Chapter 1168 — The Heavenly Dao Moves with Certainty

Several hundred void beasts could hold back no longer and pounced toward Shen Mu, Hong Heavenly Venerable, Long Qilin, Yan'er, and the others upon the altar, like a pack of wolves fighting over prey! "Half each!

" Dahong swept his sleeve, gathering the pouncing void beasts into it.

These void beasts were immense beyond measure, yet once they fell into his sleeve they seemed pitifully tiny. Shen Mu's divine consciousness erupted, and he visualized countless razor-sharp spikes.

The spikes appeared inside the bodies of the remaining void beasts, instantly riddling them with a thousand holes. The void beasts were fierce and battle-hardened; the herd let out shrill, piercing cries that slammed straight into his mind.

Stunned and muddled by the cries of the void beasts, Shen Mu hastily roused the Mystic Body Three-Core Art, transforming it into supreme Daluo divine consciousness, and formed a domain of divine consciousness to guard his mind, lest his brain burst apart.

The void beasts tried to make their bodies ethereal to shake off the spikes within them, but as they turned ethereal, the spikes turned ethereal with them! This was a divine-consciousness ability unique to the Creator race! Shen Mu strained to sustain the ability, and soon the void beasts fled in a frenzy, slipping away to safety.

Only then did he breathe a sigh of relief. Though his divine consciousness was powerful enough to reach the twenty-eighth level of the void, subduing a hundred or so void beasts at once was still somewhat difficult, so he could only let them escape.

In but a short time the void beasts fled beyond the reach of his divine-consciousness ability, each one hiding itself, not daring to come near.

Shen Mu looked around and saw huge eyes emerging everywhere between the sky and the mountains and rivers below, staring fixedly at them, enough to make one's scalp go numb.

The most terrifying thing about void beasts was not a frontal assault, but an ambush launched from hiding in the void. They might merge with mountains, rivers, and trees, or with rivers and the ground; they might even lurk right beside you without your ever noticing. There were simply too many void beasts here.

A moment's carelessness and one could very likely be left without even a corpse. Shen Mu summoned all his vigilance and manifested three heads and six arms to guard against a void beast ambush.

Hong Heavenly Venerable shook his sleeve, and chunks of shattered bone fell out. Shen Mu glanced at him and said with a smile, "Fellow Daoist Hong, I used a divine-consciousness ability to subdue the void beasts, and you are not the least bit curious?

" He put away the altar and walked forward with Long Qilin and Yan'er. Hong Heavenly Venerable strode after him, his white brows streaming, and said with a smile, "You have an Overlord Body and have been to the past. What is there to be curious about in your knowing a divine-consciousness ability?

" Unable to fathom the origins of this demon Heavenly Venerable, Shen Mu probed, "I observe that you and Fellow Daoist Gong do not seem to get along.

Since you are not the Grand Emperor, why does Gong Heavenly Venerable bear you such ill will?

" "You know Gong's identity?

" Hong Heavenly Venerable's great sleeves fluttered as he looked below. With a sweep of his sleeve he drove back the void beasts charging at them, and chuckled, "She has mistaken me for someone else.

She pursues me relentlessly and has tried to kill me time and again. But I do not wish to kill her, so each time I meet her I can only yield a little and not stoop to quarrel with her. " Shen Mu looked around, searching for a treasure site, and said carelessly, "Then it was you who killed Dahong back then and erased the Grand Emperor's divine consciousness.

You are an ancient god, and only ancient gods are utterly wary of the Grand Emperor. By that reasoning, you must be Lady Yuanmu. I have been thinking of you constantly, my lady.

Ever since I first laid eyes on you I have been unable to get you off my mind, tossing and turning, unable to sleep.

If you lived next door to me, I could grow much closer to you. " Hong Heavenly Venerable was taken aback for a moment, then said with a smile, "Why do you say that? " Shen Mu said, "Dahong is the Grand Emperor. The Grand Emperor's divine consciousness was boundless in power.

When I gravely wounded him back then, his divine consciousness was damaged, but not just anyone could erase him. Yet Lady Yuanmu's Guixu ability can destroy all things. Among the Three Kings of High Antiquity, the Divine King Boyang was stuffed into Guixu by the Empress and Yuanmu and ground to ash, not a trace remaining. " Hong Heavenly Venerable said with a smile, "Lady Yuanmu is not the only one who can destroy the Grand Emperor's divine consciousness. " Shen Mu looked toward the distant Taichu mineral vein and saw that Xiao Heavenly Venerable had already flown there. He frowned slightly.

Xiao Heavenly Venerable had gone there for Gu Xiao's corpse and the Imperial Sword, and the Taichu mineral vein was extremely useful to him; he had to obtain it.

That he flew there at the first opportunity was only to be expected. "Then among the ancient gods, who else can erase the Grand Emperor's divine consciousness? " Shen Mu asked humbly for instruction. "Heavenly Duke, Tubo, the Heavenly Emperor, the Empress, the Earth Mother, even Tianyin—all of them can destroy a portion of the Grand Emperor's divine consciousness. " Hong Heavenly Venerable also looked into the distance.

Seeing Langxuan God Emperor flying toward the Jade Pool of the Ancestral Court, he sighed inwardly and said, "That treasure site has fallen to Langxuan.

Because of this demon body of mine, Gong Heavenly Venerable misunderstands me, and I do not care to argue.

I only never expected Mu Heavenly Venerable to misunderstand me as well. Since Mu Heavenly Venerable has the power to protect himself, then we need not be neighbors after all.

" Shen Mu was startled.

"Who exactly are you?

" "Heaven's course has its constant order; it does not exist for Mu, nor perish for Xiao. Meet it with order and there is fortune; meet it with chaos and there is calamity.

" Hong Heavenly Venerable's great sleeves fluttered as he walked forward, saying with a smile, "I am merely an observer who has wandered from remote antiquity to the present. The ancient god Heavenly Emperor would not let me see the Heavenly Court, the Earth Mother would not let me see the Yuan Realm, and Tubo would not let me see the Nether Capital, so I had no choice but to make the journey myself. " Shen Mu's body shook violently, and he stood frozen in place. After a moment he came to his senses, hurried after him, and sent a voice transmission through a ripple of divine consciousness: "If you are him, why did you still move against the Western Emperor? " Hong Heavenly Venerable drifted far away and waved his great sleeve.

"To kill her is to protect her, to help her break free of the ancient gods' bonds.

But since you wish to protect her, I will go along with it and let her owe you a favor.

At the Jade Pool I saved you, and you must repay me that favor, so I want you to write me an IOU! " Shen Mu could not catch up. He stood there dumbfounded, then after a moment shook his head and laughed. "Truly worthy of the old sly.

. . old hand!

" Yan'er and Long Qilin caught up with him. Long Qilin asked, "Sect Master, was it Heavenly Duke who killed Dahong back then? " Shen Mu nodded. "It should be him.

When I intercepted Dahong as he was destroying the Xiaohan Heavenly Court, both Dahong and I unleashed terrifying waves of divine consciousness. That could not be hidden from Heavenly Duke.

He must have taken advantage of the moment when I left gravely wounded and Dahong fled gravely wounded to waylay and kill Dahong. " He was lost in thought for a moment, then shook his head.