Chapter 755 — Waves and Sword-Light Like a Coiling Dragon

The Jade Pool was like a sea. To the ancient gods, whose bodies were vast beyond measure, it was no more than a pond; but to humankind it was as boundless as the ocean. In truth the Jade Pool had another name, and that name was the Jade Sea. In its waters divine turtles bore sacred mountains and holy peaks upon their backs, swimming at their ease, and great lotuses bloomed, their petals like mountain ridges, a riot of color, brilliant purples and vivid reds. Upon entering the Jade Pool, one of the divine-powered did not feel that the pool was too vast; rather, he felt that he himself had shrunk countless times over. Ahead, Heavenly Lord Hao had already halted. This place lay far from the Jade Pool Cottage and the Jade Pool Treasure Isle, and all around, demigods came walking, while others flew through the sky, hiding within the clouds. Still others hid beneath the sea; Shen Mu walked upon the water's surface and saw the bodies of colossal beasts swimming lightly and briskly below him, their scales the very same color as the blue-green waves. "Heavenly Lord Yu, is it truly you?" Heavenly Lord Hao watched him come near, then suddenly sighed, his manner bleak: "Strange as it is to say, I actually wish you were truly him. But I also know you cannot be him. You are dead; you cannot come back to life. Under those circumstances, how could you possibly have survived? And yet here you stand before me, alive and whole, and that perplexes me beyond all measure." A look of bewilderment crossed his face: "I killed you with my own hands. I scattered your soul and shattered your spirit, and yet you came back to life. How did you do it?" In the sky, an ancient god with great ears was eavesdropping on every stir and sound of the Jade Pool. Hearing Heavenly Lord Hao's words, he suddenly shuddered and turned to go. At the same moment, beneath the Jade Pool, another ancient god, with a single eye in the center of his brow, paled greatly, burrowed up out of the earth, and rose into the air. The two ancient gods met; they exchanged a glance, their faces strange. They were none other than the two generals Celestial Hearing and Terrestrial Sight, sent down by the Heavenly Emperor to investigate this case. "Should this be reported to His Majesty?" Celestial Hearing asked. Terrestrial Sight shook his head and said in a muffled voice, "Are you not afraid to die? If we tell His Majesty, we both die." Celestial Hearing frowned, his two great ears curling up, and said in a low voice: "His Majesty commanded us to investigate this case, and the assassination of Heavenly Lord Yu is no small matter. He is a Heavenly Lord after all, the first of the Heavenly Lords, and the one for whom all the ancient gods offered prayers and blessings. His death, I fear, will stir up great chaos in time to come." Terrestrial Sight had but one eye in his brow; now he closed it and shook his head: "And even if we told His Majesty, what then? His Majesty would let it drop. Heavenly Lord Hao is bound up with too many; his mother's divine power is vast as well. If His Majesty moved against Heavenly Lord Hao, the chaos would only be greater. And then His Majesty would simply seal our mouths, silencing us forever." Celestial Hearing was at a loss. "Then what are we to do?" "See nothing; hear nothing." The ancient god Terrestrial Sight said, "I am a blind old man, you are a deaf old man. That will preserve our lives." The ancient god Celestial Hearing nodded. "It can be no other way. Only, Heavenly Lord Yu will have died for nothing. And Heavenly Lord Mu, who transformed into Heavenly Lord Yu, who passed on the dharma in his stead and avenged him in his stead, I fear he too will die for nothing. A pity, a pity — two Heavenly Lords on the road to their ends..." The ancient god Terrestrial Sight sighed. "When he took out Heavenly Lord Yu's bones, I was startled. When he changed into Heavenly Lord Yu's likeness, I was startled again. I do not know what he means to do, but when I heard him pass on the dharma in Heavenly Lord Yu's stead, I felt a certain admiration for him." The ancient god Celestial Hearing hesitated. "Then how shall we account for him?" The ancient god Terrestrial Sight also hesitated. "Hear nothing, see nothing. Play deaf and blind. We never saw him, and we know nothing of his transformation into Heavenly Lord Yu." "Exactly. Whatever happened here, we know nothing of it at all." Their council concluded, the two ancient gods immediately rose and departed. Above the sea, demigod after demigod roamed the air and wandered over the water, sealing off the place. Around Heavenly Lord Hao stood demigods as well, ringing him in protection. "Heavenly Lord Yu, are you determined to tear all pretense away?" Heavenly Lord Hao sighed and smiled. "You know what I am, where I come from. You cannot touch me. You have suffered a loss, but you must swallow it." "Heavenly Lord Yu, withdraw." Before him, a demigod with tiger whiskers and dragon scales swayed, revealing a half-human, half-divine form, and said mildly: "You have been somewhat worsted, but you are not dead. You are a genius; you ought to be able to see clearly what the situation is now." "Indeed." Another demigod likewise took half-human, half-divine form and laughed: "When you died in the Winding Corridor Pavilion, you should have understood that you cannot contend with Heavenly Lord Hao. Do you not remember why you could never escape the Winding Corridor Pavilion? Do you not remember who sealed it with his magic power?" Yet another demigod took half-human, half-divine form and laughed: "You may be a genius of the human race, honored as a Heavenly Lord, blessed by the ancient gods, but in the end you are only human. It was that being who had us seal the Winding Corridor Pavilion, so that heaven would not answer you and earth would not respond." Another demigod stepped forward, smiling: "Humans are frail by nature. Even if you have cultivated the Heavenly Palace, you cannot be a match for a demigod. Break the taboo by force, and you will only die here a second time! And this time, you will never come back to life!" Heavenly Lord Hao, his face all smiles, said, "Heavenly Lord Yu..." Shen Mu had not spoken for a long while. Suddenly he cut him off: "Should you not call me father and elder brother?" Heavenly Lord Hao roared with laughter. "Call you father and brother? Are you worthy? Do you know who my father is? Who my brother is..." Boom! Shen Mu took a single step; the sea's surface burst apart. Heavenly Lord Hao was startled, and suddenly all before his eyes went dark. "So fast!" He was surrounded by demigods, followers he had chosen with the greatest care; every one of them was exceedingly powerful, and some were even stronger than he. He too was a demigod, of a nobler bloodline than the rest, and once he came into his growth his strength would far surpass theirs. But he was still only young, while the demigods who followed him were older and stronger. Yet with that single step, Shen Mu's shape came before him like a ghost or a demon, leaving the other demigods no time to react. The darkness before his eyes was not the sky abruptly dimming: it was Shen Mu's fist blotting out his entire field of vision. Heavenly Lord Hao's face contorted. Shen Mu's fist smashed into it; he heard the sound of his own nose bridge breaking, heard his brow ridge split, and in the next instant heard the crisp crack of his own ribs giving way. That was the first rib. Then the second, and the third. Even as Shen Mu's fist landed on his face, his knee had already slammed heavily into his ribs. The two forces erupted at once. Heavenly Lord Hao flew backward, and still he could see nothing at all. Crack. He bounced high, struck the water's surface, bounced again, and fell again. "You dare!" Only then did the demigods react. The tiger-whiskered, dragon-scaled demigod roared in fury; the divine blood in his body boiled, his divine power climbing rung by rung as though about t