Chapter 487 — The Overlapping Realm

Xing Han's voice had been atop Mount Little Sumeru but a moment before; the next instant it was already at the foot of the mountain—he was actually coming after them. He cared for nothing else, not even whether his foes lived or died; what he cared for most was his own box.

His voice carried an anger he could not suppress, and he laughed in his fury: "You have some nerve! " Beneath the box, Ban Gongcuo lowered his voice and said: "That boy's nerve really is something.

.

.

" "You dared to collude with that fellow named Shen and steal my box out from under me!

You have some nerve, Great Venerable! " Xing Han's voice drifted to them, now from the left, now from the right; plainly the assault of the darkness made it hard for him to fix the whereabouts of Shen Mu and the box in so short a time, and so he had to run to and fro. Even so, at his speed, searching a thousand li in every direction was no difficult matter.

Finding Shen Mu and the great box was only a question of time.

"You think I won't kill you? How childish!

" Xing Han's voice came from a hundred li to the west, and by the time the sentence was finished it was already coming from a hundred li to the south. Ban Gongcuo's face went ashen, and he ground his teeth: "What business is that of mine?

I never conspired with him to steal your box—I only seized the chance to run! " Atop the box, Shen Mu said in astonishment: "Xing Han disposed of Kui Wushen that quickly?

Such strength is truly terrifying! " Beneath the box, Ban Gongcuo gave a muffled snort and muttered: "My master has lived all these years for nothing. . .

But Xing Han will have a hard time refining my master's primordial spirit into a piece of his collection. Cult Master Shen, I have a splendid idea—one that can do away with my master and get rid of Xing Han as well! " Shen Mu's voice came down from atop the box: "I know what you mean. You intend to go to Mount Yang in the south of the Wasteland and unseal Kui Wushen's fleshly body. Xing Han has not yet refined Kui Wushen's primordial spirit; most likely he has separated the spirit fetus from the soul within it and suppressed them apart. Kui Wushen is a god, after all; when he meets his own body, he may well break free of Xing Han's suppression.

In his complete form, Kui Wushen's strength will not be weaker than Xing Han's—only greater.

Am I right?

" Ban Gongcuo nodded again and again, only then remembering that Shen Mu could not see him nod.

"Cult Master Shen is worthy of being the lifelong rival of my life!

" Ban Gongcuo praised him: "Cult Master, with an enemy like you, I have nightmares even in my sleep. " Long Qilin said: "Cult Master, I think he is insulting you. " Shen Mu said sincerely: "That is the highest of praise.

But Xing Han may not be a match for Kui Wushen in his complete form.

If Kui Wushen is released, the havoc he will wreak will be truly dreadful. And yet. . .

" He could not help but feel worry rise in his heart: if Xing Han obtained Kui Wushen's primordial spirit, the havoc would be unimaginable as well. Just think—if Xing Han refined Kui Wushen's primordial spirit, would he not be able to kill whomever he pleased?

Of course, Xing Han had his own principles and would not stoop to strike at those he deemed beneath his notice.

Yet anyone who caught his eye was surely a being who had reached the divine realm in some aspect!

Given his tastes, it was to be feared that every powerhouse who had reached the divine realm would be worshipped to death by him, and he would then happily cut the divine-realm limbs from their bodies!

This was absolutely a catastrophe; the blow to the arts of the Dao and to divine powers would be immeasurable.

"If only those two could perish together, that would be best. .

. " Shen Mu sighed.

In his heart he still agreed with Ban Gongcuo's proposal, and urged the box on toward the south.

"You cannot escape!

" Xing Han's voice came now far, now near. The night of the Wasteland was simply too dark; even with powers that reached the heavens and spanned the earth, he could not quickly find the traces Shen Mu and the box had left.

Before long, Shen Mu saw in the darkness a vast chasm loom dimly ahead of the box, and from the darkness beyond came the sound of waterfalls plunging and rushing—more than one waterfall. It was an exceedingly perilous cliff.

"Eh? This is the cliff at the source of the Surging River!

" Shen Mu urged the box to the edge of the cliff and looked down, and to his surprise saw swaths upon swaths of bright light rising from the cliff face—he could not tell what it was that gave off such a glow. His heart stirred slightly. The last time he had come here he had been escorting Xiong Xiyu and her daughter; at that time he had seen this chasm splitting the Wasteland into eastern and western halves, the cliff reaching a height of several thousand zhang!

That cliff had been formed by an earthquake of terrifying scale; the whole Wasteland had been torn apart, forming an enormous fracture that ran through from north to south.

This was also the source of the Surging River. The Surging River had its origin in the waterfalls of the cliff; the waterfalls gathered together to form a most magnificent great river, and this great river rushed on for tens of thousands of li until it came to Jingping, becoming the river with the greatest flow in all the nation of Jingping. Moreover, it was here that Shen Mu had once encountered a strange affair of mist. He and Xiong Xiyu and her daughter had come upon a fog that sealed off the river; within that fog they had encountered the Gobi desert, and gods forging palaces for deities—those were the gods of the Supreme Sovereign's era—and gods of the Supreme Sovereign's time who, at his command, had transformed the desert, turning it into an oasis.

They had even seen the ancient gods of that age carving out the Surging River. But strangest of all, they had seen the burial of the Supreme Sovereign's era, and then from the mist had come the gods of another age.

That was Emperor Kai and his ministers, patrolling here, coming upon that uncanny mist and lamenting the passing of an era!

Their experience had become the uncanny thing that Shen Mu encountered.

The deathbed flickerings of two histories overlapped at the source of the Surging River, producing an inconceivable phenomenon.

At the time, Shen Mu had speculated that an entrance to other worlds might lie here, and he had even seen five worlds' time and space overlapping! "I wonder what strange and bizarre things will happen at the source of the Surging River once night falls?

" His heart was both uneasy and somewhat expectant as he urged Xing Han's box to walk down along the cliff face.

Beneath the box, Ban Gongcuo hastily clutched one of its legs, afraid of being flung off. And at that very moment, atop the golden summit of Mount Little Sumeru of Little Thunder Sound Temple, Little Tathagata sat cross-legged in the lotus position, monks gathered all around him, their faces sorrowful. The Xuanliao Demon Ape knelt there, eyes wide, tears suddenly rolling down and striking the ground.

"I turned traitor and left Great Thunder Cry Temple because my master was unjust: he let my senior brother succeed to the Tathagata's seat and did not pass it to me. If all living beings are equal, why can the Tathagata be only a man and not a demon? If the Dharma is equal, why can the Tathagata be only a man and not a woman?

" Little Tathagata's face wore a precious radiance as he smiled: "My cultivation is no worse than my senior brother's, and I do not think so highly of the human race's Dharma. Therefore I was resentful, and I wanted to build a holy land for the demon race. I fought my way out of Great Thunder Cry Temple and established Little Thunder Sound Temple here. Great Thunder Sound, Little Thunder Sound—both are Thunder Sound; though their expositions of the Dharma differ, both are the Dharma.