Chapter 1429 — Primordial Qi, Roaming the Dao Together

Langxuan Divine Emperor waited a while, but Shen Mu said nothing of what he had seen. In the end Langxuan Divine Emperor could not hold back, and asked, "What did you see?

" Shen Mu smiled faintly and said, "I saw that beneath your Yao Pool lies a great thing that takes the Yao Pool's vitality for its own use. Even with the eight dragon veins now upon its surface, it will be destroyed again in the future. If you wish the Yao Pool restored to its full glory, I will show you how to find that great thing. Only, the Yao Pool's yield must be shared with me, one-tenth.

" A ripple passed through Langxuan Divine Emperor's divine consciousness, and between his brows it became a vertical eye. He looked down into the earth and sneered, "One-tenth for you? If I find that great thing myself and deal with it, would it not be better to give you nothing at all? Mu Tianzun, you are too greedy. You extorted Gong Tianzun, then you extorted Yan Tianfei, and now you have come to extort me!

Do you mean to extort all ten Tianzuns, one after another? You think far too little of the Ten Tianzuns!

" Shen Mu was astonished: the matter of his dealings with Gong Tianzun and Yan Tianfei, trading for the output of their mining districts, had actually reached Langxuan Divine Emperor's ears. It seemed that among the forces under Gong Tianzun and Yan Tianfei there were eyes of Langxuan Divine Emperor, watching every move the two Tianzuns made.

Still, among the Ten Tianzuns this was likely no secret.

The Ten Tianzuns were all wary of one another, and so they liked to plant spies and informants beneath the other Tianzuns' banners; this was one of the reasons they were able to cooperate, and so none of them exposed the others. Langxuan Divine Emperor searched for a time, and his expression gradually grew grave.

His divine-consciousness eye was matchless in power, yet he searched the depths of the earth and did not see the great thing Shen Mu had spoken of; he could not find even a trace!

This was truly terrifying! A cold bead of sweat rose on his forehead.

He soared up and continued his search along the eight jade-like mountain ranges.

Shen Mu paid it no mind and set off for the Yao Terrace.

Langxuan Divine Emperor's divine-consciousness eye could likely pierce through thirty-five layers of the void; apart from Grand Luo Heaven in the ultimate void, no secret could hide from it. His sage pupil could well be called the Void-Piercing Eye, the Eye of Insight. Divine consciousness entered every crevice; Langxuan could see into the deepest depths beneath the Ancestral Court, and could see treasures hidden within space itself.

Yet his sagely Void-Piercing Eye of Insight was still no match for Shen Mu's vertical eye.

Shen Mu's vertical eye had been empowered by the Lord of Heaven and the Lord of Earth, and with the strength of the sage pupil itself, plus the Taiji Primordial Stone and the Taiyi Eggshell, calling it first under heaven was no exaggeration. Though Shen Mu could not yet unleash the full might of this sage pupil, by the power inherent in it alone he could see through all things and perceive all things.

The sweat on Langxuan Divine Emperor's forehead grew thicker. He searched all eight ore veins and still could not find where that so-called great thing was hidden.

"Restoring the Yao Pool to its former glory matters more. Once that great thing is trapped and dealt with, the Yao Pool will be a great pool that can gather Hongmeng Yuan Liquid; beyond that it has little use.

That being so, sharing one-tenth of the Hongmeng Yuan Liquid with Mu Tianzun is not unacceptable. .

. " He looked toward Shen Mu and saw that Shen Mu was at that moment climbing the Yao Terrace, sensing the Great Dao contained within the Yao Pool, and so he did not go forward to disturb him. The Yao Terrace had become exceedingly sacred, like a holy altar for sacrifice to heaven and earth and the cosmos.

As Shen Mu walked upon it, he seemed a sacrificant presiding over the great rite of heaven and earth, and also a seeker of the Dao, every step steady, his bearing devout. Langxuan Divine Emperor also stepped up onto the terrace.

He was like an emperor, his mighty aura unfurling, invulnerable to all arts, untouched by all Daos. Shen Mu carefully felt the baptism of the Yao Pool's Great Dao as he climbed, listening to the sound of the Dao. Though Langxuan too could hear the sound of the Dao, his feelings and insights were far fewer than Shen Mu's.

He was too strong, not merely in cultivation and power, but his mindset was too strong as well, too domineering; he set himself too high.

Shen Mu climbed the first level of the Yao Terrace. Unlike the four Heavenly Gates and the Nine Hells Terrace, both the four Heavenly Gates and the Nine Hells Terrace tempered the heart of the Dao, and both were exceedingly perilous; if one could not pass, it likely meant death!

But the Yao Pool nourished the heart of the Dao; there was no trial or tempering, and instead it nurtured the heart of the Dao and let it grow. A wondrous melody came to his ears, as though the Great Dao were whispering at his ear.

He felt the Great Dao as water, as a mother's body, as the truth, goodness and beauty of the world. He felt too that the Great Dao was like the earth, bearing all things and rearing all things, broadening a man's heart. The highest good is like water; water benefits all things and does not contend.

The earth's disposition is Kun; the noble man carries all things with generous virtue.

He stood upon the terrace and gazed far across the Yao Pool. Its former glory was gone, yet standing here it seemed he could see the jade-green waves of the Yao Pool rippling, nourishing every living thing, the waves like dragon scales.

He turned to look back.

Yuanmu, who had become the Earth Mother Yuanjun, was now nowhere to be seen, leaving only a vast sinkhole; yet he seemed to see Yuanmu lush and verdant, sheltering the Creator forebears in the primeval age.

The Earth Mother carries all things with generous virtue; the Yao Pool is the highest good, like water.

He sensed the thirty-six Great Daos of earthly virtue, and the twenty-four Daos of the highest good. After a long while, Shen Mu stepped forward.

The Yao Pool was a place of sacrifice for the Creator forebears of the primeval age, where they sacrificed to heaven and earth, to the cosmos and the primal wilds. The people of that time were ignorant and unenlightened, not knowing whence their own strength came, nor that they could use the Yao Terrace to nourish their hearts of the Dao.

They possessed only a simple heart.

Coming here, they felt their minds grow calm, as though they could touch heaven and earth, could join with the Yao Sea.

They revered the land that reared them and all living things, revered the Yao Sea that nourished them and all things. Here they sacrificed to heaven and earth and the cosmos, and commemorated their forefathers. In this moment, Shen Mu too seemed to become one of the Creators of the primeval age of ignorance, sacrificing to heaven and earth, sensing the breath of the Great Dao here with a devout bearing.

He walked and paused, and the time he took grew longer and longer. Langxuan Divine Emperor soon overtook him and came to the eighth level of the Yao Terrace.

Looking up at heaven and earth and down at the parched seabed, his heart was filled with a thousand feelings.

By the time Shen Mu arrived here, a month had passed.

Sensing his arrival, Langxuan Divine Emperor raised a hand and pointed to the parched seabed, to the rivers and mountains across the sea, spirited and elated, and laughed loud, "This land is so magnificent. Mu Tianzun, what man would not wish to possess such territory?

This is one of my aspirations in becoming a Tianzun. I will certainly become the sovereign of the entire cosmos, and make the vast lands, the heavens and all worlds, the countless star domains, bow at my feet!