Chapter 1563 — Merged Into One

The two ancient Taiji gods were both white-haired now, their bodies and features no longer what they had once been; on this journey to Jade Capital City they too had been beset by the Calamity of Destruction, and had grown old.

"They must have left the Long River of Chaos when they were helping the Empress and Yuanmu merge, and only now have they come this far."

Shen Mu's eyes flickered, and he thought, "The reason they were so eager to leave Jade Capital City must be that they fear the Guixu Goddess who will burst from the cocoon will do them harm. After all, they are frighteningly old now, and what is born from that cocoon may well be a Dao-Achiever!"

Only by leaving Jade Capital City and regaining their youth and strength could the ancient Taiji gods have any confidence of coping with what might come.

As weak as they were now, if it was Yuanmu who broke out of the cocoon, they would not escape death.

The two ancient gods were truly frighteningly old — so old that they could not even sense Shen Mu following behind them. After coming ashore, they laboriously dragged the Dao Tree toward the outskirts of the city.

On that Dao Tree, the silkworm cocoon hung from a branch, more than a zhang tall. Within the cocoon Dao light flowed and pulsed, swallowing and disgorging, and dimly one could make out the figure of a woman swimming to and fro like an eel, ceaselessly weaving this great cocoon.

The cocoon was formed of Dao light, and the woman inside was like a silkworm in the midst of metamorphosis, spitting out Dao light to weave the great cocoon.

As the two ancient gods dragged the Dao Tree along, the great cocoon swayed this way and that upon it.

Behind them, the golden Ship of Salvation rose faintly from the Long River of Chaos and glided slowly onto the bank.

From the prow, Shen Mu leaped down. At a flicker of his thought, the golden ship shrank smaller and smaller, until at last it flew in between his brows and came to hover above the crown of the World Tree.

The World Tree had grown taller and more magnificent still; its branches and crown had stretched his Primordial Fetus Divine Treasury to more than ten times its former size, sky high and earth broad. He had spent upward of three years in Jade Capital City, and in those three years the World Tree had absorbed the energies of the great Calamities of Destruction of sixteen universes and grown vastly in strength.

And as the World Tree grew, it fed back into his Primordial Fetus Divine Treasury, making his Ancestral Court broader still, the heavens and myriad worlds within it ever more awe-inspiring, the various divinities within it seeming to take on true substance.

More crucial still were the five great veins within his Ancestral Court. These five veins were more formidable than ever before, ridges rising and falling, a thousand wonders of aspect; all manner of marvellous radiance burst from the veins, and from them came the Dao-sounds of the Dao bursting forth.

From his journey to Jade Capital City, his greatest gain had not been the Dao patterns of the Master of Miluo Palace, nor the Slay-God Mystic Blade of the Slay-God Platform, nor even the supreme treasures of the forty-nine heavenly daos — it was the growth of the World Tree!

He followed the two ancient Taiji gods at an unhurried pace, hesitation in his heart.

"If I struck now, it would be a perfect chance to wipe out Lady Yuanmu and Her Highness the Empress in one blow! The ancient Taiji gods are in no state to stand against me — I could do away with them as well..."

He could not bring himself to decide. The two ancient gods had done no evil; they had even helped him a great deal. To raise his hand against them would trouble his conscience.

But now was the best chance to root out Yuanmu and the Empress for good. They had not yet fully merged, not yet transformed; and if they merged and transformed successfully, if they became a Dao-Achiever, then killing them would be nigh impossible.

Shen Mu might not even be able to escape them.

A cold gleam flashed through Shen Mu's eyes. His right hand settled on the hilt of the Calamity Sword, finger after finger closing around it, and the sword slipped soundlessly from its sheath.

Just then the two ancient gods suddenly halted. The white-haired Ancient Sun God said with a laugh, "Is that Heavenly Venerable Mu?"

Shen Mu's brows lifted in a smile, and he said leisurely, "Did you two Dao-brothers sense my killing intent?"

Lady Taiyin laughed. "Heavenly Venerable Mu is mistaken. We did not sense your killing intent; we saw the Heavenly Venerable riding a golden ship."

Shen Mu was all the more astonished. "You saw me while you were still on the river? Then why did you not stop to exchange a few pleasantries?"

The two ancient gods laughed. "We did not dare. We are old and feeble now, and we feared that if we stopped to greet you, we would be done away with by the Heavenly Venerable. So we had no choice but to pretend we never saw the Heavenly Venerable or that ship, and simply walked past you."

"And we were gambling, too — gambling on whether Heavenly Venerable Mu's curiosity was really as strong as the rumours say. If it truly was, then you would certainly not strike at once, but would follow along in person, to see with your own eyes how Yuanmu and the Empress merge, and how they attain the Dao."

Shen Mu's face darkened. He kept striding toward them and said sourly, "You two Dao-brothers certainly know me well. Well then, Dao-brothers, I am no longer curious. Right now I only want to be rid of Shiqiluo and Yan Tianfei."

The two ancient gods turned as one to face Shen Mu. The little old man, the Ancient Sun God, chuckled. "Those two Heavenly Venerables, Shiqiluo and Yan Tianfei, no longer exist. What exists now is only the Guixu Goddess."

The power of the Calamity Sword in Shen Mu's hand rose steadily. He smiled. "Guixu Goddess or Shiqiluo and Yan Tianfei, I mean to kill them today. I ask you two Dao-brothers not to stand in my way."

The little old woman, Lady Taiyin, hunched over, a sly light in her small eyes, and chuckled. "Heavenly Venerable Mu, do you know what my brother and I are best at?"

Shen Mu started, and an uneasy feeling rose in his heart.

"My brother and I — what we are best at is forgery!"

The little old man and the little old woman spoke as one, laughing in unison, "Before we were even born, we forged a Taiji vein and fooled every one of the Creators — even the Great Emperor, even the Three Kings of Antiquity were taken in by us! And now we have fooled Heavenly Venerable Mu as well!"

Shen Mu's expression shifted. He thrust out his sword, but before the blade-light could reach the two ancient gods, the two gods, the Dao Tree, and the great cocoon upon it blew apart with a bang, dissolving into yin and yang qi!

"Dao-brother Taishi, look at that — now that is an old hand of the world!" Shen Mu could not help but exclaim in admiration, addressing the Ancient Taishi God who was inside his Primordial Fetus Divine Treasury, striving to absorb the Taishi vein.

His divine consciousness erupted, sweeping in all directions as he sought to locate the two ancient gods; but Jade Capital City was perilous in every corner, filled everywhere with winds of heat-death and winds of cold-death, and his divine consciousness was swiftly torn to shreds.

Shen Mu soared into the air. The golden Ship of Salvation flew out from between his brows and swelled with a roar, and Shen Mu landed neatly upon its prow. The Ship of Salvation went barrelling through Jade Capital City, and Shen Mu stood at the prow scanning all around.

The golden ship ignored the winds of heat-death and the winds of cold-death, ignored every uncanny thing in Jade Capital City, and crushed its way forward, while Shen Mu aboard it remained unharmed, no strangeness of any kind able to invade the ship.