Chapter 1521 — The Tall, Gaunt Stranger

The Hundred Thousand Holy Mountains. Night.

Shen Mu stood at the crown of the World Tree, unhurriedly catching the dao-dew that slid down from Tai Yi's Dao Tree.

The half-year term was nearly at hand. All these days he had done this same monotonous thing over and over; monotonous as it was, every time he gathered the dao-dew to patch the riven Black Mountains, he felt anew the burden and the duty laid upon Tai Yi's shoulders.

He had only done it for half a year, day in and day out without fail. Tai Yi had done it here for billions of years.

Suddenly, far away in the Great Luo Heaven within the Ultimate Void, the branches of Tai Yi's Dao Tree swayed and clattered, and who knew how many drops of dao-dew came tumbling down in a flurry all at once.

Shen Mu's heart gave a jolt. He hastily drove his divine art to gather every drop of dao-dew into the bucket, but Tai Yi's Dao Tree cast too wide a canopy; a few drops still fell, landing upon the World Tree and drawn in by its leaves and branches.

His heart sank. A few drops of dao-dew missing looked like nothing much, but the consequences would be no small matter.

To patch the Great Black Mountain with dao-dew, missing even a single drop would leave an immense hidden peril behind. Who could say whether it might not give the powerhouses of the previous cosmic era their chance, the chance to crawl into this universe?

"This is bad."

Cold sweat sprang out on his forehead, but he steadied himself. Even with a few drops lacking, it would likely take days for a being of the previous cosmic era to crawl through. He need only hold out until Tai Yi arrived.

Only...

"Tai Yi's Dao Tree stands in the Ultimate Void. Why would it sway for no reason at all?" He frowned faintly, unease stirring dimly in his heart.

By day, Shen Mu sought out the several Black Mountains that had been shattered by the quaking and mended them with care. Sure enough, when he came to the last mountain, because a few drops of dao-dew were missing, that Black Mountain did not close up completely.

Upon its cliff face ran a fissure two zhang six or seven in length, its depths unfathomable.

Shen Mu stood beneath the cliff and carefully surveyed his surroundings, set his markers, noted the exact position of the Black Mountain, and then summoned Xu Shenghua. "For the next two days I must remain here on watch. Brother Xu, take the iron bucket up to the crown of the World Tree and gather the dao-dew. The dao-dew is the key to mending the holy mountains. Not one drop can be spared."

He had confidence in Xu Shenghua's diligence. Anyone else would likely eat as he caught, and lick the dao-dew clean.

Xu Shenghua glanced at the fissure and asked, "Can you hold this place alone?"

Shen Mu smiled faintly, radiating immense confidence. "The strongest being in Jingping is me. This time, by planting the World Tree alive within my divine treasury, my cultivation and strength have risen another level. I am still no match for the Ten Heavenly Venerables, but against the Four-Colored Great Emperors I should be no worse. If I cannot hold him off, then no one in Jingping could. Besides, in a few days the prehistoric being cannot bore his way out. When Tai Yi returns, I can hand him over to Tai Yi to deal with. Two days remain of the half-year term; I need only hold this spot for two days."

Xu Shenghua departed with the iron bucket.

Shen Mu sat down, laid the divine bow at his side, and quietly awaited the fall of night.

Deep into the night the earth shook and the mountains swayed. Outside the Ancestral Court the scene was once again that of an apocalypse, while within it the peaks trembled. The Black Mountain before Shen Mu trembled too; from deep inside its body came a rumbling roar, and the mountain gave off a crack-crack-crack, like the sound of wood being split.

The fissure stretched to either side, longer and longer, wider and wider. Divine light seeped out from within it; standing before the cliff, one would say a huge eye had grown upon the rock face.

In the fissure the divine light hung thick and hazy like an enormous eyeball; the eyeball rolled with a gurgle, and then its pupil fixed straight upon Shen Mu.

The sight was as though a monster of unimaginable vastness lay hidden within the mountain's body, peering out at Shen Mu with its eye.

Suddenly, within the great eye of light in the fissure, a human figure was walking outward.

Shen Mu's brows lifted. The divine bow lay right beside him, yet he forced himself to hold back and did not strike.

The man had not yet come over from the other universe; to attack him now would be the same as spending his own power to open a passage for him.

The figure in the eye walked for a long while and never managed to step out of the fissure in the cliff. When sunrise came, the figure dissolved, leaving only the cloven Great Black Mountain.

Shen Mu let out a long breath. Before long Xu Shenghua came carrying the bucket. "Does this mountain need mending?"

Shen Mu shook his head. "Mend this mountain, and there will not be enough dao-dew left to mend the others. We need only hold out one more day; then Tai Yi will return, and even if the man in the mountain walks out, he will not be able to stir up much of a storm."

Xu Shenghua frowned slightly and looked at the crack in the cliff. It already measured a hundred zhang or so.

Deep within the fissure was a human-shaped imprint, as though it had grown into one body with the Black Mountain.

Faintly uneasy, Xu Shenghua left with the bucket.

Night fell, and Shen Mu kept his watch before the fissure. The crack-crack-crack burst endlessly from within, the great eye of divine light in the mountain's body grew larger still, the fissure wider; the figure in the eye was taller than before, clearer, as if at any moment he might step out from the mountain wall.

In the small hours the divine light shot from the mountain wall lit six or seven nearby peaks, revealing every hair and thread of them; Shen Mu's shadow too was stretched very long.

And that enormous eyeball in the mountain wall seemed as vast as the whole Black Mountain, wedged in the center between its two cloven halves.

The body of the man in the eye was thin and tall, like the upright pupil of that eyeball.

His features were now clear to see. His face bore many stripes, like natural grain; his eye was like the strange eye in the mountain, save that he had only one.

That eye was fixed on Shen Mu now, and it had not blinked once.

He must be walking through a ruined universe, every step unspeakably hard. His flesh was like smoke, limbs ever shattering, ever gathering again like smoke.

Walking through a ruined universe, he might be ground away to nothing at any moment, yet he brimmed with hope, the hope of life.

He had never been able to cross the World Tree into the future universe. And now, at last, he could enter that future world.

Shen Mu's hand clenched the divine bow, poised to strike, nerves drawn taut, spirit drawn taut, the Mystic Body Three-Cores Art driven to its utmost.

The sky brightened by degrees, but the one-eyed, gaunt, tall stranger in the mountain never managed to emerge from the Black Mountain. The sun rose, the strange eye in the mountain vanished, and the gaunt tall stranger vanished with it.

Shen Mu let out a long, long breath. His whole body was drenched in cold sweat, yet he smiled. "It is over at last. Today, Tai Yi should return..."

Just then a Vermilion Bird beat its wings and came to him as a flash of fire, taking the form of the Southern Emperor's soul. "Little brother, Emperor Yunluo and the big-headed youth have come back."

Great joy surged in Shen Mu's heart. He rose and said, "They could not have come at a better time. Those two rascals have been gone so long; who knows what they have been up to."

He went to meet Wei Suifeng and Shu Jun, and saw that the two of them wore grave faces and hurried looks, flying in fast, thoroughly travel-worn.