Chapter 1619 — The Moon Palace Tea Tree Overflows with Subtle Fragrance

Shen Mu had found the golden ship and was just about to set out for the Ultimate Void when he saw Venerable Ling walking toward him.

"Do you know the way to the Ultimate Void, and how to find Venerable Cloud?

" she asked, standing below the ship.

Shen Mu was briefly taken aback, then smiled and held out his hand.

Venerable Ling took it, and Shen Mu pulled, drawing her up onto the ship.

"There is something strange about this ship of yours. " Venerable Ling alighted on the prow. "I saw someone aboard it, but I could not tell who. And this ship of yours is in truth enormous; there is a space within it of unknowable size.

I asked Venerable Moon to search it, and Venerable Moon searched for half a year without ever covering the whole of it.

" Shen Mu was startled. Venerable Moon had searched half a year and still not walked the entire ship? Venerable Moon's spatial divine arts were no small matter; her attainment was so high that Shen Mu could only look up to it as to a mountain peak.

For her Supreme Void to travel from one end of the cosmos to the other would likely take no more than a few years. "Venerable Moon said this ship seems to be alive, able to grow or shrink of itself. It is hiding whoever is aboard it, so that you cannot find him," Venerable Ling said, gazing up at the vessel.

Shen Mu followed her gaze, and could see only the palaces upon the golden ship's exterior; to this day he had never beheld the Golden Ship of Salvation in its entirety. "You mean the master of Miro Palace truly lives aboard this ship?

" He mused.

"But the master of Miro Palace is already dead. If someone is aboard, it cannot be him, only his imprint. Or perhaps there truly is someone hidden on this ship.

. . " He thought a while, suppressed his urge to search the vessel, and laughed.

"It is best we go see Venerable Cloud first. This golden ship of mine is out of the ordinary; it can enter the Ultimate Void.

Only, where Venerable Cloud's Great Luo Heaven lies, that I do not know. " "Great Luo Heaven is of the utmost importance.

If Venerable Hao or Taichu were to find that place, Venerable Cloud would be doomed, and so he must remain hidden.

" Venerable Ling said, "Few know where Great Luo Heaven is. I will direct you there.

On the way, I can pass on to you all I have comprehended over these forty thousand years.

" Shen Mu was overjoyed. Venerable Ling considered a moment, and chose in the end to transmit to him by way of divine consciousness everything she had gained from forty thousand years of comprehension; this saved time, and made it easier for Shen Mu to grasp and ponder. The Golden Ship of Salvation rose slowly into the air, gathering speed bit by bit as it drove toward the sky.

Aboard the golden ship, Shen Mu sorted through the knowledge Venerable Ling had imparted while he steered the vessel; he must wait until the ship reached a certain speed, then open the void, and let the ship shuttle through it. What Venerable Ling had comprehended over those forty thousand years was indeed no small thing: the Miro Palace dao markings he had taught her had been all but fully deciphered by her.

This was a monumental achievement!

The Miro Palace dao markings held infinite variations and infinite detail; when the markings changed, countless details moved in concert with one another, which made them incomparably complex. Shen Mu had dwelt in Miro Palace for a long while, yet he had solved only the mysteries hidden in the markings at rest; as for the variations of the markings, he could not solve them at all.

Even so, upon that shallow comprehension he had founded the Primordial Finger, so that Venerable Fire, Divine Emperor Langxuan and the rest dared not meet its edge. But because he had not comprehended the variations, Shen Mu's finger drove straight and true, and could easily be dodged.

If he possessed the variations Venerable Ling had comprehended, then Shen Mu's Primordial Finger could vary at the heart's will, its might greatly increased! Likewise, from the variations of the Miro Palace dao markings, he could fathom the variations of the Red Rope Knot seal art, and greatly raise the power and might of the Red Rope Knot!

If he could achieve this, then the Red Rope Knot would no longer merely trap Lady Yuanmu, Her Majesty the Empress; one seal brought down, and the foe would be reduced to ash!

"Ling, I will pass on to you a seal art, one likewise born of the Miro Palace dao markings, though it involves dao chains, and is more complex. " Shen Mu's divine consciousness rippled, transmitting to Venerable Ling all he had gained in comprehending the Red Rope Knot seal art.

"Of this seal art, I myself have mastered only the Red Rope Knot in its still state; I cannot make it vary at will. How long before you can comprehend the variations within it?

" Venerable Ling sat silent at the prow and for a long time gave no answer. Shen Mu was in no hurry; as he continued to ponder the mysteries of the dao markings, he sped the golden ship on.

The ship had already come beyond the sky of the Yuan World, and just then it passed by the moon. Within the moon stood a cluster of palaces.

Shen Mu peered over, and saw a woman in white robes come out from the palace, a sword on her back, carrying a flower basket, meaning to gather a few blossoms. The woman saw the golden ship and Shen Mu aboard it, and so stood quietly before the palace gate. Shen Mu steered the golden ship in several circuits around that moon, slowing little by little, until at last he brought the vessel to a halt. He leaped down from the ship and came before that moon palace, where grew many flowers and grasses, and one old tea tree, some hundred years old or more.

The tea tree grew slowly, yet in a hundred-odd years it could still grow quite tall.

"It has been a long time. " The woman came to meet him beneath the tea tree, but stopped there; the moonlight was white and clean, casting dappled shadows beneath the tree.

A hidden fragrance drifted in the moonlight. Shen Mu stepped forward and came beneath the tea tree as well, gazing quietly at Bai Qu'er.

Bai Qu'er was as she had always been: tranquil, lovely, unfettered by the world.

"I know you love tea, so I planted a tea tree. " Her loveliness came with her beneath the tree, lending the hidden fragrance of the garden beyond the palace a lightness and grace.

"You were gone a long while, and some of the tea grew stale, so I drank it myself. I never used to care for drinking it, and yet little by little I came to love it.

" Shen Mu's heart abruptly grew still.

He smiled.

"Is there any tea left?

I have no urgent business.

I would like a cup before I go.

" Bai Qu'er was delighted and went back into the palace to prepare, when Venerable Ling walked over.

"Set out one more tea set.

" Bai Qu'er looked at her deeply, doubtful. "Venerable Ling? The High Emperor's Venerable Ling? " She had once followed her father to the Heavenly Court of the High Emperor, and had seen Venerable Ling once from afar.

Venerable Ling, though a woman, was not one to stand on ceremony; in the High Emperor's day she had gone about unkempt, and now, in a blue robe and woman's attire, she found her hair a nuisance to comb and could not be bothered with it, and so had cut it very short, a far cry from the slovenly figure of those years in leopard-skin skirt and straw sandals. Venerable Ling recognized her.

"The White Dragon clan? The High Emperor's Sword God?

I have seen you; it must have been at the celebration in the Heavenly Court of the High Emperor forty thousand years ago.

You followed the Lord of Bailong City through the crowd, and you were only so tall then.