The girl Tai Yi praised him spontaneously, "Heavenly Lord Mu, though you are not as clever as Xu Shenghua and Lan Yutian, nor as high in comprehension, nor necessarily stronger in Dao heart, and not as handsome either... yet you are a true man! Lan Yutian is a sage, Xu Shenghua is a god among men, and you are a true man."

Though Shen Mu did not know which of the three, sage, god among men, or true man, was the greater, he supposed she was praising him, and so he accepted the praise with an open mind and went off carrying the little bucket.

He returned beneath the World Tree and took the other World Tree he had felled into his God Treasury, planting it as before in the ancestral court.

The crowd beneath the tree were stricken with terror, and only when they saw he had not come to cut down trees did they set their hearts at ease.

Shen Mu steadied himself, then unfolded his God Treasury domain. He saw the severed tree standing in the God Treasury's ancestral court, its branches and leaves withered, without the slightest breath of life.

He carefully sprinkled water at the foot of its roots. Not far off, in the Taishi mineral vein, the Taishi egg stood steady upon the vein's altar. The great egg slowly turned half a circle, and Taishi's voice issued forth: "This tree is already dead. You cannot revive it... What is that? Give me a taste!"

The great egg hopped down from the altar and bounced over beneath the tree, where Shen Mu was sprinkling water. The Taishi egg tilted itself sidelong, as though it could see his movements, and asked curiously, "With no roots, it cannot absorb nutrients. You cannot revive this tree. Why not let me taste the water in your bucket..."

Shen Mu said coldly, "A tree without roots cannot absorb water. And you have no mouth, so you cannot absorb water either."

The Taishi egg laughed, "Though I have no mouth, I can absorb the power of the mineral vein."

"So it is with this tree as well."

Shen Mu watered it earnestly, "Had it grown into a great tree, perhaps it could not be revived, but this tree is still a sapling. Having obtained nutrients, it may yet put out roots and tendrils."

The Taishi egg pressed close to the bucket. Shen Mu pushed the great egg aside; after a moment it pressed close again, and again Shen Mu pushed it aside.

"Fine, if you will not give it, then do not!"

The Taishi egg bounced away, returning as before to its mineral vein, settling securely upon the altar: "This tree has no roots and cannot absorb the water. I control the power of the mineral vein, so the water you sprinkle will surely all end up absorbed by me!"

Shen Mu turned a deaf ear. The Taishi egg, controlling the Taishi mineral vein, strove to steal the Dao dew Shen Mu sprinkled. Just then the great egg grew restless, and with a whoosh it leaped from the altar, bounding into midair, not daring to come down again. It cried, "Something is stealing the power from my mineral vein! Strange, most strange!"

That mineral vein was one Shen Mu had fashioned in imitation of the ancestral court's Taishi mineral vein. The Taishi god stones and Taishi primal stones he had obtained were all planted in that vein, for the ancient god Taishi within the egg to absorb.

At this moment, shadows beneath the vein writhed slowly, growing without cease, stealing the power of the vein. One by one the Taishi god stones in the vein gradually lost their strength, their light growing dimmer and dimmer.

Crack!

A god stone suddenly split apart, then shattered across the ground. The Taishi egg shrieked again and again, hovering in the air, not daring to descend.

Crack, crack, crack!

One after another the god stones lost all their energy and crumbled away, and even the Taishi primal stones now grew dimmer and dimmer.

The Taishi egg was on the verge of tears. It cried, "Heavenly Lord Mu, what is that water of yours? You have raised this tree into a demon! Stop it at once!"

At the same time, the god stones Shen Mu had buried in the other mineral veins were also splitting and shattering, clearly their power too being absorbed by the World Tree!

That the World Tree, nourished by the Dao dew, had grown roots and tendrils ought originally to have been a good thing, but it was seizing the power of the four great mineral veins, which could not but make Shen Mu hesitate.

The four great mineral veins were those he had established upon comprehending the four primordial great Daos of Taiji, Taishi, Taisu, and Taichu. Because his comprehension was incomplete, he needed to borrow the power of the god stones.

If the four great mineral veins were drained dry by the World Tree, would that not be a loss outweighing the gain?

Just then, he suddenly felt his own power draining away at flying speed, and could not help but be seized with fright!

Beyond seizing the power of the four great mineral veins, this World Tree had begun to absorb his own power as well!

Whatever the Dao, the World Tree rejected none of it, plundering and swallowing it all!

Within his God Treasury, Xuandu shrank without cease. Xuandu, and the stars and constellations of the heavens, the various Daos, all began to surge into the World Tree. Xuandu's starry sky swiftly contracted, as if a whale were swallowing a rainbow; countless stars, starry fields, and starry rivers poured into the tree!

Nor was that all: Yuandu, Youdu, the Four Pole Heavens, all were shrinking, all collapsing into the tree!

Even the Myriad Worlds were swallowed one after another by the World Tree!

Shen Mu had forged the ancient gods of the heavens with his own great Dao, nearly two thousand ancient gods, and now even these were swallowed one by one by the World Tree, with no chance to escape!

Shen Mu was aghast. He hastily withdrew his God Treasury domain and strode off toward the girl Tai Yi, who was still mending Black Mountain.

Now only Tai Yi could save him. She need only swing her great axe and sever this World Tree that was wreaking havoc in his God Treasury, and he would not be devoured by it!

Yet in the very instant he moved his feet, his mortal body grew thin at a speed visible to the naked eye.

By his second step, Shen Mu had become skin and bones.

By his third step, he had lost all moisture and dropped straight down from the air, planting himself upon the ground, motionless, like a dried corpse.

Hua Xuanxiu was the first to notice Shen Mu falling from the sky. She cried out in astonishment, "The old Hierarch cut down the tree and heavenly retribution has descended upon him!"