Chapter 1250 — Joy Falls from the Heavens

Hu Mengdie's body swayed to and fro, and at last she fell.

"Yin Tianzi truly has great ability — even his disciples are so outstanding."

Shen Mu sheathed his sword, his face grave. That Hu Mengdie had been utterly helpless before him was not because his cultivation outmatched hers; in truth, Hu Mengdie's cultivation still ran deeper than his own.

That he could cut her down rested on the fact that he had studied the divine arts and dharma of the Yin Tianzi line almost to the marrow.

And his attainments in the Way of Reincarnation pressed close upon Yin Tianzi's own; even so, his want of cultivation forced him to lure Hu Mengdie in with dreamscapes, compelling her to spend her mana breaking them.

Only at the very end, when Hu Mengdie had exhausted her cultivation, did she die beneath his sword.

"The Wuwang City she refined is a work of no small imagination as well — a fine treasure."

Shen Mu raised his hand. Wuwang City flew up and once more became a wooden stake. This stake bore only three hundred and sixty-five rings of years; it must be no more than a single branch of the Origin Wood. That Hu Mengdie could refine it to such a degree was truly no mean feat.

In the beginning the Earth Mother Yuanjun had given Shen Mu a core of the Origin Wood, with as many as fifty million rings of years. Refined by Hu Mengdie's method, the terror of its power would be beyond imagining!

"From this alone one may see the might of the Origin Wood. Xiao Heavenly Master is unfathomable—"

In his heart he grew warier still of the strength of the Heavenly Court's Ten Heavenly Masters. Hao Heavenly Master had fought the Earth Mother Yuanjun to the death; Xiao Heavenly Master had seized the Origin Wood for himself. These two were likely the very peaks among the Ten Heavenly Masters!

That Consort Qiang had reclaimed the Grand Emperor's fleshly body was likewise unspeakably dreadful; yet whether she could overawe these two was not yet known.

He walked on. He had already fathomed the Way of Reincarnation, though it was yet incomplete, and the seventeenth heavenly palace, the Samsara Heavenly Palace, had not been fully established; but this was determined by the depth of his foundations.

His Way of Reincarnation was more complete than Yin Tianzi's. Yin Tianzi had been able to refine the Samsara Heavenly Palace because his gifts were limited, and he could fathom no more than this much, and so hastily refined his palace.

Shen Mu, striving ever for perfection, his roots too good, wished to refine his own more perfectly; and for that very reason found it harder to refine the Samsara Heavenly Palace.

"The Heavenly Court's great camp is nearly here."

Shen Mu looked ahead, and saw in the Grand Void the phantom silhouettes of one divine city after another rearing up. Seen from the Grand Void's Nether Capital, all was grey; no human figure could be made out, only one Life-and-Death Treasury after another drifting in unceasing motion.

The Life-and-Death Treasury is the sixth great treasury of the human body. Whoever opens it may comprehend life and death, and know how many years of life remain to him.

Yet the Life-and-Death Treasury opens onto the Nether Capital, and so it brings a fearful consequence: one may invade another's Life-and-Death Treasury from the Nether Capital and make him die without rhyme or reason.

This too was why the Heavenly Court was set on taking the Nether Capital.

If they held the Nether Capital, then no one in all the world could stand against the Heavenly Court!

The Grand Void's Nether Capital had been built by Shen Fengqing, and possessed a part of the Nether Capital's own nature; therefore one could observe here the Life-and-Death Treasuries of gods and demons and of those who wield divine arts.

Yet the Life-and-Death Treasuries of the Heavenly Court's great army were all sealed; seen from the Grand Void's Nether Capital, they flickered with the light of runes, set there, surely, by masters of formation arts guarding against assault from the Nether Capital.

Beyond that, the murderous formations in those divine cities blazed with arrogance that reached the heavens; even within the Grand Void's Nether Capital he felt their unspeakable peril, enough to make a man halt and turn back.

"It will be no easy thing to slip into the city. Better to walk a little closer, and then reveal myself outright. As Mu Heavenly Master, Fire Heavenly Master and Void Heavenly Master would not dare destroy me before a million troops."

Shen Mu lifted his foot to stride forward — and suddenly saw ahead cherry blossoms strewn in profusion, grass grown tall with orioles on the wing; all the world turned bright and living in an instant, lending the Nether Capital other colors.

In that grove of cherry trees orioles sang and swallows danced, the melody lilting and sweet, and there was the murmur of running water. Before he had even seen the scene, a clear pond rose unbidden before Shen Mu's eyes: on its banks many women plucked the qin and sang softly; in the pond young women lifted the water, baring arms white as snow, five fingers white and slender as scallions.

Shen Mu laughed despite himself, and walked toward the cherry grove.

He parted the flowers and brushed aside the willows, breaking into that land of soft enchantment.

A few steps in, he saw several garments hanging upon the cherry trees, thin as cicada wings, soft as silkworm silk.

Shen Mu stopped and looked, then walked on; suddenly a garment slipped from a tree and fell upon his shoulder. He took it down — it was a white dudou.

He picked up the dudou and held it to his nose: a faint, clean fragrance.

Shen Mu clutched the dudou in his hand; it crumpled into a ball, so light and sheer it seemed to weigh nothing at all.

He walked two steps more, and heard the music grow clear. Rows of houses with red tiles and white walls appeared before him, and fences of woven bamboo, not tall, only to the chest.

Beyond the fence lay a clear pool, and many women sported at its edge: some barefoot in wet shorts, running to and fro; some seated on the bank plucking the qin; some cradling pipas; and some, with lips of fiery red and mouths like cherries, holding a grape between their teeth and pressing down upon another girl in white, feeding her the grape mouth to mouth.

And the white garment on that girl was already wet; eyes closed, she took the grape from the red-lipped girl's mouth.

Shen Mu peered through the fence, and saw that the clear pool was spread over with red robes. A woman rose slowly up out of the red robes, half her body showing, and laughed with a titter: "Mu Heavenly Master, and yet you dare only to watch from outside, afraid to come in?"

The women by the pool all turned their heads to look, laughing: "Mu Heavenly Master, whose fame runs the world over, turns out to be a lecher — daring only to look, not to enter."

Shen Mu laughed aloud: "Yin Tianzi truly knows how to enjoy himself, keeping so many beauties about him. I think this red apricot of his will be leaning out past the fence before long."

The woman in the pool rose slowly, like leaping flame; her pale toes touched the water's surface, and with red robes wrapped about her she alighted on a throne at the pool's edge. The other women surged toward her, some lying on their sides, some nestling close, gathering around her.

Shen Mu pushed the fence open and went in. With a slight act of visualization a throne appeared of itself, and he seated himself at the pool's edge facing the women, and said with a smile: "I am not yet married. May I ask whether Yin Tianzi might part with one of his treasures?"

The red-robed woman raised a hand to cover her breast, but her robes slid from her slender legs, baring a long stretch of white, slim leg. She giggled: "If Mu Heavenly Master can deign to look upon these common painted things, then take your pick. Which one has Mu Heavenly Master set his heart on?"