Chapter 1606 — The Wonders of Guixu

"Heavenly Venerable Mu, you cannot escape! " The Empress Consort's voice came, and with Yuanmu she scrambled on hands and feet like a giant eight-legged spider, howling after him.

The tide began to ebb, and Shen Mu breathed a sigh of relief, then charged madly down along the stalk.

The pool seemed to be composed of pure energy; the closer he came, the more brilliantly it shone.

When he came near, he saw the pool growing larger and larger, until it was less a pool than a sea, a sea of pure energy.

And more than that, he saw things he had not seen before.

He had reached the lotus leaves. Leaf after leaf floated upon the surface of the sea, right beside the twin lotus.

Shen Mu pressed on, racing down the stalk, and just then dazzling light surrounded him, and within the light countless scenes flashed past.

Shen Mu was stunned.

He paid heed to those scenes, and what he saw was the entire universe in its primeval vastness.

With each step he took, the entire universe rewound at incredible speed.

He saw the Ancestral Court; he saw the Heavenly Court depart from the skies above the Ancestral Court and return to the skies above the Yuan World; he saw the Battle of Xuandu, the Lord of Heaven's rebirth and his great battle with the Ten Heavenly Venerables; and before he had taken many steps, he arrived at the Yuan World's return to the seal. He saw too time rewinding at furious speed; the Desolate Ruins reappeared; before long he saw the Kaihuang Heavenly Court formed of thirty-three heavens, and countless heavenly craftsmen forging the Heavenly Court.

He walked on, and the twenty thousand years of the Kaihuang era swiftly arrived at its beginning: the Yuan World was a desolate waste, dark, the ruins of the Shanghuang era.

Then the glorious Shanghuang era appeared: Heavenly Venerable Yue and Heavenly Venerable Ling executed the Earth Mother and felled the Yuan Tree.

The Yuan Tree rose from its fallen state; the Northern and Southern Shanghuang Heavenly Courts warred against one another; the demigods ruled the north, the human race ruled the south; and the three hundred thousand years of the Shanghuang era flashed by. The wild Chiming era appeared: the Ming Emperor campaigned against the Heavenly Court beyond the realm; the Heavenly Court sent down calamity upon the Chiming era; then the Chi Emperor ventured into the chaos spaces, and in the Yuan World saw the statue of Heavenly Venerable Mu and contemplated it until he attained understanding.

After that came the Longhan era, when three Heavenly Courts warred against one another. Time rewound faster and faster.

In Longhan, scene after magnificent scene flashed by, until he came to the founding of the Longhan Heavenly Court, and then to the battle of the Blood-Rust Zone, where Shujun led countless creators against the ancient gods and demigods, and met defeat and death amid the starry sky. Then to Taichu, the Heavenly Emperor, slaying Gongjun; Gongjun ambushed the Great Emperor and shattered the Taichu primal stone in the Great Emperor's brow; the wars returned to the Ancestral Court; and in the Ancestral Court the Great Emperor slaughtered the creators.

Billions upon billions of years of time flowed swiftly backward, soon reaching the creators mining the five mines, and then the first creator, Boyang, lifting the first Taichu divine stone and setting it into his brow.

At last, Shen Mu saw the great fire. Taiyi setting fire to the World Tree!

That blazing firelight illuminated the starry heavens of the universe in its primordial form. Shen Mu saw too the scene of Taiyi felling the tree, and going further back, the Ancestral Court was a desolate silence, without any breath of life.

He finally reached the bottom of the twin lotus's stalk, and what his eyes beheld were the five forms of the universe's evolution: Taiji, Taisu, Taishi, Taichu, and Taiyi.

Thud! Shen Mu landed upon a lotus leaf; the light beneath his feet was no longer so dazzling, but rather a stretch of chaos. He looked around, and saw that upon this sea floated one enormous lotus leaf after another, and from the sea rose lotus stalks, immeasurably thick, covered in sharp thorns, of unknowable length, standing erect in the darkness.

Shen Mu stood dazed, and shook his head. "Little sweetheart, run on, then!

" The Empress Consort too landed upon an enormous lotus leaf, and Lady Yuanmu said excitedly, "Now you have nowhere left to run, do you? Hand over the dao of reincarnation.

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" Her voice gradually fell, and she raised her head, staring blankly at those enormous lotus stalks.

There were seventeen lotus stalks in all, each one signifying a twin lotus.

Each twin lotus signified a great abyss of Guixu! In other words, here were connected seventeen great abysses of Guixu.