Chapter 1437 — Peerless Divine Art

When they reached the summit of that mountain, whose height could not be measured, and looked all around, the vast starfield suddenly turned back into desert: the countless stars were gone, and only rolling, flying sand remained. Strangely enough, on one side lay the Great Black Sand Desert, and on the other the Great White Sand Desert.

The terrain of this mountain range was complex, and the range's course was forever changing, so that even the two Heavenly Venerables found it hard for a time to find any trace of Yan Heavenly Consort.

Just then a smaller surge of divine power suddenly came; the two Heavenly Venerables looked quickly, and saw white sand flying across the sky, and two figures racing through the Great White Sand Desert, running and fighting!

Behind those two stood heavenly palaces one after another, blazing with divine light; the sandstorm was fierce, yet it could not block the radiance their heavenly palaces poured forth.

"The Empress!

" "That little wretch of a sister!

" The two Heavenly Venerables at once made out that one of them was none other than Her Majesty the Empress, and the one trading blows with the Empress gave them some surprise: it was Shen Mu, the Mu Heavenly Venerable!

At this moment Shen Mu was racing through the Great White Sand Desert, and before him and behind him were Guixu abysses everywhere, like mouths that devoured all things, swallowing the world as a whale does.

That was the Empress's divine power.

Beneath his feet was the Primal Embryo Divine Treasury domain, spread out and moving as he moved.

Opposite him, a hundred zhang away, the Empress was also racing along, divine arts of every kind flowing from her fingers and palms.

Suddenly, from among Shen Mu's nineteen heavenly palaces, eighteen primal spirits rose in flight, whirling around the primal spirit of the main heavenly palace, each in a different posture, their fighting spirit soaring to the heavens, like eighteen great emperors encircling the Heavenly Emperor, while the ancient gods of the heavens emerged from the myriad worlds, slaying and struggling, their sinews and frames hideous, unfolding the scene of a painting of war gods!

Longhan, when rivals contended! From this one divine art, Lady Yuanmu and the Tai Emperor actually saw the incomparably grand and bloody face of the struggle among the three great heavenly courts of the Longhan age; they saw the shadow of the battle in which Yun Lingyue plotted to ambush and kill the Tai Emperor; they saw the shadow of the Houtian gods and demigods ambushing and slaying Taichu, the Heavenly Emperor; they saw the images of the emperors of the Longhan age; they saw the armies of the three great heavenly courts march to war, bloodshed flooding the heavens!

This divine art was Shen Mu's seventeenth heaven of the Dao realm, displaying the bloody strife of the Longhan age to the fullest.

Boom! Shen Mu and Her Majesty the Empress collided with a great roar, bringing the might of this divine art to its utmost limit; but he and the Empress touched and parted, and Shen Mu went staggering back, almost flat on his back against the ground, his feet treading the desert as he retreated at speed, shedding the Empress's force. The next moment a great abyss suddenly appeared behind him, and out of it walked the Empress, long sleeves fluttering, her sleeve turning into the maw of an abyss, reaching straight for his head!

Before Shen Mu's retreat had even stopped, in a single instant the eighteen primal spirits each returned to their places, each seating itself upon the God-Slaying Platform of its own heavenly palace; the platforms were wreathed in blood-fiend qi, yet it could not harm his primal spirits in the least.

Unawares, he had already crossed the Jade Pool and ascended to the realm of the God-Slaying Platform!

All his heavenly palaces abruptly drew in, and flew in perfect unison into the space between his brows. Shen Mu's mortal body at once blazed with a brilliance beyond compare; in the hundred orifices of that body, the power of ancient god imprints was roused one after another, raising the strength of his flesh to its utmost.

At this moment, in the heavenly court between his brows, the positions of the heavenly palaces shifted, so that the Creation Heavenly Palace became the main body and the leader, with the other heavenly palaces assisting it.

In a single instant, his strength was unified! His bodily frame surged section by section, his sinews and flesh turned hideous, and his power in that instant rose to an incomparable height!

The Chiming Divine Body Art!

His body, which had lain almost flat upon the desert, sprang up at once; the Divine Treasury domain made it meaningless for the Empress to appear behind him, and Shen Mu drove a fist into the Empress's sleeve, striking straight at her vital point; no matter how the Guixu abyss might strangle and slay, it could not extinguish the might of that fist!

As his eighteenth heaven of the Dao realm, the Chiming Divine Body Art unified not only his Dao of Creation, but also his martial Dao and his battle arts.

The ancient gods were famed for the strength of their bodies, and by nature they mastered the great Dao; yet martial Dao has always been the peerless art that excels in close-quarters slaughter!

He was like a great emperor of the martial Dao, wrestling dragons and rending phoenixes at close range, his tyrant body surging to the heavens, and at the same time he possessed the deathless body and deathless primal spirit of the Vermilion Emperor and the Bright Emperor!

From within the Empress's sleeve her palm flew out like a spirit serpent, crashing into his fist, displaying to the fullest the incomparable strength of an ancient god's body!

This true body of hers had died young, slain by Lady Yuanmu's treachery in the early-to-middle Longhan age, and had been pinned down upon the ghost ship ever since; but after she obtained a body from Shen Mu, she used the cultivation of these years to raise the strength of that true body, and it was no small thing!

Yet in a head-on clash with Shen Mu she gained no advantage at all: Shen Mu's body and primal spirit were highly unified, his divine consciousness and vital qi fused into one, his flesh compact, and the various ancient god imprints transformed into the strength of his body. In that instant of collision, within each of his bodily orifices the ancient god imprints blazed, turning into two thousand ancient gods that howled and danced around him, then sank back into the orifices.

Each time his power made its circuit, the Dao-sound within him rumbled and shook, and even the shrieking wind and sand of the Great White Sand Desert could not drown out that ringing Dao-sound. Her Majesty the Empress's gaze was cold; her bearing was like a dance, her long sleeves flying like spirit serpents, her sleeve like an abyss; now and then a slender jade hand came forth from the sleeve, and each strike was full of beauty, yet murder was hidden deep within.

The two collided once more, and each drew back.

Crash!

From behind Shen Mu's head nineteen heavenly palaces flew out and became one great heavenly court; both hands raised before him, he bowed deeply. Her Majesty the Empress's expression changed slightly, and she flew up at once to dodge that strike.

As Shen Mu bowed, the countless grains of white sand before him were annihilated in a rush, turning into strands of chaos qi. Yet in that instant when the Empress dodged, she realized that no matter where she fled, Shen Mu's Primal Embryo Divine Treasury domain made her forever face him head-on.

Amid rumbling, shaking booms, with Shen Mu at the center, all the white sand around him returned to chaos in the violent trembling, becoming chaos qi that gushed and coursed!

Standing upon the Taiji lode, Qiang Heavenly Consort and the divine artifact Yutianzun saw this move and could not help being moved to the heart: "What a divine art!