Chapter 1434 — The Age of Great Strife Approaches

A male voice came from the egg, laughing: "To my shame, some years ago an uninvited guest groped his way here and extorted from me one primal stone and a hundred divine stones."

The Empress was moved, and asked curiously, "Who would dare to extort from Brother Dao?"

"That man is none other than the Shen Mu who follows behind you, Mu Heavenly Venerable."

A female voice came from the egg, laughing sweetly: "Mu Heavenly Venerable, there is no need to hide. I discovered you long ago. But when I saw your arts and divine powers, I knew I could not stop you, and so I held my tongue. Pray show yourself."

The Empress was startled, and rose hastily to look behind her — and there was Shen Mu, come at some point to a spot not far behind her, walking toward them.

"His strength is nothing much, but his methods are peculiar beyond compare — he even fooled me."

The Empress was on her guard, but her face bore a smile as she greeted Shen Mu.

Shen Mu returned the courtesy, then also saluted the ancient god egg on the Eight Trigrams altar, and sat down together with the Empress.

By habit he reached out to draw his sword, meaning to plant his divine sword on the altar as he had last time, but his hand closed on nothing. Only then did he remember that his broken sword had been shattered by Kaihuang's Wuyou Sword, and regret rose faintly in his heart.

"At the Heaven Alliance conference, Kaihuang was too unfeeling, breaking my sword to show that his way of the sword is first. Otherwise, with my sword planted on the altar, I could have made the Taiji ancient gods remember the dread of being coerced and ruled by me, and spared them any tricks behind my back."

He roused his spirits and laughed: "You two brothers in the egg are truly at ease, inviting Her Majesty the Empress to tea and not inviting me. Where is our friendship? The first holy ground of the Ancestral Court that you pointed me to, the Great Black Wood, ten thousand Great Black Mountains, a place where not even birds deign to shit — I took it! And I have not yet thanked you two!"

From the egg came a man's great laughter, and a ringing voice: "Mu Heavenly Venerable, don't take advantage and then play the innocent. You reaped countless benefits at the Great Black Wood — do I need to spell it out?"

The female ancient god's voice came, crisp: "To others it is the first of the Ancestral Court's vicious grounds, but to you it is the first holy ground. We did not say it wrong, did we?"

Shen Mu gave a snort, and again wanted to draw his sword and plant it on the altar, thinking: "These two ancient gods are not simple-hearted. Only with a sword laid on their egg will they speak the truth. What a pity... I must find the finest divine metal and forge the finest divine sword! Then again, it seems Grandpa Mojiang hoodwinked me — he tricked me into believing the broken sword I forged was the finest divine weapon..."

He stared blankly, and before he knew it he was tugging at the beard on his chin again.

The Empress caught him losing himself in other thoughts even at a moment like this, and could not help admiring him, thinking: "Mu Heavenly Venerable always seems so carefree... Strange. This brother Dao in the Taiji lode is of the same origin as that heartless wretch, and possessed of what vast powers — why does he seem somewhat afraid of him in his speech?"

She did not know that when Shen Mu came last time, he had gone through dangers upon dangers, and had it not been for learning the art of Immutable Matter, the Taiji ancient gods and the mining ground would long since have killed him, and his corpse could have been arranged in a thousand different postures.

It was precisely because the Taiji ancient gods could do nothing to him, and because he had planted his sword on the altar and threatened them, that they felt a certain fear of him.

Of course, the gods in the egg would never tell the Empress such a thing.

"Brother Dao, why have you summoned me?" the Empress asked.

A male voice rose from the egg, laughing: "Some years ago, Taisu came seeking me, wanting me to leave my mountain and scheme great matters together. I refused. But she would not relent, and since she was born earlier than we, we could do nothing with her, and in the end had no choice but to tell her to go find Hao Heavenly Venerable."

The Empress was shaken inwardly: "The other egg-born ancient god has gone to Hao Heavenly Venerable? If Hao Heavenly Venerable has the support of such ancient gods, he will be all the harder to deal with!"

Then a female voice rose from the egg: "This time the Ancestral Court has opened completely, and our quiet place will hardly stay quiet. So we too need a fellow Daoist. Having once suffered at the hands of a certain postnatal being, and having been threatened by him into giving up Taiji primal stones, we do not trust postnatal beings."

Shen Mu rubbed his nose, and again wanted to draw his sword and plant it on the altar, thinking: "I must forge another divine sword!"

"So we wish to find among the ancient gods a fellow Daoist we can trust."

The male voice came from the altar: "Taiji is the Dao of yin and yang, of ceaseless generation and transformation, without end. Among all the ancient gods under heaven, the one whose Dao accords with ours and complements it is you, my lady."

"You are an ancient god born of the Dao; and Guixu is the place where all things end, and the place where all things are born."

The female voice came from the egg: "Twin lotuses on a single stem — one stands for the Dao of destruction, a goddess of destruction who delights in chaos; the other stands for the Dao of life, an ancient god who nurtures all beings. This is why the ancient god Taichu chose you as Empress."

"Yuanmu's Guixu is an abyss that devours all; your Guixu is the Mysterious Female that gives birth to all. One destroys, one begets."

"With your aid, our yin-yang transformation can be perfected; and with our aid, you can harmonize life and death, fuse with Yuanmu, and become a unique being."

"Little sister, the Ancestral Court has reappeared in the world — which means the age of great contention is at hand. The struggles to come will be so ferocious, so magnificent, that they will surpass the War of Destruction in high antiquity a hundredfold!"

"Facing a war a hundred times that which destroyed the Creator, anyone may fall! Ancient gods, Heavenly Venerables, ourselves — even those who have already attained the Dao may perish!"

"Join hands with us, prepare early. What say you?"

The Empress's body trembled violently. A hundredfold the ferocity and grandeur of the Blood-Rust War? How could that be?