Chapter 1215 — Wrath Must Not Be Roused

The Method of Immutability and the Primeval Art erupted at one and the same moment. The two arts clashed; Wei Suifeng's cultivation surpassed Shen Mu's by a margin beyond all reckoning, yet Shen Mu's Primeval Art was the bane of the Method of Immutability. When the two met, for that single turn of an instant space and time seemed to fall into utter disorder, to cease to exist at all!

Everyone aboard the ship seemed sunk in a strange state that was neither life nor death, neither being nor nonbeing; even the mist that lay thick upon the Surging River was seething in violent change.

And the mysterious expert who strove to drag the ghost ship back into the present could not help but cry out in alarm, pouring forth greater power, straining to haul the ghost ship back into the now. But at this moment the collision of the two arts grew fiercer still; even a being of his stature could not keep his countenance from changing, and he hurriedly loosed the ghost ship and raced along the mist, seeking to return to the present through it.

The mysterious expert saw only that the heaven and earth beyond the mist had grown wholly unreal, warped into one whorl upon another, each seeking to drag him down into its spiral! He fled madly, but the whirlpools spun faster and faster, forcing him to rouse every last measure of his strength and quicken his flight.

He looked back, and saw a grotesque sight at the heart of the vortex. There the matter of the ghost ship was crumbling, space and time collapsing! Shen Mu, Wei Suifeng, and the countless officers and men of the Feathered Forest Army aboard the ship seemed to have become human-shaped bodies of energy—no more existing, and yet existing all the same.

"The ghost ship is finished, and the Empress's corpse aboard it is finished as well. .

. " Seeing a dreadful blaze of light burst from the ghost ship, the mysterious expert hastily turned his head and fled in panic.

Boom— The dazzling radiance drowned and devoured every person and thing within the mist!

And in the very instant that the light touched his body, the mysterious expert at last fled clear of the ghost ship.

His shaken soul barely steadied, he found all before him returned to its wont; heaven and earth, time and space, were warped no longer. He let out a breath and looked about, and there stood Yan Tianfei at the riverbank with a white cat in her arms, watching him with a smile.

"Your Majesty," Yan Tianfei said, smiling as she smoothed the white cat's head; the cat's fur stood on end, a low growl in its throat, its eyes fixed fast upon him.

The mysterious expert dispersed the divine radiance that veiled his face, revealing the features of Xiaotian Heavenly Venerable. Yan Tianfei's gaze flickered.

Soothing the white cat in her arms, she smiled and said, "Your Majesty seems to hold this concubine's mortal body in remarkable concern.

How ironic.

While I lived, Your Majesty did not care for me a jot; now that I am dead, you play the hypocrite so, even to the point of risking your own person to obtain my body.

" She gave a sudden snort of laughter.

"Yes—it is not that Your Majesty cares for me. It is that you wish to take my corpse and use it to threaten me.

" Xiaotian Heavenly Venerable smiled. "Zitong, I missed you, and so I staked my life to force my way onto the ghost ship, hoping to meet with you.

Can it be that you still do not understand my feelings?

" Yan Tianfei laughed coldly. "Taking human form to lie with my sister—is that your feeling for me as well? When that vile woman killed me, others could not tell, but could you not? And what then?

You went and slept with Jue Wuchen! Yes, and you slept with the new Earth Mother as well, that girl born from the Yuanmu.

You cannot govern your own loins! " Xiaotian Heavenly Venerable spoke with tender feeling, softly: "Zitong, I merely made a mistake that every man makes. And have you not done the same?

You and Yu Heavenly Venerable. . . " "Hold your tongue! " Yan Tianfei's face was frost.

"There was not a shred of private feeling between Yu Heavenly Venerable and me! You are no gentleman; he was! I lent him my support because I saw the future of the Ancient Gods—and you killed him!

Yet you did not save the Ancient Gods' fate either!

Your brains have grown down into your loins! " Xiaotian Heavenly Venerable's face showed a trace of embarrassment. Yan Tianfei's wrath turned to delight. Smiling, she said, "Though there is no entanglement whatsoever between Yu Heavenly Venerable and me, to have my revenge on you I have kept a few catamites over the years. Little Seven, come and greet His Majesty, the Heavenly Emperor.

" The white cat in her arms shed its ferocity, lazily licked its paw, and gave a meow.

Xiaotian Heavenly Venerable's face turned exceedingly ugly at once. "Meow," said the white cat, languidly nuzzling into Yan Tianfei's bosom. Xiaotian's face grew uglier still.

Yan Tianfei giggled.

"You scheme to seize my body so that you may hold me fast in your grip again, is that it?

A pity, ah, what a pity—through this death of mine I have already leapt free of the Ancient Gods' bonds.

I am now mightier than ever I was.

" Xiaotian's face returned to its wont. Gently he said, "Zitong, you and I are both of the Ancient Gods by origin. This world cannot abide us.

If my identity is exposed, I die; if yours is exposed, you die. So we ought to set aside our prejudices and uphold one another. " Yan Tianfei said unhurriedly, "And when you next meet that vile woman, will you not kick me aside once more? " Xiaotian's face stiffened.

Yan Tianfei departed with the white cat in her arms, laughing.

"Men!

—be that as it may, this mortal body is my mortal body. I am in no great haste, but what is mine is mine. I will fetch it back myself! Do not think to entertain any crooked notions!

" Her voice turned cold. "Do not forget: that precious son of yours and that vile woman's has a greater mind to kill you than even to kill me! Beware, or I shall join hands with him and finish you for good!

" Xiaotian's face shifted between light and shadow.

The radiance upon the ghost ship scattered. Shen Mu, Wei Suifeng, and the others stood upon the deck, when all at once a hoarse voice came: "Have we broken free of the ghost ship?

" Shen Mu looked toward the sound and saw that the speaker was the Dragon Elder King, who had already freed himself from his petrified state and become a pure body of light. He still kept the form of a Dragon Elder.

The Dragon Elders were a race of giant dragons of the Dragon Han era, dragon-headed and human-bodied, able to transform into colossal dragons.

Their bloodline was exceedingly ancient; it was said that they were descendants of the divine dragons born of the dragon veins of the Ancestral Court. From the palace woven of light, eight Dragon Elders walked out in human form. Like the Dragon Elder King, they too had freed themselves from petrification and become pure bodies of light.

Nor they alone: everyone aboard the ship, even Wei Suifeng and the corpse of the Supreme Emperor, had all become masses of luminous energy.

Even the ghost ship itself kept this strange form—energy without matter. Such was the state of the Great Beginning.

"This is not at all good! " One Dragon Elder stared in terror at his own hands, his heart in violent turmoil.

He rasped, "My flesh, my body.

.

.

I have no mortal body left. Where is my primal spirit? " The more he spoke, the more agitated he grew, and the light within him blazed brighter and brighter!

Shen Mu's face changed greatly.

He cried aloud, "Do not stir yourself—" Boom!

Within that Dragon Elder the energy ran wild; a power of dread beyond measure erupted!

The others hurriedly flew off in every direction, and the raging force engulfed every soul upon the ghost ship!

The Heavenly River burst asunder with a roar, cut in two through the middle by that terrible power!