Chapter 1556 — A Teardrop

Silence hung over Miluo Palace.

Shen Mu stood there in silence, long without uttering a sound, and the Master of Miluo Palace did not go on either, as though waiting for him to come back to himself from his shock. "Hahahahaha!

" All at once Shen Mu burst into laughter, and the laughter reverberated back and forth through Miluo Palace; only after a long while did it slowly die away.

"Daoist brother, do you think I would believe you? " His expression hardened, and he said solemnly, "Tai Yi is not the true Tai Yi—what proof do you have?

If he were not the true Tai Yi, why would he risk coming here to find you?

Why would he leave behind a geographical map and let me follow it to rescue him? Was he not afraid that I might come here, meet you, and have you expose his identity? If he were a Dao Achiever who had already come ashore, why would he obstruct other Dao Achievers from coming ashore? Why endure his bitter vigil at the severed World Tree—why endure it there for billions of years? " The voice of the Master of Miluo Palace drifted over, unhurried: "Is there any need for me to deceive you, Mu Tianzun? If I harbored ill intent, why should I bother to deceive you?

I have already struck Tai Yi down into the Fourth Universe—could you possibly be stronger than he? " Shen Mu clamped his mouth shut, pursed his thin lips, and said nothing. Compared with Tai Yi, he was indeed very weak, and indeed the Master of Miluo Palace had no need to deceive him.

If he harbored ill intent, he would simply kill me!

"If you want proof, then go look for it in the mining district at the outermost edge of the World Tree.

When a Dao Achiever steals passage through the World Tree, he leaves behind a mine pit.

Go to the outermost edge of the World Tree—the pit where he came ashore is still there. " The Master of Miluo Palace said unhurriedly, "As for his risking a visit to me, that is because the appearance of Miluo Palace made him realize that his identity was in danger of being exposed, and so he had to come here no matter what. He had only one purpose—to make you afraid to come.

" Shen Mu was taken aback and said, "But I came anyway. " "Even a Dao Achiever of his strength has fallen here; anyone else would certainly not dare to come and search out the truth. And he left you a geographical map so that you would follow it to rescue him. If it had been anyone else, they would surely have searched far and wide for the place marked on the map.

But you are different.

" The Master of Miluo Palace went on, "You are the one he could not see through. He thought you would not dare to come; he never imagined that you would still come, passing through every kind of peril to reach my side and expose his identity. He never imagined that your courage would be so great. " Shen Mu thought for a moment.

From a logical standpoint, what the Master of Miluo Palace said was indeed possible. He walked forward, trying to pass through the incomparably dense Primordial Vital Breath and draw near to the Master of Miluo Palace; he wanted to see the person within the purple qi. Yet no matter how long he walked, no matter how far he went, he still could not draw near to that figure within the purple light. In the divine arts, no one in the entire universe—the Ten Tianzuns included—could match the subtlety of his arts; yet he could not even make out what art the Master of Miluo Palace was employing.

"As for his blocking other Dao Achievers from coming ashore, that is even simpler.

He has witnessed the Great Destruction of the universe, and he does not want this universe to repeat the same fate. And the more Dao Achievers there are, the faster a universe perishes.

Not only did he have to block Dao Achievers from coming ashore, he also had to block others from achieving the Dao.

" The Master of Miluo Palace said, "Your universe has existed for 6. 1 billion years now, and in all that time there has been no Dao Achiever apart from him.

If he truly wished to resist the invasion of the prehistoric Dao Achievers, why should he keep his bitter vigil beneath the World Tree? He had only to cultivate a few Dao Achievers, and they could have helped him resist the invasion of the prehistoric Dao Achievers. Did he do it? " Shen Mu pressed onward with effort, fell silent for a moment, and shook his head.

"No. " And yet he could not help making excuses for Tai Yi: "Tai Yi is aloof from all things, aloof from the world itself; he is an existence that has achieved the Dao, and he will never interfere in any worldly affair! He only watches the unfolding of worldly events and the changing of dynasties from the standpoint of a bystander. . .

" "Is that so?

" the Master of Miluo Palace asked. "Has he truly never interfered in anything? Then how did the Creator race come to be exterminated?

How did you come to be the master of the World Tree?

And the eye between your brows—how did it come to see through chaos? " Shen Mu fell silent once more. Looked at from these angles, Tai Yi had indeed interfered in worldly affairs; he was not so aloof after all.

It was Tai Yi who made the ancient gods of the primeval age believe that the Great Dao wished to eliminate the Creator race, and so Tai Chu, the Heavenly Emperor, had launched a war against the Creator race, bringing about their annihilation.

Of that once incomparably glorious race, only a handful had escaped into the Great Void, clinging to a thread of life.

Shen Mu's success in planting the World Tree had also depended on a bucket of dao dew from Tai Yi, and Tai Yi had even lent him the Chaos Axe to fell the tree. As for the vertical eye between his brows, it had depended on Tai Yi's eggshell and a drop of dao dew. The Master of Miluo Palace said, "He did not allow the Five Tais of your universe to come into the world smoothly.

If Tai Chu, Tai Shi, Tai Su, and Tai Ji had come into the world smoothly, how could any of what came later have happened?

You would have had at least five Dao Achievers shielding your universe, and the prehistoric Dao Achievers could never have descended at all. Did he do it?

He did not.

Tai Chu was crippled, Tai Shi could not be born, Tai Su was refined into a treasure, and Tai Ji fled from one hiding place to another. Of the four innate Tais who once held the greatest hope of achieving the Dao, not one achieved the Dao. In his bitter vigil over the World Tree, what Tai Yi was actually guarding was only his own life. " He said calmly, "The man who appears the most selfless is often the one with the deepest selfishness. " Shen Mu suddenly burst into loud laughter.

The Master of Miluo Palace said nothing, quietly waiting for his laughter to die down. "I cannot refute you, but neither will I suspect Tai Yi because of this! The one I should suspect most is you!

" Shen Mu continued to walk toward him with unflagging persistence, and his voice echoed through Miluo Palace as he declared, "Daoist brother, you too are a man who appears utterly selfless.

By your own reasoning, you too are the one with the deepest selfishness!

" The Master of Miluo Palace was silent for a moment, then said, "That is one way of putting it.

The universe is fair; when the great limit arrives, every living being must die, and Dao Achievers are no exception. Yet I want to survive, I want to save people—this is indeed selfishness.

" Shen Mu kept walking toward him and shook his head. "That is not what I mean. I mean the Ancestral Court altar!

The entire Ancestral Court is one enormous blood-sacrifice altar—dare you say you have nothing whatsoever to do with it? You have been trapped here all along; you too have been waiting for a chance, a chance to come ashore! That is why you set up the blood-sacrifice altar!