Chapter 698 — Grandmaster of Law and Dao

At last Lady Tianyin's Life Soul was remade. Shen Mu gathered his remaining strength and was about to remake her seven spirits when suddenly all before his eyes went black; he lost control of his body and fell from the spire of the pagoda.

"Great Mage has remade my three souls for me; Tianyin's gratitude is beyond words."

A voice of great beauty came to Shen Mu's ears, yet he had spent so much that he could neither see nor feel.

Lady Tianyin reached out her hand and caught him, holding him in her palm. "I thank the Great Mage for saving my life. I was born of Heaven and Earth; I have no seven spirits."

The God-Man Kaihuang stood atop the pagoda, still shining the Book of Life and Death upon her. Lady Tianyin laughed. "There is no need for that now. I thank you, fellow Daoist."

The God-Man Kaihuang hastily put away the Book of Life and Death, took out paper and brush, and wrote a passage at flying speed. Lady Tianyin leaned close to read it and smiled. "I have no fleshly body—only an empty husk. That hardly counts as resurrection."

The God-Man Kaihuang took another sheet of paper and wrote again. Lady Tianyin said, "He is in no danger; he has merely spent too much of his vitality and spirit. I have preserved his life with the water of Tianyin and the qi of Tianyin. There is no need to worry."

The God-Man Kaihuang took yet another sheet and wrote swiftly, then held it high.

"How may one be rid of the affliction of having no fleshly body?" Lady Tianyin said. "I have no way either. I was born of Heaven and Earth, so perhaps I can use the earth of Tianyin and the water of Tianyin to remake a body for myself. But you have no blood and flesh left, and for that I am helpless. I can remake your body, but I cannot remake your divine store."

The God-Man Kaihuang's face fell.

Lady Tianyin carried the pagoda and walked toward the seaside; in a few steps she had come into the midst of the ocean, and there she set Shen Mu down gently, letting him float upon the surface of the sea.

She raised her hand lightly, gathered wind and cloud, and refined a wisp of Tianyin qi. She released it, and the wisp of Tianyin qi darted swift as flight into Shen Mu's brow and sped through his whole body.

Then Lady Tianyin scooped up seawater. The water fell from her palm, and what remained at its center was a single crystal-clear droplet.

Lady Tianyin laid the droplet carefully at Shen Mu's lips. It seeped into his mouth and dissolved in an instant, and his whole body was wreathed in cloud-breath, as though wrapped in auspicious clouds.

Lady Tianyin smiled. "Great Mage, awake."

Shen Mu felt utterly refreshed and came slowly to himself. He opened his eyes and found himself lying on the surface of the sea, Lady Tianyin's face all but blotting out half the sky.

He scrambled to his feet and found that his weariness and exhaustion had vanished without a trace; his vitality was full, his spirit bright, and his flesh seemed to hold inexhaustible strength. Astonished and delighted at once, he stood upon the sea and saluted Lady Tianyin, saying in a deep voice, "This latecomer and petty scholar, Shen Mu of the Shen family, pays his respects to Lady Tianyin."

"The Great Mage is too courteous."

Lady Tianyin bent down, letting him leap into the center of her palm, and smiled. "The Great Mage could gather my three souls again for me—a kindness of rebirth. Tianyin's gratitude is beyond words. The Yin Sovereign has made a wreck of my domain; once I recover my fleshly body, I shall set it to rights."

The seawater crowded and surged into her body; the earth flowed as well, reassembling her bones. Lady Tianyin's fleshly body grew ever more solid and true, and her strength soared madly. "What does the Great Mage seek?"

Shen Mu's face reddened slightly. "Your Ladyship need not call me Great Mage. I am not even a god; I only did what I could. I am unworthy of the word 'great'. My study of the three souls is not even the equal of Granny's..."

"You are worthy of it."

Lady Tianyin smiled. "The word 'great' comes just below 'heaven'—one stroke short of heaven. Your divine powers and Daoist arts are such that even Lord Heaven does not possess them. And you would say you are unworthy of 'great'?"

Shen Mu was thoroughly ashamed. He thought for a moment, then said, "I come from Jingping, in the outer world. May I ask whether Jingping might form an alliance with Your Ladyship?"

Lady Tianyin smiled. "That is only proper."

Shen Mu breathed a sigh of relief. "The Mystic Capital has set up a stronghold here, controlling the black sand and throwing the human world into disorder. Is Your Ladyship able to control the flow of the black sand?"

Lady Tianyin shook her head. "I have only just been reborn; I cannot yet command the whole of the Tianyin Realm. For now I have no power to control the soul black sand here."

Her gaze turned somewhat grim. "Ghosts ground down into the finest particles become black sand—but black sand is still ghosts; its essence has not changed. Do you know what that means?"

Shen Mu's eye twitched. Countless ghosts ground to pieces and mingled together—in such a case, they would form a single, unimaginably vast soul-body!

The whole Tianyin Realm lay in darkness; which is to say, the Tianyin Realm itself was one unimaginably vast corpse!

"We are all in the belly of that corpse."

Lady Tianyin said, "This is the Yin Sovereign's device. Now that I have been reborn, the Yin Sovereign will soon learn of it, and this monstrous corpse that is the Tianyin Realm will revive, attack me, and kill me again. But this time he will not succeed. I will fight him once more, and teach him that the shade of Heaven is no place for him to set foot!"