The White Earth Ancient God had sensed the moment the Glazed Azure Heaven Banner touched down. He opened his eyes at once, and the sinews of the four-armed white ape suddenly crackled and popped. Its muscles surged into towering knots, its body swelling several times larger than it had been only moments before, and it continued to expand without end! Yet when Shen Mu bowed, the Glazed Azure Heaven Banner began to swell with a frenzy of its own. Its twenty-eight layers of canopies transformed into tier upon tier of heavens, spreading outward without cease! The entire ancestral land of the White Earth Ancient God was instantly split apart by the twenty-eight heavens. The gods and demons surrounding him were lifted helplessly into the air, each falling into a different layer of heaven, while the altar beneath the White Earth Ancient God was swept up by the First Heaven and sent far away, leaving him separated from it by an immeasurable distance! The instant Shen Mu straightened from his bow, he shot forward. The twenty-eight heavens of the Glazed Azure Heaven Banner shifted out of alignment, and in the next moment sent him directly before the White Earth Ancient God. The Glazed Azure Heaven Banner moved entirely according to his will. This treasure was known as the greatest treasure beneath Heaven, yet in Shen Mu's eyes, Northern Emperor Xuanwu's art of refining treasures was hardly accomplished at all; indeed, it could even be called crude. He had merely piled treasures together, forcibly assembling them into this object. The result was rough beyond compare, almost painful to behold. And yet the treasure was worthy of its reputation as the greatest treasure beneath Heaven, because Northern Emperor Xuanwu had piled together far too many treasures, and with the wish-granting Ancient God Egg besides, there was no divine weapon in all the world that could rival it. The White Earth Ancient God's body was still swelling, but he now stood twenty-seven layers of heavenly worlds away from his ancestral land, each world separated from the next by an immeasurable distance! At once he felt his strength ebbing away, and a terror unlike any he had ever known surged through his heart. "Northern Emperor Xuanwu's supreme treasure, the Glazed Azure Heaven Banner!" His mind was thrown into turmoil. The Glazed Azure Heaven Banner had even been hailed by the Ancient God Heavenly Emperor as the greatest treasure beneath Heaven, possessing unfathomable might. Naturally, he knew of it. "Was this treasure not lost six hundred thousand years ago? Why has it appeared now?" Though his mind was in disarray, the White Earth Ancient God made his decision without hesitation. He immediately stopped expanding and began contracting instead. If he continued enlarging his body without the support of his ancestral land, he would become nothing more than huge and hollow, outwardly formidable but inwardly weak. If he reduced his body, however, his strength would become concentrated. After a million years of painstakingly studying his own Great Dao, he was certain that he feared no one! But in the next moment, Shen Mu appeared before him, still hurtling forward. Shen Mu drew his sword. The blade flashed, and sword radiance filled the heavens! This was precisely the instant when the White Earth Ancient God's body had stopped expanding but had not yet begun to contract, when his strength had fallen to its absolute nadir. Even so, he remained calm in the face of danger. Ancient gods entered the Dao by birth, grasping the Great Dao by birth, possessing advantages no other postnatal life-form, not even a demigod, could match. Though ancient gods could not set foot in other fields, so long as they delved deeply into their own Great Dao, he believed that with his innate advantage and his comprehension of his own Dao, he could surpass every other postnatal life-form and demigod! Within his own Dao, he was an invincible king! Yet he saw Shen Mu's sword radiance, and Shen Mu's sword was aimed precisely at the weakness of his Great Dao. No Great Dao could be called perfect, least of all the Great Daos of the ancient gods, because every ancient god had once been summoned by the Heavenly Emperor and made to have the Dao Ancestor map out the runes of their Great Daos. Even Heaven Duke and Earth Mother had had the runes of their Great Daos mapped out by the Dao Ancestor. The White Earth Ancient God was naturally no exception. The moment he saw Shen Mu's sword radiance, he knew that Shen Mu's sword technique and divine ability had come specifically for his weakness. He had no time to ponder. He raised a hand and met the blow head-on. Dao radiance burst from his palm, his Great Dao boomed, and he was convinced that in terms of magical power he could crush his opponent and shatter Shen Mu's sword technique and divine ability. His other three arms rose as well, each hand forming a different seal. One seal would annihilate the physical body, one would suppress the soul, and one would destroy everything Shen Mu possessed! These three seals were his supreme achievements, ultimate arts born from a million years of painstakingly comprehending his own Great Dao. His first hand had already met Shen Mu's sword radiance. So long as he blocked Shen Mu's sword and shattered the divine weapon in his grasp, his second, third, and fourth attacks could descend upon Shen Mu in one overwhelming rush and reduce him to dust! Then he saw Shen Mu's sword pass between the five fingers of his palm as though it had encountered no resistance whatsoever. He watched his thumb fly into the air, while half the palm, together with the other four fingers, parted from his hand. Accompanying the dazzling sword radiance was Shen Mu himself. He saw Shen Mu's face clearly, and that face filled him with dread. "Celestial Worthy Mu..." The muscles of the White Earth Ancient God's face began to tremble violently. That terrifying existence who had slaughtered the Five Luminaries Ancient Gods in the immemorial age had returned! The White Earth Ancient God had known little of Celestial Worthy Mu, but after Shen Mu slew the Five Luminaries Ancient Gods, the name had reached his ears and burned itself into the depths of his mind, surfacing from time to time like a nightmare to fill him with terror. He had heard of Celestial Worthy Mu long ago, but the man had then vanished for six hundred thousand years. It was only ten years ago that the name appeared again. Only then did he learn that Celestial Worthy Mu was merely a young man who had crossed into the Dragon Han Age by a stroke of luck, using Mu Qing's face, and that his strength was nothing remarkable. More importantly, Celestial Worthy Mu no longer possessed his former reputation for ferocity. Among the ancient gods, he had instead come to be known as the Master of Imperishable Tribulations. The rumor claimed that so long as the ancient gods protected Celestial Worthy Mu, they could survive every tribulation and remain imperishable through ten thousand calamities. The title Master of Imperishable Tribulations meant a master of divine arts capable of making ancient gods imperishable through ten thousand calamities; it did not mean that Shen Mu himself was imperishable. The ancient gods had rejoiced, believing that they could return to the Dragon Han Age, or even to the Primordial Age when the ancient gods had ruled the world. The White Earth Ancient God had heard the rumor as well, and he had rejoiced for a long while. Though he was dependent on the Celestial Court and on Western White Emperor, preserving the old customs of blood offerings and blood sacrifices, he was ultimately not free and could no longer act with the wanton abandon of former times. If this Celestial Worthy Mu, who had once slaughtered ancient gods with such monstrous cruelty, could truly become a great benefactor capable of making the ancient gods imperishable through ten thousand calamities, that would surely be a good thing. Be