Chapter 1124 — I Am the Heavenly Venerable

Gongsun Yan lifted her head and laughed. "Great Mage, scheme and reckon as you will, you could never have reckoned on me—this body still falls into my hands! Primal fluid, come!"

The ground shook. A thick root burst up from the earth and blossomed into a great flower, and the flower was brimming over with Hongmeng primal fluid, which it poured down upon the Jingping Yuanmu.

Her possession had succeeded this time; she poured out every drop of primal fluid she had hoarded, watering this new body of hers, meaning to use the Hongmeng primal fluid to raise its strength and drive herself to peak condition as swiftly as she could!

The Earth Mother's roots and the Jingping Yuanmu drank in the Hongmeng primal fluid; root joined to root, they grew together, tangling ever more tightly!

The roots of the Jingping Yuanmu fused with the Earth Mother's roots; the thick roots spread out in every direction from beneath the ground, piercing through countless divine mountains, great rivers and streams, even reaching down to the molten lava deep under the earth!

Before long, all of Jingping lay beneath the canopy of the Yuanmu's roots!

Still the roots stretched on in every direction, spreading across the Yuan World, drawing nourishment from its soil!

Gongsun Yan's aura grew stronger and stronger. Measured by cultivation realms, her power reached Yujing in a matter of a few breaths, then Lingxiao, and at a terrifying pace she shot straight toward the might of an Emperor Throne powerhouse!

Soon her strength reached the Emperor Throne itself, and still it climbed, growing strong beyond all belief!

"Heavenly Venerable Mu, Great Mage of Ten Thousand Kalpas' Indestructibility, you have never once put yourself in the right place!"

Gongsun Yan laughed joyously, her voice carrying across the capital of Jingping, carrying all the way to the desolate wastes where Shen Mu was summoning souls. "You are nothing but a tool for the immortality of us Ancient Gods," she tittered, "a dog we Ancient Gods keep. All you had to do was play the dog honestly, yet you insist on calling yourself a partner—and you even dare to look down your nose at me! You had best remember..."

Her voice turned cold, cold beyond measure: "You are not qualified!"

Outside, layer upon layer of fog surged, rolling in beneath the Yuanmu, and out of the fog came Shen Mu's voice, unhurried: "Earth Mother Yuanjun, did you think that in dealing with you I had only the one simple measure of sealing Gongsun Yan's body?"

Gongsun Yan was briefly startled.

The fog surged with Shen Mu's approach and soon drowned all the surroundings.

Shen Mu stood in the mist, halting before her, and said mildly: "Earth Mother, I warned you not to lay a hand on Gongsun Yan. Yet you went your own way, letting my warning go in one ear and out the other. Cooperating with you Ancient Gods truly gives me a headache. It seems I have no choice but to establish my authority."

Gongsun Yan sneered: "You are nothing but a dog kept by us Ancient Gods, fit only to revive us—do you really take yourself for Heavenly Venerable Mu? You are a mere brat who, by sheer luck, borrowed Heavenly Venerable Ling's divine art and slipped back into the past..."

Shen Mu raised a hand and pointed at her, fingers spread, and said softly: "Boom."

His voice was soft, yet to the ears of Earth Mother Yuanjun within Gongsun Yan's body it came like earth-shaking thunder. With a roar, her divine soul burst apart of itself, turning into countless grains of black soul-sand that poured out through Gongsun Yan's eyes, ears, mouth and nose!

Her other two souls were seized with unaccountable terror. Her divine soul had clearly been restored—she had examined it herself, and Shen Mu had not tampered with it in the slightest!

And yet now she could not sense her divine soul at all!

"I am Heavenly Venerable Mu, who established the Dao through divine arts."

The mist about them thickened further, and from it came Shen Mu's voice, mild: "You have never accepted this. You think that anyone at all, sent back to ancient times, could become Heavenly Venerable Mu. But of Heavenly Venerable Mu, through all ages past and present, there is only one—myself, and it can only ever be me! I can let you live, and I can put you to death."

Gongsun Yan's pupils shrank sharply; root after root crept soundlessly into the mist, searching for a trace of Shen Mu.

At the same time, the Yuanmu too gently stretched out its branches into the fog.

"I need to establish my authority—not over you, but over all the Ancient Gods."

Shen Mu's voice came, and Gongsun Yan's eyes lit up; in an instant countless roots and branches lashed out toward the sound!

At that very moment, Earth Mother Yuanjun's heavenly soul collapsed, scattering as black soul-sand in all directions!

From Gongsun Yan's mouth came Earth Mother Yuanjun's shrill and agonized scream, piercing beyond bearing, a cry shot through with panic and the shudder of death.

It was the first time she had met with anything so horrifying.

Her strength now surpassed Shen Mu's by an unknowable margin; with the power she held, crushing him to death would cost her no more than a breath. And yet her life and death lay in Shen Mu's hands!

From the ancient age to this day she had passed through countless calamities and never died. Battle after bloody battle in those ancient times, and she had survived them all; even in the twilight of the Supreme Emperor era, when she was hewn apart by Heavenly Venerable Ling and the others of the Heaven Alliance, she had not perished.

Even when Heavenly Venerable Hao struck with his own hand, she had managed to slip away with her life.

But now she truly felt how close death was to her!

She did not even understand where Shen Mu had laid his hand!

"I have treated myself as an equal ally, joining hands with you Ancient Gods, but you have treated me as anything but an ally."

Shen Mu's tone was indifferent, bleak and somber, as he said: "Using me was one thing—but you had to lay hands on those around me. Earth Mother Yuanjun, your insolence has passed the limits of what I can bear! Today, by your death, I proclaim to all the Ancient Gods: I am an ally, not your beast of burden!"

He was about to annihilate the Earth Mother's earthly soul once and for all when darkness suddenly churned within the mist; at the same moment, the sky blazed with light—light that came from beyond the heavens, piercing even the star chart that shrouded the Yuan World, shining down upon the capital of Jingping!

Something stirred in Shen Mu's heart, and he stayed his hand.

The darkness surging beneath the earth revolved; firelight flashed within it, and a Lava Earth Lord rose slowly, spinning, into the air.

The light in the sky gathered likewise, taking the form of an old man with white brows and white beard who descended from the heavens, came to the capital of Jingping, and entered Shen Mu's dwelling.

Shen Mu greeted them with a bow: "Daoist Brother Earth Lord. Daoist Brother Heaven Lord."

The Lava Earth Lord and the Heaven Lord's avatar hastily returned the courtesy: "Heavenly Venerable Mu."

The Heaven Lord smiled: "We came together because we sensed you borrowing our power to revive Earth Mother Yuanjun, and so we turned our gaze here. We little expected that Earth Mother Yuanjun, in a moment of folly, would provoke Heavenly Venerable Mu. Earth Mother Yuanjun is a mighty life who has lived from the ancient age to this day, upholding the Yuan World and sheltering all living beings—a towering span of billions of years. Her crime does not warrant death."

The Lava Earth Lord said: "The Heavenly Court is mighty; even the Heaven Lord and I can scarcely protect ourselves. If you kill Earth Mother Yuanjun, will you not have lost a comrade of like mind?"