Chapter 1146 — Every Wish Is Answered

"The Dragon Mountain Wanderer?" The faces of the two ancient gods changed drastically, and they cried out in unison. Dragon Qilin, trailing behind Shen Mu, said in astonishment: "Someone actually remembers me? Am I so famous?" His tail rose up like a flagpole and swished twice through the air. Back when he had been the Dragon Mountain Wanderer, he had needed to take human form and so had never grown a tail; now that he was a Dragon Qilin again, naturally he had a tail to wag. The two ancient gods were shocked beyond measure; with no thought to spare for whether their elder brother lived or died, they hurriedly soared into the air, but at that very moment canopy upon canopy of the Lapis Lazuli Azure Heaven Canopy bloomed open, twenty-eight tiers of heavens spread out, and separated the two ancient gods one from the other. The Second Pillar Ancient God ran for all he was worth, faster and faster, shaking his shoulders as he went; bone wings unfolded from his back, their membranes clattering, and in a blur of fleeting light he leapt past star after star. Only then did he notice that these were no stars at all, but towering treasures, each pouring out a dazzling radiance, hung like a host of stars in the heavens of the Lapis Lazuli Azure Heaven Canopy. "Worthy indeed of being the greatest treasure under heaven..." No sooner had the thought crossed his mind than space shifted abruptly, and he appeared once more before Shen Mu! The Second Pillar Ancient God was horrified; this place was far from his ancestral ground, his strength was now vastly diminished, and against the Dragon Mountain Wanderer he could not but lose, death beyond all doubt. But when his gaze fell upon Shen Mu and the others, he could not help but start. "None of these people seem to have very high cultivation realms. The strongest is no more than that little green sparrow; one is at the Jade Capital realm, one at the True God realm. Could it be that they are merely the Dragon Mountain Wanderer's disciples, and the Dragon Mountain Wanderer is not here at all?" He grew elated in spite of himself; if they were merely the Dragon Mountain Wanderer's disciples and retainers, then this was a heaven-sent opportunity! "The greatest treasure under heaven, the Lapis Lazuli Azure Heaven Canopy, if it were to fall into my hands..." He did not retreat but advanced, charging straight at Shen Mu and the others! At that instant, Shen Mu bowed to the Lapis Lazuli Azure Heaven Canopy: "Please, little treasure, bring forth the treasures of the First Heaven, and slay the mighty foe." The moment his words fell, the Ancient God Egg suspended high at the dome of the Lapis Lazuli Azure Heaven Canopy trembled; a vast voice of the Dao issued from within the egg, and a majestic power of the Great Dao surged down from the dome, pouring into the many ancestral-court treasures of the First Heaven! Each of those treasures suddenly brimmed with a heart-stopping tremor; beams of light that could destroy heaven and earth twisted the space within the Lapis Lazuli Azure Heaven Canopy, and though last to be unleashed they struck first, surging in from every direction to drown the Second Pillar Ancient God! A thunderous boom that shook heaven and earth rang out, and the Second Pillar Ancient God was vaporized on the spot, not a bone of him left! Dragon Qilin and Yan'er cheered together, but Shen Mu could not help but feel a chill of dread; raising his head toward the Ancient God Egg at the zenith, a deep unease stirred in his heart. The being within this Ancient God Egg was powerful beyond all comprehension, granting whatever was asked of it; such was its divine power, such its strength, that to Shen Mu it seemed to surpass even the Heavenly Venerables of the Heavenly Court. I fear that even should a Heavenly Venerable wield a divine artifact, even the Heavenly Venerable Yu himself, he might not be able to contend with it! Shen Mu showed nothing on his face, yet the skin at the nape of his neck prickled into tiny bumps, and cold sweat ran down. On the other side, the Third Pillar Ancient God was likewise exceedingly swift, and soon fled through tier after tier of heavens. At that moment, Shen Mu bowed once more and said in a low voice: "Please, little treasure, bring forth the treasures of the Seventeenth Heaven, and slay the mighty foe!" From the Ancient God Egg at the zenith came again a clarion voice of the Dao, mellow as a great bell, rolling like war drums; at the same time, Shen Mu's divine consciousness rose noiselessly into the sky, seeking to probe the mystery within the Ancient God Egg. This Ancient God Egg was unlike the Egg of the Great Beginning: when Wei Suifeng had split the Egg of the Great Beginning, the power within it was roused, all manner of Great Dao patterns spilled from the egg, and the voice of the Dao thundered. But this Ancient God Egg showed no anomaly on its surface and could not be probed from without; only when the egg drew upon its own power, of its own accord opening a channel to vent that power, did Shen Mu have a chance to slip his divine consciousness inside. The various ancestral-court treasures of the Seventeenth Heaven blazed with light and blasted the Third Pillar Ancient God to death; at the same moment, Shen Mu's divine consciousness arrived beside the Ancient God Egg and burrowed into it. The instant his divine consciousness entered the egg, all before him was primordial chaos, vast and boundless, a substance he could not name, nothing like the fluid of an egg. He was about to look closer when that primordial qi suddenly shifted and became a great bell, its walls bearing birds and beasts, insects and fish, the sun and moon and stars, rivers of stars and constellations, the myriad phenomena of heaven and earth. Just as Shen Mu was about to look more closely, the great bell vanished, replaced by a great cauldron, ancient and grey and vast, seated upon thick earthly qi, drifting and sinking, spinning without cease. On the cauldron's walls were reliefs of every kind of ancient god: some with three heads and six arms, some with bird heads and human bodies, some with human heads and serpent bodies, some with ox heads and tiger faces, every form imaginable. Before Shen Mu could see clearly, the great cauldron vanished and a bright mirror surfaced; in the mirror appeared the vast worlds, the teeming multitudes, the rolling dust of the mortal realm, as though the living beings of the cosmos were endlessly evolving within the glass. Then the bright mirror vanished, that strange primordial qi swirled, and out of the mass of purple qi walked a woman of peerless beauty, one glance at whom was enough to steal a heart. "Langwan..." Shen Mu was dumbstruck; the God King Langwan walked toward him, a smile on her face, youthful and nimble, gentle and full of tenderness. When she was about to reach his side, her features suddenly changed into those of another young woman, robed in white, a long sword on her back, small dragon horns sprouting from her brow, her lovely hair draped over her shoulders and streaming down like water. "Bai Qu'er..." Shen Mu's heart quivered; Bai Qu'er walked toward him, her eyes revealing forty thousand years of waiting. Yet her features changed again, becoming the girl he had met on the Yong River; Ling Yuxiu, dressed as a man, appeared before him, her eyes full of mischief and wildness. Of these three women, one was the woman who had drawn Shen Mu so deeply, yet who had cast aside every feeling of her own for the sake of her race's future. One was the Shanghuang Sword God, who, holding to the creed that a single human life outweighs the heavens, had alone taken up the burden of guarding the remnants of Shanghuang, seeking a way to live on in the darkness; and it was likewise because of what had befallen her on the night of the Shanghuang Tribulation that a single meeting had ruined her life, and she had waited bitterly for Shen Mu for forty thousand years. And the other wa