Chapter 646 — Straight Through Three Hundred Levels
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 1 of 4
Chi Xi's gaze swept over Shen Mu, and his pupils shrank sharply. Plainly he had seen Shen Mu and been reminded of the Woodcutter Sage, and of how the Woodcutter Sage had played him in the palm of his hand.
That time he had ambushed the Woodcutter Sage, he had been beaten so savagely that the Sage had flung him straight into the territory of the Taihuang Heaven Demon Clan, where he had very nearly died.
Had he not run into Ban Gongcuo, that master of flight, he would surely have perished at the demons' hands.
He shifted his eyes to the First Ancestor Human Emperor, and his heart gave a sudden, violent wrench, as though an invisible weight had settled upon it.
That was the illusion wrought by the First Ancestor Human Emperor's aura. The man seemed wedged between a collapsing heaven and a falling earth, utterly alone, and that profound loneliness, that self-reproach and wounded grief, reached even Chi Xi.
"Are you a god of the Kaihuang Era, or a god of the Shanghuang Era?" Chi Xi steadied himself and asked.
"Kaihuang."
Shen Mu's ravenous curiosity was giving the First Ancestor Human Emperor a headache. He said softly, "The divine and profound arts of the Chiming Era are indeed outstanding and worthy of admiration. But, Brother Daoist, you must surely see by now that it is impossible for you to awaken these fellow Daoists of yours. Their primal spirits have been lost too long. They cannot wake."
The corner of Chi Xi's eye twitched. His voice was hoarse and rasping. "Could it be that you are the one who did this?" he sneered. "That you struck down my old friends in the dark?"
The First Ancestor Human Emperor frowned. Chi Xi's words had left him somewhat uncomfortable — and so had Shen Mu. Shen Mu had already sidled up to those rings and was measuring and calculating the runes upon them, trying to deduce the mysteries hidden within those primordial creation arts.
From Chi Xi's words he could plainly feel the hostility. For Shen Mu to step forward at such a moment was to place far too much trust in his own strength.
Shen Mu had boundless faith in him; yet the First Ancestor himself did not dare to be so confident.
This was a divine city of the Chiming Era, and judging by its layout, some heavenly palace of the Chiming Heavenly Court had been drowned beneath the South Sea. The god Chi Xi had come back here through untold hardships, and had made straight for this place. There must be more here than a mere Primordial Creation Ring — there must be other mighty divine weapons as well!
The divine weapons with which the Chiming Heavenly Court garrisoned its heavenly palaces must be exceedingly formidable. He only wondered whether the god Chi Xi had gotten his hands on them.
"Brother Daoist, you misunderstand."
The First Ancestor Human Emperor's face was calm. "I did not strike down your fellow Daoists. Rather, your Chiming Era studied the fleshly body and reached the very heights in that field, but your attainments in the soul, the spirit fetus, and the primordial spirit were somewhat lacking. Your fellow Daoists wore those alien forms for far too long, so that their souls and primordial spirits were altered along with them."
A savage light flickered in Chi Xi's eyes. He chuckled. "So your attainments in the primordial creation arts are very high?"
The First Ancestor Human Emperor said, "Not high. But in the Kaihuang Heavenly Court I once knew a man of great mastery. His studies in the creation arts of the fleshly body did not equal those of the Chiming Era; instead he devoted himself to the creation arts of the soul, the spirit fetus, and the primordial spirit, and his achievements there were extraordinary. I learned a little of it myself."
Shen Mu's heart stirred. "Could that be the Woodcutter Sage Master? The Great Nurturing Dark Demon Scripture holds seven chapters on primordial creation, every one of them a creation art. The Woodcutter Sage must possess a terrifying mastery of such arts!"