Chapter 1412 — Venerable Hong Shackled

Everyone looked down on Shen Mu. Though he was the founder of the Heavenly Alliance, though he bore the title of Heavenly Venerable, though he moved among the Ten Venerables in the Heavenly Court and rose high in their favor - everyone knew full well that Shen Mu was nothing but a lucky young man whom Venerable Ling had thought highly of, who by a freak chance had traveled back through Venerable Ling's divine art to the early years of Longhan.

It was by foreknowledge, by knowledge a million years ahead of early Longhan, that he had won the title of Heavenly Venerable.

With that knowledge he had astonished Longhan, passed down the divine art of apotheosis in Venerable Yu's stead, and thrashed Venerable Hao. But now, back in the present age, Shen Mu had no earth-shaking exploits to his name.

He was only a fame-fisher who traded on the name of Heavenly Venerable and drifted from place to place to make his face familiar.

Yet now the aura Shen Mu unleashed filled men with dread, with awe.

Shen Mu had no imperial majesty; he had not cultivated to the Imperial Throne realm, and his primal spirit stood only upon the jade terrace of his own Heavenly Palace. But he had the majesty of the Dao.

The power of the Dao upon him surpassed even imperial majesty.

His divine arts displayed measureless Dao resonance, perfectly manifesting the great Dao he had cultivated and upheld.

This Venerable Mu, so long despised by all, was now striking at Venerable Hong.

It was an act of incomparable arrogance.

An act that defied the greatest taboo under heaven.

Yet the fighting power Shen Mu displayed in that moment made every sovereign of the heavens tremble, made their hearts stir.

Without anyone quite marking it, Shen Mu's strength had already surpassed every sovereign of the heavens; he had become an existence towering above them all.

Venerable Hong's white hair streamed as he let Shen Mu's domain come crushing down, and yet however exquisite Shen Mu's Dao domain might be, it could not draw him inside, could not bind him. He raised his palm.

He did not use his strongest secret art, only a Martial Dao divine art.

With the Martial Dao he would crush Shen Mu utterly - crush his spirit, crush his resolve, crush his dao heart, crush his pride, crush everything he wished to protect. He would also crush Shen Mu's fleshly body, break his bones and snap his sinews, strip him of all face, and make him see reality plain.

This world could not be survived by ideals, by passion, by a heart full of hot blood.

This world was the world of the Heavenly Dao, the world of Lord Heaven, his world. Only by serving him, only by acting in accordance with Heaven, only by cleaving to him, could Shen Mu have a way to live.

He could grant Shen Mu everything, and he could take everything from Shen Mu.

He drove out a punch.

The punch was vast and primal, like the fist of the Heavenly Dao, grinding to powder with matchless force the sword Shen Mu thrust at him, grinding to powder Shen Mu's Sword Dao, his sword heart, his sword domain. Shen Mu's Thirty-Three Heavens of the Sword Dao could not even be deployed before him; the Supreme Consciousness Domain Shen Mu had copied from Tai Di was, before his simple, plain fist of the Heavenly Dao, like something made of tofu, unable to withstand a single blow.

Shen Mu's Divine Treasury domain was like paper paste, shattered to fragments by that one punch. Shen Mu's fleshly body was like a porcelain doll; before this punch, nearly two thousand ancient god brands winked out one after another, and Heavenly Palace after Heavenly Palace collapsed and was destroyed. Within Shen Mu's Divine Treasury, Xuandu, Youdu, Yuandu, the Four Extremes Heavens, the myriad heavens and worlds - all shattered into whirling ash.

Shen Mu's bones broke; his flesh was a formless blur of blood, and the primal spirits in his Heavenly Palaces burst apart one after another.

The Ancestral Court within his Divine Treasury, too, was crumbling and collapsing without cease. Venerable Hong's power was too great; even a single simple punch was enough to destroy a powerhouse of Imperial Throne level, to destroy everything that opponent possessed.

"Venerable Mu, do you see reality now?

" That vast and majestic punch of Venerable Hong came before Shen Mu's face, the majesty of Heaven rolling wide, crushing Shen Mu so that his whole body burst open again and again, broken shards of bone stabbing through flesh and skin to jut out into the open - a sight of utter misery.

The power of this punch had still not fully bloomed.

Had its force been truly released, Shen Mu would likely have burst apart on the spot and become ash as well. He showed a smile.

He did not mean to destroy Shen Mu utterly; he still had need of Shen Mu.

Shen Mu alive was more useful to him. At that moment, Shen Mu raised a single finger and touched it to his fist. Crack!

Shen Mu's finger burst apart and became a mist of blood. Venerable Hong could not but be angered; that finger of Shen Mu's was a divine art, and he felt himself plunging sharply downward, and saw all around him strange mountains and rivers like keen, sharp spikes.

That was the Nine Hells Terrace.

A stabbing pain came.

He was hurtling toward the deepest place of the Nine Hells Terrace, and in a single turn of the eye he plunged into the ninth hell of the Nine Hells Terrace.

He looked up and saw a sky like the mouth of a well.

The twenty-fifth heaven of divine arts: Nine Hells Lock the Heart, the Dao Endures.

"You do not know the height of heaven or the depth of earth, that you dare to work a divine art upon me! " The power in Venerable Hong's fist erupted utterly; the vision of the Nine Hells Terrace burst apart at once, and he broke free of the nine hells.

Shen Mu's fleshly body blew apart with a roar under the might of this punch and became ash.

In the next instant Shen Mu's fleshly body was restored; his Divine Treasury, his Heavenly Palaces, his primal spirits, his cultivation, his consciousness, and all else returned to what they had been. "Venerable Mu, you should be convinced by now, surely?

" Venerable Hong reined in his anger and smiled.

Shen Mu's face was without expression.

He brushed past him, walked by his side, and did not let even his aura collide with the other's.

Venerable Hong was startled.

He turned his head, and saw only Shen Mu's retreating back.

Then Venerable Hong looked down, and beneath the surface of the Jade Sea was the reflection of the Nine Hells Terrace. He saw that at the very bottom of the Nine Hells Terrace, he himself stood upon a patch of ground no bigger than a square inch, gazing up.

Though he had destroyed Shen Mu and ground everything of Shen Mu to powder, he had not broken Shen Mu's divine art.

The prison locks the dao heart. Though he had leapt free of Nine Hells Lock the Heart, the Dao Endures, his dao heart had fallen into the prison and had not leapt out.

That Venerable Mu established his Dao through divine arts was no empty saying.