Chapter 1243 — The Ancient Emperor Returns

"My teacher's cultivation is far too low.

" Shen Mu shook his head and walked on.

The Woodcutter Saint followed fuming behind him, the bent paper great-axe in hand, a bellyful of resentment bottled up inside. Shen Mu had not relied on his own magical power to break through the suppression of the Supreme Divine Sense Domain; rather, he knew that domain all too well — he could even set such a domain in motion himself.

Of course, his domain was not a patch on the Great Emperor's, but the Great Emperor's Supreme Divine Sense Domain also harbored grave flaws, and so he could go unsuppressed. The Woodcutter Saint, though, was simply short of cultivation, no more and no less.

They were drawing nearer and nearer to the precipice when, abruptly, beneath the banner, one of the palace maidens' corpses stirred.

Shen Mu's heart gave a lurch. He channeled his magical power and barked a low shout, and the incense sticks thrust into the maidens' foreheads shivered faintly, holding their corpses fast. The Martial Dao Heavenly Master darted forward, only to find the incense on the maidens' foreheads suddenly burning faster and faster, gone in the space of an instant, ashes raining down!

"Martial Dao Great Emperor, something is wrong with the corpses! " Shen Mu shouted at once.

Zhuo Cha, the Martial Dao Heavenly Master, was already beside the bodies — and in that instant, beneath the banner, the corpses rose stiffly upright, one after another.

Shen Mu flew toward them with all his speed! His incense sticks had not been meant only to pierce the maidens to death; they were also meant to lock down the maidens' physical forms.

This was the Supreme Divine Sense Domain, steeped in the Great Emperor's divine sense, and he had feared that divine sense would seize the chance to invade the corpses, so he had used incense to seal their bodies. Now the incense had burned away in a twinkling — plainly the Great Emperor's divine sense had already entered the maidens' bodies, possessed them, and smashed through Shen Mu's suppression with sheer dreadful power! The Martial Dao Heavenly Master clenched his fists.

This old farmer, forever with his face to the yellow earth and his back to the sky, had not yet thrown a punch, yet his fist intent was already piercing the heavens, ripping the long sky apart. Punch after punch he drove out.

The maidens turned their heads toward him all at once and let out shrill cries in unison; the piercing shrieks came ringing out, dreadful divine sense surging, and before their bodies it congealed into a Daluo Heaven! The Martial Dao Heavenly Master's fist slammed into the center of that Daluo Heaven.

Boom! Boom!

Boom! A volley of detonations rang out, and the maidens' heads burst open almost in the same moment!

His fist intent and spirit were simply too mighty. That one punch smashed the Great Emperor's divine sense to nothing; the divine sense inside the maidens' bodies was ground to powder and split their brains apart.

Zhuo Cha, the Martial Dao Heavenly Master, withdrew his fist — then, suddenly, the headless maidens sprang up and vaulted off the precipice.

The Martial Dao Heavenly Master was taken aback for a moment, then rushed to the cliff's edge. The headless maidens hung there in midair, unhurriedly drifting toward the center of this Lotus Continent.

Di Yiyue and the others arrived and stood on the cliff top, gazing down; Shen Mu came over too. Massive divine weapon components were floating out of the pouches at the maidens' waists, slowly fitting themselves together in the air. "Not good!

" Shen Mu's heart jumped.

"The Great Emperor is about to break free.

We must leave at once! " Di Yiyue laughed: "Those divine weapon components are fitting together so slowly.

All we need to do is snatch them away, and he'll never break free! " She stepped off the cliff — and no sooner was she clear of it than the divine weapons' assembly suddenly turned dozens of times faster.

She was shocked. The instant she took that step, Zhuo Cha, the Martial Dao Heavenly Master, reached out to seize her and drag her back; but Di Yiyue's cultivation stood above his, and his hand closed on emptiness.

The Martial Dao Heavenly Master hurried after her, and only then did he notice something uncanny.

In his eyes, Di Yiyue's movements had become extremely slow, but when he looked back at the cliff, the people up there were moving at an unthinkable speed! He pressed on toward Di Yiyue, and the closer he drew, the more normal her speed became, while the people on the cliff grew faster and faster.

Shen Mu took out the Great Emperor's Seal and the Great Emperor's Altar, flew over on the altar, and pulled both of them up onto it.

Only then did the Martial Dao Heavenly Master and Di Yiyue realize that all around them had returned to normal. Shen Mu looked at the divine weapon components: they had already clasped together.

"There's no stopping it now!

" He drove the altar back up the cliff and said gravely: "The Great Emperor's reincarnated form, Heavenly Venerable Qiang, has already reached the Great Void — she must be somewhere near!

If we don't go now, even the Othershore Ark won't be saved! " The company hurried back atop the cliff and made for the Othershore Ark.

Shen Mu turned his head back.

The divine weapons had locked into a colossal sphere.

Strange runes were stamped all around the sphere, and within the Supreme Divine Sense Domain it revolved at a measured pace, rune after rune lighting up and casting its image into the domain. Di Shitian started up the Othershore Ark and sailed outward.

As the ark steadily picked up speed, Shen Mu looked into the Supreme Divine Sense Domain once more — the sphere had begun to roll, winding around the Great Emperor's impossibly towering body on a path that never once repeated itself, and as it rolled it projected still more runes into the domain. "After all these years, the Great Emperor has finally cracked the formation laid down by Heavenly Venerable Ling and Heavenly Venerable Yun. No small feat.

" The thought had just crossed his mind when his expression changed.

"Othershore Ark — dive into the void!

" Di Shitian Li Youran drove the ark with all his might, and the giant vessel rumbled into the void.

At that very moment, on the Lotus Continent, the Supreme Divine Sense Domain shrouding the Great Emperor's body began to spin in wild frenzy! The Creators' clan patriarchs and elders, also pinned down in the domain, aged before the naked eye, while the wounds on the Great Emperor's body began to repair themselves.

Boom! Shen Mu saw the Great Emperor raise his hand, five fingers spread, snatching from afar at the Othershore Ark.

At the same instant, the ark pierced through the void and vanished from this world.

The next moment, the void shattered.

Everyone aboard the ship, everyone in Fengdu, turned to look back — that plain, ancient great hand hung there with fingers splayed, and it was even more enormous than the Othershore Ark itself!

Between the five fingers drifted cloud-vapor; there were thunder and lightning; the fingerprints rising upon those fingers were like gullies, and the closer one came, the deeper the gullies grew, like abyss after abyss! The Great Emperor — truly worthy of being honored by the Creators as the owner of the mightiest physical body in history!

— although in Shen Mu's heart, it was the physical body of Heavenly Emperor Taichu that was mightiest of all. The great hand shot forward with terrifying speed and was just on the point of seizing the Othershore Ark when Zhuo Cha, the Martial Dao Heavenly Master, roared, his hair bristling with fury, and with both fists clenched, flew up from the ship and charged at the Great Emperor's hand.

Di Yiyue, Tian Shu, King Yan, the Old Fisherman, the Azure Emperor, and Di Shitian all hurled themselves at that hand together.

The Woodcutter Saint took down his axe and was about to dash forward too when Shen Mu grabbed him.