Chapter 1433 — That Detestable Tai Emperor

Shen Mu's eyes flickered. The most conspicuous holy grounds on the Ancestral Court's front face had all been carved up by the various Heavenly Venerables; little prime land was left for Lady Yuanmu. Was Lady Yuanmu's Divine Artifact Heavenly Venerable emerging now to stir up trouble and wrest territory from the other Heavenly Venerables?

"Surely Lady Yuanmu hasn't set her sights on the Tai Emperor's territory?"

Yet contrary to his expectations, the Divine Artifact Heavenly Venerable did not move against Qiang Heavenly Consort's domain. Instead it soared into the air — and in the instant it rose, a vast Guixu Abyss abruptly appeared in the sky and swallowed it whole!

"Sneaking about like that, that little wench Yuanmu is up to something again, mark my words!"

Shen Mu grew excited. The vertical eye at the center of his brow opened, and he peered into the void to watch the Divine Artifact Heavenly Venerable's movements.

Then he suddenly saw a figure shoot skyward from Qiang Heavenly Consort's domain, stirring no ripple at all, giving off no aura whatsoever, slipping soundlessly into the void to trail the Divine Artifact Heavenly Venerable.

"It's that little wench the Tai Emperor... bah! It's that little wench Qiang Heavenly Consort!"

Shen Mu grew more excited still. Qiang Heavenly Consort was the Tai Emperor's reincarnated body; she too had caught wind of Lady Yuanmu's doings and was stealthily tracking her!

He looked toward Qiang Heavenly Consort's domain — the Ancestral Court's God-Slaying Platform, steeped in deadly aura, the most baleful place in all the universe. Seen from afar, two blood-red killing auras rose towering into the air, twined together, vaster than the mightiest tornado in the world!

Those two killing auras were blood-red and incomparably keen. One glance from afar and Shen Mu could not help but shiver.

"How on earth did the blood aura of the God-Slaying Platform take shape? Why is its killing intent so heavy?"

He yearned to go in and experience the God-Slaying Platform for himself, yet merely at the outer edge of Qiang Heavenly Consort's domain he could feel that this blood aura threatened even the Dao of heaven and earth. Standing here, he felt the Dao runes within his body shattering one after another, sliced clean in half!

"The Ancestral Court's God-Slaying Platform cannot possibly be this strong!" Shen Mu could not help shivering again and again.

His primordial spirit, too, sensed an incomparably keen force pressing in on it, like countless blades of utmost sharpness poised to fall at any moment!

More terrifying still — the God-Slaying Platform severed the Dao-heart! The Heavenly Court's God-Slaying Platform was a place for slaying gods: it severed the bodies and the primordial spirits of rebellious gods, but it did not sever the Dao-heart. Luo Wushuang was called the Heavenly Court's finest divine blade for his outstanding saber arts. Having stepped into the Dao Realm, he entered the Heavenly Court's God-Slaying Platform alone, bearing a single blade, and in the end walked out unharmed by virtue of his own saber Dao.

Yet Shen Mu doubted that if Luo Wushuang had gone to the Ancestral Court's God-Slaying Platform, he might not have survived even the single trial of the Dao-heart. Strong as Luo Wushuang's Dao-heart was, he had not yet cultivated to the height of the Dao Realm's twenty-fourth heaven.

"The God-Slaying Platform's power is no trifling matter! It cannot sever my Dao-heart, but it may well sever my body or my primordial spirit."

Shen Mu withdrew his gaze; two blood-colored blade lights were still whirling in his pupils, and it was a moment before he ground them out.

"This God-Slaying Platform must have been formed by absorbing the killing aura of all beneath the heavens. Its power is too great — most likely it has slain exceedingly mighty beings from the ancient era and drunk far too much blood!"

He had originally intended that, once the Jade Terrace was perfected, he would pass straight through the God-Slaying Platform; perfect that, and he would be a great master of the Nine-Prison Terrace realm, free to go in search of the Jade Capital City. After all, he had already passed the trial of the Prison-Locked Dao-heart and walked out of the Nine-Prison Terrace alive.

But he had underestimated the Ancestral Court's God-Slaying Platform.

The Four Heavenly Gates, the Jade Terrace, the Nine-Prison Terrace — none of these places could grow on their own. Yet the God-Slaying Platform could grow by itself! In the ancient era, the leaders of the various Creator races must have sent their prisoners of war, or their rebels, here to be beheaded by the God-Slaying Platform, and the blood fed it, making it ever stronger — so strong that although it ranked only as the fourth realm of the Heavenly Palace system, its might could hew down a handful of Emperor Throne powerhouses as neatly as slicing melons and cutting vegetables!

The peril of this God-Slaying Platform far exceeded that of the Nine-Prison Terrace.

"That motherless Tai Emperor, promising to let me enter the God-Slaying Platform for tempering — sure enough, the motherless bastard meant no good by it!" Shen Mu cursed loudly.

His current strength was enough to contend with Emperor Throne realm beings, but he relied on the marvels of his divine arts. He had mastered every manner of obscure Daoist art and divine ability: the Dao of the Great Beginning, the Dao of the Great Ultimate, the Dao of the Great Change, the Dao of the Great Simplicity, and Ling Heavenly Venerable's Unchanging Divine Art. His body and his mana had not yet grown strong enough to rival Emperor Throne powerhouses, nor had his primordial spirit reached their level.

The Tai Emperor's gracious permission for him to enter the God-Slaying Platform for tempering had plainly been an attempt to borrow the platform's might and lop off his head!

"Motherless Tai Emperor!"

Shen Mu cursed again, then abruptly unleashed the Guixu Single-Breath Genesis — though he performed only half the move. A vast Guixu Abyss appeared, and he stepped into it, and his form vanished.

"Yuanmu, Tai Emperor — I mean to see just what the two of you are up to!"

After a long while, Shen Mu's brow-eye peered far and wide and at last found Qiang Heavenly Consort's trail. Trailing Lady Yuanmu's Divine Artifact Heavenly Venerable, she had come to a vast desert of black sand.

Shen Mu looked all around, doubt in his heart. "This should be the Taiji Star Region, domain of the Taiji mineral veins. What has Lady Yuanmu come here for?"

Just then, he caught sight of the Divine Artifact Heavenly Venerable. It was hidden within a Guixu divine art, lurking in the void. Shen Mu was baffled. "That little tramp Yuanmu seems to be trailing someone as well..."

Then he saw a peerless beauty strolling through the black-sand desert, heading toward the Taiji mineral veins.

Jue Wuchen!

"It is Her Majesty the Empress!"

Shen Mu, too, was hidden within a Guixu divine art, and his pupils contracted. Jue Wuchen was what he had given to Yan Heavenly Consort — back then, in exchange for the yield of the Taishi mineral veins, he had traded away the Empress's physical body, Jue Wuchen and all, to Yan Heavenly Consort. Now Her Majesty the Empress had taken possession of Jue Wuchen's body and come to meet the ancient god within the Taiji mineral veins!