Chapter 829 — Master of the Divine Blade
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 1 of 4
Huanlong Jun looked at the demigod walking toward him from afar. That demigod was likely a deity too, his body already half-immaterial. He must have been one of the mighty demigods who followed the Patriarch Dragon King, and all this time he had been hunting down the other boarders. But the man feared Li Zheng, and only dared show himself after Li Zheng had vanished.
"My lord, this man's strength is no small matter."
Huanlong Jun leaped down from the hall and said in a low voice, "I will fight him to the death. I only ask that you revive me in the future, my lord!"
"Rest easy, Dragon Lord. You are my Heavenly River Dragon King. I will not let you die here."
Shen Mu also came down from the great hall and said, "At the next cycle you will turn immaterial, and so will that demigod. You need only hold out until the next cycle, and both of you will become void."
Huanlong Jun went to meet the demigod and laughed with a heh-heh. "But I am not certain of it. The dragon blood in his veins runs purer than mine. Only if I mean to drag him down with me can I stand against him; if I mean only to buy time, he will kill me instead."
He roared, striking one palm and one fist hard together against his chest, his blood and qi surging, and laughed aloud, "When brave men meet on a narrow road, the brave prevail! I was once a god who fought for his life against the Human Sovereign Su, and I did not die beneath his sword! I followed my lord and became the Heavenly River Dragon King. I am not some petty god Heaven keeps to raise dragons for others! If you would take my lord's life, walk over my corpse!"
He and the demigod fell to battle. The two of them turned into two giant dragons, rolling and tearing at each other, commanding water and fire, their divine powers terrible.
Shen Mu walked into the great hall.
Outside came the thunderous din of the two divine dragons fighting. Of all those who had boarded the ship together, few now remained, though some still lived. He did not see Luo Wushuang's Lingxiu Army, nor the Prince Qiuming who had come from the Heavenly Court.
These people must have gone into hiding. Their cultivation had never reached the divine realm, so for now they would not turn immaterial; they could wait until the deities slaughtered one another or became void.
Shen Mu examined the palace carefully. This great hall had been Wei Suifeng's palace.
Wei Suifeng, founding patriarch of the Tiansheng Sect, had explored Guixu, and there in Guixu he had undergone a strange crossing and returned to the Longhan era.
He became a Left General of the Yulin Army of the Longhan Heavenly Court, commanding the mightiest army of gods and demons.
This eldest senior brother had some understanding of Ling Tianzun's divine power as well. When the Yulin Army was returning to the Heavenly Court, he encountered the mist once more and realized it was time for him to go back; so he extinguished his lamp and returned.
Wei Suifeng was very clever. It was quite likely that he had worked out the flaw in Ling Tianzun's divine power, and only thus escaped that calamity.
"Perhaps I will find some clue here in our eldest senior brother's palace."
Shen Mu surveyed the arrangement of the palace, noted the exact position of every object within it, and then searched carefully.
They found the founding patriarch's bookshelf. Some of the books on it were written in the ancient tongue of the gods, some in the speech of elder gods and elder demons, and some in the script of the human race.
Shen Mu leafed through them one by one, and when he had finished a book he set it back at random.
He found a notebook written in human script by his eldest senior brother, recording trifling matters of his time in the Longhan Heavenly Court. Shen Mu read through it carefully. There was not much useful information in it, but inside was a map showing the way to Guixu.