Chapter 1242 — Lighting a Stick of Incense at the Brow

Xue Lingren laughed. "Inform the two Heavenly Venerables? If we told them, would we not be beaten to death by Consort Qiang the moment we got back? The Consort commanded us to slip in here and act; her designs are no small matter. We are the Consort's own people; she has taught us cultivation all our days, treated us as her disciples, passed on to us divine powers and the arts of the Dao. It is only right that we serve her with all our hearts.

" Their bodies gradually grew insubstantial, becoming women composed of cubes, a most uncanny sight. Xue Lingren went on: "The Heavenly Venerables are not on good terms with one another; each has his own designs.

To tell the two of them would be to ruin the Consort's grand plan. We carry with us the supreme treasures the Consort herself refined. This venture can only succeed; it cannot fail!

" Following the Void Beast, they came to the second layer of the Supreme Divine Consciousness Realm. Their bodies changed from cubes into human-shaped sheets of paper with no thickness at all, and before long they became flying points of light. At last, following the Void Beast, they reached the inner reaches of the Supreme Divine Consciousness Realm.

Each resumed her true form, and they gazed from afar at that lotus-shaped continent. There, one august figure after another of the Creators floated in the air, white robes flowing, yet utterly motionless.

The Great Emperor's fleshly body was the most colossal of all, a body without peer in its grandeur, yet countless thick roots pierced through it, pinning it fast to the lotus continent, unable to move, unable to stir. Each of those hundred-odd women took out a small pouch, opened it, and drew forth a colossal divine weapon.

The divine weapons they drew out were all different, like so many components. These weapon components had all been forged from the god-metal of the Ancestral Court and gleamed with a plain, unadorned luster; the runes branded upon them were likewise of the utmost antiquity. The palace maids were about to assemble the weapon components when Xue Lingren's expression suddenly shifted.

She said in a low voice, "Someone is coming! " The women hurriedly stripped off their clothes, spread the garments out, and transformed them into great banners, which they pressed flat against the ground, merging with it.

The Void Beast likewise slipped into the void and vanished. Doubt rose in the women's hearts. Xue Lingren thought: "Both sides' Heavenly Venerables know how perilous this place is; few ever set foot here.

How could anyone have come to this place? " Even as they pondered, the void suddenly quaked violently, and a monstrous ship of unimaginable size came sailing out from the depths of the void.

The Void Beast, having only just hidden itself in the void, was struck by that great vessel; its bones snapped and its sinews broke, and it clung with its six limbs to the vessel's edge, struggling helplessly. Boom — the great vessel smashed hard into the ground of the Supreme Divine Consciousness Realm and skidded for several hundred li before it finally came to a halt.

With soft pops, more than two hundred little eyes emerged from the ground, staring in panic at the great vessel that had appeared so suddenly; they were the women under Consort Qiang's command.

Their great banners were most peculiar: they could merge the women with the ground, yet at a single thought they could separate them again. Their eyes, parted from the ground, seemed to grow out of the ground itself; this was one of Consort Qiang's supreme arts.

That great vessel was immense beyond measure, larger even by far than the lotus continent that imprisoned the Great Emperor's body; even the Supreme Divine Consciousness Realm could not, for a time, assimilate it. The vessel lay slanting in the ground, and what was more astonishing still was that upon this vessel there was yet another continent, itself of immense size! And the Void Beast was most unfortunate of all: ground into two pieces by the vessel, it perished on the spot. The women's hearts trembled.

"What manner of weapon is this?

" At that moment a sonorous voice came, roaring in fury: "Monk, I told you long ago that you could not be sure of the exact position, yet you insisted on making grand promises that all would be well! And now look, we have no idea what godforsaken place we have landed in!

" "This place will do nicely. " Another voice rose, mild and cultivated, like an old scholar steeped in books, unhurried: "Zhuo Cha, do not always shout so.

The War Heavenly King chose this place out of fear of crushing our colleagues in the Land of the Great Void; this is a battlefield now, after all. " Then a woman's voice: "Could we not enter the Youdu of the Great Void?

It is vast and sparsely peopled. " "My craving for wine has come on me again.

Is there wine? I do so want to hack at someone! " "Who knows what place this is?

" "Eh, something strange, a nameless force has invaded my body and turned me into a sheet of paper! You have all turned into paper too!

" "This place has a certain affinity with the power of the Realm of the Living Dead in our Fengdu.

" "Moo.

" "Everyone stop quarreling and listen to me! This is the Supreme Divine Consciousness Realm. I have been here before. Over there lies the place where the Great Emperor is buried!

" .

. . The great vessel was full of strange folk. The hundred-odd palace maids were alarmed, and quietly closed their eyes, merging with the ground.

Shen Mu stood upon the Ark of the Other Shore and explained to the others the origins of the Supreme Divine Consciousness Realm. "It was my idea for the Battle Wisdom King to choose this place.

The Youdu of the Great Void is a battlefield too.

Were it up to me, I would concentrate my forces and storm Youdu; once Youdu is taken, the Great Void is not hard to seize.

To avoid crushing our colleagues there, we could not land in Youdu either. So this is the only place where we can land safely, with no fear of crushing the people here.

.

.

" Zhuo Cha, the Heavenly Master of Martial Combat, pointed at the Void Beast's corpse and sneered: "No living things? Then what is this great brute?

It popped out of nowhere and we crushed it flat.

" Shen Mu glanced at the Void Beast's corpse below the ship, slightly embarrassed, and laughed: "That is a Void Beast, the Great Emperor's mount, left here by the Great Emperor to guard his corpse. There is no need for concern, everyone; there will be no one else here.

. . " Suddenly Yama pushed back his cloak, sniffed, and said: "There is the smell of living men here. About a hundred. . . a hundred and eight!

" Shen Mu's face darkened. Yama continued: "Not the living breath of anyone aboard. There are indeed others here.

" Di Yiyue opened her Holy Pupil and swept her gaze around, but found nothing. She shook her head: "I see no one else here. " Tian Shu, Heavenly King of the Nether Capital, drew the Divine Blade of the Imperial Gate. Its blade shone with dazzling brilliance, casting light in every direction.

"If there were anyone here, they would surely be caught in my blade-light. .

.

eh!

" He gave a soft cry of surprise and shook his head: "Even my Divine Blade of the Imperial Gate cannot illuminate them. " Yama extended a finger and lightly drew it across the center of his brow.

His brow split open, revealing an eye: "This eye of mine was refined according to the great Dao of Youdu. It can pierce the void and the dark and see into a person's soul; nothing that has a soul can escape my scrutiny. " He looked all around, then shook his head: "Though I smell the breath of living men, I cannot see anyone here.

" Each of them made trial in his own way, and none discovered where those hundred and eight people were hidden.