Chapter 1613 — A Young Hero Unrivalled in All the World

Madam Yuanmu was startled, but when she heard him say that he had mastered only one percent of the art, her heart settled again.

"If that dead man really had learned the Red Rope Knot," she said, "then I would have no choice but to make a dead man of him ahead of schedule."

Madam Yuanmu watched Shen Mu, all smiles, capering wildly about in transports of delight, and thought: "But it is only one percent. Then there is nothing to fear."

Shen Mu calmed himself and sat down on the red rope to wash and put himself in order. A moment before he had been in a truly sorry state, so thoroughly undone by the Red Rope Knot that not a trace of a Heavenly Venerable's dignity was left to him. And he needed this moment besides, to use a cool head and sort through, thread by thread, what he had gained in this stretch of time.

—Of course, it was also because the Red Rope Knot was simply too difficult, a problem such as he had never met before, and one that held such a mighty pull upon him that it had brought on that loss of composure.

Seeing him grow calm in the very midst of washing, so serene, his heart of Dao still as a waveless sea, Madam Yuanmu could not help but marvel at the strength of his Dao heart.

Great joy and great sorrow, passion given free rein.

All restraint cast off, utterly sincere, utterly true to his own nature.

And yet in a brief space he could return to the highest realm of the Dao heart. In all the world, it was likely only a freak like Shen Mu who could do such a thing.

Shen Mu looked at the Red Rope Knot, his gaze settling upon the sixth red rope, and his heart brimmed with a thousand feelings.

The Master of Miluo Palace was indeed unfathomable, and at the same time possessed a heart that pitied heaven and had compassion on men. The sixth red rope was not the cord that roused the might and power of this seal of his, but the lead-thread that would undo the sealing art. One need only pull this red rope to lift the seal and set free the Second Young Master of Miluo Palace; he had not wished to kill this disciple of his.

The Second Young Master's conjecture that the Master of Miluo Palace could not kill her was, in all likelihood, a matter of thinking too highly of herself—of a certain self-delusion.

The Master of Miluo Palace had also hidden within this red rope the secret of the Red Rope Knot; this red rope, one might say, was the primer for understanding his divine art. He feared that once the Second Young Master broke free she would bring calamity upon the world with none able to check her, and so he had left behind a method to deal with her.

Shen Mu marveled inwardly. "In cultivation and strength, in conduct and in the handling of affairs, the Master of Miluo Palace leaves no flaw to be found. And his wisdom, too, is beyond anyone's reach!"

The one who could make him prostrate himself in admiration was the Master of Miluo Palace—the first, and the only one.

Even Lan Yutian, or Lord Yutian, had deficiencies in wisdom and flaws in his conduct. Even Xu Shenghua, Young Master of the Shangcang Void, dazzling in bearing and matchless in grace, had his flaws of character. So it was with Kaihuang as well.

As for the Great Emperor, the Celestial Emperor Taichu, Lord Hao, Lord Yun, and the rest, each had his failings, greater or lesser; not one was a perfect man.

Even the unfathomable Taiyi had his shortcomings; at times he cloaked himself in mystery, wrapping his own person in an air of the occult.

And Shen Mu himself had defects of character of every kind.

Only the Master of Miluo Palace deserved the praise of being a perfect man.

"Sweetheart, may we go now?" Madam Yuanmu, spirits high, urged him on without cease.

Shen Mu gave the Red Rope Knot one deep, last look, rose to his feet, and ran through his mind the subtleties of the Dao he had comprehended over these days. After a moment he smiled. "We may go."

Madam Yuanmu gave a cheer. For the first time she had full command of this body, and confidence brimmed in her. She laughed: "Once we are down there, you use that uncanny domain of yours to aid me, and I will contend with the Second Young Master! I am still not enough to be her match, but she is suppressed, and I can manage to hold off a few blows. So long as we escape, I will not treat you badly!"

She had cured her own affliction, her cultivation and strength had surged, and her confidence had risen with the tide.

The two waited for the tide of Guixu to pass, then sprang out from beneath the red rope's cover and plunged downward under Guixu's pull.

Along the way Shen Mu flicked his fingers again and again, rousing the power of the five Dao Chains; at once countless Dao patterns surfaced upon the chains, quivering without cease, surging downward along them.

Seeing this, Madam Yuanmu was all the more reassured: if Shen Mu could drive the Dao Chains and curb the Second Young Master's strength, then their chances of escape were greater still.

"So long as we shake off the Second Young Master, I will send my little lover on his way."

Her face wore a smile as she thought: "My little lover is too dangerous. If he walks out of here alive, he is too great a threat to me. And that threat grows with every day—his rate of growth is too fast..."

The two plunged at furious speed, and the Dao Chains quivered ever more violently—plainly the chains had suddenly unleashed their might and roused the Second Young Master, suppressed there in the Sea of Chaos.

Suddenly all before them was a vast whiteness. Shen Mu opened the vertical eye in his brow and looked, and cried out at once: "It is the Second Young Master's hair! Be careful!"

His God-Treasury Domain spread out. Standing within his domain, Madam Yuanmu could now see front and back, left and right—any attack came at her from the front, easier to block and break.

"What a domain!"

She could not help but exclaim, and in the next instant she saw the Second Young Master's hair: countless white strands woven into cloth, spread level across this great abyss of Guixu.

Shen Mu and Yuanmu roared together and charged downward.

Shen Mu stood beneath the World Tree, arm after arm sprouting from his sides—three heads, six arms. Behind him the fifty-eight treasure halls became the Jade Capital, ringing the Heavenly Court; his primal spirit rose from the city of the Jade Capital, majestic beyond measure, his robes streaming and whirling, covering the whole of the Jade Capital.

His mortal body and his primal spirit struck as one, seizing the Dao Chains one by one, pouring all his mana into them, raising the chains' power.

Chhh—chhh—chhh—

Below, the cloth-web woven of countless white hairs was torn apart alive by the might of the Dao Chains, and the Primal-Fetus God-Treasury Domain swept the two of them through the rent and out in a flash.

In the very instant they passed through the web, countless white hairs uncoiled from the netting and rushed downward; in a heartbeat the countless white strands were like countless hands, countless blades, hurling themselves madly upon the two.

Madam Yuanmu flew up and down within the God-Treasury Domain like a painted butterfly, unleashing her mightiest divine arts and blocking every attack of the white hair.

Her garments hissed and tore, sliced by those white strands into fragments fluttering like butterflies, baring her white skin.

The Primal-Fetus God-Treasury Domain still howled downward. In the Sea of Chaos below, lotus leaves swayed; upon one leaf white hair cascaded like a waterfall, rushing up into the sky.

Though the Second Young Master of Miluo Palace was a woman, her valor was matchless; she hauled upon the twin lotus and tore the plant up by the roots—and beneath this lotus there was joined a length of lotus root, from which rolled billows of the breath of chaos.

Beneath the lotus root were yet more root tendrils, dancing one and all like great dragons of chaos, locked in savage slaughter with the Dao patterns bursting from the five Dao Chains.

Hooo—