Chapter 1241 — Carrying the Coffin Around the City

The Woodcutter Sage was sorely displeased, and snapped, "You are making mischief again! You bear the fate of Jingping on your shoulders.

If you showed yourself on the battlefield, would the Ten Heavenly Venerables still suffer Jingping to live?

Go back! " Shen Mu laughed.

"I have mastered the art of Creation. Do you think it would be so hard to keep anyone from recognizing me? " The Woodcutter Sage choked on his fury.

"The Heaven Court beyond the borders teems with gods and men; there is no want of men of talent, and those who cultivate this or that Holy Pupil are hardly few.

Do you truly imagine no one can see through your art of Creation?

" Shen Mu tried to soothe him. "Set your heart at ease, Master.

Even if they do see through me, so long as I refuse to admit it, what can they do?

We shall bicker, and that is all. Besides, this time I go to fight you rebels; I will not run wild.

Mu, Heavenly Venerable of the Heaven Court, his honor reaching the clouds, young in years yet daring to plunge into the front lines, who beat down the traitors Shen Ye, Lang Wan, and their kind.

" The Woodcutter Sage glared, eyes wide; after a moment he said, helpless, "You have learned to bicker?

Enough. I cannot govern you.

" Shen Mu remained aboard the Ark of the Other Shore, and all at once the Ark slipped into the void and vanished from Youdu. Shen Mu could not help but marvel at the foundry-craft of the Kaihuang age. Every age in history has its own genius.

The Longhan age was the age of awakening, when divine powers and arts of the Dao poured forth in endless succession, and the system of the Divine Treasury and the Heavenly Palace took shape and grew in that time.

The Chiming age excelled in body and primordial spirit, refining both to incomparable strength. The Shanghuang age was the age in which the arts of the Dao and divine powers came to their full flower; it threw up more Emperor Throne powerhouses than any other, the Primal World alone possessing no fewer than thirty.

The Kaihuang age left behind one mighty artifact and god-weapon after another: the Carefree Land, the Carefree Sword, the Ark of the Other Shore. Heavenly Craft carried tremendous weight in that age.

The present Jingping age has lasted but a short while, and does not flourish as the four ages before it did. In the Land of the Great Void, since only the Fire Heavenly Venerable and the Void Heavenly Venerable hold it, the war between the two sides has settled into a tug-of-war, a war of attrition; both sides build cities, and both sides attack.

Because they must face the two great powers Shen Ye of Kaihuang and the Divine King Lang Wan, the Fire Heavenly Venerable and the Void Heavenly Venerable dare not act rashly either; and since the Land of the Great Void holds the Great Void Youdu, whose Little Earth Lord is a man of favoritism, without taking the Great Void Youdu they can only grind each other down. The Creators of the Carefree Land and the Othershore Void are far fewer in number than the Heaven Court's, and in a war of attrition it is Shen Ye and Lang Wan who cannot bear the cost.

Yin Tianzi led the armies of Northern Heaven and the Nether Capital into Little Youdu to overawe Shen Fengqing, the battle line stretching away to the Great Void Youdu; while across the Land of the Great Void more armies lay scattered like stars, each pitching its camp and fashioning its divine city. The four Celestial Masters and the four Heavenly Kings of the Heaven Court each commanded an army, and the Celestial River Fleet drew down the waters of the River of Heaven, bringing the Celestial River into the Great Void and attacking by water.

Once the Celestial River entered the Great Void, the transport of supplies became far easier; only, the Heaven Court still had to keep heavy troops guarding the river, using newly forged artifacts of the Four Emperors to suppress the collapsing void, at enormous cost in wealth and manpower.

This war had already dragged on for years, both sides attacking each other, each with its victories and defeats; yet all-out battle was more than either could sustain, the slain and wounded too many. So all-out battle had lasted only the first two years.

Both the Heaven Court and the Creators of the Carefree Land and the Othershore Void had suffered grievous losses: the four Celestial Masters of the Heaven Court were checked by the other side's Mysterious Celestial Master, and every stratagem and every formation was shattered by him. The other side even knew their Celestial Masters' very temperaments; whether in clash of arms before the lines or in raids on baggage trains and seizures of grain, they were no match for that man.

And the Carefree Land and the Othershore Void, for their part, suffered from having far fewer troops than the Heaven Court.

Shang Pingyin arrayed his forces squarely and honorably, never taking the unorthodox path, always encircling his foe with the most overwhelming strength, and so the Carefree Land and the Othershore Void had no small number of troops swallowed up by him.

As for Yin Tianzi's assault on the Great Void Youdu, he pushed all the way to the Void Bridge; had the Little Earth Lord Shen Fengqing not fought with all his might, had the sons of the Shen family not come bearing the coffin and staked their lives, they could never have retaken the Great Void Youdu. Afterwards, because both sides' lines were drawn out so long, they could only harry one another on a small scale.

The Land of the Great Void was too vast, full of endless tracts of territory; building divine cities and forging mighty passes was the inevitable choice of both sides.

In the reaches where there were no cities or passes, the gods and demons and the wielders of divine powers of the two sides contended; often they roamed about, seeking the chance to cut down an enemy and earn merit.

By this point the focus of the struggle had shifted to the Realm of Supreme Divine Consciousness. For the body of the Great Emperor there, and the bodies of the clan chiefs and elders of the various Creator races, both sides were resolved to fight.

Only, the Realm of Supreme Divine Consciousness was dreadfully terrible; whoever entered it was assimilated, changed from a solid form into a plane, then into a single point, and at the center of the realm even Heavenly Venerables were frozen in place by congealed time and space.

So although the armies of both sides eyed the Realm of Supreme Divine Consciousness with hungry greed, neither dared lightly set foot within. One day, a hundred and more great banners came crackling and flapping, skimming low over the ground, flying over mountains, rivers and lakes; not far from the Realm of Supreme Divine Consciousness, these hundred and more banners suddenly dropped flat, lying motionless upon the earth, merging with the ground, so that without close study not one of them could be found. In the sky, several dozen gods and demons of the Carefree Land bore a coffin, polished to a gleaming sheen, flying past above; those several dozen gods and demons had eyes like torches, their gazes like pillars of light falling from the heavens, and after one circuit of inspection they went on their way.

When they had gone far, the ground stirred, and the hundred and more banners slowly reappeared, then went flapping on again. All at once the banners stood bolt upright, one and all, the cloth whirling furiously and transforming into young women in the bloom of youth.

"The one who just flew past should be one of the bandit chiefs of the Carefree Land, by the name of Fang Youji, Junior Guardian of the Crown Prince to the traitor Shen Ye.

" The woman at their head surveyed her surroundings, utterly composed.

"But he is not the purpose of our coming.

The body of the Great Emperor is. There is no need to clash with him.