Chapter 1352 — The Fall of the Moon God

The two of them stepped behind the screen.

Behind it sat a woman, her hair loose and wild about her face.

At last Shen Mu laid eyes upon the Moon Heavenly Venerable.

At her waist there was a sword wound, ghastly to behold — the wound the Dawn Heavenly Venerable had left upon her. The Dawn Heavenly Venerable was Xiao Weisu; he wielded a sword, and his sword was an emperor's sword.

And as the reincarnation of the Heavenly Emperor Taichu, he was likewise master of every divine ability and dao art. The Moon Heavenly Venerable's long hair covered her face, so that none could make out her features; and beneath that long hair flame drifted and flickered, scorching her face without cease.

Those were the dao wounds left by the Fire Heavenly Venerable's fist prints.

The Fire Heavenly Venerable's divine powers shook heaven and earth — he could slay the Southern Emperor Vermilion Bird within its own ancestral land!

There was also a great pit upon the Moon Heavenly Venerable's head, her skull split open and her brains laid bare: a wound the Ancestral God King had dealt her.

The Ancestral God King had refined forty-nine treasures of the heavenly dao, which could be freely combined to become the mightiest supreme treasure of the heavenly dao!

Shen Mu walked round behind the Moon Heavenly Venerable; upon the back of her garment there was the print of a great palm — the palm print of the Hao Heavenly Venerable.

The Hao Heavenly Venerable had cultivated the Innate Primordial Qi and the Great Way of Guixu to perfection; and though this palm print had not fused the Innate Primordial Qi and the Great Way of Guixu into one, it hid two divine powers within a single strike: the Great Way of Guixu turned into a vast abyss, devouring the Moon Heavenly Venerable's cultivation and swelling the destructive force of the Innate Primordial Qi. Shen Mu stepped forward and came before her once more, and gently parted the long hair that covered her forehead and hid her face. Then the Moon Heavenly Venerable raised her hand and caught his wrist, and said in a hoarse voice, "Don't.

I am hideous.

.

.

" With his other hand Shen Mu gently pushed her palm aside, and said softly, "In my heart you have never been hideous.

Let me look. " The Moon Heavenly Venerable made no further attempt to stop him.

He gently parted the long hair before her brow, and his gaze fell upon her countenance.

The Moon Heavenly Venerable's face was ruined; not a patch of skin was left to see.

The mightiest fire-art divine power of the present age ran riot across it, tracing out one dreadful flame-pattern after another.

Shen Mu's gaze then fell upon the space between her brows: amid the burn marks there was a deep, small hole. That hole had been made by the impact of divine consciousness.

The divine consciousness of the Divine Emperor Langxuan was overbearingly strong; save for the Heavenly Consort Qiang and the Palace Heavenly Venerable, who dared not reveal their identities, he was the first man of the Heavenly Court.

His divine consciousness had pierced in through the Moon Heavenly Venerable's brow, attacking her brain, attacking her primordial spirit! The Moon Heavenly Venerable's Way of Space and her space divine powers had all reached their utmost; though her fighting strength was not the greatest among the Heavenly Venerables, she stood upon ground that could not be defeated — no one could wound her.

The one chance to wound her was the moment when the Moon Heavenly Venerable had no choice but to strike out in defense of the Ling Heavenly Venerable.

Though Shen Mu had seen that battle, he could well imagine the scene at the time.

The single instant in which the Moon Heavenly Venerable tried to use her divine power to send the Ling Heavenly Venerable away was the instant in which her flaw lay exposed; at that moment the Divine Emperor Langxuan's divine consciousness went on ahead, stabbing into her brow, throwing the thought and awareness of her brain into disorder, attacking her primordial spirit. That blow made her flaw all the greater. Then the Dawn Heavenly Venerable's sword came, seizing its chance.

The sword was swiftest; it needed only a single thrust — for the Moon Heavenly Venerable's space divine power was exceedingly strong, and the moment she regained her senses she could flee in an instant; only the fastest of attacks could rob her body of control.

Therefore the Dawn Heavenly Venerable's sword pierced her waist, and her legs lost all feeling.

At that moment the Fire Heavenly Venerable's fist came to the Moon Heavenly Venerable's face, and the Hao Heavenly Venerable's palm print came to the back of her heart. The two of them worked together with the finest accord, one before and one behind, dealing the Moon Heavenly Venerable a fatal blow.

Yet the Moon Heavenly Venerable was the hardest of all the Heavenly Venerables to kill; her Way of Space could shift an enemy's attack into other spaces, rendering even an opponent's mightiest means useless.

The final blow was the Ancestral God King's supreme treasure of the heavenly dao — the most powerful blow of all, and the fatal one!

In the end the Moon Heavenly Venerable still escaped, but her dao wounds could no longer be healed.

That she should live at all was already a miracle beyond measure! The Moon Heavenly Venerable raised her hand and drew the long hair over her brow once more to cover her face, and said in a low voice, "Mu Heavenly Venerable, this is already very good, very good.

It is the best of endings.

" "No.

" Shen Mu took out a scroll, gently unrolled it, and hung it upon his cloak.

In the painting the Moon Heavenly Venerable had the playfulness and the shy charm of a young girl. "That you in the painting — that is the best of endings.

" The vertical eye at Shen Mu's brow grew brighter and brighter as he gazed upon the dao wounds on her body.

The Alchemist came forward, examined them for a while, and said in a grave voice, "We begin with the last blow.

For this one upon the crown of her head, I must know every dao-pattern contained within the dao wound. " "This is a dao wound made by the heavenly dao.

" Shen Mu at once stirred his vital essence, using it to evolve the Ancestral God King's supreme treasure of the heavenly dao, composing dao-patterns out of the heavenly dao's runes, and then composing the supreme treasure of the heavenly dao out of those dao-patterns, reproducing in full the subtlety of the Ancestral God King's blow and the dao wounds still lingering upon the Moon Heavenly Venerable. The Alchemist listened closely, and observed the dao-patterns Shen Mu evolved, and said in a grave voice, "I understand little of the heavenly dao.

You must explain the dao-mysteries hidden in these dao-patterns.

" Shen Mu explained them in fine detail; the Alchemist listened as he compounded his medicines. The Moon Heavenly Venerable sat there quietly, watching this middle-aged man and this youth work in such close concert, and a thread of hope rose in her heart once more. When the Alchemist had finished compounding the spirit medicine, Shen Mu brought out the Taisu Egg, and the Alchemist drew a trace of Taisu primal essence from the eggshell.

"Moon, will anyone come looking for you here? " Shen Mu asked.

The Moon Heavenly Venerable started slightly, then understood him at once, and said, "There are some who do not wish me healed.

If the Alchemist here can truly heal the wounds upon my body, then indeed some will come to bar the way. But rest easy — in this world there are not many who can wound me, crippled as I already am.

" The Alchemist did not hurry to refine the medicine; instead he set the compounded ingredients aside and said, "When I treat the dao wounds upon you, it is highly likely I will alert those who left them.

Better to examine all the dao wounds first, and then treat them all together.