they must of course speak from equal strength.

" He felt a stir of excitement in his heart.

"Best of all if we scare Kaihuang so badly he wets himself!

" The Divine King Langwan gave him a long, deep look, then sent her consciousness out to inform the leaders of every tribe to let all their people rest.

Three or five days later, the consciousness of the Creators who had taken part in the sacrifice had recovered to its peak.

The Divine King Langwan once more informed the tribal chiefs, ordering them to marshal their tribesfolk and set out with the whole tribe for the Land of No Sorrow. When the order came down, the Creators of every tribe were in a fever of excitement, rubbing their hands and talking all at once. "The Holy Infant is worthy of the name! He's going to move against the Land of No Sorrow!

" "We've long found Shen the Traitor an eyesore. The Holy Infant is a saint sent down from heaven, leading us to level the enemy's nest! " "Don't underestimate them.

A big-headed monster infant came from next door, and he's formidable. " "The Holy Infant can beat that monster infant till he cries for his mother!

" "Naturally. " . .

.

Shen Mu and the Divine King Langwan stood on high ground, and as Shen Mu watched the Creator race marching with their whole households in tow, he could not help but frown deeply. Because the Creators cultivated consciousness and relied on visualization to wield their powers and refine their treasures, every one of them had different consciousness and different powers, and every one of them had a different mount.

It was normal enough to visualize dragons, phoenixes, and other exotic beasts as mounts, but plenty of them had visualized mounts of the strangest shapes. Chief Zili's mount, an enormous white silkworm, was already odd enough; others rode giant spiders, eight-clawed monstrosities, feathered serpents, great kun-fish—even a tree!

Beyond that, there were winged houses flying through the air, tower-ships, jeweled carriages, and people sitting inside giant eggs!

There were also enormous sacred relics flying through the starry void, carrying a hundred or so Creators apiece; some Creators simply sat atop planets, while behind them elders strained to push the planets racing forward, then leaped up and jumped inside the planets themselves, letting the planets carry them on toward the Land of No Sorrow! And many young Creators, their cultivation insufficient, had visualized wings for themselves and flew on beating wings.