Chapter 1110 — When the Hero Becomes the Evil Dragon

Shen Mu carried his lantern and followed the Heavenly River upstream. Through contemplation with his divine consciousness he transformed into a soaring dragon, and the divine dragon bore him racing across the water, his robes streaming.

These robes were Wei Suifeng's; Wei Suifeng was, after all, Emperor Yunluo, and this garment was a treasure in its own right—it caught the wind and made him seem utterly weightless, wholly free and unconstrained. Shen Mu's thoughts drifted far, and every kind of notion welled up in his mind.

It was now the four hundred thousandth year of Longhan.

More than a hundred thousand years still remained before the end of this age, and by then Heavenly Venerable Yun would be dead, Heavenly Venerable Moon would withdraw into bleak seclusion, and only Heavenly Venerable Ling would be left to hold it all up alone. The Ten Heavenly Venerables would rise to power, and the cruel history would stretch on into the Chiming Era and the Shanghuang Era, until Heavenly Venerable Ling was ambushed and slain in the Heavenly River.

There were so many things he wished to change.

Yet after this crossing, he had only two crossings left.

In this era there were still all manner of lamentable things unfolding, and many hidden secrets awaiting his discovery.

But he could not spend both of his remaining chances on the Longhan Era!

Just as Wei Suifeng had said, he could save those two chances for something more meaningful.

This would be his last return to Longhan.

He longed, before returning to the ghost ship, to meet Heavenly Venerable Yun in person, to sit knee to knee with him and talk long into the night, to call him 'Fellow Daoist', to speak of the aspirations each of them held.

He wanted to raise a cup with Heavenly Venerable Yun in joy, to drink deep and unrestrained at his side. He wanted also to hear Heavenly Venerable Yun's thoughts on the future, and his views on the history that had gone before.

In a lifetime a true friend is hard to find—yet that friend lived in the past, while he lived in the future.

"In the future, Heavenly Venerable Hao, Langxuan, Xu, the Great Emperor, the Ancestral God King, Heavenly Venerable Fire, Yuanmu, the Empress—even the reincarnated Ancient God Heavenly Emperor—will gradually gain power, gather together, and move against Heavenly Venerable Yun.

Heavenly Venerable Yun will die in the Xiaohan Heaven Court.

" He said silently in his heart, "His bloodline will be cursed by the Great Emperor; he will not live to the moment he becomes a god. His soul will be sealed by the Great Emperor, eternally sealed within the Divine Consciousness Daluotian in the Ultimate Void. " "His corpse will be sent by the Great Emperor to the Great Void, sealed within the Great Emperor's own body, and made the Great Emperor's spoil of war.

" "Fellow Daoist—the suffering that comes to meet you is so very solid, so very weighty. " "And the suffering that comes to meet the human race is just as weighty!

" "You have shouldered the ancient years; and I, in the future, will take up your burden.

" Shen Mu cast aside the myriad thoughts in his mind.

The Heaven Court was still far off; more than ten days of travel would be needed to reach it.

Shen Mu released the lantern in his hand, and under the control of his vital essence it floated of its own accord, keeping pace with him along the road.

He took out the Egg of Taishi.

A low, deep Dao-sound came from within the egg, like an ancient god whispering; listening to that Dao-sound, Shen Mu seemed to divine the mystery hidden within it.

The Way of Taishi: before yin and yang were divided, before matter existed. If he wished to save Heavenly Venerable Ling, he must first understand the Way of Taishi.

The voice within the Egg of Taishi went on and on, as though that ancient god not yet born were conversing with him, yet the words were obscure, and Shen Mu could not understand them.

"Unraveling the Way of Taishi is no harder than creating, out of nothing, a divine ability like Material Immutability! If Heavenly Venerable Ling could create such an earth-shaking great divine ability, then I too can unravel the mystery of the Way of Taishi!

" He stood upon the head of the divine dragon he had visualized, closed his eyes, and actually fell into a dream. In the dream, thousands upon thousands of tiny Shen Mus surrounded the Egg of Taishi, listening to the Dao-sound that issued from it, savoring its Dao-rhythm, striving to record the wonders concealed in that sound in the form of runes of the great Dao.

"Maha.

. .

" One tiny Shen Mu propped up his chin, licked his brush, his face smeared black and white with ink.

"Guji! " Another tiny Shen Mu on the other side, exhilarated, wielded his brush like flying, recording the great Dao he had comprehended in the form of runes.

Before he knew it, more than ten days had passed. Shen Mu woke from the dream and put away the Egg of Taishi.

Ahead, the Heaven Court was in sight; the Egg of Taishi was a matter of great consequence, and no outsider could be allowed to learn that this ancient god's egg had fallen into his hands. These past days, entering the Dao through dreams, he had sorted out five Taishi runes—only the Way of Taishi was muddled and obscure, and whether these five runes were right or wrong he had no way to verify.

"I need to find the notes of Heavenly Venerable Ling that Eldest Senior Brother hid away, comprehend Heavenly Venerable Ling's divine ability, and then check the two against each other; only then will I know whether the five runes I have comprehended contain any error. " Shen Mu's head ached badly.

"Eldest Senior Brother isn't a squirrel that's cultivated into a spirit—why does he love hiding things so much?

" Verifying the five Taishi runes was of the utmost importance. Even if only one of them was correct, he could start from that single correct rune and gradually derive ever more runes.

All things are hard at the beginning.

To create something from nothing, to establish the 'one'—that was the most important solution of all!

Only with the one can there be two, three, four, five!

The Heaven Court drew near. Shen Mu altered his appearance—not assuming Mu Qing's face, but taking the form of a demigod to slip into the Heaven Court. The Heaven Court now had none of the grandeur of Longhan's early days. More than ten of the Thirty-Six Heavenly Palaces had already left it, flying off to every corner of the cosmos, and many of the Seventy-Two Treasure Halls had departed as well.

The Thirty-Six Heavenly Palaces and the Seventy-Two Treasure Halls together made up the Heaven Court, and along with the Jade Capital, the Heavenly Street, the Heavenly Market and other structures they formed its main body; now, with so many palaces and halls gone, the Heaven Court looked riddled with holes. Moreover, the departure of these palaces and halls had carried off no small number of the Heaven Court's armies.

The Heaven Court had even sent troops to block them, and battle after battle between gods and demons had broken out, until everyone in the Heaven Court lived in fear and unease. Passing by the Jade Capital, Shen Mu saw from afar that the Great Sun Star Lord was like a dull-witted bird, squatting stupidly on the gate tower of the Jade Capital, wooden and blank, utterly without spirit; only after a long while did it flap its wings, yet it did not know where it ought to go.

"The day the Great Sun Star Lord takes an arrow in the back is probably not far off either," Shen Mu thought. He searched everywhere in the Heaven Court, but still found no trace of Dragon Qilin, Yan'er and the others. After those two rascals joined with the six heavenly dragons and made off with the Azure Sky Canopy of Colored Glass, no one knew where they had gone into hiding.

"They have most likely already extinguished the lantern and returned to the ghost ship.