Chapter 288 — Lord of the Great Dao
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 3 of 4
Shen Mu's plan was too malicious—if the Dragon King came to rescue her, his death was certain.
He could never match the Dharma Protectors and protecting elders of the Nether Demon Cult. "Cult Leader Shen, my father invited you for a reason! " she said abruptly. Shen Mu looked at her with a smile. "So Sister Long is willing to talk? " Long Jiaonan sighed. "This time someone came to my father, saying that he was not at liberty to show himself but wished to meet the Cult Leader and conclude peace with you. " Surprised, Shen Mu asked, "And who might this person be?
" "The Dao Lord," Long Jiaonan said. "In the so-called Three Religions and Nine Schools, the Daoist Sect, the Great Thunderclap Temple, and the Nether Demon Cult comprise the Three Religions; our Dragon Taming Gate is only a sect of the Nine Schools. The Cult Leader has simply been too formidable. Not only did you spirit the Emperor away, you also slew so many experts of the Daoist Sect and the Great Thunderclap Temple at the Altar of Heaven in the Imperial City.
The Dao Lord has grown uneasy, thinking that Emperor Yanfeng and the Imperial Teacher of Jingping will ally with the Nether Demon Cult to attack his Daoist Sect. He cannot come to see you in person, lest he cause a misunderstanding between you and the Emperor.
That is why he approached my father and asked him to invite you to Tianlong Island for a meeting. " Her face turned cold.
"I treated you with courtesy along the way. Did you really believe I didn't want to kill you? At Tianbo City, you killed countless disciples of my Dragon Taming Gate, and the Emperor confiscated our property and wiped out our clan. My hatred for you runs deeper than the sea!
But the Dao Lord once rendered my father a great kindness—he saved his life. I do not dare disobey his word. " Shen Mu was thoughtful, pinching his chin.
A few more whiskers had burrowed out, as if to plague him. "The Dao Lord wants to see me, most likely to sue for peace," he mused. "The Daoist Sect will make peace with my Holy Cult, but not with Jingping.
He worries that my Holy Cult and Jingping will join forces to attack the Daoist Sect, and he is already old, with only a few years left.
If he sues for peace now, he can preserve his sect; if he waits until after his death, the Daoist Sect will be annihilated. " The snake meat was fragrant, and the fish was good as well, but Long Jiaonan ate only a few slices of fish and never touched the snake meat.
Shen Mu offered it twice with hospitable insistence, then gave up when he saw she truly would not eat it. The next day, Si Yunxiang and Ling Yuxiu rose at dawn and saw Shen Mu ceaselessly roaming the island. He never stopped moving—now treading the sand, now walking on the sea, now leaping up among the clouds.
"He has higher natural talent than everybody else, and still he works harder than all of us! " Si Yunxiang ground her teeth. So this was all just to keep her from getting a chance to kill him—did he have to work this hard?
Shen Mu paid no heed to anything else. As he moved, he stoked the Mysterious Body Three Elixirs Skill and circulated his techniques, trying to fuse all arts into one and comprehend a grand unified art at the Six Harmonies Realm. But Si Yunxiang was wrong. In the eyes of others, Shen Mu's aptitude was absolutely of the lowest order.
Years ago, the folk of Hidden Cripple Village had tested him and found he was not even a spirit body—only an ordinary man. He should have led a plain, uneventful life, but who would have thought the village head would blurt out that he had an Overlord Body? It awakened Shen Mu's fighting spirit, and even the villagers' ardor was fired up. They heaped all manner of spiritual pills and heavenly treasures onto him.
And Shen Mu did indeed work hard—he could fairly be called the most assiduous cultivator under heaven. He also carried an unshakable faith in his own invincibility, convinced that he was an Overlord Body set above all others.