Chapter 1793 — Dwelling in the Coffin

Xing'an's face was as still and dark as water. He very much wanted to shove Shen Mu into the coffin as well and seal him in, yet he held himself back.

Though Shen Mu's wounds were grave, his strength still stood above Xing'an's.

After a moment, Shen Mu let out a breath and carefully examined his own Dao wounds. "Brother Xing'an, your foresight is like that of the gods. To think you had the coffin and the divine nails prepared so early—you knew Taiyi's errand would be terribly perilous, and that he would surely be wounded, did you not?"

Xing'an opened his mouth, but said nothing.

He had thought that when Taiyi returned it would be Shen Mu who went into the coffin—never had he imagined it would be Taiyi himself!

Fortunately Shen Mu did not press him further, but calmly examined his own Dao wounds, attempting to unravel the divine powers lingering within them.

Xing'an waited quietly. Before anyone else he was composed and unhurried; only in Shen Mu's presence did he feel at a loss, unsure what he ought to do.

The bond between him and Shen Mu was one that had been beaten into being.

So long as Shen Mu was near, he dared not stir up mischief.

Suddenly Xing'an sensed something. He raised his head toward the Ancestral Court and Jade Capital City, a look of doubt crossing his face.

"Brother Dao, you sensed it too?"

Shen Mu opened his eyes and looked toward the Ancestral Court and Jade Capital City. "Dao-attaining ones are attempting to descend. The Ancestral Court and Jade Capital City may appear to be here, but in truth the Dao-attaining ones within have never descended into the Seventeenth Epoch. This time, their obstacle is gone, and they can descend. In the future there will be a vicious battle beyond anything we can imagine. In that battle, I fear many will die..."

Xing'an was silent.

Then Shen Mu's spirits lifted and he smiled. "But you need not worry. The battle of the Ancestral Court is not like the war between the Origin Realm and the Heavenly Court. There will be casualties, yes, but the fallen will all be powerhouses; common folk will not be harmed. This battle will not remake heaven and earth—it is a battle of powerhouses."

Xing'an thought for a moment. "Can it be held?"

"It must be held."

Shen Mu entered a dream, and murmured within it, "If it cannot be held, the Jingping Reforms are a mere joke, and the Seventeenth Epoch will be on the verge of ruin before long."

His dream spilled out in all directions. Xing'an stepped back a few paces to avoid it, and watched as countless Shen Mus, great and small, bustled and toiled within the dream, healing their Dao wounds.

Though the Dao wounds the Old Man of the Boundless had left on Shen Mu were severe, they were far less harmful than those left by the Third Young Master, Lingxiao. The Old Man of the Boundless was mighty, yes, but his comprehension of Dao arts and divine powers was far shallower than the Third Young Master's—and so they were not so troublesome to heal.

Even so, it took Shen Mu more than ten days to parse through the divine powers hidden in the Dao wounds and heal himself.

After waking, he took Taiyi from the coffin and examined his Dao wounds in fine detail, with Xing'an helping at his side. Together they first unraveled the Dao wounds the Old Man of the Boundless had left, until only the Miluo Palace's Dao wounds remained—the hardest of all to resolve.

The Dao wounds left by the Miluo Palace's Dao-attaining ones and Hall Masters, Xing'an could still help analyze; but the wounds left by the Third and Fourth Young Masters were beyond his aid.

Shen Mu bustled to and fro and said without raising his head, "Brother Dao, I need you to make a trip beyond the heavens and tell the Moon Heavenly Venerable, the Nether Heavenly Venerable, and the others to ask that the Heavenly Venerable-level beings remain behind to block the descent of Jade Capital City's Dao-attaining ones. I also need someone to go to Jingping to rouse Lord Shang and deal with the Hall Master of Joy."

Xing'an nodded and rose to go. "Leave me the God-Coffin of Burying the Dao and the divine nails."

He drifted away.

Shen Mu devoted himself wholly to unraveling the other Dao wounds on Taiyi, yet such wounds could not be undone in a short time. In Shen Mu's battle with the Third and Fourth Young Masters, he had borne as many as fifty Dao wounds, and it had taken him eight years to heal them—and that time it had been only projections of the Third and Fourth Young Masters' power, using the bodies of the Hao Heaven Emperor and Taichu to contend with him.

This time, however, Taiyi had stood against the true bodies of the Third and Fourth Young Masters; his Dao wounds were far graver than Shen Mu's had been!

"Had I a thousand years, I could unravel these Dao wounds—but there is no time. The Moon Heavenly Venerable, Lord Shang, and the rest cannot hold for a thousand years, and the Miluo Palace's Dao-attaining ones will only grow more numerous..."

If the Miluo Palace's Hall Masters descended, the Moon Heavenly Venerable, Lord Shang, and the others could not possibly hold!

And should the Third and Fourth Young Masters descend, what awaited them all would be utter annihilation!

He rose abruptly and carried the coffin aboard the Golden Ship of World-Crossing.

"Brother Dao, perhaps it is time you returned to your original self."

Shen Mu stood at the prow. The golden ship set sail into the Ultimate Void, heading for the Foul Grounds of the Ultimate Void.

There, one stretch of the Foul Grounds was where the First Young Master, Taishang, imprisoned his gravest offenders. Within it was a paralytic called Tiandu.

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