Chapter 936 — The Chess Piece Falls in the Heavenly Palace, Deciding Victory
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 4 of 4
Yun Chuxiu came into the Manhui Corridor Pavilion. The girl was lively and restless, forever bustling about, forever circling Shen Mu and Yun Jianli, while Qi Jiuyi circled her, to the girl's unending vexation.
Because Yun Jianli's cultivation was deep, his condition grew ever more critical. Shen Mu pressed on with bitter training in the Taiwei Enclosure's Higher Consciousness, strengthening his own spirit-consciousness, making ready to smelt away Yun Jianli's great blood curse.
His spirit-consciousness grew stronger and stronger. Under his improvements, the Taiwei Enclosure's Higher Consciousness cultivated at a speed beyond his imagining.
"Before long, I can try to break Yun Jianli's great blood curse."
Suddenly the sky began to darken, dim and unclear. Something stirred in Shen Mu's heart; he halted his cultivation and strode out of the Manhui Corridor Pavilion. The Manhui Corridor Pavilion was the dwelling of Her Highness the Empress; there it should have been eternal daylight, and the sky could never darken.
Yet now the sun and moon in the heavens were dim and unclear, the stars growing fainter and fainter, and the sky was dusk.
Many palace maids came out of the Manhui Corridor Pavilion too; some hurried off to find lanterns, meaning to hang them up.
Yun Jianli, Yun Chuxiu, Qi Jiuyi and the others came out as well and looked up at the sky.
In the heavens the sun suddenly faded away by degrees, and the moon went dark at once, no moonlight to be seen; one by one the stars vanished, and the night grew thicker.
"Is it like this throughout the Heavenly Court?"
A palace maid cried out loudly, "Or is it only our Jade Pool that has gone dark?"
The other maids were busy lighting lanterns and hanging them up; no one answered her.
More and more lights kindled in the Manhui Corridor Pavilion, striking against the darkness.
Yun Jianli was alarmed. He rushed toward the Manhui Corridor Pavilion, crying, "No! Do not light the lamps! Put out the lanterns, quickly!"
Shen Mu caught hold of him, smiling. "Brother Yun, there is no need for haste. Let us see how each side's strength measures up."
Sweat stood out on Yun Jianli's forehead. Yun Chuxiu, meanwhile, looked curiously all around, and suddenly cried in alarm, "Something is coming into the Jade Sea! Something has entered the Jade Sea from a tributary of the Heavenly River!"
In the darkness, upon the surface of the Jade Sea, the waves suddenly rose high, standing erect in the sky, a wall of water joining heaven and earth, moving at a fearsome speed, straight for the Manhui Corridor Pavilion.
Crack—
Lightning flashed and thunder rolled in the sky, countless bolts bursting forth. At some unknowable moment dark clouds had spread across the sky above the Jade Pool; suddenly firelight appeared within the thunderheads, brighter and brighter, lighting the black clouds as though they would burn.
Then out of the thunderheads and the black clouds thrust the hideous face of a curly-bearded god-king, the thunderbolts seeming to form his beard, spreading in every direction like writhing dragons, indescribably dreadful.
The curly-bearded thunder god-king looked down at the great wave in the Jade Sea below, and suddenly opened his hideous maw and gave a roar that shook heaven and earth, shattering the wave.
A colossal thing rose from the sea, and the cry of a dragon shook the air, like an immense black-green island floating up from the ocean floor.
Shen Mu watched the dreadful prodigies, his eyes brighter and brighter, and softly intoned, "Where shall I find the winning move, to set my stone down upon the Heavenly Court? The Heavenly Court — from tonight, it splits."
Yun Chuxiu, hearing this, suddenly turned to look at him, her gaze complicated.
Shen Mu smiled at her, and Yun Chuxiu answered with a sweet smile.