Chapter 527 — To Grant Forgiveness

Shen Mu struck the ground, earth flying up, his whole body drenched in blood, the scattered drops and the soil mingling together, his furious hair streaming as he walked toward the First Ancestor Human Emperor, who had just risen to his feet.

"You are a deserter from this battlefield. You have no right to despise anyone!"

Shen Mu roared like a wild beast and charged at the First Ancestor Human Emperor.

Grievous as his wounds were, his momentum was fiercer than before, the might of his moves more terrifying than ever.

He was choked with rage. In the moment the First Ancestor meant to destroy the Second Ancestor's remains, Shen Mu felt as though a whole vessel of blood would burst out of his heart; his primal spirit fused with his flesh, and within his divine treasury the spirit embryo of the primal spirit stood upon the altar of the spirit, head to the heavens, feet upon the earth, the cloud-qi of the six directions surging in from every quarter and pouring into the primal spirit.

Vital essence merged with primal spirit, primal spirit merged with flesh, and the vital essence at once ran clear through all his limbs and hundred bones.

In an instant he understood the power of the First Ancestor's unity of primal spirit and flesh.

The working of a cultivation art takes time; the eruption of any divine ability takes time; the only difference lies in how long, and how strong.

But the primal spirit dwells within the divine treasury, and the vital essence passes from the divine treasury straight into the body, sparing the time the vital essence would need to travel.

The First Ancestor Human Emperor struck with immense speed, not only because every part of his flesh stood at the divine realm, but also because of this unity of primal spirit and body.

In that moment the five luminaries' stars of his Five Luminaries divine treasury corresponded exactly with his five organs, heart, liver, spleen, lungs, kidneys answering to fire, wood, earth, metal, water; the five stars entered the five organs, and the Five Luminaries Star Lords upon those stars each took up residence in his heart, liver, spleen, lungs, and kidneys; in every organ dwelt a god.

The Fire Luminary, Yinghuo, ox-headed and man-bodied, dwelt in the chamber of the heart; the Wood Luminary, Sui, man-headed with a bird's body and bird's feet, dwelt in the chamber of the liver; the Earth Luminary, Zhen, man-headed and serpent-bodied, dwelt in the spleen; the Metal Luminary, Taibai, tiger-headed and man-bodied, dwelt in the chamber of the lungs; the Water Luminary, Chen, man-headed, red-haired and serpent-bodied, dwelt in the kidneys.

The Five Luminaries were fused with his flesh, and his strength swelled tier upon tier, and that was how he had sent the First Ancestor flying in a single move, the First Ancestor who had been about to destroy the Second Ancestor!

"They lost. They lost terribly!"

Their palms met, and a dreadful force erupted; the white mist all around was slit apart with a hiss by the blast of air from the meeting of their palms.

Their palm force was like a blade of incomparable keenness, cutting the mist for more than a hundred zhang around into two level halves.

"They did something; you did nothing. What right have you to reproach them?"

Shen Mu roared, all his vital essence erupting, his muscles twisting hideously, knots of sinew writhing beneath his skin as he bore the First Ancestor backward, bang, bang, bang, bang, the ground beneath their feet bursting open again and again, and all around them a space a hundred zhang wide of utter purity, without a trace of mist.

For the mist had been crushed hard together by the brute force of Shen Mu's palm, all of it gathered behind his palm force, that is, behind the First Ancestor.

"Besides founding the Human Emperor Hall, what have you ever done?"

Shen Mu demanded, and behind him a volcano suddenly roared and burst, flames shooting up to the sky; that was Human Emperor Qi Kang's fist art, gathering the fire of the heart into momentum, brewing for the eruption.

The First Ancestor Human Emperor's expression shifted slightly; the power in Shen Mu's two palms abruptly surged, and he blasted him flying!

"You did nothing at all!"

While the First Ancestor Human Emperor was still in midair, he saw Shen Mu standing on one foot, his body sweeping one full circle about that pivot, shh, shh, shh, vital essence turning into countless blades of every hue and hurling themselves at him in the air!

That was Human Emperor Lan Po's art of weapon forging!

The First Ancestor Human Emperor's sleeve rolled and coiled, shredding every weapon, and before he had even landed he saw Shen Mu point a finger, and from its tip burst unbroken ranges of grey mountains that drowned him whole.

Lianbi Dots the Cang Mountains!

"They were not your equal. Then teach them! Teach them!"

The First Ancestor Human Emperor broke the move by force; before he landed, a great bell came hurtling at him head-on. Shen Mu had already closed in; the great bell shrouded him about, and inside it Shen Mu attacked, every fist and every kick landing upon the bell's wall.

The bell tolled and boomed, its might growing fiercer and fiercer; the bell tilted now this way and now that, sometimes turning mouth-down, sometimes lying on its side, sometimes righting itself, sometimes turning its mouth toward the First Ancestor.

The Fifth Ancestor's Five Thunder Heaven-Upholding Bell!

The First Ancestor Human Emperor retreated again and again, and amid the tolling came Shen Mu's furious questions: "How did the Second Ancestor die? He died of old age!"

Boom!

The First Ancestor Human Emperor was shaken until his steps scattered.

"How did the Third Ancestor die? He died of old age!"

"How did the Fourth Ancestor die? He died of old age!"

"All the Human Emperors, were they inferior to you in aptitude, or in comprehension? If you could not do it, then pass down your art of becoming a god and let them do the work! Why let them die of old age?"

Shen Mu brought out one divine ability after another of the thirty-four generations of Human Emperors, the arts he had learned in Fengdu. The thirty-four generations of Human Emperors had handed them down only to test his aptitude and comprehension; they had not taught him completely. They had only hoped that Shen Mu would return to the Human Emperor Hall and receive their inheritance in full.

They had taught him roughly, never expecting him to learn much. Yet in Shen Mu's hands these abilities erupted with terrifying power, driving the First Ancestor Human Emperor back step by step.

"You clearly have the art of becoming a god, so teach it! Teach it, then!"

"What did they ever get from you? Nothing but a broken seal! Nothing but a mountain of duty and burden; they got nothing else!"

"They could not learn your arts or your divine abilities, yet for the sake of a burden you yourself could not bear, they threw away their lives, they slaughtered the enemies who made even you tremble in fear! And you destroy the fruit of their toil, and now you would destroy their very bones! To the last they felt they had failed you, failed you, the First Ancestor Human Emperor, and could not bear to face you in death!"

"And yet you would destroy everything they were! What face have you to call them trash, to call them useless?"

Shen Mu launched his final move. The First Ancestor abruptly shot out a hand, seized his fist, swung him up and smashed him savagely into the ground.

Shen Mu flipped over and leapt up. The First Ancestor Human Emperor counterattacked, fist arts, body arts, sword arts, formation arts; every divine ability exquisite to the last hair, exquisite beyond words, breaking Shen Mu's assaults with ease, with ease driving Shen Mu into defense, into a beating.