Chapter 717 — The Power of the Netherworld's Old God
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 1 of 4
The Heavenly Lord and the Crimson Emperor stared at each other, eye to eye, and found themselves caught fast in a dilemma.
If they lent Shen Mu no more power, he would most likely be unable to hold his own against the demon-gods of the Dark Capital; Lou Yunqu had already been driven blood-mad by the slaughter, and had even gone so far as to throw open the Dark Capital's heavenly gate, summoning demon-gods from every realm and every quarter of the Dark Capital to attack Shen Mu. Add to that the God of Calamity, whose strength was unfathomable, and Shen Mu's position became perilous in the extreme. But if they lent Shen Mu more of the Nether Capital Divine Child's power, he would be utterly demonized, transformed into an evil being that even they regarded with dread, and then the situation would be far harder to rein in.
"Perhaps.
. .
" The Heavenly Lord hesitated.
"We wait a little longer?
" The Crimson Emperor nodded.
"Mm. A little longer.
Let us wait and see.
. . " The two ancient beings were uneasy beyond measure.
The Heavenly Lord pried a crack in the seal, and through Shen Mu's third eye stole a glimpse of the battle outside. He had watched but a short while when the Crimson Emperor could not restrain himself, edged over, and shoved him aside.
The two had no choice but to agree that each would watch for a while, then yield his place so the other might steal his own look. Outside, Shen Mu and the God of Calamity and the rest had already fought their way into the skies above the Yong River.
When the demon-gods of the Dark Capital poured from the Dark Capital's heavenly gate and sought to drown him, Shen Mu opened his mouth and spat; rolling thunder-light swallowed every one of the Dark Capital's demon-gods. There were a great many demon-gods of the Dark Capital. Even as many were struck until their whole bodies convulsed, their forms suddenly collapsing and raining down in clattering heaps of bone, the demon-gods of the Dark Capital were unlike those of other worlds.
The Dark Capital was a world that had broken away from the Nether Capital, sharing certain of its properties; it too was a gathering place of souls and primordial spirits.
The difference was that the soul-bodies and primordial-spirit bodies of the Nether Capital could not preserve a physical form, unless they were demon-gods in whom the dark demonic nature of the Nether Capital had bred, and only then could they possess bodies; naturally, the god-demons dispatched by the Heavenly Court to be stationed in the Nether Capital could also possess physical bodies.
In the Dark Capital, however, most god-demons could possess physical bodies, but these bodies were of a singular kind. The physical bodies of the Dark Capital's god-demons were in truth the bones they had left behind in life.
When god-demons of the Heavenly Court fell in battle, they would often drift down into the Dark Capital; if their physical bodies were preserved, they could be brought along with them. Yet because those bodies were already dead, decay was unavoidable, and in the end only the bones remained to be used.
Thus the most common sight in the Dark Capital was armies of skeletal god-demons. Beyond these, there were also those who possessed whole, intact bodies, but they were for the most part god-demons sent down by the Heavenly Court, and, besides them, the mighty of Yin Sovereign's lineage.
Shen Mu spat out the Five Great Cloud Thunders and the Fire-Bell Divine Weapons he had swallowed but had not yet had time to digest. One after another, demon-gods were blasted apart by the lightning and fell as bones, yet at once those bones gathered again under the power of the demon-gods' primordial spirits, and came surging in frenzy at Shen Mu once more. At the same time, the God of Calamity was fighting with vast, sweeping strokes, batting the demon-gods around him away as he closed in on Shen Mu.