Chapter 637 — Phoenix Courtship

I let it go long ago — it is she who cannot let go, who will not stop pestering me. The moment she gets a hold on me she comes to kill me. Is that my fault? " Shen Mu followed behind him, listening with a smile. King Buddha Sakra sneered: "It is plainly she who is small-minded; you cannot blame me. In my early years, before I entered the gate of emptiness, I did have such a green and tender season, when I thought I could be with her and pay no heed to the strife between the Heavenly Court and Kaihuang Heaven. But she could not bear to give up her power and position, and would not leave with me. Later we met on the battlefield, and she killed I know not how many of my brothers and sisters, ruthless and cruel — only then did I cut all ties with her!

" Shen Mu shooed away the skeletons that had crowded in, burning with curiosity.

King Buddha Sakra sighed: "The reason the Heavenly Court reacted so swiftly this time is that she still bears me a grudge, and thinks I betrayed her. Just now, if her divine ability had killed me, that would have been the end of it — with me dead, she would not have given chase. But she did not kill me, which means she will certainly come after us. Her speed is unmatched in all the world; with you in tow I could never outrun her. So I feigned that my wounds were too grave, meaning to send you off alone.

Yet you insisted on exposing me. Young friend Shen, being too clever is no good either. " Shen Mu was silent a moment, then said: "Can you escape the Crimson Emperor's pursuit?

" King Buddha Sakra shook his head: "Her ship can pass through the great thousand worlds, unimpeded by any barrier.

Her advantage in speed is first under heaven — how could I escape?

I mean to go upward against the current, through the thirty-three heavens of Kaihuang, and hide there. When she cannot find me, she will withdraw.

I cannot take you with me; if I did, you would surely die. " Some ships could travel between worlds.

Shen Mu had seen such ships before — the Other Shore Ark of the Heavenly Artisan God Clan, for one, and also the ship of his father, Qin Hanzhen, which had sailed from another world into the skies above the Wilderness Ruins. That Qi Xiayu, as the Crimson Emperor of the Southern Heaven, should possess such a ship was hardly surprising. Shen Mu nodded silently: "Taking me along would only drag you down.

King Buddha, let us part here.

" King Buddha Sakra nodded slightly: "She will be here soon. I must part from you. Do you have a way back to Taihuang Heaven?

" Shen Mu laughed: "At worst I will build another spirit-energy transmigration bridge. Do not worry about me; it is you I worry about more. " King Buddha Sakra quickened his pace, raised a hand toward the east, and his voice receded along with his figure: "Head that way, and you should find the road to Taihuang Heaven! " His form flew swiftly into the distance and gradually vanished.

Shen Mu opened his eyes and felt that his eyesight had recovered somewhat. He pressed the golden willow leaf back over his third eye.

With the third eye exposed, he dared not rouse the Mystic Body Three Elixirs Art, so in ordinary days it was best to keep it covered.

He walked east. The land was desolate and unpeopled; no living creature was to be seen, only flocks of great bone balls driven rolling this way and that by the wind. When the wind stopped, those skeleton creatures would follow him again like curious alpacas, and the bolder ones would even touch his clothes and pinch his cheeks.

Shen Mu paid the dead no mind and pressed on eastward, until suddenly he heard zither music come drifting from the sky. It was the melody of The Phoenix Seeks His Mate. Though it was plainly a tune of courtship, it carried sorrow and resentment.

The dim sky suddenly turned bright, and a tower-ship with pair upon pair of phoenix wings sailed in from another world, appearing in the sky of Taiming Heaven. The zither music came from that ship.

Shen Mu was listening, entranced, when a terrible psychic wave came sweeping in, scouring in all directions, spreading along the desolate land of Taiming Heaven, seeping through it like a tide! When this psychic wave swept over Shen Mu's body, it paused for a moment, then flooded past, and did not touch him.

The ship beat its pairs of phoenix wings and traced a graceful arc through the air, not pursuing Shen Mu, but chasing in the direction King Buddha Sakra had gone. The Crimson Emperor Qi Xiayu cared nothing at all about capturing Shen Mu; her interest was only in King Buddha Sakra.

"What story lies between King Buddha Sakra and her? Perhaps they are the protagonists of a story of their own.

. . " Shen Mu watched the tower-ship recede, and his heart eased.

Polishing his arts as he went, he continued east.

Behind him the Demonic Path Divine Treasury manifested, as he tried to fuse the Seven Stars Divine Treasury and the Six Universes Divine Treasury into one. He walked on for who knew how long, and still saw no end to Taiming Heaven. Suddenly Shen Mu halted and looked ahead.

There stood a magnificent divine city, thronged with people coming and going, bustling and crowded, while god after god and demon after demon stood on high places, warily scanning the surroundings. Shen Mu's body trembled slightly.

He looked around, and the ruined Taiming Heaven had vanished, replaced by a Taiming Heaven not yet destroyed by the fires of war! Shen Mu surveyed the terrain around him, and his mind reeled. The toppled mountains stood up again; the destroyed divine cities reappeared, gleaming as if new. And judging by this landscape, it matched exactly a map left behind by the founding patriarch of the Heavenly Sage Cult!

And that map pointed to this very divine city!

"Eldest Senior Brother is a man from after the end of the Kaihuang era. He could not have drawn the geography of a time before the Kaihuang era was destroyed, nor could he have pointed out this divine city that no longer exists! Something is wrong — something somewhere is very wrong. . . " Shen Mu's mind was in chaos.