Chapter 1583 — The Torch-Fire of Zixiao Hall
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 1 of 4
Hao Tianzun's chest tightened, and he felt an urge to vomit blood.
He prided himself on his surpassing cunning: he had plotted against the Heavenly Emperor, plotted against Yun Tianzun; the destruction of the Chiming Era, the downfall of Ling Tianzun and Yue Tianzun, the decline of the Kaihuang Era—all were bound up with him. He had also overpowered the other Heavenly Venerables and become the foremost of the Ten; he had defeated Xiao Tianzun at the Jade Capital of the Ancestral Court and subdued the rest.
In fame and in might alike, he had stood without peer! Yet before Shen Mu he had been humiliated and bested again and again!
To say nothing of the distant past—this time, to counter Shen Mu's divine arts, he had been forced to kneel in worship to the Goddess Taisu and beg the protection of Taisu's power.
To be driven to such a pass by Shen Mu was the deepest humiliation of his life!
And even so, Shen Mu had not died.
Not only had he not died, he was hale and whole, carrying on with Ling Tianzun, billing and cooing.
Shen Mu stretched lazily and draped one arm across the instep of the Heavenly Emperor's physical body—the Heavenly Emperor's body was so magnificent that, tall as Shen Mu was, he seemed very small beside it. "Hao'er, your father Taichu and I were sworn brothers.
By seniority, I am your uncle.
" Shen Mu said with a smile, "Come, call me uncle and let me hear it.
" Ling Tianzun burst out laughing.
Shen Mu turned to look at her, and the woman hastily composed her face. Shen Mu smiled.
Just then, a power beyond all reckoning suddenly came sweeping in. Hao Tianzun, seizing the instant he turned, struck without a moment's warning: with a shake of his body, thirty-five heavenly palaces emerged behind his head, and his opening move was the great divine art of the Myriad-Dao Heavenly Wheel.
In the very instant his great divine art erupted, the Goddess Taisu raised her hand and supplied him with a thirty-sixth heavenly palace, making the power of this strike beyond compare!
His heavenly palaces were even more perfect than Xiao Tianzun's: fifty-six treasure halls guarded his heavenly court. And in the battle at the Jade Capital of the Ancestral Court, when Hao Tianzun had fought Xiao Tianzun, his treasure halls had numbered only forty-eight; clearly, having subdued the Divine Emperor Langxuan, he had made up the count with eight more.
In that battle at the Jade Capital of the Ancestral Court he had defeated Xiao Tianzun and nearly slain him on the spot—and the power of his strike now was greater still than it had been then! But at the very moment he struck, Shen Mu's primordial spirit had already merged into the Heavenly Emperor's physical body.
Hao Tianzun's heart leaped, and he saw that magnificent body suddenly come to life.
"What tremendous power!
" The Heavenly Emperor opened his eyes; the blood and qi in that body swelled and roared madly, pushing away the aftershocks of the battle between Xiao Tianzun and Kaihuang.
Shen Mu, in sole possession of the Heavenly Emperor's physical body, felt that the power within it was simply inexhaustible!
More than that, while he controlled this body he could sense every innate great dao—could sense them all clearly, and command them all clearly!
The feeling of becoming the sovereign of all daos was wondrous beyond words. He had long known that the Heavenly Emperor's physical body was exceedingly powerful, but he had never expected it to be this powerful—powerful past all description.
"Taichu brought it on himself.
With a body like that, had he not gone around courting disaster, how could he have been slain by Yun Tianzun, Hao Tianzun, and the rest?
Had he not sought his own death, the others would never have had the slightest chance! " Shen Mu was in a fever of excitement.