Chapter 1200 — The Heavenly God's Illusory Dream

She saw another dream, and in it there were hundreds of herselves and hundreds of Shen Mus, all of them studying the Yin Son of Heaven's divine abilities, discussing with one another, verifying one another's insights. Di Yiyue looked elsewhere, and saw other dreams still: another her was chatting and laughing with the Yin Son of Heaven, discussing how to perfect the Heavenly Gate of the Nether Capital, how to fuse the cultivation arts of the four great Imperial Thrones into that Gate, and how to use the Way of Reincarnation to unify the four schools of Imperial Throne arts.

These were re-enactments of scenes from her own memory! She also saw many Shen Mus and many of herselves there, recording their conversations, deducing the arts and divine abilities they spoke of, noting everything down in the minutest detail, without a single omission. Even if Di Yiyue herself were to recall these things, she could never have done so with such clarity!

Di Yiyue turned her head toward other directions and saw dreams great and small; those dreams recorded every last drop of the time she had spent with the Yin Son of Heaven, some of them memories beyond compare, others that made her feel pain.

There were scenes of her falling in love; scenes of the Yin Son of Heaven attacking Fengdu; and scenes of her friends urging her to leave the Yin Son of Heaven. In every dream there was a Di Yiyue and a Yin Son of Heaven, and all manner of details she had never noticed before came floating up to the surface.

At last Di Yiyue's gaze came to rest upon the final dream, and it was the scene of her bowing through the marriage rite with the Yin Son of Heaven.

Shen Mu noticed it too, and said with a frown: "Sister, I used the Supreme Divine Consciousness to guide you into turning your memories into dreams; I never expected to dredge this memory up as well. Sister, let me extinguish this dream.

.

.

" "No need.

" Di Yiyue shook her head, her eyes fixed upon that dream, and said: "When he killed me, he used his true skill. It will be of great use in breaking his reincarnation divine ability.

" Shen Mu was stunned for a moment, and could only let her be.

Di Yiyue stared at it in a daze. The first half of the memory was her most beautiful recollection, engraved upon her bones and heart; the latter half was the memory that pained her most, no less engraved upon her bones and heart.

"I have studied the Buddhist dharma as well; I once took the Great Brahma Heavenly King Buddha as my master.

" Di Yiyue seemed to wake from that painful recollection, and, as though nothing at all had happened, smiled at Shen Mu: "I told the Old Buddha that I wished to learn his Imperial Throne Sutra. The Old Buddha told me, 'You are too clever; you will never learn it.

' This art is one that only fools can master; the cleverer you are, the less able you are to learn it.

" Shen Mu's face darkened, and he said sullenly: "I never learned it either. The Old Buddha simply stuffed it into my head; I do not grasp the principles, I only know how to use it. " Di Yiyue laughed: "I begged the Old Buddha to transmit it to me.

He transmitted it, and sure enough I never learned it. After that I gave up the notion and left the Buddhist Realm.

Only later did I understand that it is not that only fools can master it, but that the cleverness the Immeasurable Kalpa Sutra requires is not the cleverness we ordinarily speak of. Even so, I still could not comprehend it. " They talked and laughed together, and Di Yiyue felt all manner of information pouring into her mind from the dreams, one after another, with extraordinary swiftness; it was the fruit of the joint study of countless Shen Mus and Di Yiyues across a thousand dreams.

Shen Mu's Immeasurable Kalpa Sutra was no longer a simple Immeasurable Kalpa Sutra, but a new and wondrous divine ability born of its union with the Supreme Divine Consciousness. Di Yiyue had seen the Old Buddha employ the Immeasurable Kalpa Sutra, entering the Dao through dreams; but that was the Old Buddha transforming within his dreams into life after life, walking in countless different guises through the various heavens and the various worlds, tasting the affairs of the world and tempering himself in the dust of mortals.

When the dream of Great Brahma Heaven woke, the different lives, the different circumstances and experiences returned to his mind, making his wisdom the more penetrating, the more flawless and rounded as a pearl.

The Old Buddha needed no deduction, no calculation; what he sought was a great awakening of the mind. He could not do what Shen Mu did.

Shen Mu entered the Dao through dreams, and that demanded tremendous powers of calculation, of deduction, of trial and error. Were the Old Buddha to learn it, he would no longer be able to enter the Dao through dreams, no longer be able to undergo immeasurable kalpas.

This was the difference between him and Shen Mu.

This dream felt very long to Di Yiyue; who knew how many years passed before countless versions of her and Shen Mu, pooling their wisdom, at last unraveled the Way of Reincarnation hidden within the Heavenly Gate of the Nether Capital.

As the dream shattered, the various insights returned to each of their minds, and the two closed their eyes, savoring and sorting through them for a long while. When Di Yiyue opened her eyes, she found herself still standing beneath the Heavenly Gate of the Nether Capital, while Shen Mu had departed, she knew not when.

She saw the divine being Chi Xiu standing not far off and beckoned to him; Chi Xiu came over and said: "Heavenly King, the Heavenly Venerable Mu bade me stay behind to tell you that he has gone on ahead, and has been gone for half a day.

" Di Yiyue asked: "Did he leave any words? " Chi Xiu the divine being said: "He said that if you remain in Fengdu, sister, you will never be able to take revenge.

If you want revenge, you must walk out.

" Di Yiyue pondered for a moment, then her face broke into a smile: "I understand.

I will go and see the Heavenly King Shakra. That Other Shore Ark of the Yuan Realm, only he can repair it.

" Shen Mu left Fengdu and returned to the Heavenly Yin Realm.

Lady Tianyin had waited a long time for him; seeing him emerge, she was overjoyed beyond measure, and waved, laughing: "Come here, quickly.

I will show you my arts and divine abilities; you are certain to be delighted! " Shen Mu stepped forward, and saw that Lady Tianyin had at some point mixed Heavenly Yin Gold with mud and molded little dolls, male and female, each one standing upon the ground.

Lady Tianyin looked mysterious and secretive, and laughed: "I had originally meant to use flowers and grasses to enlighten them.

But this place of mine is the home of the black sand of souls; flowers and grasses are hard to keep alive here, so I could only mold clay figures. " She unleashed her divine ability, her eyes shining with excitement, and as the power descended, every one of the little clay dolls opened its mouth and yawned, and at once possessed three souls and seven spirits, becoming living beings!

Shen Mu was astonished beyond measure; such a skill he had never seen before! His own soul, it was true, had been created by himself, but the method he followed was that of the heaven-born ancient gods: by opening the heavens and splitting the earth within the Primal Embryo Divine Treasury, the ancient gods were derived, and thus he brought his own soul into being.

That was different from Lady Tianyin's means; Lady Tianyin directly bestowed soul upon soulless dead things, turning them into living beings! "Do not move!

" Seeing the clay figures trying to stir, Lady Tianyin hastily waved her hands: "Do not move! Your bodies are molded from clay; if you move, your bodies will crumble, and you will die!

" Shen Mu raised his right hand and drew a single light stroke with his finger.