Chapter 681 — Dry Bones Repay the Ring

On this journey they had covered fifty or sixty thousand li, and all of it had passed without incident. They had long since skirted around Luofu Heaven; vast as it was, towering at the center of Taihuang Heaven, it could no longer be seen now, hidden behind layer upon layer of magma surges and black winds. The only thing that could still fix their direction was Shen Mu's south-pointing chariot. The people were utterly spent; even the gods could scarcely hold on. Had they only needed to guard themselves, it would have been one thing, but the crux was that they had to guard tens of thousands of the Gifted, and under such extreme fatigue their vital essence drained away without cease.

Their bellies were empty, and strength seeped slowly from their bodies. Xing An opened his chest, took out some dried meat, and handed it to Shen Mu. "You are the leader.

You divide it.

" Shen Mu's eye twitched. He hurriedly stowed the dried meat into the Taotie Pouch and called, "Village Head, Grandpa Tu, come over here.

" He had the folk of the Village of Hidden Remnants gather round the Butcher. The Butcher hesitated a moment, then still brought down his blade.

"A child may not be able to stomach this meat," he said. "Cut it into small cubes," Shen Mu said.

"A cube the size of a fingernail for each person. The gods get a larger portion.

Grandpa Tu, can you divide it into tens of thousands of portions?

" "That is no difficulty. I fear only that they will not dare to eat it. " The Butcher's blade work was exquisite, and he soon had the dried meat portioned out. Shen Mu set it on plates; a plate of those cubes sat astonishingly heavy, wreathed in multicolored divine radiance.

For all his divine strength, he found it a strain to lift them, and some of the cubes still carried a monstrous, crushing demonic aura. "Those who cultivate the divine way take the cubes that give off divine radiance, one small piece each.

Those who cultivate the demonic way take the demonic-aura cubes. Do not take more than your share.

" He distributed the dried meat.

Xu Shenghua hesitated, then took two pieces as well, and gave one to Jing Yan.

Jing Yan balked a little. "Sect Master," she said softly, "what meat is this, really? " "Not human flesh.

" Shen Mu hesitated, then said in a whisper, "But it is nothing good either. Many arms and legs hang in Xing An's chest, and heads too. This is the flesh of the few nonhuman gods and demons among them. " When he had finished handing out the cubes, the Alchemist called him over again, and the two of them hurried to and fro, refining spirit pills without pause.

Granny Zhu, for her part, used her Creation divine ability to cultivate spirit herbs, and furnace after furnace of elixirs was refined and given to the gods and to the Gifted whose vital essence was spent. Even so, they were eating into their stores; pills and elixirs alone could not fill a belly, nor could they replenish water.

"Can the Creation divine ability create water?

" someone asked in a low voice.

Someone told him, "Don't speak. You waste the moisture in your body.

" Shen Mu rummaged in the Taotie Pouch, took out his own water reserve, and distributed it. Each person received only a little.

Though he had always liked to prepare against every contingency and had stored some water in the Taotie Pouch, he had not stored a great deal. The bodies of the Gifted were mighty; even dehydrated, they could survive a long while. For now, so long as they could keep a certain amount of water in everyone, it would be enough to live until they reached the place where Taihuang Heaven and Taiming Heaven met.

"To use the Creation divine ability to create water—that means altering the most fundamental structure of matter. It requires a heaven-defying mastery of Creation. The only one who might possess such mastery is the First Ancestor, the Human Sovereign. And the First Ancestor is gravely wounded…

" Shen Mu moistened his parched lips and looked ahead. Everyone, gods included, was already dehydrated, thin as sticks—yet the dragon qilin that drew the cart was still full of vigor, trotting along with light, brisk steps. Even Da Lu, his sworn enemy, was now so thin that only a handful of bones remained, his strength all but spent.

Only the dragon qilin was brimming with energy. Born with mastery over fire, it was like a fish in water here; however high the temperature, to it, it was no more than a hot bath.

"Without water, I fear we will never reach Taiming Heaven… " Shen Mu's throat was smoking.

He swallowed with difficulty, but there was no saliva in his mouth, only the dry crackle of his parched throat. Of the divine abilities under heaven, many can be classified by the five elements, but water-element abilities generally work by mingling the free-floating water vapor of heaven and earth with one's own water vital essence to conjure the illusion of a great flood. In truth it is not real water; once the vital essence disperses, the water vapor disperses with it.

The Creation divine ability, by contrast, can alter the most fundamental structure of matter. The demands it makes are extraordinarily high; one might truly call it creation from the void, conjuring things out of nothing. Such a feat was beyond any of them. They struggled onward.

All of them had been scorched until their former spirit was gone, and they dragged their weary bodies forward on willpower alone. The First Ancestor, the Human Sovereign, had awakened, but his wounds were grave, and the True God Pang Yu still had to carry him on his back.

For now, Shen Mu could only hope that the Alchemist would snatch him back from the gates of hell soon, and that the First Ancestor would then exercise his art of creation and conjure water from the void.

Suddenly a light came from the sky. The gods who were holding the outer perimeter against the shockwaves all raised their heads, and saw a scroll unrolled, flying swiftly through the heavens, bursting with brilliant radiance that shone down upon the sea of magma.

The scroll spread out, bright as a mirror, and upon it names leapt and flickered at furious speed! "The Book of Life and Death! " Shen Mu's heart lurched. What flew in the sky was the Book of Life and Death—or rather, the volume of it in the hands of Lou Yunqu and his people!

It was by the power of the Book of Life and Death that Lou Yunqu had stormed the altar of Luofu Heaven and blood-sacrificed it, so that Luofu Heaven crashed into Taihuang Heaven! And now the Book of Life and Death had suddenly appeared, shining ceaselessly down upon Taihuang Heaven, which had become a sea of magma. What exactly did Lou Yunqu and the others intend?

"If it were to capture me, there would be no need to use the Book of Life and Death again.

So he means to wipe us out in one sweep!

" Shen Mu looked around and saw only a spent army. The people here had no strength left for a fight; even the gods were at the end of their tether.

"Taihuang Heaven is in the midst of destruction, and the environment is savage beyond measure. Lou Yunqu should be able to wake only a few divine and demonic corpses.

Fortunately, the number of such corpses should not be great… " Scarcely had the thought crossed his mind when, in the sea of magma, a colossal demon-god's skeleton rose slowly from the flames, magma still streaming down its bones.

After a moment, the magma and fire on the skeleton guttered out. The skull was hollow and empty, with only a faint ghost-fire drifting in its eye sockets.

More divine and demonic skeletons rose from the magma sea—one, two, ten, a hundred… more and more of them!

Shen Mu's eye twitched wildly. He wanted to speak, but his voice came out hoarse: "True God Pang Yu, can you still fight? " True God Pang Yu, the Venerable God Sang Ye, and the others had faces withered and sallow, lips cracked and white, blood seeping from the fissures.