Chapter 1314 — The Sky-High Deal
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 2 of 2
Perilous as these mines are, beside your place they are a gentle haven, a shelter from the storm.
" Xiu Hongsu hastily bowed, and Yan Tianfei waved her away.
Shen Mu stepped forward and bowed: "Why is Her Highness not holding the white cat this time? " Yan Tianfei returned the courtesy gracefully and said: "I sent him to find who is working mischief in secret and releasing the beasts.
Xiao Qi is the keenest, and what I cannot find, he can find.
" Shen Mu's heart stirred, and he said: "These beasts were released?
" Yan Tianfei nodded and invited him into her separate palace hall, walking and talking with him as she said: "Indeed.
" "Then where did these beasts live before? " Shen Mu asked.
"Some lived on the back of the Yuan Realm, some on the back of the Four Polar Heavens, and the Heavenly Court, Xuandu, Youdu, and such worlds each held some. Even on the back of my Guixu, some mighty beasts survived. " Yan Tianfei said with a half-smile: "Mu Tianzun, you postnatal beings and demigods often call us ancient gods cruel, yet you do not know it is we ancient gods who uphold the order of the world. Before sealing the Ancestral Court, we moved these beasts to the backs of those worlds so they might breed and thrive.
And what of you postnatal beings and demigods? " Scorn showed on her face: "You overthrew us in the name of our cruelty, yet how many races have gone extinct by your hands?
In cruelty, you surpass us ancient gods! " Shen Mu smiled: "Say no more, Your Highness. I have seen the cruelty of the ancient gods in the Longhan era with my own eyes, and I can judge for myself whether it exceeded that of demigods and postnatal beings.
To you, the ancient gods are not cruel, but to us, unless the ancient gods die, we have no way to live. " Remembering he had been to the Longhan era more than once, Yan Tianfei pressed the matter no further and asked him to be seated, saying: "Of Hao'er's quintessential blood, how much have you obtained?
" "Hao Tianzun holds thirty-five Heavenly Palaces, though he claims but twenty-eight to the outside.
" Shen Mu took his seat and brushed his hand lightly before him, and drop after drop of fresh blood floated between them, each drop of Tianzun blood crystal clear and gleaming with splendid light like the purest ruby. Yan Tianfei's heart thumped twice, for Shen Mu had laid out thirty-five drops of Tianzun blood!
Thirty-five drops meant Hao Tianzun's thirty-five Heavenly Palaces!
"I have a great bargain to discuss with Your Highness.
" With a sweep of his sleeve Shen Mu made the thirty-five drops vanish and smiled as he said: "Give me half the yield of this mine of yours, and I will give you Hao Tianzun's thirty-five drops of Tianzun blood, that you may fathom his arts and divine powers!
What say you to this deal? " Yan Tianfei's gaze flickered, and she smiled faintly as she said: "Mu Tianzun, you stand before me in person. If I wished to seize it by force, could you resist me?
" She rose gracefully, all the clinging charm of the consort gone, replaced by the bearing of one who rules the world, a confident smile upon her face: "With a snap of my fingers I can slay you a thousand times over! I can even utterly grind away your soul and erase every trace that you ever existed!
" She laughed: "Your vaunted Archmage Immortal Through Myriad Calamities is nothing in my eyes. The only one in this world who can truly break your divine power is I, not even Tai Di! The only one who can hold you fast is I!
Hand over Hao'er's divine blood, and I shall spare your life! " Shen Mu burst into hearty laughter, his laughter shaking back and forth through the palace hall.