Chapter 1548 — The Origin Qi of Hongmeng

In the third long river of chaos, Shen Mu sensed that his World Tree was growing again. What made this World Tree so strange was that it could draw chaos qi from the kalpa of destruction and strengthen itself.

Even without entering the Jade Capital realm, Shen Mu could feel his own mana swelling. It was not fast, but the improvement in his cultivation was undeniably real, and that was very strange indeed.

"The Jade Capital realm — is it a realm one must pass through?

" He could not help sinking into thought.

Once his cultivation had reached the Nine Hells Platform, any further advance required him to step into the Jade Capital realm. Only after entering the Jade Capital realm could he cultivate the Lingxiao and Imperial Throne realms, and from there march toward the Heavenly Court realm.

Unlike the traditional Heavenly Palace cultivation system, his path had three extra Heavenly Gates beyond the Four Heavenly Gates realm, as well as the Heavenly River realm and the Nine Hells Platform realm. Judged by the traditional Heavenly Palace cultivation system, he now stood roughly somewhere between the Lingxiao realm and the Imperial Throne realm.

But because he did not wish to cultivate the Jade Capital realm, it was extremely difficult for Shen Mu to raise his cultivation any further.

And now, thanks to the World Tree, his cultivation was continuing to rise, which showed that, setting aside the Jade Capital, Lingxiao, and Imperial Throne realms, other realms might yet exist. "Could it be the realm of the five Primordial Ultimates? " He quietly gathered his mind and spirit to investigate the reason for his rising cultivation: "If I could establish the Five Ultimates realm through this, it might be a deed of boundless merit!

" His divine sense followed the World Tree to probe and observe where the growth of his mana came from.

As for the five Primordial Ultimates, though he very much wished to treat them as realms, the five innate great Daos he had cultivated had always been nothing more than comprehending the five great Daos through insight, grasping their mysteries, and comprehending divine abilities. Merely comprehending divine abilities and grasping the great Dao could not be called a realm; it could only be called a means of cultivation.

To serve as a realm, it had to be opened up like the Primal Embryo Divine Treasury or the Heavenly Palace, becoming a path of cultivation.

That required establishing a standard! The seven Heavenly Venerables who had opened up the seven realms of the divine treasury in the early years of Longhan had each established the standard for a realm, and only thus were they called Heavenly Venerables. Heavenly Venerable Yu established the standard of the Primal Embryo Divine Treasury; Heavenly Venerable Hao established the standard of the Five Luminaries Divine Treasury; and so on.

The various realms of the Heavenly Palace likewise came from establishing the standard of each realm, which was what made it possible to pass them down.

Shen Mu had opened up five great veins in his own divine treasury precisely in the hope of accomplishing this step. "The World Tree devours the chaos qi of the long river of chaos, and indeed it is transformed through the five great veins!

" Shen Mu observed carefully.

The World Tree first devoured the chaos qi, which flowed through the chaos vein representing the Dao of Taiyi and was transformed into a wondrous vital qi, Hongmeng Origin Qi. Then the Hongmeng Origin Qi flowed from the chaos vein into the Taichu vein, transforming from the chaos state into the Taichu state, becoming Taichu Origin Qi. It then flowed through the Taishi vein, transforming from the Taichu state into the Taishi state, becoming Taishi Origin Qi.

— The egg of Taishi had taken advantage of this to gain a great deal; Shen Mu sensed that the Taishi within the egg had grown stronger than before.

The Taishi Origin Qi passed through the Taishi vein and then flowed through the Taisu vein, becoming Taisu Origin Qi, after which it flowed into the Taiji vein and became Taiji Origin Qi.

As Shen Mu observed intently, a thought suddenly came to him.

He took out the two Qiankun Mirrors that Wei Suifeng had given him. Hidden within these two mirrors was a dao pattern of the master of the Miluo Palace, which Wei Suifeng had copied using Kuisou's Qiankun Mirror.

On his way to Jade Capital City, Shen Mu had studied it carefully, but had gained little. Now, as he pondered the Five Ultimates realm, he suddenly felt that the five wondrous vital qis were somewhat similar to the wondrous vital qi contained in the dao pattern within those two mirrors.

He compared it carefully with the dao pattern of the master of the Miluo Palace.

The principles hidden in the dao pattern were truly too profound; but now, with the Hongmeng Origin Qi of the Five Ultimates as a reference, Shen Mu gradually comprehended a few principles. He tried to use his own vital qi to condense the runic glyphs of the great Dao at the lowest layer of the dao pattern, yet he could never succeed.

"The vital qi hidden in this kind of dao pattern is like Hongmeng Origin Qi. .

. " Shen Mu was stunned. Hongmeng Origin Qi corresponded to the Taiyi vein!

The master of the Miluo Palace's vital qi was Hongmeng Origin Qi, which meant he might be Taiyi, the Taiyi of the first cosmic era!

"Here I go again, letting my imagination run wild. " He could not help shaking his head.

Hongmeng Origin Qi was merely a form of vital qi, corresponding to the Taiyi vein, but most likely others could refine it too; perhaps it had little to do with Taiyi. "If the five Primordial Ultimates can become a realm, then this method of cultivation is a method of cultivating five forms of vital qi!

" No sooner thought than done.

He immediately began trying to transform his own vital qi into Taiji Origin Qi.

"The Five Ultimates realm is the realm of five vital qis.

Since the Jade Capital realm is not so stable, then I shall transform my vital qi into Taiji Origin Qi, then from Taiji Origin Qi into Taisu Origin Qi, advancing step by step, until at last it becomes Hongmeng Origin Qi! If I can cultivate these five realms, then achieving the Dao should be incomparably simple!

" Full of enthusiasm, he fed his own vital qi back into the Taiji vein, attempting to incorporate the Taiji vein into the vital-qi circulation system of his Mystic Body Three-Cinnabar Art.

Qiang Tianfei stood at the stern of the little boat, watching in panic as the nine Heavenly Venerables pursued relentlessly from behind. Compared with Shen Mu, she was far busier: besides guarding against the attacks of the nine Heavenly Venerables, she also had to deal with the strange things surging up from the river.

Fortunately, the power of the God-Slaying Mystic Saber was extraordinary, and she could hold off all the strangeness in the river. Yet her cultivation was also being consumed enormously.

If this went on, she feared she would not be able to hold out until they reached the far bank of the chaos river.

"Mu Tianzun took my God-Slaying Platform. Without the God-Slaying Platform, the God-Slaying Mystic Saber cannot unleash its full power. " Qiang Tianfei's gaze flickered. She glanced at Shen Mu, who sat at the bow with his eyes closed and his mind focused, and she could not tell whether he was cultivating or doing something else.

He was still holding the two mirrors, one against his left cheek and one against his right. "This fellow hasn't turned into a woman, yet he's far vainer than I am.

" Qiang Tianfei thought to herself: "Right now I still need him to activate Taiyi's staff to cross the river, so I cannot kill him. For now I will play along with him and let him carry me across. When we reach the Miluo Palace, I will see him hacked into ten thousand pieces, seize the staff, and take back the God-Slaying Platform!

" She had just thought this when suddenly, with a thunderous boom, Shen Mu exploded before her eyes.