Chapter 470 — Palaces in Heaven

Shen Mu soared into the air and looked upward. The trembling of the Five Thunder Pot had gradually ceased, and Fu Yunxi was leading the many women of the Fu family in drawing away the thunderbolts on every side.

"Sect Master Shen, your swords!" Fu Yunxi called out loudly.

Shen Mu recalled his flying swords; eight thousand blades gathered in the air and became a sword pellet the size of a tangerine.

"How has the sword pellet shrunk so much?"

Shen Mu was slightly startled. Just as he was about to seize the sword pellet, several Fu family girls suddenly flew over, their faces frantic: "Sect Master Shen, do not move!"

Shen Mu stood still. The girls chanted incantations, and threads of lightning flew out from the surface of his body and were drawn away by them.

"There is still thunder power in your body that has not yet burst forth. Because you have not come into contact with anyone else, the thunder's might will not erupt for the moment." One of the girls said, "If you touch anything else, the thunder's power will burst out. The thunder in that great gourd is divine thunder; its power is terrible beyond words. We will draw the thunder away for you, and then you will be out of danger."

Shen Mu thanked them. Suddenly he heard a ceaseless rumbling boom, and he hurriedly looked toward the sound: it was Long Qilin, treading fire clouds and trying to descend from the air. Before he landed, the thunder power in his body exploded.

Thunder burst from Long Qilin's body with crackling slashes; the fat fellow was like a ball of lightning, bouncing up and falling, bouncing up and falling, and in an instant Long Qilin was scorched black.

The Fu family girls rushed over in a panic. Shen Mu pretended not to see, reached out and grasped the sword pellet in his hand. The sword pellet still had its weight, but it was much smaller, small enough to hold in the hand, and easier to control than before.

He could not help but rejoice: "Tempered by the Five Thunder Pot to this stage, I am not far from refining my swords into water!"

"Sect Master, did you not say it could not hurt a single hair on me?" Long Qilin's voice came, thick smoke pouring from his mouth.

Shen Mu pretended not to hear, put the Five Thunder Pot into the True Dragon Lair, and charged toward the True Heaven Palace.

"Sect Master!"

Long Qilin wanted to rush over, but more Fu family girls surrounded him, saying: "You fat lump, do not run around. Your body is too big, and just now you were holding up that great gourd, so you have the most thunder on you. Run again and you may be struck dead!"

Long Qilin hastily stood still and said with a fawning smile: "Sisters, I have not been disfigured, have I? This dragon scale of mine is the loveliest thing; worn on the body it is magnificent in every way—it must not be ruined!"

"That..." The girls all looked troubled.

Long Qilin grew suspicious and wanted to turn his head to look at his own body, but because he was too fat and his neck too thick, he could not turn it.

Imperial Preceptor Jingping was the first to land before the gate of the True Heaven Palace. Around the gate the ground was strewn with charred corpses; everywhere were great pits torn by lightning, still smoking black, and in some places still glowing with fire.

The Palace Lord of the True Heaven Palace had fallen to the ground. With difficulty she raised her head to look at the middle-aged man walking toward her, and said in a low voice: "I am with child. For the sake of the babe in my belly, do not kill me..."

Imperial Preceptor Jingping walked past her and said calmly: "Whether you are with child is no concern of mine. I bear you no grudge; I will not go out of my way to kill you or harm you. I want only this True Heaven Palace, only this Western Land."

The Palace Lord of the True Heaven Palace was slightly startled.

Xiong Xiyu came to the palace gate with Xiong Qi'er. The Palace Lord's eye twitched, and she said in a low voice: "Naikui, I am with child..."

"Among the many daughters of my Xiong family who died, many were also with child."

Xiong Xiyu's eyes showed a hatred incomparably dense; she snatched the Black Tortoise Pearl from the Palace Lord's hand, then took the Azure Mystic Water Dragon Pearl from Xiong Qi'er, and said in a lowered voice: "Did you ever pity them?"

Bathed in the light of the Azure Mystic Water Dragon Pearl, the Palace Lord of the True Heaven Palace tried to struggle, but her body and her primal spirit were at once turned to wood, becoming a wooden statue frozen in the pose of one trying to flee.

Xiong Xiyu let out a breath of foul air, and led Xiong Qi'er into the True Heaven Palace, saying coldly: "I will not kill you, but neither will I spare you because you are with child. You shall become a wooden statue before the palace gate, kneeling here forever!"

Behind them, the women of the great families poured into the True Heaven Palace, killing toward the remnant Yu family divine-power wielders within.

Shen Mu also came to the True Heaven Palace. This palace complex was exceedingly vast, with many streets and lanes within; remnants of the Yu family's power still lurked in the True Heaven Palace, hidden among the halls and alleys.

Some Yu family experts had mastered the Vermilion Bird Pearl and the White Tiger Pearl and were still resisting. The might of the Vermilion Bird Pearl and the White Tiger Pearl was tremendous; even if the cultivation of those who wielded these two spirit treasures was not very high, they could still unleash terrifying power.

Shen Mu followed the crowd in killing his way into the palace, thinking: "Ban Gongcuo should still be in the palace, should he not? This time, no matter what, I cannot let him escape!"

Suddenly a sheet of golden light spilled down. A woman held a golden yet utterly transparent pearl, within which was a white tiger spirit soul; golden light burst from the pearl, and wherever it passed, everyone was instantly torn to pieces!

Shen Mu hurriedly urged his sword pellet; eight thousand swords circled his body, flying swiftly around him. He heard only a dense, unending din of ding-ding-ding, and the golden light sent him, swords and all, flying.

Shen Mu tumbled over and over, and at last steadied himself, only to find he had been knocked dozens of zhang away.

"The White Tiger Pearl!"

He dodged behind a great hall. Golden light surged like a tide from both sides of the palace. Shen Mu peered intently: where the golden light shone, countless strands of golden qi seemed to dart wildly within the radiance. Those women who had just died beneath the golden light had been slain by the incomparably sharp golden qi within the light!

He hugged one of the great pillars of the hall, put strength into his waist, and meant to lift the whole hall and smash it down on the Yu family expert controlling the White Tiger Pearl.

The pillar did not stir in the slightest.

Shen Mu grunted, exerted himself again; the pillar still did not stir.

"Sect Master Shen, this is the True Heaven Palace."

Suddenly Liu Zhenqing's voice came. Shen Mu was slightly startled, and saw a host of black coffins escorting a golden divine coffin as they flew over. Mother and daughter of the Liu family each sat on the lid of their own coffin. That little girl Liu Zhenqing put down her candied hawthorn and laughed: "True, Heaven, Palace! A true heavenly palace!"

Shen Mu was astonished and blurted out: "You mean...?"

"This heavenly palace fell from the heavens. It is not a fake."

Liu Zhenqing jumped down from the coffin lid, stuck her candied hawthorn into a crack in the coffin, climbed onto the golden coffin, and peeled off talisman after talisman, saying: "Hurry and move it over, the old thing is coming out! Take up the chains!"

Even as she spoke, the golden divine coffin burst open with a boom, a divine might erupted, and from within the coffin came a soul-seizing roar; a towering figure charged toward the golden light.

Boom—