Chapter 1220 — Recasting the Secret Treasury

The Yulin soldiers had been turned into bodies of energy; all within them was energy and no flesh, and this was the most convenient moment to remake his divine bridge and divine treasury. So Shen Mu set to work at once.

Yet it was likewise a thing of extreme peril, for to remake another's divine treasury was a labor Shen Mu had never once attempted.

Judging by his earlier experiments in converting the mass-energy of phoenix feathers and dragon scales, the odds of failure were exceedingly high!

In those earlier failures he had lost only phoenix feathers or dragon scales; a failure now would cost the Yulin soldier his life!

And yet Shen Mu believed he was utterly sure of success.

To remake a heavenly palace for another he had no confidence at all, for heavenly palaces carry differing attributes, and differing cultivation arts make heavenly palace attributes no less different.

But the Heavenly River divine treasury he was among the earliest to found. Perhaps he had not begun as early as Xu Shenghua, but he had tried and erred scores of times in order to open the Heavenly River divine treasury, and of the seventh divine treasury of the human body his understanding ran deeper than any man's!

Of remaking the Yulin soldier's seventh divine treasury, he was greatly confident. Wei Suifeng was frantic with worry, yet dared not disturb him, watching as he remade the Yulin soldier's fleshly body, his primordial spirit, even his soul, little by little. Before long, by the Way of the evolution of the two qi of yin and yang and with the power of the Taiji origin stone, Shen Mu had actually remade the man whole!

Shen Mu breathed out in relief; the others too were glad at heart and greatly heartened.

"Junior brother, the next Yulin soldier must on no account have his divine treasury remade! " Wei Suifeng said suddenly.

Shen Mu was astonished: "Senior brother, when the Yulin soldiers return to the future they certainly cannot go back to the Heavenly Court; they can only merge into Jingping. The cultivation arts they practice are too ancient, and to open a heavenly palace is extremely difficult besides.

Not everyone can open one.

" He laughed: "A divine-power user who can destroy his divine bridge and divine treasury and open the Heavenly River divine treasury is one in ten thousand!

If I seize this chance to remake their seventh divine treasury, their future achievements will know no bound! " Wei Suifeng shook his head: "Junior brother, these soldiers under my command are not merely one in ten thousand; one in a hundred million would be understating it. In the Longhan era, when the Nine Heavenly Venerables established the realms of divine treasury and heavenly palace, divine treasury and heavenly palace were opened by each one's own effort, and seldom inherited.

Especially the Ten Guards of the Heavenly Court: every one of them opened his divine treasury and heavenly palace by his own ability. To remake their seventh divine treasury is very perilous for you, but once they reach Jingping they can destroy their divine bridges and open the Heavenly River.

" Shen Mu's eyes blazed, fixed upon the fifty thousand Yulin soldiers. Over several hundred thousand years, the Longhan Heavenly Court had chosen out the Ten Guards of the Heavenly Court, each one the cream of the elite; every Yulin soldier's cultivation was of the highest, nearly all of them at the Jade Capital realm! And these fellows had opened their divine treasuries and heavenly palaces by their own ability; such talent, set down in Jingping, could likely not be matched by fifty thousand of its like! What manner of monsters, what manner of heaven-defying host was this? Of course, the Jingping reforms had run for too few years; true, geniuses of every kind were now springing up, but the time was short, the foundations thin, and nothing could yet be judged.

"Senior brother, can you guarantee that every Yulin soldier is loyal to you?

" Shen Mu asked quietly. Wei Suifeng said mildly: "Once I could not have guaranteed it, but after they were assimilated by the ghost ship, I am certain they will no longer be loyal to the Heavenly Emperor.

And I was assimilated along with them and stayed at their side; in their hearts, I am their leader. " Shen Mu smiled, and went on converting the Yulin soldiers one by one, from energy back into fleshly bodies.

The more he did it, the more skilled he became, and soon he had restored a hundred or more Yulin soldiers.

Shen Mu looked toward Wei Suifeng, who understood and stepped forward. Though Feng Qiuyun and Long Bowang were docile enough for now, they had not necessarily submitted in earnest; only with powerhouses such as Wei Suifeng and the Yulin soldiers to overawe them could they be kept from any rash move.

Wei Suifeng was too strong; restoring him was far harder than restoring the others, and Shen Mu spent heart and strength before he barely brought him back from that state of energy.

"Junior brother, you should restore yourself first now; your condition is very unstable, and if you keep draining yourself this way without cultivating to replenish your vital essence, sooner or later your cultivation will be spent," Wei Suifeng said. Shen Mu nodded. An energy body was indeed most perilous; the slightest slip and it would burst, and to stir the Taiji origin stone likewise consumed the energy within his body.

If he could not cultivate, he might well drain his own energy to the dregs and be unable to revive.

He rested a while, then set about restoring himself.

The Taiji origin stone was stirred, and suddenly Shen Mu's heart was moved, his thoughts coming alive: "If our eldest senior brother does not want me to remake his comrades, then I can remake myself! " His eyes blazed, and at the sight Wei Suifeng could not help but fear that the boy's two eyeballs would abruptly explode and, with a bang, blow the top off his skull. "Junior brother, do try to stir up a little less trouble.

" Wei Suifeng said, with weight and earnestness: "Others I do not worry about; you alone I fear will court death, muddling and meddling as you please. " Shen Mu laughed: "Rest easy, senior brother, I know my limits.

" "Like hell you do! " Wei Suifeng, beside himself with rage, cried: "When have you ever known your limits?

Not only do you torment others to death, you torment yourself to death as well!

Just honestly restore yourself, and stop your meddling and muddling! " Shen Mu nodded again and again, musing inwardly: "My cultivation system differs from others'. I have only the one great realm, the Yuantai divine treasury, and the seven realms of heavenly palace and heavenly court are merely lesser realms within it.

In terms of realm, there is little room left for me to remake.

And the Dao realm system Kaihuang founded requires one's own enlightenment; it cannot be cultivated through mass-energy conversion either. What I can remake now, first of all, is the Yuantai divine treasury.

" His eyes blazed again, and Wei Suifeng's heart leaped with fright. "When I opened my Yuantai divine treasury, my understanding of the Way of the evolution of yin and yang was shallow, and so it has great deficiencies.

This time, as I reshape my fleshly body and primordial spirit, I can try to fuse my insights into the Yuantai divine treasury.

And beyond that, the Way of Taisu!

" Shen Mu thought: "Taisu is the beginning of substance.

Possessed of form and of substance, having form yet not yet become a body.

Therefore it can change into ten thousand things. But my understanding of the Way of Taisu is still shallow.

. . What if I could fuse the fluid of the Taisu divine egg into myself? " He shook his head at once, and his eyes dimmed. Wei Suifeng breathed out, a little reassured.

"The Taisu egg fluid can be catalyzed only by the Taisu divine stone; if I force a fusion, I fear I too would become a puddle of egg fluid for someone to eat.