Chapter 763 — The Soul Returns to the Mortal World
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 2 of 5
When Shen Mu thought over the deep-rooted causes hidden within, he could not help shivering several times. That assembly at the Jade Pool had seemed perfectly harmonious; even after Hao's assassination, the crowd had only been plunged into grief, with scarcely a ripple — all stillness. Yet who could have imagined what a monstrous murderous design lay beneath that seeming stillness? Only now, having seen the blessing of the Lord of Earth and reasoned certain things through, did he feel how terrifying it was!
"Can Hao possibly prevail against such a Heavenly Emperor? The Longhan era split into three — in the end, who was the true victor?
" He cast a sidelong glance at Heavenly Venerable You beside him. You had never once brought up the matter — he could not tell whether You knew nothing or was unwilling to speak. "Once Yu is revived, I must interrogate You to the very bottom of it!
" Shen Mu lifted his hand, and the coffin cast from Buddha-primal red chrome split apart with a resonant clang; the coffin-lid flew some distance before settling lightly down without much sound.
This was the Mansion of the Heaven-Equal Benevolent Prince, and the soul of the old Yin Courier's mother still dwelt within; Shen Mu did not wish to disturb the old lady.
Under his power, Heavenly Venerable Yu floated in midair.
A million years had passed, yet he was as before — time had left no mark on him.
Just as when Shen Mu had encountered him at the Jade Pool, this young Heavenly Venerable was like a single tree of jade blossoms, warm and mild, faintly aloof.
A million years had intervened; to Shen Mu it was but a few months past, and to him, too, it seemed the same. "I can summon his soul here in Youdu, draw his scattered soul-fragments to me.
But the power of the Lord of Heaven cannot be borrowed within Youdu, so I must bring him back to the mortal world; only in the mortal world can I borrow the might of both the Lord of Heaven and the Lord of Earth to reforge his three souls and seven spirits.
" The old Yin Courier said in flustered alarm: "Can you truly do it? His soul has been shattered for a million years — such a long time.
.
.
" Shen Mu smiled gently and said calmly: "Lady Tianyin had been dead at least four or five hundred thousand years, and did I not still bring her back? She was an ancient goddess; summoning her soul was difficult beyond everything, and it exhausted me enough to vomit blood. But when he died, Yu was at most a deity — summoning his soul will be much simpler.
" He lifted the willow leaf from his brow, and at once his divine treasury and demonic treasury merged as one; his cultivation of the divine path intermingled with his cultivation of the demonic path, and his magic power surged upward in successive leaps! Shen Mu set in motion the Soul-Drawing Art as he had reformed it; a primordial spirit sixteen zhang tall appeared behind him.
His primordial spirit had grown vast and was now no ordinary thing, and with god and demon united in a single body he seemed like a small ancient god himself. From the primordial spirit's mouth came the cadenced demonic speech of Youdu, mingled with the gods' language — so abstruse and profound that even the old Yin Courier caught only a smattering. As Heavenly Venerable You, the old Yin Courier commanded immense and profound mastery of Youdu's demonic tongue and divine arts, but the language of the gods was something of a gap for him.
The divine language of the ancient Heavenly Court was itself born from the god-speech of Xuandu, and both were born from the Lord of Heaven's Dao.
Every art has its experts; because he had delved so deeply into Youdu's divine arts, his understanding of Xuandu's arts actually fell short of Shen Mu's. "Soul-Drawing Art?