Chapter 574 — Slaying the Divine Dragon Beyond the Heavenly Gate

"Sect Master Shen, there seems to be a ghost inside your gate... Sect Master Shen!"

Jiang Miao heard Shen Mu's cry of pain and hurried over in alarm, lifting Shen Mu up. Shen Mu was dazed and muddled from the agony. At his chest, a jade pendant gave off streams of faint light, forcing back the stabbing pain.

"I'm fine. Just a sudden headache."

Shen Mu opened his eyes in confusion, pushed away Jiang Miao's hand, and shook his head. "Much better now. It should just be an aftereffect of activating the Gate of Heaven's Mandate. Strange—when I activated the Gate of Heaven's Mandate before, no such oddity ever occurred..."

Jiang Miao stared blankly at his brow. Shen Mu was taken aback, then smiled. "What are you looking at?"

Jiang Miao said in horror, "There's a blood mark on your brow. There seems to be something inside it..."

Shen Mu hurriedly took out a mirror and examined himself. Sure enough, there was a blood mark at the center of his brow. It was narrow and long, over an inch, pointed at both ends and wider in the middle.

Strangely, the blood mark was somewhat raised, as though he had struck his head and raised a swelling.

He reached out and touched the blood mark. Inside there seemed to be something round. He pressed a little harder, yet felt no pain.

"Could it be that the pain was so great just now that I struck my head... That thing is moving!"

Shen Mu was horrified. His finger clearly felt the thing beneath the blood mark shift!

"Could I have been possessed by that divine dragon?"

He hurriedly activated his primal spirit and looked inward. After searching for a long while, he found no abnormality within his body. Even when his primal spirit came to the center of his brow, it could not find the thing beneath the blood mark.

Jiang Miao examined his brow carefully, then suddenly raised a finger. "Sect Master, look at my finger."

Shen Mu obediently looked at his finger. Jiang Miao moved it, watching his brow, and saw that the thing beneath the blood mark moved along with his finger.

Jiang Miao tested it a while, then let out a breath of relief. "Beneath the blood mark, there should be an eye."

"An eye?"

Shen Mu was greatly bewildered. There were indeed wondrous techniques in the Great Nurturing Nether-Demon Scripture that could cause one to grow a third eye, but he had clearly not transformed into the form of the Lord of Saturn or the Lord of Mars. How could he have grown a third eye?

"Sect Master Shen, I just saw a ghost inside your gate!"

Jiang Miao steadied himself, then recalled the scene he had just witnessed. A chill ran through him, and he shivered several times. "When my uncle was swallowed by your gate, his primal spirit was pulled out and fell toward that two-horned god-demon. Then a great maw suddenly appeared and ate my uncle's primal spirit!"

"A great maw suddenly appeared and ate your uncle?"

Shen Mu was astonished. He rubbed his forehead and said doubtfully, "The Netherworld has many savage monsters, formed from its lingering souls and demonic nature, hideous and terrifying. Could it be a monster of the Netherworld at work?"

Jiang Miao shook his head. "That I do not know. I only had time to see that great maw devour my uncle. That maw even wore a cruel smile, and then it vanished, and your gate closed."

Shen Mu pondered a moment, then sighed. "The Earth Lord's control over the Netherworld grows ever weaker, so much so that these ox-headed and snake-bodied things come running out... This time we came to find the true dragon's words to cure the poison of the true dragon's lair, and now that too has come to nothing..."

Suddenly he saw that the chains piercing the divine dragon's body had gone slack, and the demonic script on the chains no longer flowed. His heart skipped a beat.

"Damn! The Ten-Mile Star Sand Tribulation Formation has stopped!"

Shen Mu hurried outside. He saw yellow sand like dragons flowing above the canyon, rushing swiftly toward the great cauldron.

And on the cliffs to either side of the canyon, runes were burning themselves away, turning to flying ash.

Amid the sand filling the sky, Xing'an, covered in blood, was dragging heavy steps toward them, his expression very grim.

Shen Mu hurried over and tried to lift the great cauldron, but could not help letting out a stifled groan—he could not lift it. The star sand within the cauldron was far too heavy; he simply could not raise it.

He roused his vital essence and tried to activate the star sand in the cauldron. A dozen or so grains of star sand wobbled up into the air and drifted slowly forward.

Shen Mu's face went black at once—blacker than the face of Xing'an, who was walking over.