Chapter 1521 — The Tall, Gaunt Stranger

It seemed the two had journeyed a great distance and had spent every last ounce of strength on the road, never resting once.

Puzzled, Shen Mu caught sight from afar of a wooden cane in Wei Suifeng's hand and wondered inwardly, "That looks like Tai Yi's cane. How does Tai Yi's cane come to be in their hands?"

"Mu Tianzun, Tai Yi has been seized by the master of the Miluo Palace and cast into the Chaos River of the Jade Capital City."

Shu Jun could run no farther, but his divine consciousness was still mighty. From afar it burst out and carried the message to Shen Mu, swiftly telling him everything: how they had been trapped in the Jade Capital City of the Ancestral Court, how they had chanced upon Tai Yi, how they had followed Tai Yi across the river, and all the other inconceivable things they had lived through, down to the last detail.

To pass word by divine consciousness is far swifter than speech, and more complete, missing neither the great nor the small. Shen Mu felt as though he had lived through their experiences himself, and his body shook violently, disbelief written across his face.

Wei Suifeng, stronger in cultivation, took Shu Jun on his back and came flying with a howl. "Tai Yi left this cane behind," he said in a low voice, "and said something about seeking him by a map. But he left no map at all. I do not know how to save him."

Shen Mu caught the two of them lest they collapse from exhaustion, but his heart was sinking by degrees.

Tai Yi had fallen.

From the images Shu Jun had passed to him by divine consciousness, those Chaos Rivers of the Jade Capital City were not truly rivers at all, but the chaos qi formed when universes are destroyed. Those beings who strove to break through the Chaos Rivers and come ashore were the powerhouses of the various universes, forcing their way toward the present world to escape the fate of perishing along with their own.

With divine arts and means beyond all imagining, the master of the Miluo Palace had opened passages through one destroyed universe after another, forming the wondrous sight of sixteen cosmic eras joined to the Jade Capital City of the Ancestral Court.

By casting Tai Yi into one of those great Chaos Rivers, he had cast Tai Yi into one of those cosmic eras.

"Tai Yi has fallen into the fourth cosmic era..."

The corner of Shen Mu's eye twitched. He gripped the cane tightly, and when Wei Suifeng and Shu Jun had steadied themselves, he suddenly turned and strode away. Wei Suifeng was taken aback for a moment, then hurried after him. "Junior Brother, do you know where Tai Yi's map is?"

Shen Mu did not answer. His divine consciousness suddenly burst forth, becoming a terrible wave that swept across the hundred thousand great mountains, and he shouted, "Hear my command, all of you. Today you must leave the Great Black Mountain. Do not linger even a moment."

"All of you, hear my command. I am Shen Mu, Imperial Preceptor of Jingping, Mu Tianzun. All of you must leave the Great Black Mountain today. Not one of you may stay."

His divine consciousness became a voice that echoed back and forth, sounding again and again over the hundred thousand great mountains.

Xu Shenghua was mending a riven Black Mountain; hearing it, he hastily raised his head and looked toward Shen Mu. And at the heart of the Great Black Mountain, beside the World Tree, Lan Yutian, Granny Zhu, Wen Yuan and the others showed astonishment, and all turned toward the source of the voice.

Then Shen Mu's divine consciousness reached straight into their minds, becoming a voice that sounded in their heads. Swiftly he recounted what had happened and said in a heavy tone, "Tai Yi has fallen into the fourth prehistoric cosmic era. With him no longer guarding the Great Black Mountain, the first prehistoric being is about to break free. Tonight I will hold this place to the death. The rest of you take the people here and go. Do not linger."

Everyone's expression changed at once. Lan Yutian was about to fly to Shen Mu's side when Granny Zhu caught hold of him. "There is an order to all things. Moving the people of Jingping out of the Great Black Mountain is the true task. Do that first, then go to him."

Lan Yutian nodded in silence. One after another, the god-men of the Great Black Mountain became beams of divine light and flew off in all directions, heading for the settlements of Jingping scattered through the Black Mountains.

Before long a divine city rose into the sky, borne up by several dozen god-men and flown out beyond the holy ground of the Black Mountains. In the distance the Demon King Dutian took down the Bottle-Heaven World, turned it into the Bottle-Heaven Vase, and gathered those divine cities into the vase.

Seeing this, Shen Mu set his heart at ease. He rushed to the cloven Black Mountain; with a hum he unfurled the domain of the Primal Fetus Divine Treasury, took out Ling Tianzun's hairpin, and brandished it, pointing again and again, casting forth one art of immutability after another, laying the art of immutability upon himself and upon his divine treasury domain.

His figure flickered; before and behind the mountain he laid down all manner of great divine arts and all manner of seals.

The Blind Elder hurried over and laid seals together with him. Shen Mu raised his head to look at him, and his lips moved.

The Blind Elder laughed. "Shen-er, do you think I could stand by and watch you go to your death alone?"

Shen Mu said no more, and the two of them hastened their preparations.

They worked from daylight until the sun sank in the west, and only then had they set all the killing formations in place. The Blind Elder breathed out in relief, wiped the sweat from his brow, and laughed. "Back in the day, Kaihuang's Heavenly Master Yan Yunxi broke the new and old Earth Mother Primordial Sovereigns with her formations, and the whole world was stunned by that one battle. Heh heh. As Jingping's grandmaster of formations, I cannot be her inferior."

His heroic spirit soared.

Only then did Shen Mu notice that behind him stood a crowd.

Xu Shenghua, Lan Yutian, the Silent Artisan, the Lame Elder, Granny Zhu, Yan'er, and also Wei Suifeng, Shu Jun, the Crown Prince Youming, Emperor Ming, the Southern Emperor and others. Having moved the people of Jingping away, they had hurried here.

Shen Mu was moved, but his face abruptly darkened, and he said blandly, "All of you go. There is no need for you to stay here and distract me. Brother Xu, you stay on the World Tree. Do not let a single drop of dao-dew go missing."

The Lame Elder's brows went up and he sneered, "Is this Black Mountain yours? Your Uncle Lame comes when he pleases and goes when he pleases. Can you stop me?"

Shen Mu pointed a finger, and countless transmission runes wrapped about the Lame Elder and bore him off with a howl.

The Lame Elder roared again and again, trying to break free of the transmission art. He was the greatest shadow-thief in the world today; even Lan Yutian was a notch below him, and even a transmission art could not hold him.

Shen Mu flicked his fingers again and again. The Lame Elder had no sooner shaken off the transmission art than he plunged into a Guixu Abyss.

He pushed his speed to the limit, striving to escape before the Guixu art burst, but one Guixu nested within another, and soon they swallowed the Lame Elder whole.

Shen Mu drew his hand across the air; space split open, and the Lame Elder was swallowed up together with the Guixu Abyss.

He did not mean to harm the Lame Elder, only to send him away. The Guixu Abyss only swallows; it does not digest. Once Shen Mu had carried the Lame Elder a safe distance, it would spit him back out.

"Must I spend my power sending each of you away as well?" Shen Mu said softly, sweeping his gaze around.