Chapter 1187 — Slaying the Beast Mother

"What a savage beast!

" The Heavenly Venerables who witnessed this could not help but cheer in unison. That Void Mother Beast was truly ferocious; a single bite pierced through one heaven after another, and that vast maw could swallow even stars whole.

"To hold the foremost supreme treasure under heaven and yet have no host of men to match it — that Shen is nothing but a lucky commoner.

" Ancestral God King sneered. After that giant Void Beast had bitten through eight layers of heavens, huge beast eggs came raining down from the opening in the void, one after another; within the many heavens of the Glazed Azure Heaven Banner it was as though a meteor shower had begun, streaks of light flashing past and smashing into heaven after heaven. The moment those Void eggs touched the ground they split open of their own accord, and Void Beasts crawled out, roaring at the sky, then flung themselves at the supreme treasures in every heaven.

"Truly a world-ending power!

" the Heavenly Venerables marveled together.

Divine Emperor Langxuan said, "One strike piercing eight layers of heaven — many cultivators of the Imperial Throne realm might not possess such strength! This time the Shepherd Heavenly Venerable's territory is lost.

" "And yet he cannot be allowed to die.

" The Heavenly Venerables said one after another, "Together we could surely break the seal on the Ancestral Court, but these Void Beasts are hard to guard against; even one escaping would be a great trouble. We still need the Shepherd Heavenly Venerable to bring us out without breaking the Ancestral Court's seal. " Scarcely had they spoken when they saw Shen Mu overturn the twenty-eight heavens, turning them upside down to shelter the Heavenly Sphere.

It was a move forced upon him by necessity.

Had Shen Mu possessed hundreds of thousands of gods and devils to arrange in formation, he could have roused the power of the supreme treasures of every heaven and repaired the damaged heavens at once.

But he was alone, and so he could only invert the heavens, turning the places bitten through by the Void Mother Beast face down against the ground to plug the gaps for the time being. As for the small Void Beasts that had already entered the twenty-eight heavens, he had no time to deal with them at all; countless little Void Beasts fell upon treasure after treasure and set their teeth to them.

Shen Mu bowed low to the jade pillar of the Azure Heaven Banner, and the treasures blazed with light, shredding countless little Void Beasts to powder — vaporizing them outright!

Yet the adult Void Beasts had already rushed into heaven after heaven and begun devouring the supreme treasures! And the Void Mother Beast descended once more, thrusting half of its colossal body out of the nineteenth void, its sharp claws tearing through layer upon layer of heaven!

As the heavens were ripped open, its head followed close behind, its eyelids rolling up to cover its enormous eyes, its great maw opening wide as it lunged to swallow the Heavenly Sphere!

The Void Mother Beast was not especially clever, no wiser than the other Void Beasts; but the Great Emperor who controlled the Mother Beast and its horde was a being of surpassing intellect, and from this observation he had seen through the truth of the Glazed Azure Heaven Banner, the foremost supreme treasure under heaven, and realized that the Heavenly Sphere was the crux of it.

That was why the Void Mother Beast had set itself specifically against the Heavenly Sphere, intending to utterly unravel the supreme treasure. Just as the Void Mother Beast was about to swallow the Heavenly Sphere, Shen Mu's mind stirred and he shifted the Sphere's position, letting it sink from the eighth heaven down to the ninth.

The Void Mother Beast thrust another portion of its body down and gave chase into the ninth heaven, but the Heavenly Sphere sank again, to the tenth. It chased into the tenth, and the Sphere sank to the eleventh; the Mother Beast pressed close behind and soon reached the eighteenth heaven, and now its whole body was about to emerge entirely from the seventeenth void.

At that moment Shen Mu abruptly changed the formation of the heavens; the twenty-eight heavens whirled madly, seething like molten rock, tossing the countless giant Void Beasts that had invaded them into such confusion that they could not keep their footing and were flung off the treasures one and all! "Stop! " Shen Mu bellowed, and the twenty-eight heavens stopped dead; countless Void Beasts were hurled against the barriers of the heaven-worlds, smashing layer upon layer of those world-barriers to fragments!

Shen Mu bowed low and cried, "Treasures, slay the mighty foe!

" The twenty-eight heavens were on the verge of collapse, and the supreme treasures were about to fall from them, when of a sudden the Heavenly Sphere quaked, and a vast, primeval power burst forth; the might of the treasures of every heaven bloomed and came surging in from all directions, hammering into the Void Mother Beast! BOOM— A thunderous roar that shook heaven and earth rang out; radiance of every hue gushed forth, the sound of the Dao reverberated, and the Void Mother Beast's colossal body shattered and burst apart in the light, its enormous head tumbling from its severed neck!

BOOM BOOM BOOM— Countless explosions joined into one, blasting the Mother Beast's head and body to powder; blood poured down from the sky, a rain of blood descending like a waterfall.

Then the two legs the Void Mother Beast had kept hidden in the nineteenth void came falling too. Seeing this, Shen Mu was overjoyed, but all at once he felt dizzy and his vision swam; he knew that in pitting all his wit against the horde of Void Beasts he had damaged his spirit.

Still, the horde was now headless, and this was the perfect chance to slaughter the Void Beasts. He forced his spirits up, roused the Glazed Azure Heaven Banner, and borrowing the might of the Heavenly Sphere, called upon the power of treasure after treasure to cut down the Void Beasts that had invaded the twenty-eight heavens. The horde fell into chaos, each beast fighting alone, and soon he had slaughtered more than half; but the twenty-eight heavens were damaged, and quite a few Void Beasts still escaped.

Shen Mu held on by sheer force of will, rousing the treasures again and again, and at last swept the twenty-eight heavens clean of Void Beasts.

His vision went black; he knew his spirit was spent to the last drop, yet he gritted his teeth, bowed low to the Glazed Azure Heaven Banner, and said in a hoarse voice, "Treasures, mend yourselves. " The damaged places in the twenty-eight heavens began slowly to heal.

Shen Mu let out a breath.

He knew that with such a commotion here, it could hardly be hidden from the other Heavenly Venerables. He was about to speak when the nausea in his chest became unbearable and he began to retch. He hastily roused the Mystic Body Three Cores Art to recover his spirit, and then saw familiar figures walking from the distance, drawing near the Blackwood Mountains.

The Blackwood Mountains were now completely covered by the corpses of Void Beasts, their original appearance lost beyond recognition, and Shen Mu could no longer muster the power of the Glazed Azure Heaven Banner to bar the Heavenly Venerables' entry.

The eight Heavenly Venerables — Hao, Xiao, Gong, Qiang, Hong, Yan, Langxuan and the Ancestral God King — walked without their feet touching the ground to the Great Black Peak. Shen Mu forced down his retching, greeted them, and said mildly, "Greetings, fellow Daoists.

" Heavenly Consort Qiang said with concern, "Shepherd Heavenly Venerable, your face is pale; clearly you have spent too much of your spirit.

Do not force yourself to hold on. " Shen Mu gave a cold snort.

"I can bear it.