Chapter 1505: When Two Powers Meet

Wei Suifeng and the others did not know what had befallen them inside Pixiang Hall, but Shen Mu was grinding his teeth, and plainly he had come off badly. Shen Mu gave them the bearings of Jade Capital, and while he examined the Lame Old Man's wounds he said, "You two go on ahead. Carry Pixiang Hall into Jade Capital, and the moment the seals on it are triggered, leave at once. Whatever you do, do not linger." "Rest easy. I've been to that place before. I never reached the deepest parts, but I know a fair bit about how it is laid out." Shujun said swiftly, "With me leading the way, nothing should go wrong." Wei Suifeng put Pixiang Hall away and departed with him at speed. Shen Mu brought out medicinal ingredients and refined pills, which he fed to the Lame Old Man. The old man's breath was weak and flagging; carrying Shen Mu on his back through the seals of Pixiang Hall had damaged his life and injured his very source, and only after Shen Mu's treatment did he improve somewhat. But to return to the peak of his condition would take a long stretch of nursing. Shen Mu refined more pills, sorted them by kind, handed them to Granny Zhu, and told her when each was to be given to the Lame Old Man. Granny Zhu was startled—then she saw Shen Mu take out the Azure Heaven Banner of Lapis Lazuli and hand it to Yan'er, and summon forth from the vertical eye in his brow the souls of the Emperor of the South, Emperor Ming, and the others, entrusting them to the care of Lan Yutian and Xu Shenghua. Granny Zhu was badly frightened. She hastily pulled Shen Mu aside and said, sick with worry, "Mu, don't frighten me like this. Did you take some incurable wound inside that hall?" Shen Mu shook his head. "I fell into a trap. Granny, for the next few days I must remain in dream, using the Buddha's teachings to fend off the assault of the Primordial Sage of Mira Palace. You must all guard me. If you see every one of me within the dream reciting sutras..." He hesitated, then took out a divine bow and handed it to Granny Zhu, and said through clenched teeth, "Then shoot my primal spirit dead!" Granny Zhu's face changed utterly, and she flung the bow aside. Shen Mu said hastily, "Even if my primal spirit is shot dead, I won't die. I can reconstitute my soul again; at worst I lose my primal spirit's cultivation and begin anew. But if that Primordial Sage of Mira Palace borrows my strength and comes out of Pixiang Hall, I fear even the Ten Heavenly Venerables joining hands could not deal with him! Granny, when the time comes, you must shoot my primal spirit. Do not hesitate!" Granny Zhu's expression was complicated. Silently she picked the bow up and handed it to the Blind Old Man. He took it, brooded a while, then shook his head. "I can't do it." He wanted to pass the bow to the Mute Craftsman, but he too shook his head. "I cannot raise my hand against a child I raised myself..." "Then I will do it." Granny Zhu snatched the bow back, drew a long breath, and said, in a voice like cut iron, "I was the one who picked Mu up back then. It's better that I do it with my own hand. My heart is hard!" She panted a few harsh breaths; plainly her heart was nothing like as hard as she claimed. Shen Mu said to Lan Yutian, "Whether to merge with your own remnant soul is a decision you must make for yourself. No one else can make it for you." Lan Yutian hesitated, then nodded. Yan'er had taken away the soul of the Vermilion Bird, the Emperor of the South. Mother and daughter were reunited at last, and naturally they had a great deal to say to one another. Only Emperor Ming's soul drifted over this unfamiliar land, somewhat at a loss. "Where is this? Didn't I die?" He looked up at the heavens and down at the earth; this world was so utterly strange to him. He did not even know how long he had been dead, nor why he had come to this place. "Don't leave this place!" A little girl blocked his way and looked up at him, her voice clear and sweet. "This is the Hundred Thousand Sacred Mountains, where Youdu casts no shadow. You are a ghost; if you leave here, Lord Tu will drag you down to Youdu! You were locked up in Pixiang Hall, so you must have done plenty of wicked things while you were alive, weren't you? Lord Tu will whip your backside raw!" Emperor Ming did not know whether to laugh or cry. He halted and asked, "Who are you, and why do you bar my way?" "My name is Hua Xuanxiu, and this is Wenyuan, my senior brother." The girl pulled over a handsome youth and said with a laugh, "He is the young sect master of our Heavenly Sage Sect. After a few years of trials, he may inherit the seat of sect master. Of course, the old sect master is still alive, and by our sect's rules the young sect master had best do away with the old one, so that he may take the seat with a proper name. I fear Wenyuan will never get the chance—our old sect master is hale and hearty..." Patriarch Wenyuan said helplessly, "That was a vile custom handed down because the sect masters of past generations misunderstood Patriarch Wei's teachings. Now that Patriarch Wei has returned, that rule is gone. Emperor Ming, you have no body now and exist as a ghost; it would be best for you to stay here. When the sect master wakes, he will find the fragments of your former body and remold a body for you, bringing you back to life." Seeing how bright and charming the two of them were, Emperor Ming could not help feeling fond of them. "I am nothing now but a lone ghost and a wild spirit, with nothing to my name. Why don't I teach you two, brother and sister, my own secret arts as repayment..." Hua Xuanxiu and Wenyuan exchanged a glance, then together tipped back their heads and asked, "Is it the Flawless Creation Profound Art?" Emperor Ming was stunned for a moment, then nodded, full of misgiving. "Even children know of my Flawless Creation Profound Art? What era is this? Has my untaught secret become as common as cabbages?" "We have both practiced it already." Patriarch Wenyuan thought it over and said, "That's right—when the sect master spoke of you before, he said the reason you were killed was that your Flawless Creation Profound Art could never reach the primal spirit, so your primal spirit could not transform along with your body into three heads and six arms. Since you cannot leave now anyway, we will teach you the Red Emperor's Immortal Consciousness of the Three Primal Spirits." Emperor Ming's eyes went wide. His mind was a muddle, and as if possessed he nodded—then suddenly came to his senses and asked, "Little friends, what era is this?" "Yankang!" Hua Xuanxiu and Patriarch Wenyuan said in one voice. Lan Yutian, meanwhile, was gazing at another self: that was Heavenly Venerable Yu, and the Heavenly Venerable Yu of this moment was a mass of remnant soul bearing his memories from a million years ago. Whether to merge with his own remnant soul and become Heavenly Venerable Yu made him hesitate. Heavenly Venerable Yu was looking at him as well. The two youths looked almost exactly alike—though of course Lan Yutian was a little plumper; with Yan'er around, it was hard for him to stay thin. His face still held a boyish innocence, while Heavenly Venerable Yu seemed far more mature—save that his form was illusory, with no fleshly body, and his soul was gravely incomplete. Lan Yutian gazed at this former self, bewildered. Though their souls were the same, and he himself was the consciousness born of that body, he still felt that he was not Heavenly Venerable Yu. Heavenly Venerable Yu seemed to read his confusion. He smiled gently and said, "Will you tell me of your experiences these years?" Lan Yutian hesitated, then nodded. Man and remnant soul sat together at the edge of a cliff, and Lan Yutian slowly recounted all that had befallen him over the years. From his rebirth, stripped of every memory, to Heavenly Venerable You carrying him back to Youdu, then sending him out of Youdu and entrusting him to Shen Mu; then Shen Mu taking him traveli