Chapter 1647 — The Lotus of the Dao Blooms on the Golden Boat

"If this boat is haunted, then you two are the very ghosts!

" Shen Mu boarded the World-Ferrying Golden Boat, and with a faint stir of his will the golden boat shrank manyfold in the eyes of those outside, becoming like a little golden skiff; but once aboard, the interior space of the vessel remained exceedingly vast. "Little brother, there really are ghosts on this boat. " Shen Fengqing hesitated a moment, then said, "I saw Grandsire.

" Shen Mu was taken aback.

He thought of Kaihuang again, and fell silent.

"I truly did see him!

" Seeing that Shen Mu did not believe him, Shen Fengqing said in a fluster, "You have been busy all these days, and everyone else has been bustling about too, so I went and fetched the little fatty to help me.

We searched the boat for a long time, and we truly did see him! " The 'little fatty' he spoke of was none other than Taishi; compared with a giant like Shen Fengqing, Taishi was indeed a round, ball-like little fatty. Of course, this little fatty's power was extremely high; few beings could stand against the Ancient God of Taiji, and he was certainly one of them.

Shen Mu's heart stirred faintly. The golden boat gradually gained speed and sailed into the void.

"Where did you encounter him? " he asked.

Taishi said, "In one of the great halls.

We saw a figure that looked like him, but when we chased after it, we could never draw close; instead, we passed right through him.

" Shen Mu's face darkened, and he murmured, "It must be his imprint. The force of the Fourth Young Master's blow erased him utterly — not even the black sand of his soul would remain.

. .

" "Little brother, do you want to go and see?

" A hopeful look appeared on Shen Fengqing's face. Although he was always calling Shen Mu his 'wicked little brother,' in his heart he had always believed that this wicked little brother was capable of anything. He desperately hoped that Shen Mu could find Kaihuang; perhaps the wicked little brother would have some way to bring Kaihuang back.

Shen Mu thought for a moment, and then, as if impelled by some ghostly force, he nodded.

Reason told him that Kaihuang could not possibly have survived that blow from the Fourth Young Master, yet he stubbornly preferred to believe in miracles. Shen Fengqing and Taishi led the way, and Shen Mu followed them to the cluster of palaces on the World-Ferrying Golden Boat.

These palaces had been built by the Master of Miluo Palace, and each one was the equivalent of a whole heaven, its inner space vast; and strangely, the number of palaces was not fixed.

The palaces here grew in number as the people on board grew in number — even if everyone in the entire universe came aboard, this boat would still have space enough to hold them all! And stranger still: enter a palace, and when you came out you would find a new palace; no matter how you searched without cease, you would always discover palaces on the boat you had never set foot in.

Such was the World-Ferrying Golden Boat refined by the Master of Miluo Palace! Yet wonderful as the boat was, housing measureless space within itself, in the face of the Great Tribulation of Universal Annihilation it could protect no one.

Shen Mu followed them into a palace. Shen Fengqing flew once around its interior and said, "Not in here! " He flung open the hall door and dashed out, then opened another hall door and sped through it: "Not here either!

" One palace gate after another was flung open, and yet more golden halls appeared upon the World-Ferrying Golden Boat.

Gradually Shen Fengqing had searched through several hundred halls, and new halls kept appearing without end; Shen Mu could only watch him bustle back and forth. In the distance, the palaces they had already searched vanished one by one, while no small number of new palaces sprang into being out of thin air.

Shen Fengqing went on searching, obstinate, tenacious, and undaunted.

Shen Mu followed him.

After who knew how long, Shen Fengqing was growing tired; he opened his three eyes in bewilderment and murmured, "Which hall can it be in? We clearly saw him. .

. " He opened yet another great hall, and a faint, long-drawn sigh drifted out from within.

Shen Mu's spirits surged, and he hurried inside — only to see Shen Fengqing come out with a face full of disappointment, shaking his head: "It's not him. .

. " Puzzled, Shen Mu looked into the hall and saw a figure walking straight toward him. The two met head-on, and the man passed right through Shen Mu's body.

Shen Mu started slightly and looked after that figure. It was an imprint left by the Master of Miluo Palace, his face written over with desolation, and he walked out of the palace just like that.

Shen Mu turned back and abruptly saw, inside this great hall, countless living beings — cities and citadels, every kind of building. They were multiplying and thriving there in harmony and joy.

Then, in a single instant, every one of them turned into white bones; and in the twinkling of an eye, all the cities, citadels, and buildings of every kind turned into vapors of chaos. Those white bones likewise collapsed and crumbled, becoming wisp after wisp of chaotic vapor.

Shen Mu stood in a daze.

Just now this hall had held an entire world; now it held nothing at all. He turned around and saw the imprint of the Master of Miluo Palace standing outside the hall, head raised, staring blankly into the distance.

Shen Mu walked over to stand beside him and looked up as well, but could not see what he was looking at.

Shen Mu turned his head and saw two streaks of tears glimmer at the corners of the Master of Miluo Palace's eyes — his tears, too, had been imprinted upon this stretch of space, becoming eternal.

Shen Mu stood dazed for a moment, then did not stay, but followed Shen Fengqing and Taishi as they continued their search.

The World-Ferrying Golden Boat sailed toward the Southern Heaven in accordance with his will; passing through the void, the golden boat would need a month or two to reach the Southern Heaven.

Shen Fengqing and Taishi were still searching the boat, and since scarcely any two of its great halls were alike, finding the palace where they had encountered Kaihuang was truly too difficult. They met the imprint of the Master of Miluo Palace once again — that most powerful being in all recorded history had left many imprints upon this boat.

Whenever his heart had surged or darkened, his figure was branded upon the boat.

As Shen Mu and the others explored more and more palaces, gradually they encountered more and more Masters of Miluo Palace. These imprints were variously desolate, melancholy, high-spirited, or downcast.

The more places they explored, the more Shen Mu came to realize that the places where the Master of Miluo Palace appeared were essentially the places where the living beings of the First Universe had died. "In other words, when the Tribulation of the First Universe's Destruction erupted, some of the palaces actually had no people in them.

The palaces that did have people — their number was finite. " He abruptly stopped in his tracks, feeling that he had vaguely grasped hold of something.

Shen Fengqing was still searching up ahead.

Shen Mu tilted his head in thought: "The palaces with people and the palaces without people perhaps appear according to some pattern. If there is a pattern, then the number of palaces the World-Ferrying Golden Boat can manifest is fixed — because the number of living beings in the First Universe is also fixed.

" His mind turned faster and faster: "If the number of palaces is fixed, then that means we can search through every one of the golden halls!

" He suddenly drove his divine sense outward, visualizing the paths he had walked and the palaces he had explored, spreading them all out to seek the mathematical pattern among them. Shen Fengqing stopped and looked back.