Chapter 1593 — Forged a Thousand Times Yet Undying

Heavenly Venerable Yun returned the salute to the two of them. He had no fleshly body now, only a primordial spirit—yet it happened that he existed in a state of symbiosis with the Grand Emperor.

The Grand Emperor had suppressed him here and sought to refine him, but instead he had merged with the Grand Emperor's Dao Tree, become a part of it, and even forged a bond with the Taichu Imperial Sword within that tree. More crucially still, the Grand Emperor's way of divine consciousness had its flaws and its deficits, and Yun had made up exactly that lack. With the Grand Emperor dead, he had inherited the Grand Emperor's "wealth" as a matter of course.

Nothing in this world is stranger than that. Such was the peculiar fortune and misfortune of Yun.

First he had joined hands with Ling and Yue to slay the Grand Emperor and seal the Grand Emperor's fleshly body in the land of the Great Void; afterward he died at the hands of Ming Fangyu, the reincarnated body of the Grand Emperor's primordial spirit; his own fleshly body was sent by Ming Fangyu into the Great Void to be sealed, and his primordial spirit was sent to the Daluo Heaven of Divine Consciousness to be sealed.

And now, seizing this very opportunity, he had made himself in one stroke a mighty one who possessed both the Daluo Heaven Dao Tree and the Dao Fruit!

"It seems Mu Tianzun was carried off by Hao Tianzun.

" Yun lowered his head and, looking down from the Daluo Heaven upon the myriad heavens and worlds, said in distress, "If Mu Tianzun has fallen into Hao Tianzun's hands, he will surely suffer every torment—he may not even keep his life, and his Dao may be extinguished! Most likely Hao Tianzun will use his life to threaten us as well! " Ling's face was clouded with worry. Kaihuang shook his head.

"Brother Yun need not fret over him. Hao Tianzun may find it easy to kill him, but killing him to death is hard.

Most likely even now Hao Tianzun is still agonizing over what to do with him.

Never mind him—so you have attained the Dao? " Ling was astonished; she looked at Kaihuang, wholly unable to fathom why he was so easy in his heart about Shen Mu. Yun shook his head, hesitated, then nodded.

"My present situation is exceedingly peculiar.

After the Grand Emperor killed me, he sent me into the Daluo Heaven of Divine Consciousness to be tormented; from that calamity came blessing, for I was able to spy out the Grand Emperor's Dao arts, and so I kept my life. Through the long ages, whatever the Grand Emperor knows, I know; and what the Grand Emperor does not know, I also know. " Kaihuang and Ling were struck dumb.

Yun explained, "The Grand Emperor was worshipped by the Creator race; only thus could his divine consciousness be imprinted upon the Ultimate Void and he become the strongest of the ancient times.

But it was also because of the Creator race's worship that his cultivation was left with a flaw. In the Daluo Heaven he could scarcely cultivate and scarcely advance; at the same time he had all manner of clones walking the world, prying into the arts of others. Consort Qiang, Ming Fangyu, and Wei Shijie of Jingping—all of them were his bodies beyond the body. " Kaihuang frowned. "He had a body beyond the body in Jingping?

" Yun nodded.

"Nor did he ever hide the body beyond the body he kept in Jingping from me. All ten Heavenly Venerables have bodies beyond the body in Jingping; even the departed Hong Tianzun had one there. " Kaihuang's brow furrowed deeply; he restrained the urge to descend at once into the lower realm and slay the Grand Emperor's outer bodies, and said, "Hong Tianzun's body beyond the body is most likely dead already. " Yun was surprised; Ling, for her part, could not have cared less. Kaihuang said, "Mu Tianzun once went to the Tianyin Realm to summon the soul of the Lord of Heaven. At that time he summoned Hong Tianzun's soul as well, and afterward he did Hong Tianzun to death.

He owed Hong Tianzun a favor, but Hong Tianzun could not produce the IOU, so he turned his face and denied the debt.

" At this, Kaihuang could not help but shake his head. "He is too unrefined. Back then, when he summoned Hong Tianzun's soul, Hong Tianzun's body beyond the body was most likely summoned to death as well.

That body beyond the body was at best of the Jade Pool realm—how could it withstand his divine ability? When Mu Tianzun summoned souls in the Tianyin Realm, the body beyond the body in Jingping had its primordial spirit leave the flesh and died a wrongful death.

In all Mu Tianzun does, he never leaves a single drop unaccounted for—only, he is too unrefined, utterly without propriety.

" Yun pondered a moment and thought to himself, "Emperor Kai seems to bear no small resentment toward Mu Tianzun. " Though he sat in the Daluo Heaven and, by means of the Grand Emperor's divine consciousness, knew all that passed in the world, he did not know what had happened in the Land of No Sorrow; and Shen Mu's rampage through the Land of No Sorrow was far more than a mere lack of refinement. Yun went on, "The Grand Emperor had his limits.

His divine consciousness was imprinted in the Ultimate Void; when he learned the Dao arts and divine abilities of later ages, those arts were hard to imprint in the Ultimate Void—and whatever cannot be imprinted there may be called unlearnable. What is more, his primordial spirit was outside, trapped in the Immutable Divine Ability, and only his divine consciousness remained here. In these years, what he learned can be counted on the fingers of one hand; the Mystic Art of Creation is one of the few he could master. But I am different. " He said mildly, "My primordial spirit is right here, and my cultivation art is peculiar: my Violet Empyrean Azurefall Art can blend the strengths of a hundred schools. What he could not learn has in the end profited me. But I too have a weakness—I have no fleshly body.

" He sighed.

"The fleshly body is the root of the Dao. As the saying goes, when the body dies the Dao is extinguished: let the body die and the cultivation dies with it. Though at our stage the Dao is not extinguished when the body dies, without a fleshly body it is hard to advance and impossible to raise one's cultivation, and so to this day I am still at the Imperial Throne realm.

" He himself did not know what stage his cultivation had reached, and said, "Yet I also possess the Dao Tree, and the Dao Fruit besides. I can feel that I seem to have attained the Dao, and yet seem not to, and so I am forever caught between gain and loss. Perhaps only when I return to a fleshly body will I understand my own realm. " Kaihuang said, "Your fleshly body has already been rescued by Mu Tianzun. He must be carrying it on his person, hidden in the vertical eye at his brow. There is no need for you to seek a new body.

That vertical eye of his is extraordinary; even with Hao Tianzun's strength, he cannot damage that eye. " Yun said, sick with worry, "But now Mu Tianzun has been carried off by Hao Tianzun, his life or death unknown. .

. " Ling's brows were locked as well. "He is fine. " Kaihuang spoke light as wind and cloud.

"To force our way into the Heavenly Court would only make Xiao Tianzun and Hao Tianzun join hands—we do not have that strength. But I must make a trip to the Jade Capital of the Ancestral Court, to guard against Hao Tianzun sinking him into the Long River of Chaos. Apart from the Jade Capital of the Ancestral Court, there is nowhere under heaven able to take his life. " He flickered and was gone.

Yun hastily called him back. "Shen Tianzun, this golden ship! " "Let Ling keep it for now; when he returns, give it to him. " Kaihuang turned into a streak of sword light and flew far away.

Yun studied the World-Ferrying Golden Ship.

Shen Mu had been taken by Hao Tianzun, and the golden ship had been left here.