But the force of it is too cruel — many times crueler than I imagined! " They flew up, one before and one behind, to examine the hunchbacked god-devil's body.

They saw that the man's primordial spirit had turned ethereal, become like Tai Su — having form and substance but no body — and was trapped within the flesh, while the flesh itself had turned to stone. Stranger still, his primal qi had already been reduced to chaos!

The two exchanged a glance. Crown Prince Youming leaped into the root from which the hunchbacked god-devil had emerged; the root had burst open into a great hole, just large enough to hold his body. Though he was not hunchbacked, he carried a dark turtle shell upon his back.

Wei Suifeng stepped up, made as if to draw a bow, and shot several arrows at him in empty air. Crown Prince Youming at once sprang out of the root and was about to speak, when Wei Suifeng drew a circle with both hands, traced a Taiji diagram, and stamped it upon his chest; then came another blow — 'Tai Su Suddenly Opens the Chaos Bud' — striking his primordial spirit; and then a stroke of 'Tai Shi, Form and Substance, Questions the Azure Void', reducing his bloodline to chaos!

Then Wei Suifeng pushed forward once more with cupped hands, and Crown Prince Youming's body shook violently and froze where he stood.

Of course, Wei Suifeng did not possess Shen Mu's divine abilities; he was only imitating the look of them, and Crown Prince Youming played along, the two of them rehearsing, guessing at the steps by which Shen Mu had struck.

Both men were infatuated with divine abilities, and seeing such traces of battle, they could not help but work out the sequence.

"It must have been like this — he killed the man outright. " Crown Prince Youming recovered his power of movement, sprang up, and came behind the hunchbacked god-devil, standing before his Jade Capital City and gazing at the scene within. He saw a thousand palaces and ten thousand halls, towering and endless, and chaos rivers, one after another, a whole system of divine ability that left one gasping in admiration.

"A pity," said Crown Prince Youming, shaking his head.

"This being's cultivation system was most peculiar; he must have been a remarkable figure, and yet he was muddled away in three strokes by the Heavenly Venerable Mu. He might at least have been given a word first — asked what his Jade Capital system was — and only then slain.

" Wei Suifeng said, "Our junior brother had the advantage of striking first.

This man's strength was in no way inferior to the Ten Heavenly Venerables — perhaps greater!

A pity he was trapped in the past universe and had to rely on the world tree to escape his doom; but the world tree was felled by Taiyi, so that he was stuck fast in the tree and could not free himself, could not wholly escape the great calamity of the past universe's destruction. When he first arrived here he was in a weakened state, and that is why our junior brother finished him in three strokes. " Yet for all his words, his admiration for Shen Mu was boundless.

Even so, this mighty one of the past universe — even a Heavenly Venerable, struck three times in succession by Shen Mu's ambush, would surely have been gravely wounded! Such was the power of a divine ability that had entered the Dao!

Especially since Shen Mu had planted the world tree within his own divine treasury, and with his techniques and divine abilities unified into one, his cultivation had advanced by leaps and bounds; against the Shen Mu of this moment, a single misstep would cost even a Heavenly Venerable dearly.

Just then, violent tremors came again. The two were startled, and hurried aloft, making straight for another mining district. Granny Zhu, Lan Yutian, and the rest had only now caught up to this place, and at the sight they hurried after them. When the company came to that vein, they found it in utter ruin, dreadful afterwash of divine abilities everywhere.

Joining forces, they entered the depths of the mining district, and there they saw yet another corpse of a mighty one of the past universe!

This mighty one was in a sorrier state than the hunchbacked god-devil before.

He had been hewn into eight pieces by some strange divine weapon, and his primordial spirit had been reduced to a state of pure energy!

That energy state was the state of Tai Shi, but exceedingly unstable; no doubt when this man met Shen Mu's surprise attack he had forced his power to surge, so that his primordial spirit burst on the spot, and thus the place had been left in such ruin. "Our junior brother used the hunchbacked god-devil's divine weapon to kill him," said Wei Suifeng, startled.

"But the fatal blow was still 'Tai Shi, Form and Substance, Questions the Azure Void'!

" The power of that stroke was far greater than the one that had slain the hunchbacked god-devil!

Suddenly, violent shaking came again from afar. The company hurried aloft from the mining district and sped toward it; but when they arrived, Shen Mu had already gone, leaving only a vast subterranean space in the mining district, and a headless corpse with a severed arm.

The head of that being of the past universe had been reduced to chaos qi; on the root behind him there showed a deep imprint of a pushing hand, and beneath his feet there floated up a great Taiji design! "He is not far!

" Again they heard violent shaking, and hurried on; but again they came too late, finding only the corpse of a prehistoric mighty one. "At this rate, even a man of iron would wear down to mud!

And besides, a man will slip sometime — and if he slips, there is no recovery!

" An unease crept over them.

One mining district after another they plunged through, yet always they were a step behind Shen Mu; he had gone before them, clearing district after district, dragging the mighty ones of the past universe out of the roots by main force and beating them to death.

The sky slowly paled. They had spent the night in running and toil, and at last, when the sun rose, they saw Shen Mu.

Shen Mu was sitting before a cliff on the summit of one of the Great Black Mountains. Below the cliff lay heaped the heavy treasures of prehistoric beings of every kind, their radiance surging skyward, vying with the morning sun!

He sat there looking somewhat weary, yet his face was calm; there was none of the loss of composure they had supposed would come of towering rage — on the contrary, he seemed deeply contained.

His gaze was profound, and his voice, though touched with fatigue, was full and strong, as he said to the company hurrying up, "I have put you all to worry.

I mean to take some materials for refining a divine weapon. Now there should be enough to forge my divine sword.

"