Chapter 1385 — South of the Ancestral Court's Heavenly Gate

Upon the altar, all who heard these words unleashed their divine consciousness, and the power of their summoned divine abilities erupted. A blinding radiance shot straight into the heavens, and then they vanished from the Ancestral Court.

Their consciousness was linked to Shen Mu's, and together with that dazzling light they arrived in another world.

The reverse side of the Ancestral Court.

In that world, all things were immeasurably vast, the mountains lush and the waters clear, brimming with a vitality far exceeding that of the Ancestral Court's front face.

Only a few years past, the front face of the Ancestral Court had been as desolate as a barren waste, until the Ten Heavenly Venerables each carved out their own domains within it and the Void Beasts were brought under the Dragon Qilin's control—only then did vegetation begin to grow.

After the Earth Mother Yuanjun came to the Ancestral Court, her power caused its plants to grow with astonishing speed, and only then did the Ancestral Court gradually gain a little green.

Yet compared to the reverse side, it was still vastly inferior.

The front face of the Ancestral Court had been gnawed too clean by the Void Beasts. Countless rare herbs and precious trees native to the Ancestral Court had been driven to extinction by them. Only perilous places the Void Beasts could not enter—such as the Five Great Mineral Veins and the Great Black Wood—still preserved some incomparably precious spirit medicines and forests.

But the reverse side of the Ancestral Court had never suffered the Void Beasts' ravages!

As the consciousness of the others followed Shen Mu across the magnificent rivers and mountains of the Ancestral Court's reverse side, they saw no end of spirit medicines erupting with terrifying spiritual power.

There was a great flower taller than a man, of unknowable age, its blossom chamber deep, and from within that chamber a fountain of spiritual power gushed outward—the spirit medicine had accumulated too much energy and was forced to release the excess from its body!

This spirit medicine's age must surely be frighteningly ancient!

Then they saw a sea of spirit medicines like a vast ocean, tens of thousands of them erupting spiritual fountains in unison—a spectacle of incomparable grandeur!

Such a scene could truly be called magnificent beyond compare!

The consciousness of the others grew unsteady, deeply shaken by this sight. Such a spectacle existed nowhere among the myriad heavens and worlds, and even in the Ancestral Court it had never been seen!

The reverse side of the Ancestral Court held such a profusion of spirit medicines, in such numbers, as could be found nowhere since ancient times!

"If an alchemist were to see this, would he not go mad?" Grandmother Zhu murmured.

At that moment, Shen Mu's consciousness carried theirs in swift flight, incomparably fast. Shen Mu had taken out an object Shu Jun once wore, and by means of this personal article he sought Shu Jun's soul.

This was another usage of the Soul-Pulling Guide.

He had said that the wonder of employing divine abilities lies wholly in the mind, and these were no idle boasts—in his hands, divine abilities were wielded with such ingenious and astonishing variations that onlookers were left dumbstruck.

The consciousness of the others swept howling across the skies above the Ancestral Court's reverse side, as though stirring up a great wind, following the trail of Shu Jun's soul.

Their consciousness then beheld an even more startling sight: ahead, great luminous pearls, each like a moon drifting in the air, every one roughly a hundred li in size, dazzling in brilliance.

And beneath those luminous pearls lay a beach, and upon that beach, enormous sea clams gaped open their shells.

These were another kind of primordial beast.

As the consciousness of Shen Mu and the others flew past, the sea wind they stirred alarmed these clams. The luminous pearls in the air fell one after another into the shells, and the clams snapped shut with a clap, spouting jets of seawater and burrowing deep into the beach.

Those luminous pearls were treasures within the bodies of these giant beasts.

As their consciousness flew over the mountains and rivers of the Ancestral Court's reverse side, they also witnessed giant beasts battling among the peaks, a scene of world-shattering destruction. Those were adult giants, having lived on the reverse side for countless tens of thousands of years, their bodies tempered to incomparable strength, colliding like two Martial Emperors clashing with pure brute physical force, battering the heavens and splitting the earth!

And on the reverse side of the Ancestral Court, giants possessing such battle prowess were not few!

Suddenly, Shen Mu's consciousness halted, bringing the consciousness of the others to an abrupt stop as well.

The others wondered, then noticed why Shen Mu had stopped so suddenly.

They had actually seen a primordial deity born upon the reverse side of the Ancestral Court!

It was an Ancestral Court dragon vein undergoing transformation!

That mountain range lay prone like a coiled dragon, stretching for tens of thousands of li. Its age was too great; spiritual power had coursed through the mountain body, and unknowingly the range had been nourished by spiritual energy and power until flesh and blood were born within it.

Its body was overgrown with all manner of spirit medicines, and year after year nourished by their medicinal power, gestated by the heavenly Dao of the Ancestral Court's reverse side, it had unknowingly developed spiritual intelligence as well.

Today was the very day of its transformation, the day it would become a primordial deity!

The others watched as stone transmuted into flesh and blood, as the mountain's roots, buried deep in the earth, became dragon claws. The claws lifted, shaking the earth and mountains, and the dragon body slowly arched upward.

This ancient dragon deity was about to take form!

"The reverse side of the Ancestral Court is truly a land of treasures at every turn!"

The others watched with dazzled eyes and shaken spirits, praising without end. It was their first time witnessing the birth of an ancient deity born of heaven and earth, and their horizons were vastly broadened.

Just then, suddenly, dozens of adult primordial giants came charging forth and actually struck at that transforming ancient dragon deity. In but a brief moment, they smashed the divine dragon formed from the Ancestral Court's dragon vein to pieces!

These primordial giants must have been kings among giants, their strength immense—killing that ancient dragon deity was as easy as lifting a finger.

The others were stunned. Then a powerful divine consciousness from one of the primordial giants discovered them. With a roar, Shen Mu knew at once that things were dire, and with decisive judgment he urged his consciousness into distant flight.

Behind them, dozens of beast kings came howling in pursuit, but fortunately Shen Mu's consciousness was also incomparably powerful, and he soon left them far behind.

"This reverse side of the Ancestral Court is somewhat strange. Why would these giants kill the ancient deities born upon the reverse side?"

Shen Mu had just thought this when he suddenly halted his consciousness. The consciousness of the others swept forward, and there before them stood a majestic Heavenly Gate!

They were two incomparably colossal primordial mountains, wholly crimson, wreathed in flames, the flames spontaneously forming all manner of mysterious patterns that shifted without cease.

The mountains were magnificent and towering, like the two doorposts of a gateway, appearing before them.

Each of the two mountains had one side that bulged in an arc, growing ever steeper and more precipitous toward the summit, until at the peak a lone crag stabbed straight into the clouds!