Chapter 1695 — The Mystery of This Man's Origins

By rights, in a contest between beings such as them and Shen Mu, the paralytic should surely have been blown away by the aftermath; yet the paralytic lay there perfectly well, not even a corner of his garment stirring.

Though they were all suppressed here, only the old man and the old woman knew the paralytic's identity; the two of them were deeply secretive about it, and had never spoken of his origins. Those two held exceedingly high status and were respected, yet toward this paralytic they were scrupulously reverent, and so the other villagers likewise tended him with great care.

"He is. .

. " The old man hesitated, then said, "He is the creator of Tiandu.

" The faces of the pig's head, the woman, and the girl changed greatly; their eyes all fell upon the paralytic on the sickbed, and they cried out, "He is that being?

" Shang Jun had evidently never heard of Tiandu, and looked bewildered.

The old man went on: "I was in fact entrusted by another, and willingly let the First Young Master capture me. Heh heh, the First Young Master's abilities may be high, but Old Monster here was no weaker than he in those days.

Of course, suppressed for several cosmic epochs, I am now far beneath him.

The one who entrusted me showed me a great kindness; what she entrusted to me, I would do at the cost of my life. She entrusted the paralytic to my care, and so I came here. " The old woman had never heard him speak of this either, and said in astonishment, "Old Monster, your name rang out loud indeed in those years; your powers were high and your origins ancient. I wondered why you too had been seized and suppressed here — I never thought there was such a reason! What sort of personage has such face that he could make you do such a thing?

" The old man was unwilling to say more. "Let it not be spoken of. In those years I sensed a mighty being break the prohibition and break open the First Young Master's seal; the seal loosened, and I escaped from the stone monument. I sensed that man's power — it must be the Taiyi the Seventh Young Master speaks of.

But when this Taiyi walked to the monument forest, a strange thing happened. " His old face was all wrinkles. He picked up his water pipe to take a couple of puffs, but the tobacco had long since burned away; the old man tapped out the ash, pinched a few leaves of the Dao tree and rubbed them into tobacco, and said, "That man's momentum was exceedingly strong, but as he drew near the monument forest his momentum suddenly plunged — plunged faster than I could have imagined! " The pig's head on the platter said, "The First Young Master's obelisk forest can suppress even our magic power and divine abilities; Taiyi must have been suppressed by the obelisk forest!

" The old man shook his head. "Not so. This Taiyi's strength was no less than the First Young Master's; how could he be suppressed to such a degree by a prohibition left behind by the First Young Master? I also sensed that, besides his momentum plunging, his vital breath was plunging too; in the blink of an eye he seemed about to die.

" Shen Mu took up his words. "Then he swiftly withdrew, and as he withdrew his momentum grew stronger and stronger and his breath recovered at flying speed — is that not so?

" "How does the Seventh Young Master know? " The old man gave him a startled look. "It is indeed as the Seventh Young Master says. After he left the obelisk forest, his momentum and breath recovered rapidly.

I sensed him come to the gate, and his momentum was mostly restored; when he went out the door, his momentum and breath reached their peak. " Shen Mu's eyes flickered.

"The reason this happened is the Immutability of Matter and Energy.

Someone used the divine art of the Immutability of Matter and Energy to preserve his soul, so that though he died at the hands of the master of Miluo Palace, he lives on in the future. Yet when two identical souls meet, one of them must vanish. " The others were utterly bewildered. The old man had some guess; he hurried to look at the paralytic and cried out, "You mean to say he has come back?

" Shen Mu nodded. "Yes, he has come back. But he cannot draw near the paralytic. When he was outside and had not yet uprooted the first obelisk, he and the paralytic were in different space-times, and there was no harm; but once the first obelisk was uprooted, the seal was broken, and he and the paralytic were in the same space-time.

Therefore he vanished at flying speed — that is why you felt his momentum and breath plunging.

" The old man was greatly stirred, his voice hoarse.

"He sensed that he was about to vanish, knew that he could not save himself, and so withdrew of his own accord! Yet he still left us a thread of a chance at escape; he carried away that obelisk! " Shen Mu said, "After that he continued to guard the Ancestral Court, waiting for his moment. When I appeared and the Jade Capital of the Ancestral Court reappeared, he tricked me into guarding the Great Black Mountain of the Ancestral Court and blocking the prehistoric mighty ones from smuggling through, while he went straight to Miluo Palace to reason with the master of Miluo Palace, and was struck down by him into the fourth epoch. " He did not go on.

Taiyi had gone not only to reason with the master of Miluo Palace, but also to ascertain one thing. Whether the master of Miluo Palace was dead. Whose argument prevailed between the two, no one knew, but the master of Miluo Palace was indeed dead.

"This man is Taiyi. " Shen Mu said meaningfully, "Old Monster, the man I wish to rescue is also him. But at present I have urgent matters and cannot go to the sixteenth epoch to seek him. Is there a way you can?

" Old Monster paced back and forth, then suddenly stopped, and said urgently, "Young Master, though I do not know the Immutability of Matter and Energy, if he was suppressed in the void of the sixteenth epoch, he would never have been ground away by the sixteenth epoch's great kalpa of destruction; therefore he must have survived into the seventeenth epoch!

While he was not lost, the him suppressed in the void of the seventeenth epoch was vanished, unobservable; but when he was struck down by the master of Miluo Palace into the fourth epoch, then the suppressed him must surely appear in the void of the seventeenth epoch!

" Shen Mu's heart shook slightly; he laughed heartily.

"No wonder he left the map behind, to have me rescue him!

But.

. .

" He knitted his brows. "But this is the distribution map of the Dao trees of the ultimate void of the sixteenth epoch, and it is not the same as the ultimate void of the seventeenth. . . " Shang Jun suddenly said, "The ultimate void has no matter; only Daluo Heaven can exist there. Therefore the ultimate void of every cosmic epoch is the same — a single blank. " Shen Mu's eyes widened, his heart pounding violently.

"That is to say, so long as I have the distribution map of the Dao trees of the sixteenth epoch, I can find where Taiyi is imprisoned!

"