Chapter 338 — The Secret of the Supreme Overlord Art

" The Village Chief let out a breath of turbid air. "But the Upper Heaven's first enemy is the Human Emperor. I have fought them for several hundred years.

Before, there was me; I still have two or three years of lifespan. Now there is you—you have comprehended the way of the sword, and can contend with them. In the future there will be Shen boy. I will walk out of the Wasteland.

In the next few days visitors from the Upper Heaven will come seeking me, and I can win you some time.

" He spoke neither lightly nor heavily, but all three heard in it a note of resolve, of a man ready to die.

"The Human Emperor cannot die on a sickbed. " The Village Chief smiled and said softly, "A sickbed is not my resting place. " The Jingping Imperial Preceptor raised his head again and said softly, "The Upper Heaven. . . one day, the armored cavalry of Jingping will trample that place flat! But for now, we should first trample Helan Pass flat!

" He rose to his feet and said, "Gentlemen, let us proceed to Helan Pass. " A treasure carriage drove up to the top of the city wall, its canopy round as heaven and its body square as earth.

Shen Mu lifted the Village Chief and set him on the carriage.

The Jingping Imperial Preceptor took the reins and laughed.

"We will talk more once we are inside Helan Pass. " The Lame Elder picked up the golden book from the tea table and tossed it to Shen Mu. "His Eminence's book—who knows what murderous, heretical arts are recorded inside.

" Shen Mu caught the golden book and shook his head.

"This is not His Eminence's. It is my Shen family's book. He stole it.

" The Lame Elder snorted. "Shen boy, you truly have not worked hard enough. You learned my Hand of Stealing Heaven and Swapping the Sun, and you still let that little brat steal it from you.

You had best be honest and settle for being the second-greatest shadow thief under heaven. " "I was always content to be second.

You were the one who forced it on me. " Shen Mu opened the golden book and cried out in surprise, "Ban Gongcuo actually opened this book! It was sealed to begin with. Oh yes, Grandpa Village Chief—I saw my father!

" The Village Chief's mind boomed.

He blurted out, "You saw a visitor from Carefree Land? " Shen Mu set the golden book down, grief shadowing his face. "I saw him in the treasure ship in the Nether Valley.

He had already worked a forbidden art and merged with the treasure ship, becoming a tree-man.

. . He signed the Earth Lord's Pact with Lord Zhenxing, and so he could not open his eyes to look at me. He taught me many things, but in the end we had to part. . .

" Shen Mu stared blankly, then shook his head, cast the tangled thoughts from his mind, and recounted what he had encountered in the Nether Valley and the world of the Nether Capital. The three listened with mouths agape. Such strange and bewildering adventures were enchanting and heart-stopping; yet the secrets hidden within them, so many and so terrible, set them brooding in spite of themselves. The Jingping Imperial Preceptor was deeply shaken as well. Shen Mu was an Overlord Body—and he had a father like a god! "How did a man of Carefree Land become a god?

" A thought suddenly struck the Jingping Imperial Preceptor. The people of Carefree Land—their divine bridge was connected to the Heavenly Court!

The people of Little Jade Capital had told him that in this world everyone's divine bridge was broken; only the divine bridges of those from Carefree Land were joined to the Heavenly Court!

Did that not mean Shen Mu's divine bridge was also connected to the Heavenly Court? He turned to look at Shen Mu, but Shen Mu had no idea what he was thinking.

He picked up the golden book again and opened it for a glance. Ahead, the tower ship fleet had crushed and swept everything before it and was about to reach Helan Pass. In the Duck's Tongue area, corpses lay strewn across the wilds—everywhere the bodies of barbarian divine-ability practitioners shot down by true-essence cannons!

And then came the one-sided slaughter.

Even though the Witch King and the Khan fought with all their strength, they could not hold back the rout of their army, could not hold back the host surging forward from the opposite side. On the carriage, Shen Mu looked at the first page of the golden book in his hand, his expression gradually turning grave.

Suddenly he stood up; vital essence flew from his fingertips and became various measuring tools—round, square, triangular, oval—at every kind of angle and every kind of measure, and he began to measure the diagram on the first page of the golden book. "Shen boy, what are you doing? " the Lame Elder asked curiously.

"Measuring the magpie bridge. " Shen Mu did not lift his head. "There is something strange about the cultivation method in this golden book of my Shen family's.

To cultivate it, one must calculate every angle of the vital essence's movement in this diagram without error. The diagram in this golden book may be. . . may be.

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