Chapter 1474 — A Fair Silhouette Stands at the Water's Edge

Once Shen Mu, Zaifu, and the other three had departed, leaving behind those Sun Guards and the common folk of Xuandu, a moment passed before they began to set sail for the Yuan Realm, and every heart among them was a tangle of a hundred flavors. They would settle in the Yuan Realm, and the story of Shen Mu, Zaifu, Zhe Huali, Luo Wushuang, and Tian Shu would surely be passed down from generation to generation.

Zhe Huali let out a long breath, shot Shen Mu a glance, and laughed, "After that bout of cursing, I feel a good deal easier in my heart. Heavenly Venerable Mu, you're an honest man.

. .

" He hastily added, "Honest to the bone. You're only sly and treacherous toward your enemies; but face to face with your own people, with ordinary folk, you're far too honest. You cannot bear to harm your own, cannot bear to harm ordinary people, and you won't even speak a single sentence in a slightly harsh tone — you don't want to say it.

I'm not like you. " His spirits soaring, he declared loudly, "If I have something to say, I say it; if I've been wronged, I pour it all out! When I do good, I proclaim it. I won't let good people swallow injustice, and I won't let the wicked strut and crow! These bastards are far too harsh on good people!

A villain may be rotten in ten thousand ways, yet if he has one shred of good in him they trumpet it to the skies; a good man may be good in ten thousand ways, and for a single flaw they curse him to death!

I simply can't stand it! " Tian Shu laughed heartily, "Zhe Huali of the Demon Blade — his thoughts run clear and free, peerless in splendor as his own blade! " Zhe Huali tightened the demon blade Dragon Fang on his back and smiled with easy grace, "I only don't want the friend I respect to bear a name of infamy! Cult Master Shen, Heavenly Venerable Mu, the Beast, Shen the Demolisher, Mu the Thief — call him whatever you please, he is my friend, a man I hold in respect.

He has all manner of petty faults, but on matters of great right and wrong he has never once erred!

" Shen Mu's eyes reddened, and yet he laughed.

Luo Wushuang smiled, "My disciple.

.

.

" He hastily added, "Formerly. " Zaifu glanced at him, "He was your disciple once, but you taught him to be far too well-behaved; only after a spell with me did he learn properly.

" Luo Wushuang's face went dark, and he said no more.

Shen Mu looked at them, smiling: these people were all his friends, and one of them was his elder, yet more like a good teacher and a candid friend — to have friends such as these was a fortune beyond measure!

His cultivation was recovering swiftly; the Jade Terrace of the Ancestral Court, and the Jade Terrace stages within each of his heavenly palaces, made the speed of his recovery frightening. Of course, his cultivation was now so deep that even at such a pace it would take several days to return to his peak.

Shen Mu also took out spirit medicines gathered from the Ancestral Court and refined elixirs to swiftly restore his vital essence, working both ends at once, lest Heavenly Venerable Hong come hunting him and he be unable to flee. Heavenly Venerable Hong was set on obtaining the Heavenly Net Dao Soldier; there were forty-nine Dao Soldiers of the Heavenly Dao, and even if he gained forty-eight of them, without the Heavenly Net Dao Soldier they were no more than individual treasures of great power.

Only by gaining the Heavenly Net Dao Soldier could he fuse the might of those Dao Soldiers into a single supreme treasure of the Heavenly Dao — a treasure mightier by far than anything the Ancestral God King had forged!

"So Heavenly Venerable Hong will not chase down the Xuandu folk; he will come after us.

" Shen Mu's gaze flickered, and the five of them flew together toward the Heavenly Duke.

The Heavenly Duke was of matchless stature, his full form beyond sight.

Along the way they saw more divine cities: Xuandu's larger divine cities numbered forty-nine, named for the forty-nine Heavenly Daos. In the ancient age these divine cities had been built around the Heavenly River, and were exceedingly ancient.

In the Longhan era, when the Heavenly Court was founded, the Heavenly River was constrained to flow through the Southern Heavenly Gate, and its channel shifted little.

But by the middle and late Longhan era, the Heavenly Court migrated out of the Yuan Realm, causing the Heavenly River to change its course; no trace of the river remained in Xuandu, leaving only these forty-nine divine cities and the ancient channel of the Heavenly River.

Now the Heavenly River had returned to its place, and surging, seething waters once more rushed through the ancient channel, gleaming in answer to Xuandu's starlight — a dazzling, beguiling sight. Yet this time what it brought was the intent to kill!

The grandest of them all, Tianfang City, had already been destroyed, for that was the gate that held back the Heavenly Court's armies, the place where the Heavenly River flowed into Xuandu; Tianfang City was as the very gate of Xuandu.

It was precisely because Tianfang City was so vital that Di Qing had led his host there to block the Heavenly Court's army.

Tianfang City had gathered Xuandu's greatest strength, and the other divine cities were far weaker for it. The Heavenly Court's army had already come this far, and along the way Shen Mu and the others saw divine city after divine city destroyed, smashed to pieces.

Those cities had gathered fewer troops, nothing to compare with Tianfang City, and so were broken with ease, without a Heavenly Venerable needing to lift a hand.

Along the way they saw many of Xuandu's deities captured and caged — spoils of war for the Heavenly Court's army marquises. As for the mangled corpses floating in the starry void, they were beyond counting; among the dead were gods and demons, but more were the living beings of Xuandu.

They were demigods, yet among demigods there are also utterly ordinary beings, unable to cultivate, or hard-pressed to cultivate to the realm of the divine.

Countless Xuandu beings had been captured as well, held in the holds of tower ship after tower ship; these people, and the captured deities of Xuandu, would all become slaves of the army marquises, shipped out to every corner, or sold to the mines of the great heavens. "Who would ever have imagined that Xuandu, once so high and exalted, would see a day like this?

" Tian Shu sighed with deep feeling.

Their speed grew greater and greater as they avoided the Heavenly Court's armies and made for the Heavenly Duke of Xuandu.

The baleful aura of the Heavenly Dao grew ever denser and fiercer; so violent was the heavenly balefulness that the God-Slaying Terraces in their heavenly palaces grew ever stronger as well, the baleful qi turning to blades that howled and raged across the terraces. Though their cultivation rose, all five were heavy of heart.

The stronger the heavenly balefulness, the more of Xuandu's gods and living beings had perished.

"Will the baleful qi gather and form the fiftieth Dao Soldier of the Heavenly Dao?

" Zaifu murmured. "It won't.

Heavenly Consort Qiang will bring the God-Slaying Terrace of the Ancestral Court's holy land and sweep the baleful qi of the Heavenly Dao clean away.

" Shen Mu's gaze flickered.

"The Great Emperor will not let slip this chance to let the God-Slaying Mystic Saber come to maturity!

" Suddenly the sound of a zither came, and space leapt and trembled.

Shen Mu's heart stirred; following the sound, he saw the figure of a beauty flash past beside the Heavenly River, and behind her the form of the Fire Heavenly Venerable.

The Fire Heavenly Venerable bore the Ancestral Land of Dao Fire in one hand, the vast nine-tiered Dao Fire Altar upheld above his head, striding on, his frame majestic as he chased the Moon Heavenly Venerable. "I wonder whether there will be a chance to take the Fire Heavenly Venerable unawares.