Chapter 1582 — The Emperor First Tests His Edge
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 4 of 4
Lord Kai still stood on the God-Slaying Platform, watching Lord Xiao, who was still tumbling and spilling blood, and said calmly: "Whether there is a Great Luo Heaven of sword dao makes little difference to me. For I am the sword dao, I am Great Luo, I am the Dao Tree of sword dao, I am the Dao Flower upon the Dao Tree."
"Yes!"
Shen Mu said excitedly to Lord Ling: "That is exactly what I meant!"
Lord Ling smiled and thought: "A child's temper, after all."
"Now I can rest easy."
Shen Mu let out a breath, took out the Celestial Emperor's body, his eyes flickering, and said with a smile: "Lord Hao will soon break free. Ling, we must make ready!"
Lord Ling frowned. "Lord Hao's strength is no less than Lord Xiao's. I fear I cannot be of much help."
Shen Mu thought for a moment, then said: "In the Jade Capital of the Ancestral Court, I witnessed the ruin and death of sixteen cosmos, and came to understand the principle by which cosmos are born and die. It is the law of the conservation of mass and energy! The entire cosmos transforms mass and energy into one another, and the total mass-energy never changes. You have comprehended the immutability of matter; if you can advance one step further and comprehend the immutability of mass-energy, then perhaps even Taiyi will not be your match."
Lord Ling asked curiously: "What is the immutability of mass-energy? How do mass and energy transform into each other?"
Shen Mu crouched down. Beneath the Taiyi Cane there was still a patch of sand; he stretched out a finger and drew and scribbled on it, saying: "From the builder of the Jade Capital of the Ancestral Court, the master of Miluo Palace, I grasped a Hongmeng rune. These days I have studied it without cease — perhaps the secret of the transformation of mass and energy lies hidden within this rune. Only I have never quite understood the conversion between mass and energy; it requires calculations of immense complexity. And the dao patterns of the master of Miluo Palace conceal precisely these shifts among runes."
Lord Ling crouched down as well. After watching for a moment she took out her hairpin and also drew and scribbled on the ground, and the two of them calculated together.
On the other side, Lord Kai and Lord Xiao fought until heaven collapsed and earth split, yet the two of them turned a blind eye and a deaf ear to it all.
"Lord Mu, at last you have died by my hand! Hahaha!"
Lord Hao's voice rang out. Shen Mu glanced over and saw above Lord Hao's head a great bell, battered and broken, riddled with holes, leaking wind on every side.
He withdrew his gaze and went on calculating with Lord Ling.
Lord Hao had fought his way out from forty thousand years of time, wild with joy; then he suddenly saw that amid the storm born of Lord Kai and Lord Xiao's battle, a single cane propped up a patch of pure land, and there was Shen Mu, perfectly well, not dead at all, crouching on the ground with Lord Ling, their heads touching, writing something unknown upon the earth.
Lord Hao gave a muffled groan, and blood seeped from the corner of his mouth.
"Did you not say that if I slew the twenty-odd thousand of you across forty thousand years of the past, you would die?" he murmured.
"I never said I would die."
Shen Mu rose to his feet and said with a half-smile: "Besides, did you really believe it, worthy nephew?"