Chapter 1473 — He Is None Other Than That Legend

From the moment Di Qing rose to meet Heavenly Venerable Hong to the moment Di Qing fell in battle, no more time had passed than it takes a single stick of incense to burn, and in so brief a span another man could never have fled far at all. Yet the very instant Di Qing left this continent, Shen Mu was already driving the Mystic Body Three Elixirs Art, with the Zaiji Heavenly Palace as his guiding seat and the rest of his heavenly palaces in support, gathering his qi into a sword and sweeping one stroke behind him.

At that stroke's descent, layer upon layer of space came surging forth, and out of that surging space ten thousand stars poured from the void, stretching the distance between them and Heavenly Venerable Hong ever wider! Stroke after stroke he swept, and the space swelled without cease. Though all of them together, pooling the strength of every soul present, could not have stood against Heavenly Venerable Hong, when it came to flight, not even a Heavenly Venerable could hope to run Shen Mu down.

The Zaiji Void Sutra, the art of the Moon Heavenly Venerable — he had not mastered it fully, yet he had steeped himself in it long enough that, with such means, he was confident he could outrun the pursuit of any Heavenly Venerable. But to carry the people of this continent away from Heavenly Venerable Hong's pursuit — that was beyond his strength.

Di Qing was nothing to him; Di Qing's kin were nothing to him; but once he gave his word, he would spend every last ounce of himself to keep it. Shen Mu swept out more than ten strokes in succession until his mana began to strain; then he halted his feet, and the Mystic Body Three Elixirs Art reshuffled the sequence of his heavenly palaces. Now he took his own principal heavenly palace as the guiding seat and the others in support, raising the power of his cultivation to its utmost limit.

Boom— An Other Shore Divine Ark appeared beneath the continent, bearing up the whole battered landmass, and slowly gathering speed. When the ark's speed reached its peak, the entire continent crashed roaring through the void and entered the first layer of the void.

A moment later the ark carried the continent through into the second layer of the void. But by the time it plunged into the sixth layer, the continent could no longer bear the void's crushing weight; the people among the ruins of Tianfang City upon it could hold out no longer either, and their bodies began to turn immaterial.

The many Sun Keepers spent themselves utterly, shielding them with their own mana and slowing that tide for a time. Yet this fragment of Tianfang City could not hold.

Divine stones the size of mountain ranges peeled away from the land one after another, broke free, and then little by little dissolved into the void. The fragment grew smaller and smaller, soon shrinking from a continent to an island, forcing the people upon it to crowd together, barely with room to stand. Shen Mu's vital essence shuddered; he forced the ark faster, driving it away from Xuandu.

He did not know how long had passed when his mana neared exhaustion.

With the last of his strength he tore the Tianfang City fragment free of the eighth layer of the void; and when the fragment left the void, Shen Mu's aura collapsed violently, and he nearly fell to the ground. "Everyone. " Steadying himself on Tian Shu's and Zai Fu's arms, Shen Mu addressed the hundred or so Sun Keepers and the people of Xuandu: "We are far from the battlefield now.

I cannot carry you out of Xuandu, but your pursuers will find it very hard to catch you. You can make your own way to the Origin Realm. There is no longer any place in this world that shelters the people of Xuandu. " He coughed violently, and after a moment said: "The Land of No Sorrow has been sealed off by the armies of the Heavenly Court; you cannot reach it.

Xuandu is no place for you to remain either.

Only Jingping can take you in. Go to the Origin Realm and seek out Jingping's Sun Keeper, Yan Jingjing; she will shelter you.

" "Benefactor! " One of the Sun Keepers bowed and said: "We beg you, Benefactor, to remove your black veils and leave us your names, that we may remember the faces of our benefactors, and know by whose hands we were saved!

" Shen Mu shook his head.

"There is no need for you to know our names or our faces. Go, and quickly. .

.

" Suddenly an old man of Xuandu spoke up, trembling: "Our benefactors are of matchless honor, saving us without leaving a name; but we cannot be ignorant of the grace we owe. We beg you to reveal your true faces and leave your true names, that when we reach Jingping we may raise living shrines to you, cast golden images of you, and pray for your blessing day and night! " Then the countless people of Xuandu knelt and bowed, saying one after another: "To know a kindness and not repay it — how is that different from beasts? We beg our benefactors to grant us this!

" Shen Mu shook his head: "There is no need. I saved you for the peace of my own heart. It has nothing to do with you. .

.

" "The peace of your heart? " Zhe Huali flew into a sudden rage.

He tore the black cloth from his face and roared: "You truly have peace of heart?

You may have peace of heart — I don't! When I save people, I leave my name and I show my face! Take off your masks, all of you, take them off! Let these foolish creatures look at our faces!

" Zai Fu silently removed the black cloth from his face. Tian Shu and Luo Wushuang removed theirs as well.

Zhe Huali strode up to Shen Mu and reached for the black cloth over his face. Shen Mu raised a hand, struggling: "Don't.

.

. " "Do you mean to carry that infamy on your back for the rest of your life? " Zhe Huali struck his hand aside, wrenched the black cloth from his face, and laughed aloud, taunting: "Here is your benefactor! Do you see his face clearly?

This is your benefactor!

The benefactor you stick straw effigies of, the one you shoot arrows at and spit curses on every day — Shen Mu, Heavenly Venerable Mu! " His gaze was like a blade, sweeping across the faces of the Xuandu crowd, sweeping until these people had knelt not only in body but in soul.

"That's right!

He is Heavenly Venerable Mu — the Heavenly Venerable Mu of the Heaven Alliance! " Zhe Huali drove his demon blade hard into the ground and said through gritted teeth: "The Heavenly Venerable Mu you hate to the marrow of your bones! When the Ten Heavenly Venerables set out to kill the Lord of Heaven, he blocked them at every turn, risking his own life to contend with the Ten Heavenly Venerables! He racked his brains to find the Lord of Heaven a way to live!

When the Heavenly Court attacked Xuandu, knowing himself no match, he fought desperately to raise his own strength! " "And he invited us!

" "If not for his friendship with us, what the hell did we care whether that damned Lord of Heaven lived or died?

" Zhe Huali gripped the hilt, twisted the blade, and drove the demon blade inch by inch into the earth, chuckling: "We came here to die not for the sake of that damned Lord of Heaven, not for the sake of all you lives in Xuandu, but because we are his friends, friends who share life and death! He told us to come, so we came, even if it meant carrying our heads at our belts! And what are you? " He had borne too great a pressure, and at last it poured out of him in one unrestrained torrent. He laughed aloud: "Your lives are lives, and ours are lives too — by what right do we trade our lives for yours?

Only because Heavenly Venerable Mu asked us to come!

Heh heh, and what have you people of Xuandu done?

Raise a living shrine to Heavenly Venerable Mu? Cast him a golden image? Worship him, make offerings to him? Bah! You stuck straw effigies of him and shot arrows into his back every day, spat on him, cursed him!