Chapter 974 — The Supreme Beyond the Clouds

Shu Jun's two eyes lifted their lids one after the other, and studying him, marveled that Shen Mu should be modest for once. Slowly and deliberately he said, "If you walk out a new road, one wholly different from the Heavenly Palace, then it means you have cast aside entirely the wisdom of the divine-power wielders of these million years, cast aside the experience accumulated by others. The tens of thousands of arts and tens of thousands of divine powers of this million years would all be wholly useless to you. You would amount to carving out a brand-new civilization by the strength of one man alone. "

In Shen Mu's heart, such a thought did indeed exist.

In his view, though the Heavenly Palace system had not yet evolved into the perfect Heavenly Court, it was by no means unchangeable.

He truly wished to abandon the Heavenly Palace cultivation system altogether and pioneer an entirely new system of cultivation.

"But have you thought about how long it would take?

" Shu Jun said.

"It might take you a million years to perfect the new road you have carved out, before this cultivation system could mature. And perhaps you would be the only one on that road, so a million years would be a short time. Yet if you accept the Heavenly Palace system, perhaps you need only several thousand years, or even several hundred, to reach the summit and become the mightiest existence under heaven. This is the counsel of my experience; but the road lies beneath your feet, and how you walk it is yours to choose. "

Shen Mu fell silent, bowed low to Shu Jun upon the altar in gratitude, and dissolved into a wisp of divine consciousness that drifted away.

Shu Jun was perplexed: "Why has this boy become so reverent toward me?

"

Upon the Tai Emperor's altar, Shen Mu raised his head and gazed upward.

Above the altar the Tai Emperor's Seal hung suspended, borrowing the Tai Emperor's power to withstand the ever-strengthening domain of the Supreme Divine Consciousness. Yue Tingge and Luo Wushuang turned to look back; the star-ring upon the cliff had returned to its normal speed of rotation, and was not accelerating, so they let out a long breath of relief.

The altar flew through the air, drawing near the space between the Tai Emperor's brows upon his physical body, and drawing ever closer to the Fire Heavenly Venerable. Yet Shen Mu only kept gazing up at the Tai Emperor's Seal, staring blankly, lost in thought, and though Yue Tingge and Luo Wushuang found it strange, they did not press him with questions.

Suddenly two clear streams of tears slid from the corners of Shen Mu's eyes.

Yue Tingge and Luo Wushuang were both startled, not knowing why this Mu Heavenly Venerable should have so suddenly turned sentimental.

Shen Mu withdrew his gaze, and a desolation surged up in his heart, and he could not help but weep. He had made his decision: not to explore an unknown road, not to explore where that road led, not to explore the wonders at that road's end.

He had once dimly glimpsed that the road possessed endless beauty, yet now he could only forsake it.

He would reopen the Heavenly Palace, and by means of the wisdom of the people of these million years walk onward through the realms of Venerable God, True God, Jade Terrace, Jade Capital, and beyond. Perhaps he could wait a million years, spend a million years perfecting his own road, become an eternal legend, and transcend the realm of the Heavenly Court.

Yet Jing Ping could not wait; the Jing Ping Reform could not wait; his friends, his fellow travelers on the path, they could not wait.

He might miss countless beautiful vistas upon that road, might never see the end of the great path, might miss the origin of the path and the beginning of the path at the great path's end—but he could seize the present, cherish what lay before his eyes.

He set it all down, and that something in his heart gradually shed away as well, turning into a wisp of melancholy that lingered and would not disperse. This melancholy was not the sorrow deep within his soul, but rather a grief that seemed to come from the end of the great path.

The Tai Emperor's altar drifted quietly past the Fire Heavenly Venerable, sailing toward the Tai Emperor's brow.

Luo Wushuang glanced back at the Fire Heavenly Venerable, fallen behind them, and could not resist saying, "Shen the Tyrant Body, you are avoiding the Fire Heavenly Venerable. Should we not rescue the Fire Heavenly Venerable first?

" Yue Tingge had noticed this too: Shen Mu clearly intended to skirt around the Fire Heavenly Venerable, who was struggling onward, and reach the Tai Emperor's brow ahead of him.

Shen Mu laughed.

"Rest easy, the Fire Heavenly Venerable won't die.

Isn't that right, Fire Heavenly Venerable? "

The Fire Heavenly Venerable's body was frozen in place, the runes of the great path all around him still gradually changing, and he turned a deaf ear to their words.

"He has no objection," Shen Mu said. Luo Wushuang's eye twitched twice, and he looked back at the Fire Heavenly Venerable.

Shen Mu consoled him: "Rest easy, rest easy.

It was hard for the Fire Heavenly Venerable to get in, but getting out is easy—he need only turn himself around, and in a few hundred years he can leave this place.

"

Luo Wushuang was exasperated: "Could it be that the Mu Heavenly Venerable fears that after saving the Fire Heavenly Venerable, he will return kindness with enmity and kill you?

"

Shen Mu said calmly, "Whether he kills me, I cannot say for certain.

But he will certainly kill Yue Tingge, the Yue Heavenly Master. Isn't that right, Yue Heavenly Master?

"

Yue Tingge sighed, listless and dispirited.

"I lured him and the Xu Heavenly Venerable to this place, and got him trapped in the Supreme Divine Consciousness domain for so long. He will most likely make a move against me.

"

The altar drifted unsteadily into the space between the Tai Emperor's brows. Within the Tai Emperor's brow there was no Primordial Stone of the Great Beginning, only a diamond-shaped wound remaining.

This place was enormous, exceedingly vast; from within the Tai Emperor's brain gushed a captivating radiance, like colored clouds, in streaks and bands beyond number.

The Tai Emperor's altar flew into layer upon layer of cloud-glow, and the Tai Emperor's Seal ceaselessly drew in the cloud-glow; the cloud-glow surged over like the tide, and dimly, amidst the layered cloud-glow, a figure could be seen sitting.

Yue Tingge and Luo Wushuang were filled with doubt, and looked toward Shen Mu. Shen Mu suppressed the surge of emotion in his heart, drew a long breath, and said in a low voice, "Yue Heavenly Master, Luo Divine Blade, can the two of you move a Heavenly Venerable's physical body?

"

The two were greatly shaken, and looked in disbelief at the figure seated motionless within the radiance.

The Tai Emperor's altar finally came to the side of the one within the cloud-glow. Luo Wushuang scrutinized the man in the radiance: his bearing was graceful and elegant, his features fair and handsome, his temperament transcendent and unearthly, like a middle-aged emperor, yet most comely.

Only, Luo Wushuang did not recognize him, and thought to himself: "Could this be some Supreme Emperor?

But from what Shen the Tyrant Body means, he should be a Heavenly Venerable. Which Heavenly Venerable, then, died here? "

Yue Tingge was greatly shaken, and said in a low voice, "He is the Yun Heavenly Venerable… "

Hearing this, Luo Wushuang's mind roared, and he cried out involuntarily, "He is the pioneer of the Divine Bridge and the Divine Treasury, the Yun Heavenly Venerable? "

Shen Mu urged them: "You two, my magic power cannot move his body.

Best that you do it.

"

The Tai Emperor's altar floated before the Yun Heavenly Venerable's body, and Shen Mu said softly, "Fellow Daoist Yun, we are going home.

"