Chapter 437 — A Cosmic Spectacle

Before them, sky and earth presented a wonder of sky joined to earth and earth joined to sky, and what wrought that wonder was a single vast hole blasted through both. The hole defied description — the sky was empty to begin with, so how could a hole be blasted through emptiness?

The earth was immeasurably thick; dig a great pit in it and still you would not pierce through.

Yet the hole before them presented another kind of inconceivable, resplendent spectacle. The Imperial Preceptor of Jingping must have brought out the Quaking Cauldron at the crisis's height and unleashed its might, and by the divine power of that celestial-phenomenon weapon blasted through the sky and earth of this world and of another at once, forming this magnificent scene that links the two realms!

And the Quaking Cauldron's power was so great that the two pierced realms have still not recovered, and the barrier between them cannot heal. Before this great hole, on the side of the Wasteland and Jingping, it was night; but behind the hole a sun was rising, shining upon one dark, towering demon fortress after another.

The sky of that other world lay below the horizon of the Divine Severance Mountains, while its continent hung in the sky above them.

Looking up from where Shen Mu and the others stood, one could see the land of that world, its sharp and pointed structures standing a thousand zhang on end like long sabers, long swords, and spears — grim and terrifying. That was an architectural style wholly unlike Jingping's: majestic yet sinister demon fortresses seated upon rolling mountains, some of them floating in the air, while the sunlight of that other world poured down and cast their shadows into the darkness of the Divine Severance Mountains.

The trees and rocks of that world took abnormal shapes — twisted, dreadful. The sunlight of that other world shone up from below, falling upon Shen Mu and the others; standing before that immeasurably vast circular opening, they were as tiny as a few ants. The sunlight of the alien world stretched their shadows long, yet beside that opening they seemed utterly insignificant.

Beneath their feet was the sun, above their heads the land, as though they stood before a giant mirror in which lay another, inverted world. And that mirror-like opening trembled faintly without cease, shaking the rocks around the Divine Severance Mountains into the air, where they drifted and swayed. Shen Mu and the others too were shaken numb, their primordial spirits unsteady.

One could well imagine how terrible the energy had been that the Imperial Preceptor of Jingping drew from the Quaking Cauldron then!

"The quaking here comes from this opening, not from the Imperial Preceptor of Jingping wielding the Quaking Cauldron. " Shen Mu's heart sank.

Ever since entering the Divine Severance Mountains he had sensed tremors come and go, and had taken them for the Imperial Preceptor wielding the Quaking Cauldron; he had never expected the quaking to come from this opening that joins the two realms.

The Imperial Preceptor of Jingping and the others were not here; whether they lived or died could not be known.

He raised his head and looked up, and saw upon that continent floating in the heavens a mighty, majestic demon god whose primordial spirit was leaving his body, turning his own flesh to stone.

Many strangely shaped demons, like diligent ants, were building a grand altar around the demon god's petrified body; tens of thousands of demon slaves were dragged onto the altar and beheaded, and through blood sacrifice they sought to send that demon god's stone statue over.

One after another, sacrificial priests and sorcerers crowned with white bone and feathers worked their rites upon the grand altar, and the sight of blood surging around it filled the eyes of Shen Mu and the others with a cruel beauty.

The scene was awe-inspiring, and at once cruel and horrifying.

That world was still in a savage, bloody tribal age; its divine powers were crude, steeped in gore. "You could say the Imperial Preceptor of Jingping has stirred up a colossal mess!

" Shen Mu's scalp went numb.

The Quaking Cauldron had opened a way into another world, and that demon world opposite clearly held gods and demons in great number; when its demon gods saw the world where Jingping lay, they were naturally delighted at the hunt and conceived a desire to conquer, sparing not even their own bodies — petrifying themselves to send themselves to Jingping! Strangely, though, now that these stone statues of demon gods had been sent over, they did not attempt grander sacrifices to widen the opening blasted by the Quaking Cauldron; instead they searched everywhere for something.

"And with an opening this big, why have we seen no demons come through it? " Shen Mu wondered inwardly. The Flood Dragon King Deity discovered something and said hurriedly, "My lord, there is a demon army upon that altar over there as well!

" Shen Mu looked where he indicated, and his heart turned cold. Slaves of the demon world were building another grand altar, several times more colossal than the one before; its body was like a great mountain sheared flat, and tens of thousands of demon sorcerers floated around the altar, carving runes upon it with the blood of slaves.

And at the altar's edge a mighty demon host was marching in vast array toward its center; they must have been preparing to use this as the moment to send a demon army into Jingping!

"Could it be that this opening cannot be crossed, and that only by the power of blood sacrifice can they bring demon warriors into Jingping?

" Stunned, Shen Mu stretched out a hand, trying to thrust it through the opening into the other world, but he met an invisible barrier: the other world lay right before him, and yet he could not enter.

The Flood Dragon King Deity, the dragon qilin, and the rest tried one after another; the greater one's strength, the greater the resistance, and they could not enter that time and space. Suddenly, with a great thud, the sound of something heavy striking the ground came to them and jolted Shen Mu and the others awake: the stone statue of that demon god had been sent over from the world opposite. A hundred zhang tall, it stood quietly to their right, only a hundred zhang or so away.

Upon the statue's surface, runes formed of fresh blood twisted and turned, shifting shape, and gradually sank into its body. The statue stirred of a sudden and slowly shifted its bulk; clearly the priests and sorcerers of the other world, sacrificing slaves in blood, had given these statues the power to move of their own will.

Only, they could not yet transmit their own immense strength across, nor restore the statues to flesh.

"Go, quickly!

" The Flood Dragon King Deity hastily bore them on his back, skirted the vast opening, and raced into the distance.

Standing on the Flood Dragon King Deity's back, Shen Mu looked back, and saw the statue suddenly bend, reach a hand toward the depths of the earth; its two arms drilled into the ground like augers, and then the statue plunged head-down into the earth, its body vanishing piece by piece. "This statue too is searching for something! What on earth are they looking for?

Are the Imperial Preceptor of Jingping and Grandpa Blind still alive? And if they are, where are they hiding?

" Shen Mu activated the Sacred Pupil of the Nine Heavens and searched carefully for traces of the Imperial Preceptor and the others, pressing ever northward.

He saw more signs of battle — traces left by the Butcher, the blind elder, and the rest in their duels with the gods of High Heaven. "Flood Dragon King Deity, look out!

" Shen Mu saw a black line suspended motionless in the air and hastily bade the Flood Dragon King Deity halt; the deity started slightly, and saw for himself that something was wrong.