Chapter 1516 — Heavenly Punishment Descends
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 4 of 4
One after another the god stones lost all their energy and crumbled away, and even the Taishi primal stones now grew dimmer and dimmer.
The Taishi egg was on the verge of tears. It cried, "Heavenly Lord Mu, what is that water of yours? You have raised this tree into a demon! Stop it at once!"
At the same time, the god stones Shen Mu had buried in the other mineral veins were also splitting and shattering, clearly their power too being absorbed by the World Tree!
That the World Tree, nourished by the Dao dew, had grown roots and tendrils ought originally to have been a good thing, but it was seizing the power of the four great mineral veins, which could not but make Shen Mu hesitate.
The four great mineral veins were those he had established upon comprehending the four primordial great Daos of Taiji, Taishi, Taisu, and Taichu. Because his comprehension was incomplete, he needed to borrow the power of the god stones.
If the four great mineral veins were drained dry by the World Tree, would that not be a loss outweighing the gain?
Just then, he suddenly felt his own power draining away at flying speed, and could not help but be seized with fright!
Beyond seizing the power of the four great mineral veins, this World Tree had begun to absorb his own power as well!
Whatever the Dao, the World Tree rejected none of it, plundering and swallowing it all!
Within his God Treasury, Xuandu shrank without cease. Xuandu, and the stars and constellations of the heavens, the various Daos, all began to surge into the World Tree. Xuandu's starry sky swiftly contracted, as if a whale were swallowing a rainbow; countless stars, starry fields, and starry rivers poured into the tree!
Nor was that all: Yuandu, Youdu, the Four Pole Heavens, all were shrinking, all collapsing into the tree!
Even the Myriad Worlds were swallowed one after another by the World Tree!
Shen Mu had forged the ancient gods of the heavens with his own great Dao, nearly two thousand ancient gods, and now even these were swallowed one by one by the World Tree, with no chance to escape!
Shen Mu was aghast. He hastily withdrew his God Treasury domain and strode off toward the girl Tai Yi, who was still mending Black Mountain.
Now only Tai Yi could save him. She need only swing her great axe and sever this World Tree that was wreaking havoc in his God Treasury, and he would not be devoured by it!
Yet in the very instant he moved his feet, his mortal body grew thin at a speed visible to the naked eye.
By his second step, Shen Mu had become skin and bones.
By his third step, he had lost all moisture and dropped straight down from the air, planting himself upon the ground, motionless, like a dried corpse.
Hua Xuanxiu was the first to notice Shen Mu falling from the sky. She cried out in astonishment, "The old Hierarch cut down the tree and heavenly retribution has descended upon him!"