Chapter 1493 — Sins Committed in Life, Debts Collected After Death

I am I, and Celestial Venerable Hong is also I. The dead of the battle at Xuan Du are many beyond count, and every one of them should be laid upon my head. I am willing to accept punishment. " Tu Bo hesitated.

"You are one of the living now, and You Du rarely punishes the living. . . " "But it has punished the living before. My sins—let me bear them. Do not let them put you in a hard place.

" Tu Bo nodded and summoned a ghost king. "The dead of Xuan Du have formed a boundless karmic fire. I must ask you, fellow Daoist, to go and burn in that fire for a while.

" The Heavenly Duke rose and followed the ghost king away.

Tu Bo watched him go. Just then Heavenly King Tianshu came over, and seeing the Heavenly Duke being led off by the ghost king, asked in astonishment, "Where is he being taken?

" "He has found his own road. He goes to atone for his sins—and in atoning, to redeem himself.

" Tu Bo glanced at him.

"Celestial Venerable Mu opened the Mystic Gate of Heaven and Earth in the Ancestral Court; most likely he means to send someone through to treat Celestial Venerable You's wounds. He cannot set foot in You Du himself, so I will send you to receive them.

" Standing on Tu Bo's palm, Heavenly King Tianshu arrived before long at the place in the Ancestral Court where You Du lay.

A heavenly gate towered there, and the pill master stood at its mouth, craning his head this way and that as he peered about—but Shen Mu was nowhere to be seen. "Where is Celestial Venerable Mu? " Tianshu asked.

"Ran off. He left nothing behind but this divine power standing here. " The pill master said testily, "Rushing off as if the house were burning—who knows what he has to do!

" He shook out his collar and muttered, "This You Du is dank with ghostly air.

.

.

" Doubts stirred in Tianshu's heart: "Celestial Venerable Mu has only just come through the battle at Xuan Du—where could he be rushing off to this time?

"