Chapter 1655 — The Fall of That Heavenly Venerable

He was a master of the Emperor's Throne, yet he was exceedingly cautious. Huotian Zun had taken grave wounds; of his mana scarcely anything remained, and his Dao wound was heavy. And yet Yan Yazi was deeply wary of him, and did not dare strike rashly.

After all, though little of Huotian Zun's cultivation remained, his fleshly body was still the fleshly body of a Heavenly Venerable.

A fleshly body cultivated to its uttermost peak verged on a body of attained Dao — this was the capital that had carried Huotian Zun all the way here!

Quickly the disciples were slaughtered to the last, corpses strewn every which way, and Yan Yazi's pupils shrank sharply. Huotian Zun stood amid the corpses and said coldly, "I taught you all, and so you are a pack of dogs I raised.

Every weakness of every one of you I know as clearly as the palm of my hand. Killing you is easier for me than turning my palm — and that includes you, Yan Yazi! " He whirled around — and there at his face was Yan Yazi's Dao-fire Mystic Blade!

Yan Yazi struck with abandon, laughing: "Master, now there are no junior brothers or sisters to snatch the merit from me!

True enough, I was taught by you — but you are far too weak now, and with only your fleshly body you are no match for me at all! " Huotian Zun raised a hand to block; Yan Yazi came howling around him in circles, the mystic blade like light, like lightning, chopping down again and again, crying fiercely, "Master, will you die or not? Will you die or not?

" Huotian Zun's wounds grew graver and graver, yet he remained extraordinarily steady; suddenly he glimpsed an opening, and the five fingers of his right hand flicked in succession — clang, clang, clang, clang, clang — sending the Dao-fire Mystic Blade flying. Yan Yazi's heart lurched, but Huotian Zun had already jabbed one finger at the point between his brows.

Yan Yazi's brow burst open, a great hole blown through his skull, and he hurriedly flung himself backward, fleeing far off like a startled swan in firelight, laughing: "Master, you cannot escape! " Boom!

With one distant sweep he brought down the spirit-energy translocation bridge in the divine city with a crash, cutting off any hope Huotian Zun had of fleeing into Jingping.

Huotian Zun's heart sank. He turned and left that divine city, heading for another.

He stumbled along, yet his blood and qi gradually steadied; within his body he reopened the divine treasuries of the Five Luminaries, the Six Harmonies, the Seven Stars, Heaven and Man, Life and Death, the Heavenly River; he even planted a Jianmu, an innate divine bridge, to unify treasury after treasury.

His cultivation and mana rose to the realm of the Heavenly River, and one step further, and he could cultivate the new Heavenly Palace system that had spread from Jingping. Without his noticing, he came to a small village, and saw the villagers there beating gongs and drums, rushing out of the village with cleavers, hoes, and other farm tools, coming at him to kill.

"After you die, I will avenge you," Huotian Zun murmured, and was about to strike the killing blow, when he saw a young man appear in the village, hands clasped behind his back, head tilted up to gaze at a green tree.

That was a World Tree; and though the young man beneath it looked of no great age, his temples were thick with white hair. "Mutian Zun! " Startled and delighted at once, Huotian Zun ignored the villagers rushing at him and laughed heartily, "Mutian Zun, have you come to save me?

Truly our hearts are in accord. .

. " Shen Mu stood beneath the tree.

He did not look at him, but raised a hand and pointed lightly.

A wheel of light spun out and shrouded Huotian Zun within it, giving him no chance at all to dodge. The wheel of light made one full turn, and Huotian Zun felt as though he had woken from a dream; opening his eyes, he saw that the wounds on his body had utterly vanished.

He hurriedly touched his own face — his face had been restored as well! Shocked and overjoyed, he was just then struck on the shoulder by a cleaver.

His Heavenly Venerable fleshly body was, in that moment, cut open by an utterly ordinary cleaver; an unimaginable agony came flooding through him, and tears streamed from Huotian Zun's eyes.

Suddenly he realized that his mana was gone as well; within his body there was no vital essence at all, no divine treasury whatsoever! He was as weak and small as these ignorant villagers!

"Kill him!

" The villagers' faces showed a fevered frenzy; face after face swayed before Huotian Zun, monstrously twisted.

Pff — The three tines of a manure rake drove into Huotian Zun's forehead, into his brain; Huotian Zun opened his mouth, wanting to speak, and someone drove a hunting spear into his chest. His strength left him and he fell to the ground; around him the villagers were in a frenzy, staves whirling, cleavers rising and falling, raining down on his body. "Wait!

" He heard someone shout, "Don't ruin his face!

We still have to cut off his head and claim the reward! " Darkness filled Huotian Zun's vision; all he could feel was a rough hand seizing his hair, a blade laid against his neck, and cut after cut, someone meaning to saw off his head.

His consciousness sank utterly into the dark. Then he heard the sound of a finger snap.

Beneath the World Tree, Shen Mu snapped his fingers, and Huotian Zun's fleshly body was restored; his soul flew back into it, and his consciousness grew clear once more.

"The Unchanging Divine Ability?

" Startled and delighted, Huotian Zun laughed: "Mutian Zun, you cannot bear to kill me, is that it? You are only punishing me — I know I was wrong!

" Shen Mu walked out from beneath the World Tree, and the World Tree moved along with him; Huotian Zun too was caught up by a force and carried along.

Before long, following Shen Mu, he arrived at a second village. Another crowd of villagers poured out; they seemed not to see Shen Mu at all, seeing only Huotian Zun, and they howled in their frenzy, charging with all kinds of crude weapons. Once more Huotian Zun fell in a pool of blood, and once more he felt someone seize his hair and saw at his neck with a blade.

The snap of fingers came, and all was restored. Huotian Zun followed Shen Mu against his will and cried, "Mutian Zun, I truly know I was wrong.

With my help, the world can be settled!

I know.

. . " Beside another village he was killed again.

The snap came, Huotian Zun revived, and again he followed Shen Mu toward the next village.

"Mutian Zun, surely your anger has cooled by now?

" Huotian Zun forced down his dread and laughed: "You and I together, and none in the world could stand against us! The situation is excellent now; I can help you get rid of Taichu, get rid of Emperor Haotian.

.

. " Again he was hacked to death by a crowd of rejoicing villagers.

In time, as the repetitions mounted, a deep dread grew in Huotian Zun's heart: Shen Mu was doing the same thing over and over, using the Way of Reincarnation to strip away every last scrap of his cultivation, letting him be hacked to death by the ignorant folk of the Southern Heaven, and then bringing him back to life! And through all of it, Shen Mu had not even glanced at him once, had not spoken a single word to him!

The dread in Huotian Zun's heart grew and grew: "He wants to kill me.

He truly wants me dead! He is only toying with me.

. .

" At last Shen Mu stopped walking and said, his face calm, "I am tired.

I had thought that watching you die over and over would give me pleasure, would give me the joy of avenging the human race of the Southern Heaven. And yet I have found that the ignorant folk of the Southern Heaven are still ignorant folk after they kill you; your dying again and again does not give me much pleasure at all.

" A thread of hope rose in Huotian Zun's heart, and he forced a smile: "Mutian Zun, I truly know I was wrong.

To know one's error and mend it is the greatest of virtues.