Chapter 1323 — The Mine Mutiny
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 3 of 4
The treasure's might descended to suppress the light, but it gave a humming shudder, and then its might was assimilated by the radiance; not a shred of power radiated out.
Seeing matters turn ugly, Xiu Hongsu fled madly outward, groaning inwardly: "The moment Heavenly Venerable Mu entered the district, this monstrous business began! Is he truly, as the legends say, Shen the Demolisher, who tears down whatever place he visits?"
The light was swift beyond measure, flooding hills and wilds. The other divinities in the district fled in panic too, but some were slower; the light caught them, and soon one after another they were transformed into energy bodies.
Xiu Hongsu looked back, eyes near to splitting with fury: in but a brief moment, nearly half the divinities in the district were gone.
"Why do you not go tear down your own Great Black Wood? Black-Hearted Heavenly Venerable!" Forgetting all dignity, she cursed at the top of her voice.
At last the crowd escaped the district. The light reached only the district's edge and did not spread beyond.
Xiu Hongsu's face was black as she raised her eyes. At the center of the district, a pillar of light pierced the heavens, enduring without dispersing, shining so fiercely that even the sky was rendered insubstantial.
Deep in the sky, the seal of the ancient gods was rendered insubstantial as well, opening a great hole in the heavens that joined with the outside world.
"Axemen!"
Xiu Hongsu's voice was stern. "Lie in ambush. When the Black-Hearted Heavenly Venerable comes out of the district, blades and axes together, and chop him into fine pieces. If a single scrap of flesh the size of a nail remains, I will hold every one of you to account!"
The white cat said, "Senior Sister Xiu, with an eruption of that scale in the district, do you think Heavenly Venerable Mu can still be alive?"
Xiu Hongsu sneered. "Best if he died in there!"
At last the pillar of light slowly dissipated.
In the deepest part of the district, the Egg of the Great Beginning said in a trembling voice, "Heavenly Venerable Mu, are you still alive?"
"I do not know..."
Shock was written across Shen Mu's face. Seated at the center of the primordial stone, strange patterns of the Great Beginning Way surfaced all over his body, marks left by the radiance of countless Great Beginning divine stones shining upon him.
These Dao patterns were brilliant. Besides the brands of the divine stones, there were also brands from the primordial stone's light.
Stranger still, these brands were slowly seeping deeper, penetrating into his very flesh. Shen Mu felt his own substance fading, becoming pure energy.
He did not even know now whether he was alive or dead.
"Heh. This is like what happened when the ghost ship exploded, only worse..."
Just then, within his Primal Fetus Spirit Treasury, the spirit fetus trembled. The Dao patterns branded upon his body by the various divine stones and the primordial stone seemed to receive a summons; at once they ceased eroding his flesh and surged toward the Primal Fetus Spirit Treasury.
Those gorgeous Dao patterns arrived at the Ancestral Court within the Primal Fetus Spirit Treasury and swarmed toward the Great Beginning mineral vein there.
Shen Mu was dumbstruck; then at once he felt himself turning from an energy body back into flesh.
But the most wondrous change of all was still within his Primal Fetus Spirit Treasury.
In the Ancestral Court of his spirit treasury, those Dao patterns crowded and jostled, boring into the Great Beginning mineral vein.
This Great Beginning vein had been conjured by Shen Mu from the Way of the Great Beginning he had comprehended; it was an empty shell, and in truth the vein served little purpose.
Yet as these Dao patterns poured into the vein, Shen Mu found that this spirit fetus vein of his was undergoing an incomparably wondrous transformation.
The vein was gradually becoming whole. More than that, within his vein an altar like water was slowly taking form.