Chapter 1406 — The Four Heavenly Gates

"Shrewd as Long Xiao is, his is not great wisdom but small cleverness.

We must guard against him. " Walking toward the Ancestral Court's South Heavenly Gate, Shen Mu thought, "He excels in consciousness and in bodily strength, but like the Creators of the Primordial Era, he cannot refine his soul. His soul is weak beside his body and his consciousness; should he break his word, then that day will be his death day. Lady Yuanmu, though — for the sake of the interests on the back of the Ancestral Court, she abruptly sent down an artifact Heavenly Venerable.

That I did not foresee.

" The descent of the artifact Heavenly Venerable upon the back of the Ancestral Court drew all nine Heavenly Venerables there, and yet to this day no battle had been joined. If Hao, Hong, Huo, Lang and the rest, the nine Heavenly Venerables, wished to destroy the artifact Heavenly Venerable, it would in truth be no difficult thing.

A single combined strike from the nine of them could not be withstood even by an existence such as the Heavenly Duke or the Earth Earl; it would surely kill.

Mighty as Lady Yuanmu's artifact Heavenly Venerable was, it too could not withstand it. The reason they had not struck was that they did not know who Lady Yuanmu was; moreover, Lady Yuanmu had only sent the artifact Heavenly Venerable down, without her true body appearing, and they also feared that once the artifact Heavenly Venerable was destroyed, Lady Yuanmu would go over to Kaihuang and the Heavenly Duke and the others, swelling the strength of their enemies. More crucially still, Lady Yuanmu had no fundamental conflict with them, and was no enemy with whom it was a matter of life or death.

That being so, why not share a little profit with Lady Yuanmu and buy themselves an ally?

Having passed through the Nine Hells Terrace, Shen Mu's dao heart grew ever more limpid, and his judgment of the world's affairs ever more lucid; in but a short time he had sorted out cause and effect, and even reckoned the shifts of the future.

The Nine Hells Terrace realm was indeed a wondrous thing; it let him cleanse his heart and see his nature, granting him a finer grasp of himself and of the world's affairs. "The Nine Hells Terrace realm will surely shine brilliantly among the gods in time to come, and become a realm of utmost importance!

Yet it will also be the realm with the highest death rate, I fear no less than the death rate of the God-Slaying Terrace realm, and perhaps even higher!

Then again. . .

" Shen Mu's expression turned strange. The Nine Hells Terrace realm ranked after the God-Slaying Terrace realm and before the Jade Capital realm; and he had already cultivated the Nine Hells Terrace realm, while his cultivation realm had only just arrived at the Jade Terrace realm.

So what realm was he in now?

"That can only mean that even the Heavenly Palace Dao Realm system is still imperfect, unable to set out my realm perfectly. And even a perfect Heavenly Palace Dao Realm system would be but one part of my realm.

If I carry the Heavenly Palace Dao Realm system to its very end, will there still be a road before me?

How should the road ahead be walked? " He halted, pondering in silence; after a moment he went on again, thinking, "The Heavenly Palace Dao Realm system is at present built upon the Ancestral Court and the innate Great Dao; beyond these, there is also the opening and developing of the acquired Dao. In the acquired Dao there is still much to be achieved. The Woodcutter Sage's Dao of the acquired, the road by which the acquired overcomes the innate, is likewise a road of immeasurable importance!

But the Ancestral Court is the key to the perfect union of the Dao Realm system and the Heavenly Palace system; no matter what, I must gain firm footing in the Ancestral Court.

" He came to the Ancestral Court's South Heavenly Gate, where Xu Shenghua, Lan Yutian, Wei Suifeng, Granny Zhu, Crown Prince Youming, the First Ancestor and the others were all surveying and measuring, intending to make a detailed chart of the South Heavenly Gate and the Dao fire within it. Xu Shenghua and the rest had entered the Dao fire of the South Heavenly Gate to chart the Dao patterns of the fire; the Dao fire acts upon the primal spirit, the vital qi, the consciousness and the Dao runes, and so long as one does not let one's primal spirit blossom forth, there is no danger.

Yet Shen Mu saw Shu Jun, Wei Suifeng, Granny Zhu, Crown Prince Youming, the First Ancestor and the others send their primal spirits out of their bodies all the same, tempering themselves in the Dao fire. When their primal spirits could bear no more, they at once returned to their bodies, evading the scorching of the Dao fire.

Shen Mu clicked his tongue in wonder; he had not expected them to escape the Dao fire's power by so simple a method.

Even so, the move was exceedingly dangerous, for the pressure of the South Heavenly Gate came not only from the Dao fire; the gate's own pressure was immense as well, and if the body had not been cultivated to the level of a true god, it would surely be crushed.

Of course, the bodies of these few were all exceedingly strong; Shu Jun's in particular had reached the level of the Emperor's Throne.

Shen Mu stepped forward. Seeing him come, Wei Suifeng at once sent his primal spirit out of his body and walked in the Dao fire, looking very pleased with himself.

Shen Mu smiled faintly and thought nothing of it.

If Wei Suifeng and the others could likewise pass safely through the South Heavenly Gate, he would be glad for them.

"But it will be hard," Shen Mu thought, smiling.

Shu Jun told him the positions of the other three Heavenly Gates.

Shen Mu asked Wei Suifeng for the Moon Heavenly Venerable's lantern, and carrying the lantern, he departed.

Of the other three Heavenly Gates, the North Heavenly Gate stood upon the back of the Ancestral Court, facing the South Heavenly Gate from afar.

The East Heavenly Gate and the West Heavenly Gate, meanwhile, stood upon the front of the Ancestral Court.

Two days later he came to the North Heavenly Gate, and saw all around him ice and snow, a bitter keening wind, dark clouds massed in the heavens, and thunder falling like rain, ceaselessly striking down into the North Heavenly Gate!

That gate was covered in bloodstains, and thunder rolled to and fro within it; in the primordial era a great battle must have been fought here, and many had died. Shen Mu entered the gate, set his own body down at its center, and only then sent his primal spirit out of his body to comprehend the principles hidden within the gate.

More than ten days later, he had comprehended the principles concealed in the North Heavenly Gate once through. The Great Dao hidden in the North Heavenly Gate was one he had seldom come into contact with before, and most profound.

Shen Mu spent several more days making his comprehension of its principles thorough, and only then left, returning to the front of the Ancestral Court.

He sought out the East Heavenly Gate.

The East Heavenly Gate was purple qi and a proud sun; the gate was exceedingly strange, for a purple sun revolved about the crown of the gate, and a strand of purple qi shot out from that sun and poured into the gate. At the center of the two great mountains that formed the gate, the purple qi took shape as a purple eye; when Shen Mu walked into the gate, chains of purple qi shot from that purple eye and pierced into his primal spirit.

Shen Mu lingered at this gate too for more than twenty days, and felt that his comprehension of the Dao realm had deepened, yet still he could not advance his Dao realm another step. He departed with the lantern, and came to the West Heavenly Gate.