Chapter 1288 — From the Azure Heavens Above to the Yellow Springs Below
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 2 of 3
Once the Seven Soul Grass entered the Daluo Heaven, it was like a fish in water, taking root in Heavenly Venerable Hao's primal spirit body, drawing on its nourishment and refining his soul. Yet if Shen Mu's sword domain had so much as touched the Consciousness Daluo Heaven, he would have fallen into Heavenly Venerable Hao's ploy of killing with a borrowed blade and slipping free like the golden cicada shedding its shell.
The power of the Consciousness Daluo Heaven would have erupted, not only grievously wounding Shen Mu, but giving Heavenly Venerable Hao's primal spirit its chance to escape!
Heavenly Venerable Hao thought to himself that it was a pity, and sped upward.
Beyond the heavens lay the entrance to the Great Void, and there the Heavenly Court's armies that had fled the Great Void would surely be waiting; his battle with the Great Emperor would certainly have reached the Heavenly Court's ears, and his own faction would have set out at once for the Great Void.
Once he walked out of the Great Void, he would be safe!
Just then, Shen Mu splayed his five fingers and struck a palm at the sky. Heavenly Venerable Hao's body rose into the air, higher and higher, and just then he saw the sky grow thin, thinner and thinner, until it had no thickness at all.
His body too was stretched, drawn out, as though it would grow infinitely thin along with the sky, and at last dissolve into the void!
"Daluo Heaven Above: Gathering the Circle to Completion!
" "So it was indeed you who stole into Zhaoyang Hall with Yun Tianzun all those years ago!
" Heavenly Venerable Hao's heart stirred slightly.
In that year he and Yun Tianzun had robbed the Zhaoyang Hall, one after the other, and had met another master who wielded this very move; but that man's magic power had been far inferior to his, and he had shattered it by main force with his own heaven-overturning strength.
Now Shen Mu used the move once more, and he recognized it at once. Shen Mu's voice came to him: "Heavenly Venerable Hao, back then you had the magic power to break my divine art.
Do you still have it now?
" "No.
But I have perfected the Innate One Qi!
" Countless wounds burst open across Heavenly Venerable Hao's body. He cast off a portion of the cultivation he could no longer hold in check, his body quivered lightly, merged with Shen Mu's Daluo Heaven, then gave a light shake and escaped from the move Daluo Heaven Above: Gathering the Circle to Completion.
Shen Mu was startled; then another pair of arms drilled out from beneath his own, four arms locking inward, the Heavenly River rolling and surging as it wrapped around Heavenly Venerable Hao, and the Four Poles Heavens rose up humming!
Azure Dragon, White Tiger, Vermilion Bird, Black Tortoise appeared, and all together they smashed toward Heavenly Venerable Hao at the center!
"The Heavenly River Surveys the Four Poles!
" Boom!
Heavenly Venerable Hao spat blood and fell from the heights like a comet striking the earth, crashing into the land of the Great Void; flames shot up to the heavens from the ground, and a mushroom cloud rose slowly into the sky. Shen Mu, head down and feet up, hooked his palm downward.
His palm force was stamped from afar upon the place where Heavenly Venerable Hao had fallen, and the earth did not sink — instead, with a thunderous roar, it was torn up from the ground. His Dao law took shape in the land of the Great Void as a Primordial Tree; the Primordial Tree propped up Heavenly Venerable Hao's battered body and roared up to meet Shen Mu's palm.
The Primordial Tree swiftly grew to the crown of the mushroom cloud and collided with Shen Mu's palm print.
A violent tremor spread in every direction, and a ring of white light formed in the air, white light like a blade, slicing level outward on all sides, as though it meant to cut the sky of the Great Void in two. In the very instant that Shen Mu's palm force struck home, Heavenly Venerable Hao's figure vanished.