Chapter 1583 — The Torch-Fire of Zixiao Hall
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 2 of 4
He marshaled his cultivation, driving it through every part of the Heavenly Emperor's physical body, and with a long cry he pointed one finger at Hao Tianzun's Myriad-Dao Heavenly Wheel! The Primal Chaos Finger!
This finger technique had always been Shen Mu's strongest move, but his study of the runes of primal chaos qi was not deep, and he could not draw out its variations; though its power was frightening, it could hardly pose a fatal threat to a Heavenly Venerable, for it was easily dodged.
Only by staking his life against his opponent's could Shen Mu have hoped to wound him grievously. Now, performed by the Heavenly Emperor's physical body, its power had risen to an unspeakably terrifying degree! Hao Tianzun's Myriad-Dao Heavenly Wheel was a great divine art of the thirtieth heaven of the Dao Realm, holding thirty heavens within it, thirty tiers of might—yet as Shen Mu's finger came pointing across, before the wheel's power could even erupt, its thirty heavens were pierced clean through; before a single transformation could be deployed, it burst apart with a thunderous crash!
Hao Tianzun's heart lurched, and he saw Shen Mu point again; he hurriedly dodged aside—only to find the move was a feint, without the least power in it.
Shen Mu pointed again; Hao Tianzun dodged again—another feint.
Shen Mu pointed on and on, Hao Tianzun dodged this way and that, and every one of them was a feint; he flew into a towering rage. Then suddenly Shen Mu pointed once more, and this time it was a true Primal Chaos Finger, more terrifying than the blow before! Hao Tianzun gave a cold snort. His techniques and divine arts abruptly shifted; many of those thirty-six heavenly palaces dissolved on the spot, and new palaces took form—still thirty-six in all.
Strangely, these palaces held no Lingxiao Treasure Hall; in its place stood Zixiao Hall! Shen Mu was startled.
"The Fourth Young Master of the Jade Capital!
" The Fourth Young Master of the Jade Capital at the Ancestral Court was the very man who had led Hao Tianzun into Zixiao Hall. What Hao Tianzun had met with inside Zixiao Hall, what had happened there, no one knew—but surely the Fourth Young Master had granted him some enormous benefit! And now, in the heavenly palaces behind Hao Tianzun's head, the Lingxiao Treasure Hall had vanished and Zixiao Hall had taken its place: doubtless the doing of whatever he had encountered in Zixiao Hall.
"Is there some difference between Zixiao Hall and Lingxiao Hall? " Shen Mu wondered, suddenly on his guard.
The Goddess Taisu was alarmed as well.
She had not followed Hao Tianzun into Zixiao Hall, and after he emerged he had been vague about what had happened inside—plainly he was keeping something from her.
But she had never imagined that Hao Tianzun possessed yet another set of techniques.
He had two sets of the Great Heavenly Court's arcane arts, and in one of them he had already changed Lingxiao Hall into Zixiao Hall! She could not help but waver.
When Hao Tianzun altered his techniques, by rights she ought to have sensed it, for whenever he was wounded it was she who answered his every plea, repairing his damaged heavenly palaces. Had he altered those palaces, she would surely have noticed.
But she had noticed nothing.
"That means one thing! " The Goddess Taisu's heart lurched.
"He has already changed his heavenly palaces without my knowing it, quietly, in ways I cannot perceive, so that I cannot control him! He has been using me all along!
" Her eyes flickered. She quietly withdrew the heavenly palaces she had bestowed on Hao Tianzun—and her heart sank utterly: not one of Hao Tianzun's palaces shattered.
By rights, the moment she withdrew them he should have reverted to a state of grave injury and become a cripple at a stroke.
But he did not.
"He is using me.
" The Goddess Taisu felt a chill run through her. "He is using me to complete his thirty-sixth heavenly palace, using me to fulfill his ambition!