Chapter 1013 — Breaking Into the Heavenly Lord's Inner Court Again
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 2 of 4
Shen Mu and Shujun walked in. They stepped through the doorway — yet what lay within was not a room, but the far end of the Void Bridge!
They were standing right in front of the middle door!
The Void Bridge ran in broken, fitful spans, its radiance washing to and fro. Shen Mu frowned slightly; crossing this bridge would be no easy matter. He had only reached this place safely before by joining hands with the Void Heavenly Venerable and the Fire Heavenly Venerable, and with the Ark of the Other Shore besides.
If they tried to leave by way of the Void Bridge, then even with God King Langwan added to their number, they likely lacked the strength for it.
Just then a dreadful fluctuation came from the central room, and the figures of the Fire Heavenly Venerable and the Void Heavenly Venerable flew out from the painting on the wall!
These two great Heavenly Venerables had actually broken free of the cycle of life and death in the world of the painting, and escaped!
Without pausing to think, Shen Mu shut the door before the two Heavenly Venerables had even landed, then opened it again. Within the doorway there were no longer the Void and Fire Heavenly Venerables, but a vast expanse of palaces.
In his haste Shen Mu could not tell where the world behind the door might be, and he shouted, "Quick, inside!"
God King Langwan said hurriedly, "Different steps in opening the door lead to different places. I know of a safe place..."
"There is no time!"
Shen Mu seized her hand without another word and rushed into the room; Shujun rushed in after them.
The door banged open. From the top of the Void Heavenly Venerable's head two horns blazed up like flames, twisting through nine turns and eighteen bends, like two long rivers of demonic fire from Youdu.
Her body was covered in wounds. She looked around and saw the Void Bridge in broken segments of flowing light, with collapsing, crumbling void currents on every side — but of Shen Mu and his companions there was no trace. She gave a cold snort and turned sharply.
The Fire Heavenly Venerable also walked out of the room and stood face to face with her.
He too was covered in wounds, and his injuries were grave; they would not heal in any short time.
The two of them met each other's gaze — five eyes in all, for the Void Heavenly Venerable had another eye at the center of her brow, like the Earth Lord's third eye — and then each looked away.
The wounds on their bodies had been dealt by one another. They had crossed the Void Bridge and burst into the central room ahead of Shen Mu, only to fall into the world of reincarnation the Creator had left behind.
The two of them fell into the cycle of rebirth. The Void Heavenly Venerable was reincarnated as a God King with a million gods and demons under her command, and the Fire Heavenly Venerable was likewise reincarnated as a God King. Deep enmity ran between their two divine kingdoms, and each led armies against the other in savage slaughter.
The most terrifying thing about the world of reincarnation was this: when one fell into the cycle, the Creator's mighty divine consciousness altered the memories of the fallen. Even the Fire and Void Heavenly Venerables, caught off guard, had their memories rewritten by that world.
The tampered memories of the two Heavenly Venerables were filled with hatred for the enemy, and so they fought with all their might, slaughtering until heaven and earth were overturned.
When Kaihuang first came to this place in years past, he too fell into the world of reincarnation, and forced his way through by sheer strength of his Dao heart.
The Fire and Void Heavenly Venerables had better fortune than Kaihuang. After all, two great Heavenly Venerables had descended there, and the power unleashed when they fought exceeded the limits that world of reincarnation could bear. The two of them, eyes red with killing, soon discovered that the million-strong armies of gods and demons fighting alongside them had frozen in place!