Chapter 1246 — Thick Skin, Vicious Heart

Shen Mu was squeezed until he could not breathe, his bones cracking and popping under the grip. He struggled twice, failed to break free, and could only resign himself to his fate.

Shen Fengqing held him up on the palm of his hand, beside himself with delight, his breath rushing like a gale, accompanied by flashes of lightning and peals of thunder. He laughed and said, "My wicked little brother has finally deigned to come and see me. I am happy today — I shall go and beat Yama to death for you to watch!"

Shen Mu hastily stopped him and laughed. "Yama's skills are superb. How could he be finished off so easily? Only if we brothers joined hands would there be any chance of it..."

"Then let us join hands!"

Shen Fengqing clenched his fists in excitement. "That little runt is always bullying me. Little brother must stand up for me!"

Shen Mu roared with laughter. "Yama is sinister and cunning, and his strength is great besides. Though he stands at the Emperor's Throne realm, his abilities do not stop there. With the aid of the Nether Capital Heaven Gate, he can unleash eight heavenly palaces in one stroke. Still, as the Earth Lord of the Great Void's Dark Capital, it ill becomes you to be bullied by him. I cannot join hands with you, but as your little brother, I can help you understand his arts of the Dao and his divine powers."

He then passed on to Shen Fengqing, by way of divine sense, the methods he and Di Yiyue had devised for breaking Yama's cultivation arts and divine powers, saying, "Next time you meet him, you will not come off the worse."

Shen Fengqing's natural gifts were excellent, but he had little talent for cultivation, and to this day his cultivation realm was none too high; he practiced only the Mystic Body Three Elixirs Art that Shen Mu had created back when the two of them had not yet been parted.

At that time, Shen Mu had comprehended it only as far as the Venerable God realm.

Shen Mu stayed several days in the Great Void's Fengdu. The Mystic Body Three Elixirs Art he cultivated now had undergone an earth-shaking change from the one of old, its path utterly divergent, and so it could not be taught directly to Shen Fengqing.

And the Mystic Body Three Elixirs Art Shen Fengqing had comprehended on his own in the meantime remained very crude, bearing the stamp of his careless, happy-go-lucky style.

During the time Shen Mu remained there, he did nothing but deduce and extrapolate: had he himself continued cultivating along the old path, how would the Mystic Body Three Elixirs Art have evolved?

Six days later, Shen Mu had deduced the Mystic Body Three Elixirs Art up to the Lingxiao realm, completed and perfected Shen Fengqing's crude version of it, and taught it to him.

Though he could have deduced it all the way to the Emperor's Throne realm, that would have taken an extremely long time and would have been detrimental to Shen Fengqing's growth.

Shen Fengqing now commanded an abnormally powerful strength, but he understood very little of how to use it; he was more like an ancient god who wielded power without comprehending it.

The step from Lingxiao to the Emperor's Throne was a great threshold. Only by comprehending a cultivation art of one's own could one bring one's power to its utmost, and hold any hope of preserving one's life in the wars to come.

Only after finishing all this did Shen Mu slip away quietly. By the time Shen Fengqing awoke from his meditation, Shen Mu had already arrived in Yama's camp across the way.

"Fellow Daoist Black Emperor," Shen Mu said, offering a salute.

Yama hastily returned the salute and laughed. "You are too kind, Heavenly Venerable Mu. You are my senior; it is I who ought to salute you. Black Emperor is a nickname others have given me, saying my heart is black — slander, all of it! My title in the Heavenly Court is in fact Nether Emperor."

Shen Mu said in surprise, "The Eastern Heaven's Azure Emperor, the Southern Heaven's Crimson Emperor, the Western Heaven's White Emperor, the Northern Heaven's Black Emperor — the four colored Great Emperors are all distinguished by color. Why is it that in Yama's case, it has become Nether Emperor?"

Yama entertained him with great solicitude. "There is something the Heavenly Venerable does not know: the name Black Emperor is not a good one, and Heavenly Venerable Hao dotes on me, so he changed 'Black' to 'Nether.' It is the same with my Nether Capital — it was originally called the Black Capital, and was later changed to the Nether Capital as well. Has the Heavenly Venerable come here from the Little Earth Lord of the Great Void's Dark Capital?"

Shen Mu was the very picture of uprightness. "I went there to urge him to submit, but Shen Fengqing remains obstinate and deluded, set on rebelling against the Heavenly Court. That traitorous wretch — the heavens themselves he would overturn!"

Yama understood at once and laughed. "Calm yourself, Heavenly Venerable; the old villain Shen Fengqing is not worth your anger. That old thief Shen Fengqing was hand in glove from the start with... ahem, ahem... with certain parties, and he slaughtered every last one of the Heavenly Court's forces in the Dark Capital. Now his powers grow ever greater and he brings calamity upon the world; sooner or later he will meet his doom."

Shen Mu wrung his wrist and sighed long. "How I regret my meager powers, that I cannot slay the old villain Shen Fengqing with my own hands! Black Emperor, so your Nether Capital Heaven Gate has been forged anew?"

He raised his head and studied Yama's new Nether Capital Heaven Gate.

This Nether Capital Heaven Gate had been placed by Yama in the Great Void's Dark Capital to suppress the demonic aura of the Dark Capital and to guard against a sneak attack from Shen Fengqing. The gate was permeated with an aura like that of an Emperor's Throne powerhouse — utterly terrifying!

Suddenly, the corner of Shen Mu's eye twitched. This Nether Capital Heaven Gate was somewhat different from the one in Di Yiyue's hands!

His heart sank. Every Nether Capital Heaven Gate contained four Emperor's Throne cultivation arts that transformed into four great heavenly palaces. The gate in Di Yiyue's hands had likewise been seized from Yama; but Yama had forged a new one.

Yet the Emperor's Throne arts within these two gates were not entirely the same!

"That is to say, when Yama reforged the Nether Capital Heaven Gate, he swapped out several of the Emperor's Throne arts. He is cautious by nature; he did this to keep Di Yiyue from spotting his weakness. That sly old devil..."

Shen Mu smiled, all the while grinding his teeth in secret.

Yama was indeed exceedingly cunning. Even if Di Yiyue studied that set of Nether Capital Heaven Gates down to the last detail, it would be impossible to kill him by such means; on the contrary, she would suffer a heavy loss at his hands!

"What is more, Yama's abilities are not as poor as he makes them out to be. In his Nether Capital Heaven Gate, only the art of Reincarnation cannot be swapped out; the other three Emperor's Throne arts can all be replaced. To seize upon his vital weakness will not be easy."

"Still, his Dao of Reincarnation has already been broken by me. The Dao of Reincarnation is the most crucial part of the Nether Capital Heaven Gate. With that Emperor's Throne art broken, his gate, even if it can still function, will not amount to much."

He had no sooner thought this than Yama waved his hand, and the Nether Capital Heaven Gate sank into the earth and vanished. He chuckled. "Heavenly Venerable Mu, this is but a minor art, a minor art indeed — not worth the Heavenly Venerable's attention."

Shen Mu roared with laughter, and Yama laughed along with him.

"Since the Heavenly Venerable's persuasion has failed, do you perhaps intend to go and see Heavenly Venerable Huo and Heavenly Venerable Xu?"