The Eye of Lord Tu glowed with a faint, ghostly light. Within it, Yu Tianzun finished the last half of the chicken and made to toss away the bones, only to find the holy hall spotless in every corner, without a speck of clutter, and nowhere to throw them. He hesitated a moment, glanced about and saw no one in the hall—neither the karmic-fire Lord Tu nor the old yin-courier was present—so he tossed the chicken bones into a corner nook by the wall and slipped out of the holy hall at a trot. Outside, the Lord Tu formed of karmic fire and the old yin-courier stood before the hall, gazing downward. Yu Tianzun looked down as well, but could see only a stretch of pitch blackness, nothing at all. "Have you written it all down?" Lord Tu asked, turning his head. The old yin-courier nodded. "I am writing it now," he said. Beyond the Eye of Lord Tu, little boats drifted, tens of thousands of them, each with an old yin-courier aboard; lanterns hung at the prows, and beneath those lanterns the old yin-couriers wrote furiously. "Mu Tianzun acts in Lord Tu's service—and still you record his faults?" the old yin-courier asked. Lord Tu's face was expressionless. "He acts in my service, yes, but devouring the souls of these gods and demons is a grave sin. It must be recorded." The old yin-courier's face showed dismay, and he sighed. "There are too many little ledgers about him already; the earlier rooms can hold no more. This time—why, it is not merely enough to make an ox sweat and fill a house to the rafters. I fear we shall have to build several great halls just to store his glorious achievements!" "Then build a whole palace complex," Lord Tu said, "devoted to storing his files." The old yin-courier assented. Before Jade Lock Pass in Youdu, Yan Qianzhong coughed again and again, his face shifting from pale to flushed. He looked at the surging tide of godly weapons ahead—those godly and demonic weapons belonged to the gods and demons under his command; the hundreds of thousands of gods and demons of a moment ago had been his subordinates. In the outer-realm Heavenly Court of the Shanghuang era, he had been the Crimson Emperor of the Southern Heavens, and these gods and demons had been his subordinates. He had fought Qi Xiayu of the Shanghuang Heavenly Court, been defeated and slain, and countless of his subordinates had died with him. After death these gods and demons had fallen into Youdu, and still they followed him. And now, they had been swallowed in a single gulp by that figure who walked forward treading countless white bones. The tide of godly weapons—each godly and demonic weapon gave off strands and bands of radiance that wove together in midair, and as they moved forward they pressed upon the sky until it gave out thunderous booms, boom, boom. Each godly weapon was vast as a mountain; divine light and demonic light shone in mutual brilliance, and in this moment they were strangely unified. Gods and demons clashed, and in a place like Youdu the demonic way overwhelmed the divine way, so that the power of godly weapons was hard to bring forth. Yet these godly weapons burst forth with terrifying power, untouched by the demonic qi and demonic nature of Youdu. Under the illumination of divine and demonic light, that figure walking forward on countless white bones inspired an incomparably intense sense of awe. It had three heads and six arms. One head was like a baby's, babbling and clapping its plump little hands, looking utterly elated; one head's gaze poured out a boundless, fanatic lust for battle, its hair bristling with rage at the slaughter to come, like a demon king who might at any moment leap up and kill, possessed by demonic nature! And the third head seemed exceedingly calm and holy, surveying its surroundings like a deity enthroned on high. Yan Qianzhong was somewhat suspicious. "He seems... different from the Divine Son of Youdu I saw before..." "Hold your positions!" From the camps on either side came roar after roar—the voices of the various commanders, restraining the gods and demons under them lest the ranks fall into disorder. Now that Yan Qianzhong's subordinates had been wiped out in an instant, a gap had opened; if Shen Mu charged straight at Yan Qianzhong, they could close in from both flanks and catch Shen Mu in the middle, forming a siege. Yan Qianzhong snorted coldly again, thoroughly displeased. "Seems I sent my troops out too early..." Just then, Shen Mu abruptly halted. On either side stood armies of gods and demons numbering in the hundreds of thousands, even millions, watching him trembling, their eyes full of dread. And beneath the central tents of each camp, figures at the Lingxiao and Imperial Throne realms sat or stood, cold and silent. Shen Mu's three heads swept a circle around him, and he smiled. He could feel wave after wave of savage power surging from his brother Shen Fengqing. Having just swallowed hundreds of thousands of god-and-demon souls in one gulp, the Big-Head Doll had digested so many gods and demons that the resulting surge in power made him unable to resist liking the feeling. Fortunately Shen Fengqing had kept the demonic nature of Youdu in check and not let it taint him; otherwise he truly could not have controlled himself, and would likely have swallowed every god and demon here in one go! Shen Fengqing never traced things to their roots; he could not understand—or rather could not be bothered to understand—the arts of the Dao and divine powers. If he could use them, he used them. But he was different. From childhood he had cultivated under the village headman, Granny Zhu, Old Man Huo, and others, and he had caught their habit of asking a question to the very bottom of the pot, of digging deep into things. If he ever turned to evil, he would be a hundred times more terrifying than Shen Fengqing! "You." He swept a circle around him, looking at the utterly panicked armies of gods and demons in the distance. Many as they were—a hundred-odd great camps, tens of thousands of god-and-demon souls and Youdu gods and demons—facing him alone, they trembled, unable even to grip their godly and demonic weapons. "You will not make way, and you will not flee—so do you mean to make me..." Shen Mu's two heads suddenly swelled, growing vast as Mount Sumeru, opening blood-pool maws each as wide as half the sky, and roared at the armies of gods and demons on either side: "Eat you?" His body was already towering and mighty; now his heads were a hundred times larger than his body—truly, the crowns of his skulls propped up the heavens and his chins rested on the earth, terrifying beyond measure. Shen Fengqing, a beat slow, hastily shook his head too, his great head even vaster than Shen Mu's two, baring claws and fangs: "Eat—" Three great roars raised a howling, surging yin wind that swept out in all directions; the sound waves struck the black walls of Jade Lock Pass, and the great black city hummed and rang under the impact. On the ground, sand flew and stones rolled; the black wind billowed out and poured into the battle lines and camps on every side. The surging yin wind was piercingly cold, and the tattered armor and godly and demonic weapons on one god and demon after another clattered and rattled, soon coated in a layer of frost. Before the lines, a one-eyed god-demon swallowed with difficulty—though he was a ghost-god, and had no spittle in his mouth. "Run!" A green-skinned ghost king with a blue face and tusked fangs suddenly took to his heels, leaving behind a trail of oily green ghost-fire. The other Youdu demon-gods and god-and-demon souls did not move. Suddenly there came a clatter—the armor on a four-armed god-demon was shattered by the sound waves and fell in pieces to the ground. In the battle lines, after the gale had passed, the sound was jarringly loud. That demon-god carefully planted his army's banner in the ground, bent to pick up his shattered armor, and accidentally brushed against the flagpole. The grea