Chapter 1667 — Questioning the Dao in the Chaos Hall

He had no Lingxiao Hall; instead his own cultivation art had transformed into a Chaos Hall, and what he would meet in climbing it, what lay within it, he knew nothing of. He did not even know whether what he was now encountering at this realm would also be encountered by others when they cultivated up to the Lingxiao realm.

Did every person who cultivated to a similar realm face the same trials? When they stood before their Lingxiao Hall, did a dao-question also come forth from within, asking after the questions they had abandoned on their road of seeking the Dao?

Did their dao-questions strike straight at their Dao hearts?

Yet he had no time for such musings.

The chaos-stone step beneath his feet had already begun to crack and fall, and the pressure upon him kept rising; before the step collapsed entirely, he had to solve the problem he had once shied away from!

He set his mind working, throwing all his strength into the second dao-question.

At last, before the step gave way altogether, he solved it and answered in the Dao-tongue. A third step appeared, and from the Chaos Hall came Shen Mu's voice once more—another dao-question, another problem he had once avoided.

Shen Mu's mind settled then; no longer did he press hotly forward, but quietly, calmly, upon the steps before the Chaos Hall, he solved the various hard problems he had abandoned in his cultivation.

Some he had been too lazy to solve, some had been beyond him at the time, and some he had simply forgotten to solve.

And now those problems barred the way before the Chaos Hall, becoming the greatest obstacles to his entering the hall and ascending the Imperial Throne!

Debts incurred for the sake of a moment's ease in years past must be repaid sooner or later! Now was the time of repayment—and at once a process of making good what was lacking, of mending the flaws upon his path of cultivation.

Gradually, Shen Mu answered more and more dao-questions; his Dao heart grew ever more complete, and his cultivation slowly rose.

Though each mended gap raised his cultivation but a little, step after step, the small accumulated into much, and the cultivation he gained was considerable indeed.

He had already walked a hundred-odd steps, and the Chaos Hall stood right before his eyes; yet every time he took a step forward, new chaos-stone steps appeared!

Moreover, the dao-questions from the Chaos Hall grew ever more unfathomable and profound, making them harder and harder to answer.

"Sooner or later the dao-questions will run out, and sooner or later I will climb this hall!

" Shen Mu steadied his heart, neither proud nor impatient, advancing step by step; how long passed after that he did not know, and still he had not reached the Chaos Hall. He looked back and saw the chaos-stone steps stretching on for more than ten li, like a white thread running into the Jade Capital City; yet when he raised his head, the Chaos Hall was still neither near nor far from him, and he could not set foot upon it. Shen Mu collected himself.

This realm corresponded to the Lingxiao realm, and only now did he understand why there were so many powerful cultivators at the Lingxiao realm and yet so few at the Imperial Throne realm. Most likely those Lingxiao-realm experts also faced all manner of dao-questions to their Dao hearts at this stage; the questions and the pressure they faced might not be as monstrous as Shen Mu's, but they were enough to trap them before their Lingxiao Hall!

Then the dao-question from the Chaos Hall posed a hard problem concerning the Dao of Taiji, having to do with the principle by which Taiji evolves yin and yang.

Shen Mu frowned and pondered long; the step beneath his feet had crumbled until only room for one foot remained, and still he could not find the answer.

He sighed, stepped back, and landed upon the step behind.

"The dao-questions can be answered another day; perhaps I can think this problem through by degrees. How long have I been here?

I wonder how matters stand outside. " His physical body slowly woke, and he saw an old ox sitting in the shade of a tree not far ahead, chest bare, puffing noisily at a water pipe, with several kuilong seated nearby, staring at him with eager eyes.

The old ox passed the pipe over, and the ox-headed kuilong hurriedly took it, gurgled two mouthfuls, then handed it on to the other kuilong. Farther off, by the Heavenly River, a pure-black tiger was using its own tail to fish for red kun in the river, when suddenly there came a crack, and the black tiger hastily pulled its tail back out of the water to find it a length shorter—a red kun had bitten it clean off!

The black tiger's face fell; it urged the mystic art of Creation into motion, and its tail slowly grew back.

From the mountain forest still farther off came a braying cry, and a voice as ugly as a donkey's called out, "Let me have one bite, eh?

I won't eat you, just one bite—" Shen Mu, suspicious, said, "Senior Brother Sanduo, what are you all doing here?

" Seeing him wake, the old ox scrambled to his feet. "Heavenly Venerate, all four Great Heavenly Masters have arrived.

They saw that you were cultivating and did not disturb you; they are waiting in the palace now! " "All four Great Heavenly Masters have come?

" Shen Mu was taken aback; then he walked toward the palace.

The Headman and Master Dan were drinking tea beneath the great tree before the palace gate, both reclining in rocking chairs, and they gave Shen Mu a lazy glance. Master Dan laughed. "Shen'er, you cultivated for four months—you have finally woken.

" "Four months already?

" Shen Mu was startled. Defeating the sixty-seven phantom forms of Dao-completers had not taken him long, but answering the dao-questions before the Chaos Hall must have consumed nearly four months!

"Has Grandfather Master Dan heard the news of the negotiations between the Heavenly Court and Jingping?

" Shen Mu asked quickly. "Yuchenzi came looking for you once already.

When you did not wake, he hurried off.

" Master Dan thought for a moment, then said, "He seemed to say that the talks between the Heavenly Court and Jingping are on the verge of breaking down. "