Chapter 1675 — The Ferocious Sword Cleaves Taichu

Of the Ancestral Court Yujing's Seventy-Two Halls, no one had ever succeeded in cultivating them all; Shen Mu was likely the first in this age. Emperor Haotian had only the methods for fifty-eight treasure halls; the rest had fallen into Taichu's hands.

Even after Haotian ascended the throne and his authority was unmatched, Taichu had never taught him the remaining fourteen. If Haotian wanted them, he would have to offer benefit enough in exchange!

And that benefit was the twenty-odd treasure halls Haotian held and Taichu did not.

So to this day neither Haotian nor Taichu had completed the Seventy-Two Halls.

Because their way of thinking was the same as before. In the old days the Ten Heavenly Venerables had dealt with one another in false courtesy, trading benefits under cover, haggling over every grain, each hoping to wring more from the other, each hoping to reach perfection before the other, each scheming to trap the other, and none able to trust any other.

To this day they still carried on in the old manner, and instead Shen Mu had completed the Seventy-Two Halls before them!

The Seventy-Two Halls were the key that sustained the Thirty-Six Heavenly Palaces! Shen Mu had not completed the Thirty-Six Heavenly Palaces, but thirty-three Heavenly Palaces were no small matter either.

Yet a great Heaven Court made of thirty-three Heavenly Palaces and seventy-two Treasure Halls could not compare with a Dao Attainer.

So Taichu suspected it was Shen Mu's Chaos Hall that gave him such terrifying dharma power.

It had never occurred to him, however, that Shen Mu's Chaos Hall was empty of substance, a name and nothing more, and that the Chaos Hall had no gate at all, so that none could enter it. Shen Mu now stood at what might be called the Lingxiao Realm, or equally the Chaos Realm, yet his cultivation system was unlike any other.

He had several realms more than Taichu.

Taichu's true body still cultivated according to the old Divine Treasury Heavenly Palace system, but Shen Mu's realms held the great realm of the Ancestral Court beyond the old realms.

Within the Ancestral Court there were also the Four Heavenly Gates Realm, the Heavenly Sea Realm and the Nine Hells Terrace Realm, which the traditional cultivation system did not possess.

And Shen Mu applied these new realms to his own Heavenly Palace system as well; every Heavenly Palace had several realms more than the traditional minor realms of a Heavenly Palace. If one measured by realms, Shen Mu's Chaos Realm was equal to the Dao Flower Realm within the Dao Realm, and thus equal to Taichu. More terrifying still, Shen Mu had not yet attained the Dao!

Should he attain it, he would likely equal a Dao Attainer who had weathered several Great Cataclysms of Ruin!

And more: Shen Mu did not even mean to brand his Dao upon the ultimate void and add to its burden; his aim was to brand his own great Dao within the Divine Treasury universe of his own body.

He meant to make the World Tree in that Divine Treasury universe his Dao Tree, I myself am my Dao! That was also why Shen Mu, when he ascended the Chaos Hall, was confident he could contend with Emperor Haotian!

Taichu stirred his Dao Tree; the branches of the Innate One-Qi Dao Tree danced and blocked the sword light of the Five Primordials as One.

He raised a hand and plucked the Dao Flower, going to meet Shen Mu as he burst into the One-Qi Daluo Heaven!

The Dao Flower revolved; that was the thirty-fold Heavenly Dao Realm.

He had attained the Dao through force, his own dharma power forcibly transformed into a Dao Flower, not a Dao Flower cultivated in the Dao Realm, yet the power of that blow was no small thing, for it was all he had.

The Calamity Sword pierced into the flower's heart; Shen Mu's strength was spent, the Dao Flower revolved, the dharma power of the Dao Realm erupted, and it seemed Shen Mu would be drowned, when suddenly Shen Mu roared, and all thirty-two folds of the Heavenly Dao Realm gathered into one palm that struck the sword hilt with blow upon blow! Chi.

A sword light pierced through the Dao Flower and into Taichu's brow.

Shen Mu's primordial spirit roared, both hands circling to form the Great Abyss of Guixu, composing the Heaven Wheel of Myriad Daos! Around Shen Mu's primordial spirit, Heavenly Palace after Heavenly Palace revolved, forming a Heaven Wheel of Myriad Daos on a still grander scale to empower his divine art!

He had studied Emperor Haotian's cultivation method to the marrow, and this blow of his bore much of Haotian's manner!

Boom, boom, boom.

Wheel after wheel of the Heaven Wheel of Myriad Daos crashed out, printing upon Taichu's brow, driving the Calamity Sword deeper and deeper, deep into Taichu's brain!

Taichu staggered back and set his back against the Dao Tree. Shen Mu raised a hand and pointed; Hongmeng runes gathered at his fingertip and became a Hongmeng Finger!

He pointed at the sword hilt, and about the hilt revolved the Wheel of Myriad Daos!

Ding.

A soft ring, and the Calamity Sword pierced through the back of Taichu's skull and nailed him to his own Dao Tree! "Truly remarkable.

Had I never been to the Ancestral Court, I would not be your match. " Taichu struggled and could not pull himself free of the Dao Tree.

He laughed: "Heavenly Venerable Mu, you truly have what it takes to become the Seventh Young Master. No wonder the Third Young Master dreads you so.

" Shen Mu's pupils shrank.

He stirred the Calamity Sword, and at that moment the sword was shaken loose from Taichu's brow and shot backward!

In Taichu's brow the Dao sound rumbled and quaked, and treasure hall after treasure hall flew out, crashing down around Shen Mu!

The twenty-four treasure halls of the Ancestral Court's Yujing City surrounded Shen Mu!

From the treasure halls walked one immensely powerful phantom after another.

Taichu cut his wrist, and the ancient-god Dao blood of Taichu splashed out, falling upon those phantoms!

Their flesh and blood writhed, and little by little they had bodies.

"Seventh Young Master.

" A woman slowly raised her head, her gaze falling on Shen Mu.

"We meet again.

" Shen Mu raised a hand and caught the flying Calamity Sword.

Both hands resting on its hilt, he looked around and smiled. "Come to block my attainment of the Dao again?

You have made something of yourselves this time, using Taichu's blood to make yourselves bodies; your strength is a little, tiny bit greater than before.

"