Chapter 475 — Crushing the Entire Field

Imperial Preceptor Jingping cast an anxious look toward the Wasteland Ruins, as though he feared for Shen Mu's safety. Concern breeds confusion, and at last it made him betray himself.

The flaw the Old Mother of True Heaven had waited so long for was now before her eyes!

"Eee-yah—ah—" The Old Mother of True Heaven opened her mouth and loosed a strange shriek — shrill, drawn-out, grating on the ear.

Her mana erupted; countless muscles within her swelled, and in an instant they burst the skin that housed her, splitting it into pieces! Her flesh and sinew shot outward with a bang-bang-bang, growing with mad abandon.

Tian Siyu's body had never been her true form; now that she unleashed her mana completely and her divine might came surging out, it blew apart that small, womanly frame. At the same moment, the Flame Desert seemed to come alive.

For hundreds of li around, countless grains of flying sand streamed howling through the air, and the sand beneath Imperial Preceptor Jingping's feet turned into a vast, madly spinning maw that sucked him in and held him fast! The maw was like an abyss, and from it came a dreadful pull.

At the same time, countless grains of flying sand linked into lines, gathering into swords of sand that stabbed at the trapped Imperial Preceptor Jingping! The shriek had not yet died in the Old Mother of True Heaven's mouth when her body had already swelled to a height of a hundred zhang, like a giant whose crown touched the sky and whose feet were planted on the earth, her divine might flooding the heavens.

She had prepared long for this ambush, and now that she erupted, her overbearing aura truly filled the sky — utterly unlike the clinging, demure, virtuous and gentle Tian Siyu of the journey here. Overbearing aura is a phrase usually applied to men; but in the Western Lands, where women rule the roost, it fits a woman far better.

The Old Mother of True Heaven raised a hand, and the desert on either side all but heaved itself up, becoming two immeasurably thick and heavy walls that slammed with a thunderous roar toward Imperial Preceptor Jingping at the center! "Die!

" The word had barely left the Old Mother of True Heaven's mouth when a flash of sword-light came out of nowhere, entering the back of her skull and emerging from the point between her brows.

The Old Mother of True Heaven froze for a moment. The seething desert went suddenly still; the sand walls that towered hundreds of zhang high and a li thick collapsed all at once, pouring down as shifting sand, terrifying as a great flood.

And beneath Imperial Preceptor Jingping's feet, the spinning maw stopped turning and filled with running sand, and the sand swords all around him came crashing down.

"Where did this little wretch come from?

This is wine for the high god — is it yours to touch? " Imperial Preceptor Jingping turned his head and looked up at the awe-inspiring Old Mother of True Heaven, a hundred zhang tall, and said softly, "In the mural, the goddess whom Cult Master Shen kicked flying spoke that sentence.

It is nineteen characters in all. Along the way, Cult Master Shen spoke a great many words with you, and those nineteen characters — you spoke every one of them.

He is clever.

He knew that if he asked you outright to say that sentence, you would certainly change your tone and your manner; but if those nineteen characters were broken up and scattered among many sentences, you would never be on your guard. " The Old Mother of True Heaven's voice was hoarse as she rasped, "So from first to last, none of you ever believed me? " Imperial Preceptor Jingping's gaze was strange as he shook his head. "Cult Master Shen is bold to the point of recklessness. When he stuffed the Black Tortoise Pearl into your hand, even I was startled. Had you erupted then and there and roused the power of the Black Tortoise Pearl, I might not have been able to do anything about you.

He overestimated my strength, and I had no choice but to put on a calm and composed face.

You thought he and I were testing you — in truth it was simply that bastard acting on his own, and I was on tenterhooks the whole while. You lost a great many chances. " "That bastard again. . . " The Old Mother of True Heaven sighed, and the sword wound between her brows suddenly burst open.

She laughed: "But if you think that is enough to deal with me, you are far too shallow.

. .

" Imperial Preceptor Jingping's expression shifted slightly: what flowed from the wound between the Old Mother of True Heaven's brows was not blood, but sand.

The Old Mother of True Heaven smiled. The wounds at her brow and the back of her skull grew larger and larger, and more and more sand poured out. She chuckled: "Did you not know that the Myriad Gods Natural Art was created by me?

This desert, too, was made by me. To try to kill me in a place I created — you are dreaming!

" Her body collapsed with a thunderous crash, and the Old Mother of True Heaven's voice came from every direction: "I stood here against a dozen and more Dawn Boats and Soul Boats, and killed a dozen and more Sun Guardians and Moon Guardians. Do you take me for a fraud?

" Imperial Preceptor Jingping's figure shot up into the sky, heading straight for the Dawn Boat lying toppled in the desert. His sword came out in his hand, its light like the fabled Xiaolian blade: you see the shadow but not the light, the light but not the form; where there is shadow there is no light, where there is light there is no form! He thrust out a single sword strike, and before it reached the Dawn Boat, the enormous vessel suddenly seemed to come alive.

With a boom it lifted its legs and stood, chains clattering and shaking, and that black sun was shaken up out of the sand that had buried it, soaring into the sky. The black sun rolled through the air with an earth-shaking roar, crushing and compressing space itself, until thunderbolts cracked across the desert, crack-crack, lashing out in every direction!

The Dawn Boat charged at Imperial Preceptor Jingping. This colossal thing running through the desolate, empty desert gave one an absurd, distorted feeling.

"This is a masterpiece of the Ministry of Heavenly Works from the Kaihuang era! They thought they could forge a god's weapon by human hands, and give a mortal the power of a god!

" At the center of the Dawn Boat, among four massive pillars, a woman like a goddess rose slowly to her feet, her four arms gripping the four pillars tightly, and laughed with great relish: "But all they did was forge weapons for me! In the battle of the Flame Desert they were all but wiped out — every one of them died by my hand! " Whoosh— Desert flying serpents: countless grains of sand gathered together, and bodies of immeasurable girth burrowed this way and that through the desert, howling and surging like sand snakes of monstrous size, stirring up wind and waves as they charged at Imperial Preceptor Jingping! "Imperial Preceptor Jingping, do you feel it?

Do you feel my mana raging and surging upward?

" The Old Mother of True Heaven drove the Dawn Boat at a gallop and swung the black sun down at the onrushing Imperial Preceptor Jingping, laughing: "I will let you feel what true despair is! Eee-yah—ah—" A shrill, drawn-out sound came and echoed across the desert.

With it came a giant moving ship, a black sun howling as it swept in circles, and sand snakes of monstrous girth — all churning and battling around one tiny, tiny figure.

The scene shook heaven and earth. The Old Mother of True Heaven was savage beyond measure; her body was colossal, and the Dawn Boat more colossal still.

Set against them, Imperial Preceptor Jingping's body seemed utterly insignificant. The Old Mother of True Heaven drove the Dawn Boat forward in an overwhelming assault. The force of every blow was beyond imagining; her attacks shifted and changed without end, the sea of sand boiled, and the whole desert seemed to be her body, her weapon!