Chapter 1521 — The Tall, Gaunt Stranger
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 4 of 5
Then Shen Mu's divine consciousness reached straight into their minds, becoming a voice that sounded in their heads. Swiftly he recounted what had happened and said in a heavy tone, "Tai Yi has fallen into the fourth prehistoric cosmic era. With him no longer guarding the Great Black Mountain, the first prehistoric being is about to break free. Tonight I will hold this place to the death. The rest of you take the people here and go. Do not linger."
Everyone's expression changed at once. Lan Yutian was about to fly to Shen Mu's side when Granny Zhu caught hold of him. "There is an order to all things. Moving the people of Jingping out of the Great Black Mountain is the true task. Do that first, then go to him."
Lan Yutian nodded in silence. One after another, the god-men of the Great Black Mountain became beams of divine light and flew off in all directions, heading for the settlements of Jingping scattered through the Black Mountains.
Before long a divine city rose into the sky, borne up by several dozen god-men and flown out beyond the holy ground of the Black Mountains. In the distance the Demon King Dutian took down the Bottle-Heaven World, turned it into the Bottle-Heaven Vase, and gathered those divine cities into the vase.
Seeing this, Shen Mu set his heart at ease. He rushed to the cloven Black Mountain; with a hum he unfurled the domain of the Primal Fetus Divine Treasury, took out Ling Tianzun's hairpin, and brandished it, pointing again and again, casting forth one art of immutability after another, laying the art of immutability upon himself and upon his divine treasury domain.
His figure flickered; before and behind the mountain he laid down all manner of great divine arts and all manner of seals.
The Blind Elder hurried over and laid seals together with him. Shen Mu raised his head to look at him, and his lips moved.
The Blind Elder laughed. "Shen-er, do you think I could stand by and watch you go to your death alone?"
Shen Mu said no more, and the two of them hastened their preparations.
They worked from daylight until the sun sank in the west, and only then had they set all the killing formations in place. The Blind Elder breathed out in relief, wiped the sweat from his brow, and laughed. "Back in the day, Kaihuang's Heavenly Master Yan Yunxi broke the new and old Earth Mother Primordial Sovereigns with her formations, and the whole world was stunned by that one battle. Heh heh. As Jingping's grandmaster of formations, I cannot be her inferior."
His heroic spirit soared.
Only then did Shen Mu notice that behind him stood a crowd.
Xu Shenghua, Lan Yutian, the Silent Artisan, the Lame Elder, Granny Zhu, Yan'er, and also Wei Suifeng, Shu Jun, the Crown Prince Youming, Emperor Ming, the Southern Emperor and others. Having moved the people of Jingping away, they had hurried here.
Shen Mu was moved, but his face abruptly darkened, and he said blandly, "All of you go. There is no need for you to stay here and distract me. Brother Xu, you stay on the World Tree. Do not let a single drop of dao-dew go missing."
The Lame Elder's brows went up and he sneered, "Is this Black Mountain yours? Your Uncle Lame comes when he pleases and goes when he pleases. Can you stop me?"
Shen Mu pointed a finger, and countless transmission runes wrapped about the Lame Elder and bore him off with a howl.
The Lame Elder roared again and again, trying to break free of the transmission art. He was the greatest shadow-thief in the world today; even Lan Yutian was a notch below him, and even a transmission art could not hold him.
Shen Mu flicked his fingers again and again. The Lame Elder had no sooner shaken off the transmission art than he plunged into a Guixu Abyss.
He pushed his speed to the limit, striving to escape before the Guixu art burst, but one Guixu nested within another, and soon they swallowed the Lame Elder whole.