Chapter 525 — The First Human Emperor

Then I will tell you a cruel truth: in this world, there is no Human Emperor at all! " His voice was chilling to the extreme. "In those years, when I saved the various clans from the Great Calamity, I already knew that I was a failure. I saved them because I was weak; I could not bear to see these mortals, these clans, die before my eyes. But I was only a deserter! " He laughed aloud, pointing at the countless graves in the mist beyond the Hall of Human Emperors. "I was a deserter from this battlefield!

When I fled, all I thought of was getting far from this hell! I ran away. I did not fight alongside them. I fled alone! Afterwards I wondered a thousand times what would have happened had I stayed. There is only one answer: I would be like them, a corpse! " He laughed with a touch of madness.

"Yes — they died, and I lived, and became the Human Emperor in the hearts of the world! The world reveres me because I led them to a place where they could live on. And what of it?

I only made them prisoners. The whole sky is false; it is one great cage, a prison from which there is no escape, and every soul within it is a convict!

I did not lead them out to freedom. I merely delivered them into the prison of the gods!

" "Human Emperor? Hah, Human Emperor! In this world there is no Human Emperor at all! " His hair bristled with fury and he stepped forward, bearing down upon Shen Mu, the terrible force of his presence driving Shen Mu back and back.

"Cast off your laughable illusions, set down the burden in your heart. You are not the Human Emperor. From first to last, the Human Emperor is a lie — nothing but a murderer who delivers the world into the cage of the gods! " His aura left Shen Mu unable to breathe, and he had no choice but to rouse his vital essence with all his strength to resist. "Then why did you come back? " Shen Mu's chest was all but crushed flat.

He drew a painful breath and cried, "Why did you come back to raise steles for these men who fell in battle? Why did you bury them? Why are the weapons they used in battle laid beneath those steles? " The First Ancestor's aura suddenly went still, and he bowed his head. "I came back. I returned to this battlefield and buried them because I am ashamed in my heart. I know I am unworthy to be Human Emperor. I came to atone.

" "Can it be that there is no hope at all in your heart?

" Shen Mu said, incredulous. The First Ancestor said without expression, "None. Young man, set down the illusions in your heart. This farce of the Human Emperor should have ended long ago.

" Shen Mu bowed his head.

After a moment he raised it, smiling — the same bright, sunlit smile of a big boy as ever.

"You failed. They failed. But I have never yet been defeated.

If you will not be Human Emperor, then I will. " The First Ancestor gave a cold laugh, his face mocking. "By what right will you?

" Shen Mu said loudly, "My surname is Shen.

My ancestor was Kaihuang. I carry the bloodline of the Shen clan of Wuyou Township, and I am an Overlord Body.

I will be the one! Is there a problem? " The First Ancestor tilted his head and jeered, "You have too many titles, too much glory in your heart.

What of the blood of Kaihuang?

Kaihuang himself was defeated, and has not shown his face in twenty thousand years. What of the Overlord Body?

The Overlord Body is only a legend; I have never heard of any achievement of an Overlord Body. You are only a hotheaded greenhorn, a child. . . Let me shatter your illusions for you! " He flicked his sleeve and abruptly attacked Shen Mu.

Shen Mu was startled and hurried to block, yet the force that came through the attack was not so very great, and he could not help but pause in confusion.

The First Ancestor's power erupted, and the aftershock of the divine ability instantly flung the books from the shelves, sending them rustling up into the air. "Do not destroy these books!

" Shen Mu was enraged. He bellowed, and drove out a punch.

Behind him a bell tolled — dang — and a great Buddha appeared, humming, with fourteen heavens of gods and Buddhas encircling it, becoming fourteen halos of light.

"The arts of the Great Thunderpeal Temple — a petty path, no more. " The First Ancestor brushed it aside with a wave of his hand, struck Shen Mu in the chest with a punch, and said calmly, "With no more than that, you cannot protect the books, nor can you protect yourself. " Shen Mu was blasted away by the blow.

In midair his body became a black shadow that skimmed along the ground; the First Ancestor touched a toe to the earth and shook him out of the shadow, then made a sword of vital essence and thrust it at Shen Mu's brow.

"With such little skill, your future holds only one road: death! " The First Ancestor mocked him.

"You too are a failure. " Shen Mu was furious. He gathered his qi into a sword and pointed; their essence-swords clashed, the sword arts ringing, ding-ding-ding, in an unending burst of sound, and the volumes falling from the air were shredded by the sword aura.

Shen Mu's eyes were near to splitting with fury.

"Do not destroy the work of their lives!

" "Then come and stop me. " The First Ancestor chuckled, heh heh. "If you cannot beat me, then all you leave behind will be a heap of worthless trash!

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