Chapter 1630 — The Duel of Yun and Taichu

Cloud Heavenly Venerable's heart sank. The one who watched him most closely was, he feared, none other than Taichu.

Because of a flaw within his own being, Taidi had taken the Taichu Imperial Sword as his foundation, growing a Dao Tree, opening Dao Flowers, and bearing Dao Fruit. In the battle of the Divine Consciousness Daluo Heaven, Taidi perished, body and Dao alike; Cloud Heavenly Venerable seized the moment to take the Taichu Imperial Sword into his grasp and frightened Hao Heavenly Venerable away, and so the Imperial Sword became his divine weapon.

That sword was Taichu's companion treasure from birth. The very moment Taichu had broken from his shell into the world, Taidi had snatched it away, and the craving for that sword had been Taichu's obsession ever since.

The instant Cloud Heavenly Venerable's figure rushed into the Divine Consciousness Daluo Heaven, a One Qi Daluo Heaven came hurtling viciously at him and slammed into it!

Cloud Heavenly Venerable could scarcely keep his footing; fortunately his Dao Tree was not flawed as Taidi's had been, but whole and complete, and could bear the shock.

Swoosh —

The Dao Tree's roots danced, stabbing into his back, and at once a rolling torrent of the Dao of Divine Consciousness came surging in through those roots to empower his fleshly body.

Within Cloud Heavenly Venerable's body the Spirit Embryo was opened and evolved into the continent of the Ancestral Court; a river of stars soared aloft and became Xuandu; the Heavenly River pierced the vast sky, surging up from the Heavenly Sea and running through all of Xuandu.

This Heavenly River rushed down from Xuandu, circled once about the Four Extremes of the cosmos, and established the Four Extremes Divine Treasure; one after another, the great Divine Treasures of the Four Extremes Heavens were opened.

Then Yuandu was opened; the Heavenly River swept over Yuandu, flowed into Youdu and became the Nether River, and Youdu was opened.

The Nether River flowed from Youdu into Guixu, and Guixu was opened.

From this, the seven great realms of the new Divine Treasures were all cultivated by him!

These were the seven realms of the new Divine Treasures that Lan Yutian had taught him. They differed from the old seven realms of the Divine Treasures: they did not borrow the power of heaven and earth. Of the old seven Divine Treasures, apart from the Spirit Embryo, all six realms borrowed strength from things outside, from the ancient gods.

The new Divine Treasures, by contrast, consisted in observing and comprehending the Dao of heaven and earth in order to open the Divine Treasures, borrowing nothing from without; instead, one took oneself as a cosmos, drawing upon the Dao of heaven and earth to evolve within the body a cosmos of grandeur and wonder.

Cloud Heavenly Venerable's cultivation and strength advanced by leaps and bounds. In truth, once he had cultivated to the Youdu realm, he had already thrown off life and death, becoming like a deity, possessed of immeasurable lifespan, coeval with heaven and earth.

If possessing immeasurable lifespan were taken as the standard for becoming a god, then the sixth realm of the new Divine Treasures, the Youdu realm, could well be called the divine realm.

But in the realms Lan Yutian had founded there was no such thing as a divine realm; there was not even a realm called the Heavenly Palace.

After Cloud Heavenly Venerable had opened the seven great Divine Treasures, his primordial spirit stood upon the Ancestral Court; the great Dao gathered, and he passed through the Four Heavenly Gates, underwent the baptism of the Jade Pool and the Jade Terrace, endured the tempering of the Dao Heart in the Heavenly Sea, and entered the God-Slaying Platform and the Nine Prisons Platform.

Ahead all was dim and hazy, vast and primordial; his primordial spirit appeared before a majestic, magnificent Jade Capital City, and yet he could never step inside it.

In the realms Lan Yutian had founded, the seven Divine Treasures formed the foundation stage, and after them came the Ancestral Court realms. The Ancestral Court realms were divided into the Four Heavenly Gates realm, the Jade Pool and Jade Terrace realm, the Heavenly Sea realm, the God-Slaying Platform realm, the Nine Prisons Platform realm, the Jade Capital realm, the Five Primes realm, and the World Tree realm.

The seven realms of the new Divine Treasures were completed by Lan Yutian alone, whereas the eight Ancestral Court realms were opened and completed by Lan Yutian, Xu Shenghua, Hua Xuanxiu, Granny Zhu, Crown Prince Youming, and others joining their strength together.

Only the Jade Capital realm, the Five Primes realm, and the World Tree realm they had never completed.

The Jade Capital realm required comprehending the Jade Capital City, but that city had been sealed by the Heavenly Venerables of the Heavenly Court and was garrisoned with troops; Lan Yutian and the others could not enter to comprehend it. Thus there was only a dim, hazy Jade Capital City, and no way to step within.

The Five Primes realm required comprehending the five primordial Daos of Taiyi, Taichu, Taishi, Taisu, and Taiji. Lan Yutian and Xu Shenghua had gone more than once to the ruins of the five great mineral veins, seeking to comprehend these five Daos; but the five Daos were truly unfathomably profound, and they could never bring them to perfection.

The World Tree realm was somewhat akin to the traditional Dao realms: much like Kaihuang, who had formed his Dao through the thirty-six heavens of the Dao realm, cultivating a Daluo Heaven, growing a Dao Tree, opening Dao Flowers, and bearing Dao Fruit.

Yet the World Tree realm differed from the traditional Dao realms as well. The Dao Tree of the Dao realms was an imitation of the World Tree; in the World Tree realm, by contrast, one comprehended the World Tree of Black Mountain Holy Land and, within the Ancestral Court one had opened for oneself, used one's own Dao to gestate a World Tree.

Once the World Tree was cultivated, it would command all the various Daos within one's body; with the World Tree as their center, the Daos formed a single Daluo Heaven.

The World Tree within that Daluo Heaven could likewise open Dao Flowers and bear Dao Fruit.

Unlike the Daluo Heaven of the Dao realm system, the Daluo Heaven of the Ancestral Court system had no need to be lodged in the Ultimate Void; the Daluo Heaven of the Ancestral Court system was transformed from one's own Dao.

This was the conception of Lan Yutian and Xu Shenghua. By this method they meant to keep the Ultimate Void from being crushed beneath too many Daluo Heavens and bringing on the great destruction of the cosmos.

If one did not lodge one's Dao there, but merely forged a Daluo Heaven within one's own Ancestral Court system, then no excessive burden would be laid upon the Ultimate Void, and perhaps this would be a path to resolving the destruction of the cosmos.

Moreover, different people cultivated different Daos, and so the Daluo Heaven and the World Tree within their Ancestral Courts were each unlike the others.

The traditional Heavenly Palace and Heavenly Court system achieved the Dao through power; the Dao realm system achieved the Dao through the Dao; both lodged it outside themselves. Lan Yutian, Xu Shenghua, and the others lodged it within. That was the greatest difference between the new system and the old.

That Cloud Heavenly Venerable could, in so short a time, cultivate the new Ancestral Court system to the Nine Prisons Platform realm — such aptitude and comprehension were truly extraordinary.

But the new system was not complete; even its founders, Lan Yutian and Xu Shenghua, had not succeeded in cultivating it through, much less he, a mere learner.

His dharma power was still far inferior to that of Taichu, a man who had brought the Heavenly Palace and Heavenly Court system to its fullest perfection!