Chapter 1603 — The Turning Wheel and the End
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 2 of 4
Suddenly the quarreling stopped. Shen Mu knew at once that something was wrong; and indeed, the faces of Lady Yuanmu and the Empress had merged upon a single countenance, and their eyes were fixed straight upon him.
Shen Mu cleared his throat twice, looked about him, and exclaimed in admiration, "The scenery here really is quite fine."
The Empress sneered. "Heavenly Venerable Mu, teach me the complete Way of Reincarnation, and I will grant you a way to live."
"Teach it to me, and I will make you feel good!" Lady Yuanmu said, thrilled.
Shen Mu's face went black as iron. He simply sat down. "Whichever one of you I offend, I cannot escape death. So let it be this way: I will recite the Way of Reincarnation aloud, and each of you may listen. As for whichever of you comprehends it first, and which of you refines the other to death first, that will have nothing to do with me. What say you both?"
Without waiting for their answer, he began chanting the scripture on his own. The Empress listened at once, intently, not daring to let a single word slip past her. Before long she had grown calm, all her mind bent on comprehending the Way of Reincarnation.
Shen Mu's eyes flickered. Chanting all the while, he raised his head to look up, and his face turned ashen.
The twin lotus had already sunk completely into the dark abyss, deeper and deeper; looking up, he could see only a single thread of sky.
And still the twin lotus kept sinking, to no place he could name.
Shen Mu watched the dead stars sinking ceaselessly past the twin lotus outside, and the Styx pouring down into the abyss, and could not help but fret in secret.
The Empress and her sister were comprehending the Way of Reincarnation; sooner or later they would wake. And they had grown clever: though they still kept the lotus open, they had sunk it deep into Guixu, so that Shen Mu could not escape.
Were Shen Mu to leave the lotus, he would be seized by the terrible gravity of the Great Abyss of Guixu and dragged down into an unforeseeable darkness.
"Those two madwomen do not even know that they are not two people, but two minds in one body."
Shen Mu shook his head and thought, "This time I am finished. I have fallen into the hands of the one being in all the world who can restrain me. With the Goddess of Guixu commanding this lotus, I fear that even Kaihuang, who has attained the Way, would be no match for her... Hmm, so what exactly lies beneath Guixu?"
Curiosity stirred in him once more. Chanting the Way of Reincarnation, he craned his head out to look down.
The very instant his head emerged from the lotus, he felt his skull grow immeasurably heavy; an inconceivable gravity drew his head out long and thin, and at the same time boundless heat came surging in.
Shen Mu hastily roused his mana and hauled his head back, his heart still pounding with the fright of it.
"Whether the Empress or Yuanmu, I have studied their bodies for decades. The Great Way of Guixu has two faces: one is destruction, one is birth. Though I have never fused these two Ways, surely I would not be killed outright by the Great Abyss of Guixu?"
He thought it over. With the Way of the Supreme Ultimate, the Ancient God of the Supreme Ultimate had fused the Empress and Yuanmu into one person; because their minds and consciousnesses differed, the Goddess of Guixu thus born was mad and addled.
Then what if he, too, used the Way of the Supreme Ultimate to fuse the Way of Guixu he had cultivated?
"I have only one mind and one consciousness, so naturally I could not go mad the way the Goddess of Guixu has."
Shen Mu blinked and thought, "If I can accomplish this, Guixu will no longer be able to hold me, and the Goddess of Guixu's powers will no longer be unknown to me. Then I shall have a chance at life."