Chapter 1587 — Long Parted, At Last Reunited

Within the Great Luotian of Divine Consciousness, Shen Mu watched Ling Tianzun depart, and at last his heart settled.

Ling Tianzun's cultivation was comparatively weak, her Immutable Divine Art no longer invincible, and with her at his side he could hardly fight with a free hand.

Now that she had gone, he could finally cast aside all scruple.

The Golden Ship of Deliverance came howling back; Shen Mu soared up and landed upon the ship, and saw that Taidi, matched against Kaihuang, Hao Tianzun, Xiao Tianzun and the Goddess of Tai Su, had beaten all four until they spat blood again and again; even Kaihuang was wounded. Taidi had no foe who could withstand a single exchange.

"After attaining the Dao there should be three realms: the Dao Tree, the Dao Flower and the Dao Fruit.

So Taidi stands in the realm of the Dao Fruit, while Kaihuang stands in that of the Dao Flower. " Shen Mu did not join the battle at once.

His eyes flickering, he steered the Golden Ship in sweeping circles through the Great Luotian of Divine Consciousness, high and low, searching out Taidi's flaw.

Taidi had been plotted against by the Primordial Sage of Miluo Palace, so that his attainment of the Dao was not a true one; by rights, mighty though he was, he must also carry within himself a flaw of great size. Otherwise Taidi would never have gone to such lengths to devour Xiao Tianzun and the Heavenly Emperor's fleshly body, seeking to be rid of the ills brought on by attaining the Dao through sacrifice.

That he was trapped here within the Great Luotian of Divine Consciousness, able to send down into the world only a sliver of his divine consciousness, was surely one manifestation of that flaw. The Golden Ship of Deliverance came beneath Taidi's Dao Tree, where ten thousand roots whirled and danced; savage as the slaughter above might be, here all was still.

Of a sudden Shen Mu started slightly, and then his face lit with astonishment and delight.

"Mu Tianzun, Yun and Mu never met.

Through all of history we never once had the chance to meet and speak at length; who would have thought we should meet here, and under such circumstances.

" Amid the close-woven coils of roots, Yun Tianzun sat very quietly. He was a primordial spirit, bound fast by the roots of Taidi's Dao Tree; roots covered his body, piercing into his primordial spirit.

His gaze was still gentle, resting upon Shen Mu, seemingly not in the least embarrassed by his own plight, nothing at all like a prisoner. He smiled and said: "Today, at last, I have seen you, and can hold forth with you at length.

" Shen Mu laughed heartily and drove the Golden Ship toward the roots of the Dao Tree. The roots came twisting toward him one after another, and Shen Mu urged the ship to evade them, yet the roots of the Dao Tree were infinitely soft and infinitely tenacious; even he could not cut them through. These roots were like another Taidi, their attacks strange and vicious, keeping him from drawing near to Yun Tianzun.

Of a sudden Yun Tianzun rose. The Dao Tree roots coiled about him slipped away of themselves, and he strode toward Shen Mu, smiling: "Mu, do you know why I can keep my primordial spirit from perishing even within the Great Luotian of Divine Consciousness? " Shen Mu noticed that roots by the dozen linked Yun Tianzun's primordial spirit to his back, roots that had sunk deep into Yun Tianzun's body, fusing him into one body with Taidi's Dao Tree.

He could not help but shudder, and blurted out: "You are Taidi?

Of course Taidi would not kill himself! " Yun Tianzun was dumbfounded, unable to fathom how so outlandish a notion had suddenly sprung into his head; not knowing whether to laugh or cry, he said: "I am not Taidi.

It is the work of my Zixiao Biluo Art. My Zixiao Biluo Art is skilled at absorbing the arts and divine powers of others, blending and mastering them, transforming them into a Dao art of my own.

In those years Taidi killed me, yet he could not destroy my primordial spirit, and so he cast me into the Ultimate Void.

He meant to torment me, to refine me, to imprison me here. " Again roots of the Dao Tree whirled and coiled toward him, and some even tried to force their way into his mouth to stop him speaking; plainly Taidi had sensed this place and sought to silence Yun Tianzun. Yet the moment those roots touched Yun Tianzun they lost their mark, and passed straight through his primordial spirit. Yun Tianzun walked on, dragging the long roots of the Dao Tree behind him: "After I was imprisoned here, the roots of the Dao Tree pierced me through, and I could not move. But Taidi attained the Dao through divine consciousness, and the instant I touched the Dao Tree, I understood the mystery hidden within Taidi's divine consciousness.

" Shen Mu understood. Taidi had attained the Dao through divine consciousness; his divine consciousness had built this Great Luotian of Divine Consciousness, and his Dao Tree was likewise a Dao of divine consciousness.

Therefore, when Yun Tianzun touched the Dao Tree, he learned Taidi's Dao through divine consciousness.

Yet understanding was one thing; Yun Tianzun might not be able to cultivate Taidi's supreme Great Luotian divine consciousness. The next moment, Yun Tianzun slipped past the blockade of the Dao Tree's roots one by one, came before the Golden Ship, and said with a smile: "After I understood Taidi's supreme Great Luotian divine consciousness, I drew nourishment from it, letting the Dao Tree believe that it and I were one body. The Dao of divine consciousness cannot wound itself, and so I chose to merge with Taidi's Dao Tree, and thus escaped death.

" Shen Mu's expression turned complicated as he looked upon this fellow Daoist imprisoned here for several hundred thousand years.

They had met only once, at the grand gathering of the Jade Pool, without a word exchanged between them; afterward, parted by the Heavenly River, by time and by space, they had drunk to each other from afar.

They were two very similar men: one bearing the years that had passed, the other shouldering the hope of what was to come.

And now at last they stood face to face. The sight set his heart surging and pitching, and for a long while he could not calm it. He pressed down the swelling feelings in his breast and gave voice to his doubt, saying gravely: "Yun, you speak of it lightly, yet it is still hard for me to believe. Taidi attained the Dao; you are not Taidi's Dao of divine consciousness, so how could you merge with Taidi's Dao Tree?

Unless you are Taidi! " Yun Tianzun did not know whether to laugh or cry.

Though he and Shen Mu were each other's fellow Daoists, he knew Shen Mu to be a fellow of frightful stubbornness.

Sometimes, when some strange notion sprouted in his skull, it would not be laid to rest unless it was satisfied.

"Because Taidi's Dao of divine consciousness is not complete.

" Yun Tianzun explained patiently: "I sensed that his Dao of divine consciousness was incomplete, that the Dao Tree was imperfect, and that the Dao Flower and the Dao Fruit each had their shortcomings. Thus I had the chance to inspect the gaps and make good the lacks, taking myself as the deficiency of the Dao of divine consciousness and patching it into the Dao Tree, the Dao Flower and the Dao Fruit; only so could I preserve myself. " Shen Mu thought it over.

The path Yun Tianzun described was, in principle, feasible; yet doubt lingered in his heart.

First, Taidi's deficiency had come of the incomplete method of attaining the Dao through faith that the Primordial Sage of Miluo Palace had taught him, and even Taidi did not know how to resolve it. How had Yun Tianzun come to know?

Second, Yun Tianzun's primordial spirit had been delivered into the Great Luotian of Divine Consciousness; even if he came into contact with the Dao Tree and, from Taidi's divine consciousness, comprehended the Dao of divine consciousness, such pondering and cultivation would take time.