Chapter 701 — Clash of Two Heroes

If more and more shattered souls accumulated in the various worlds, then more soul-black sand would form, and more famished ghosts that could not be killed. Neither practitioners of divine powers nor ordinary people could easily resist the onslaught of the ghosts; and if those ghosts were seized and controlled by the Netherworld Emperor, even gods and demons would be no match for them. As the ages wore on, every world and every heaven would fall, all living things would be extinguished, and every world would sink back into silence and darkness!

"Can Lady Tianyin resolve the soul-black sand and the famished ghosts?" asked Yan Jingjing. "The Netherworld Emperor is the Black Emperor of the Nether Capital. He is formidable. Can Lady Tianyin defeat him? If she is no match for the Black Emperor, then nothing else can even be discussed."

"Lady Tianyin has been dead for many ten-thousands of years, so perhaps she is no match for the Netherworld Emperor—but if the Emperor wishes to kill her, he must descend into the Tianyin Realm in person." Shen Mu replied: "As long as he cannot break into the realm, Lady Tianyin can hold him off. There shouldn't be too much trouble."

He Yiyi looked distressed. "Even if Lady Tianyin fends off her opponent, I'm afraid she still can't handle those famished ghosts. If she had any way to deal with the ghosts, she wouldn't have let the realm fall into such a great calamity, and wouldn't have been devoured by the ghosts herself."

Shen Mu said, "The problems of the Tianyin Realm are only a small matter. She is certain to figure out a solution."

Yan Jingjing looked at him with shining eyes, curious. "If it were you, how would you solve it?"

"Simple. The ghosts fear the sun. In the Wasteland, as soon as the sun comes out, the ghosts retreat together with the darkness, hiding in other heavens or in the Tianyin Realm. Clearly, the ghosts cannot bear sunlight." Shen Mu said: "Just hang a sun in the Tianyin Realm, and the ghosts there will be subdued, obedient as lambs. With the sun shining ceaselessly by day and night, the ghosts would be pressed into one corner of the realm, unable to cause further chaos."

Yan Jingjing's eyes flew wide. "That simple? Then Lady Tianyin is sure to think of this solution."

Shen Mu nodded as if it were only natural. "The Lady is very clever. Even if she cannot find a sun, she can bore through a wall to steal a little light—simply poke a hole in the sole of Lord Heaven's foot and borrow his radiance."

Yan Jingjing found this amusing. "That would hurt a great deal. Lord Heaven wouldn't agree."

"I, on the other hand, think Lord Heaven would agree. Even if he didn't, he could hardly do anything about it."

"Why?"

"He can't find the Tianyin Realm." Shen Mu continued: "Besides, if his foot sole were breached, yet his light shone down into the Tianyin Realm, the realm would become a part of Xuandu. No longer would it be the 'Yin of Heaven,' and Heaven would have one fewer weakness. But in that case, the Tianyin Realm would probably no longer exist."

He kept his eyes on the cliff, his expression calm. "The two methods I mentioned do not resolve the disaster of the ghosts at its root—they treat the symptoms rather than the disease. To truly end the ghost-plague, the ghosts must be annihilated. Nor would the Book of Life and Death that the Netherworld Emperor forged avail; the Book cannot eliminate the ghosts or the black sand. Soul-black sand and famished ghosts both originate from the Yin of Heaven, so the only person who can deal with the black sand and the ghosts is Lady Tianyin herself."

The two young women nodded gently.

That day seemed to stretch on without end; even the sun appeared to hang stubbornly in the west, unwilling to go down. They waited with growing impatience until, at last, the sun slowly sank beneath the horizon. Shen Mu turned anxiously toward the broken cliff—and saw darkness spewing out from it, flooding over them in an instant and sweeping across the entire Wasteland. Shen Mu's heart plummeted. "The Lady has lost..."

At that very moment, the human skin beside him suddenly tore free of its constraints and unfurled. The Kaihuang Divine Being swelled as if inflated, blinking and staring about in curiosity.

Yan Jingjing's entire body blazed with divine light, holding the darkness at bay. She looked at Shen Mu's face and saw the young man's features dim, tinged with hurt and melancholy.

The Kaihuang Divine Being examined his own neck—a bizarre necklace hung there—and beside him lay a wooden tablet with a charcoal stick. "What happened?" He scribbled a line on the tablet, then raised it.

Shen Mu was silent. The Divine Being raised the tablet again: "How went the battle? Who won?"

Shen Mu sighed and walked alone into the darkness. The Kaihuang Divine Being looked baffled and raised his tablet: "What did I miss?"

No one answered him.

He was about to raise the tablet once more when, in the darkness, Shen Mu's frame trembled slightly and his eyes suddenly blazed. "There are very few famished ghosts in the dark!" he laughed.

Yan Jingjing, He Yiyi, and the Kaihuang Divine Being were each taken aback. Yan Jingjing was about to speak, but the Divine Being had already raised his tablet: "What do you mean?"

"This one talks too much!" Yan Jingjing and He Yiyi were both amazed. And this was only what he wrote on his tablet; if he could speak directly, the others probably wouldn't get a chance to say a word.