Chapter 646 — Straight Through Three Hundred Levels

Chi Xi's gaze swept over Shen Mu, and his pupils shrank sharply. Plainly he had seen Shen Mu and been reminded of the Woodcutter Sage, and of how the Woodcutter Sage had played him in the palm of his hand.

That time he had ambushed the Woodcutter Sage, he had been beaten so savagely that the Sage had flung him straight into the territory of the Taihuang Heaven Demon Clan, where he had very nearly died.

Had he not run into Ban Gongcuo, that master of flight, he would surely have perished at the demons' hands.

He shifted his eyes to the First Ancestor Human Emperor, and his heart gave a sudden, violent wrench, as though an invisible weight had settled upon it.

That was the illusion wrought by the First Ancestor Human Emperor's aura. The man seemed wedged between a collapsing heaven and a falling earth, utterly alone, and that profound loneliness, that self-reproach and wounded grief, reached even Chi Xi.

"Are you a god of the Kaihuang Era, or a god of the Shanghuang Era?" Chi Xi steadied himself and asked.

"Kaihuang."

Shen Mu's ravenous curiosity was giving the First Ancestor Human Emperor a headache. He said softly, "The divine and profound arts of the Chiming Era are indeed outstanding and worthy of admiration. But, Brother Daoist, you must surely see by now that it is impossible for you to awaken these fellow Daoists of yours. Their primal spirits have been lost too long. They cannot wake."

The corner of Chi Xi's eye twitched. His voice was hoarse and rasping. "Could it be that you are the one who did this?" he sneered. "That you struck down my old friends in the dark?"

The First Ancestor Human Emperor frowned. Chi Xi's words had left him somewhat uncomfortable — and so had Shen Mu. Shen Mu had already sidled up to those rings and was measuring and calculating the runes upon them, trying to deduce the mysteries hidden within those primordial creation arts.

From Chi Xi's words he could plainly feel the hostility. For Shen Mu to step forward at such a moment was to place far too much trust in his own strength.

Shen Mu had boundless faith in him; yet the First Ancestor himself did not dare to be so confident.

This was a divine city of the Chiming Era, and judging by its layout, some heavenly palace of the Chiming Heavenly Court had been drowned beneath the South Sea. The god Chi Xi had come back here through untold hardships, and had made straight for this place. There must be more here than a mere Primordial Creation Ring — there must be other mighty divine weapons as well!

The divine weapons with which the Chiming Heavenly Court garrisoned its heavenly palaces must be exceedingly formidable. He only wondered whether the god Chi Xi had gotten his hands on them.

"Brother Daoist, you misunderstand."

The First Ancestor Human Emperor's face was calm. "I did not strike down your fellow Daoists. Rather, your Chiming Era studied the fleshly body and reached the very heights in that field, but your attainments in the soul, the spirit fetus, and the primordial spirit were somewhat lacking. Your fellow Daoists wore those alien forms for far too long, so that their souls and primordial spirits were altered along with them."

A savage light flickered in Chi Xi's eyes. He chuckled. "So your attainments in the primordial creation arts are very high?"

The First Ancestor Human Emperor said, "Not high. But in the Kaihuang Heavenly Court I once knew a man of great mastery. His studies in the creation arts of the fleshly body did not equal those of the Chiming Era; instead he devoted himself to the creation arts of the soul, the spirit fetus, and the primordial spirit, and his achievements there were extraordinary. I learned a little of it myself."

Shen Mu's heart stirred. "Could that be the Woodcutter Sage Master? The Great Nurturing Dark Demon Scripture holds seven chapters on primordial creation, every one of them a creation art. The Woodcutter Sage must possess a terrifying mastery of such arts!"

"In my judgment, three to five years from now some of your clansfolk may wake. But most of them never will."

The First Ancestor Human Emperor spoke with utter sincerity. "The Chiming Era and the Kaihuang Era share the same enemy. I beg you, Brother Daoist, to set aside your hostility. If you join hands with us, we may yet make a good beginning. I have learned a portion of these shallow creation arts. Perhaps I can reverse the state of your clansfolk's souls and primordial spirits, and save some of them."

Chi Xi stepped forward and shouted, "If you have the skill to save my clansfolk, then bring it out! Or are you hoarding it, unwilling to give it up?"

The head on his left laughed coldly. "That is it — he is holding us hostage! He has the creation arts, and he means to use them to hold us hostage, to make us his slaves and fight for his empire!"

The head on his right raged, "Why not cut off his head and search his soul and seize his spirit? Would that not get us his creation arts?"

The First Ancestor Human Emperor frowned and shook his head. "You are being unreasonable."

Shen Mu turned back. "First Ancestor, I told you long ago: the enemy of an enemy is not necessarily a friend. The Sage Master once said that the people of the Chiming Era cultivate the way of battle with the body, and that more often than not they settle matters by force. And this Chi Xi is the execution overseer of the Chiming Heavenly Court — a man who stops at nothing. If you beat him down, all is well and good. If you cannot beat him down, he will beat you down, cut off your head, and extract your soul to study it."

The First Ancestor Human Emperor's frown deepened. He said with patience, "Brother Daoist, you and I share a common enemy, and so we ought all the more to join hands. To speak frankly, this Human Emperor Shen is the link between the Kaihuang Era and the Jingping Era, and he possesses an Overlord Body such as is rarely seen in all the world..."

"Overlord Body?"

Chi Xi's face showed astonishment. The head on his right turned to look at Shen Mu, and blurted, "This boy has an Overlord Body? The legendary Overlord Body? They say that in the Longhan Era, more than four hundred thousand years ago, Overlord Bodies appeared..."

Shen Mu felt greatly comforted. "So the Village Chief is indeed a man of wide learning, to know that Overlord Bodies existed in the Longhan Era more than four hundred thousand years ago."

The First Ancestor Human Emperor said, "Since you also know of the Overlord Body, then we ought all the more to sit down and talk..."

"I trust no one! Least of all you, and that wicked, cunning little Overlord Body! And I will never sew another's bridal dress for your Kaihuang Era and your Jingping Era, gasping out its last breath!"

Chi Xi roared, and his aura erupted in an instant. "The Chiming Era will rise again, and rule all under heaven once more! Jingping or Kaihuang, both will bow down! Hand over the creation arts, and I will spare your life and let you serve as my retainer!"

The First Ancestor Human Emperor suddenly relaxed, and shook his head. "Brother Daoist, this is no longer the Chiming Era. If you face me with the arts and divine powers of the Chiming Era, you have no chance of victory."

Chi Xi's divine power erupted without warning, and he struck a palm at Shen Mu. But the instant his power stirred, the First Ancestor Human Emperor's Heaven and Earth Seal slammed straight into the Primordial Creation Ring. There came a thunderous boom — Chi Xi's figure vanished, and a great hall a hundred zhang behind him blew apart!

Boom, boom, boom —

Along that straight line, temple after temple and palace after palace burst open; dozens of divine palaces and temples were crushed to powder by the enormous force, and tower after tower was snapped in two at the waist and came crashing down.

Ban Gongcuo, lying flat on the ground, could only stare, dazed and shattered.