Chapter 1583 — The Torch-Fire of Zixiao Hall

Hao Tianzun's chest tightened, and he felt an urge to vomit blood.

He prided himself on his surpassing cunning: he had plotted against the Heavenly Emperor, plotted against Yun Tianzun; the destruction of the Chiming Era, the downfall of Ling Tianzun and Yue Tianzun, the decline of the Kaihuang Era—all were bound up with him. He had also overpowered the other Heavenly Venerables and become the foremost of the Ten; he had defeated Xiao Tianzun at the Jade Capital of the Ancestral Court and subdued the rest.

In fame and in might alike, he had stood without peer! Yet before Shen Mu he had been humiliated and bested again and again!

To say nothing of the distant past—this time, to counter Shen Mu's divine arts, he had been forced to kneel in worship to the Goddess Taisu and beg the protection of Taisu's power.

To be driven to such a pass by Shen Mu was the deepest humiliation of his life!

And even so, Shen Mu had not died.

Not only had he not died, he was hale and whole, carrying on with Ling Tianzun, billing and cooing.

Shen Mu stretched lazily and draped one arm across the instep of the Heavenly Emperor's physical body—the Heavenly Emperor's body was so magnificent that, tall as Shen Mu was, he seemed very small beside it. "Hao'er, your father Taichu and I were sworn brothers.

By seniority, I am your uncle.

" Shen Mu said with a smile, "Come, call me uncle and let me hear it.

" Ling Tianzun burst out laughing.

Shen Mu turned to look at her, and the woman hastily composed her face. Shen Mu smiled.

Just then, a power beyond all reckoning suddenly came sweeping in. Hao Tianzun, seizing the instant he turned, struck without a moment's warning: with a shake of his body, thirty-five heavenly palaces emerged behind his head, and his opening move was the great divine art of the Myriad-Dao Heavenly Wheel.

In the very instant his great divine art erupted, the Goddess Taisu raised her hand and supplied him with a thirty-sixth heavenly palace, making the power of this strike beyond compare!

His heavenly palaces were even more perfect than Xiao Tianzun's: fifty-six treasure halls guarded his heavenly court. And in the battle at the Jade Capital of the Ancestral Court, when Hao Tianzun had fought Xiao Tianzun, his treasure halls had numbered only forty-eight; clearly, having subdued the Divine Emperor Langxuan, he had made up the count with eight more.

In that battle at the Jade Capital of the Ancestral Court he had defeated Xiao Tianzun and nearly slain him on the spot—and the power of his strike now was greater still than it had been then! But at the very moment he struck, Shen Mu's primordial spirit had already merged into the Heavenly Emperor's physical body.

Hao Tianzun's heart leaped, and he saw that magnificent body suddenly come to life.

"What tremendous power!

" The Heavenly Emperor opened his eyes; the blood and qi in that body swelled and roared madly, pushing away the aftershocks of the battle between Xiao Tianzun and Kaihuang.

Shen Mu, in sole possession of the Heavenly Emperor's physical body, felt that the power within it was simply inexhaustible!

More than that, while he controlled this body he could sense every innate great dao—could sense them all clearly, and command them all clearly!

The feeling of becoming the sovereign of all daos was wondrous beyond words. He had long known that the Heavenly Emperor's physical body was exceedingly powerful, but he had never expected it to be this powerful—powerful past all description.

"Taichu brought it on himself.

With a body like that, had he not gone around courting disaster, how could he have been slain by Yun Tianzun, Hao Tianzun, and the rest?

Had he not sought his own death, the others would never have had the slightest chance! " Shen Mu was in a fever of excitement.

He marshaled his cultivation, driving it through every part of the Heavenly Emperor's physical body, and with a long cry he pointed one finger at Hao Tianzun's Myriad-Dao Heavenly Wheel! The Primal Chaos Finger!

This finger technique had always been Shen Mu's strongest move, but his study of the runes of primal chaos qi was not deep, and he could not draw out its variations; though its power was frightening, it could hardly pose a fatal threat to a Heavenly Venerable, for it was easily dodged.

Only by staking his life against his opponent's could Shen Mu have hoped to wound him grievously. Now, performed by the Heavenly Emperor's physical body, its power had risen to an unspeakably terrifying degree! Hao Tianzun's Myriad-Dao Heavenly Wheel was a great divine art of the thirtieth heaven of the Dao Realm, holding thirty heavens within it, thirty tiers of might—yet as Shen Mu's finger came pointing across, before the wheel's power could even erupt, its thirty heavens were pierced clean through; before a single transformation could be deployed, it burst apart with a thunderous crash!

Hao Tianzun's heart lurched, and he saw Shen Mu point again; he hurriedly dodged aside—only to find the move was a feint, without the least power in it.

Shen Mu pointed again; Hao Tianzun dodged again—another feint.

Shen Mu pointed on and on, Hao Tianzun dodged this way and that, and every one of them was a feint; he flew into a towering rage. Then suddenly Shen Mu pointed once more, and this time it was a true Primal Chaos Finger, more terrifying than the blow before! Hao Tianzun gave a cold snort. His techniques and divine arts abruptly shifted; many of those thirty-six heavenly palaces dissolved on the spot, and new palaces took form—still thirty-six in all.

Strangely, these palaces held no Lingxiao Treasure Hall; in its place stood Zixiao Hall! Shen Mu was startled.

"The Fourth Young Master of the Jade Capital!

" The Fourth Young Master of the Jade Capital at the Ancestral Court was the very man who had led Hao Tianzun into Zixiao Hall. What Hao Tianzun had met with inside Zixiao Hall, what had happened there, no one knew—but surely the Fourth Young Master had granted him some enormous benefit! And now, in the heavenly palaces behind Hao Tianzun's head, the Lingxiao Treasure Hall had vanished and Zixiao Hall had taken its place: doubtless the doing of whatever he had encountered in Zixiao Hall.

"Is there some difference between Zixiao Hall and Lingxiao Hall? " Shen Mu wondered, suddenly on his guard.

The Goddess Taisu was alarmed as well.

She had not followed Hao Tianzun into Zixiao Hall, and after he emerged he had been vague about what had happened inside—plainly he was keeping something from her.

But she had never imagined that Hao Tianzun possessed yet another set of techniques.

He had two sets of the Great Heavenly Court's arcane arts, and in one of them he had already changed Lingxiao Hall into Zixiao Hall! She could not help but waver.

When Hao Tianzun altered his techniques, by rights she ought to have sensed it, for whenever he was wounded it was she who answered his every plea, repairing his damaged heavenly palaces. Had he altered those palaces, she would surely have noticed.

But she had noticed nothing.

"That means one thing! " The Goddess Taisu's heart lurched.

"He has already changed his heavenly palaces without my knowing it, quietly, in ways I cannot perceive, so that I cannot control him! He has been using me all along!

" Her eyes flickered. She quietly withdrew the heavenly palaces she had bestowed on Hao Tianzun—and her heart sank utterly: not one of Hao Tianzun's palaces shattered.

By rights, the moment she withdrew them he should have reverted to a state of grave injury and become a cripple at a stroke.

But he did not.

"He is using me.

" The Goddess Taisu felt a chill run through her. "He is using me to complete his thirty-sixth heavenly palace, using me to fulfill his ambition!

So long as I am of the slightest use, he will kneel to me and lick my toes and call me aunt, until he has squeezed me dry. And when I am of no use at all, the first to kill me will be him!