Chapter 1676 — The Seventh and the Third

There were but twenty-four Treasure Halls, and those twenty-four Treasure Halls stood for twenty-four Enlightened Ones of a past universe, beings such as Yuan Sheng, who might be called the mainstay of Miluo Palace! Yuan Sheng, for instance, had lived through three cosmic epochs, and his strength far surpassed that of the present Emperor Haotian, Taichu, and Kaihuang.

Though he died at the hands of the Ten Heavenly Venerables, it was because his true self never truly reached this universe, with only his Dao fruit and Dao tree descending, and because, plotted against by Wei Suifeng and Shu Jun, he was forced to trade a hard blow with Nanxiang Yuanjun and was grievously wounded, and only thus could the Ten Heavenly Venerables slay him.

Though Yuan Sheng was dead, the others of the Seventy-Two Halls still lived. Emperor Haotian and Taichu had together taken away fifty-six Treasure Halls, and sixteen Treasure Halls remained in Yujing City of the Ancestral Court, among them the Pixiang Hall of Yuan Sheng of Miluo Palace.

Though Shen Mu mocked these twenty-four prehistoric Enlightened Ones with his tongue, in his heart he did not despise them in the least.

Any who could attain the Dao in prehistory and live until now had extraordinary achievement, and even if their true bodies could not descend, they were not to be trifled with!

These twenty-four Enlightened Ones were not merely a little stronger than before, but stronger by far, beyond measure!

When last they stopped Shen Mu from attaining the Dao, their power came from those Treasure Halls, and those Treasure Halls were the Seventy-Two Halls comprehended by Shen Mu himself, not the true Seventy-Two Halls.

Seizing the chance to descend, they were none of them too strong, able only to send down projections of their own flesh and projections of Dao tree, Dao flower, and Dao fruit.

Shen Mu, moreover, had borrowed the cycle of creation and destruction of the Shenzang Universe to wholly refine and absorb the projected power they sent, holding the advantage of terrain and the advantage of his own unified arts. But now the Treasure Halls of these twenty-four Enlightened Ones had truly and tangibly appeared within the Yiqi Daluo Heaven, and this was Taichu's Yiqi Daluo Heaven, not Shen Mu's Yuantai Shenzang.

Whether he could prevail over these twenty-four Enlightened Ones, he had no confidence at all.

More crucial still, Taichu stood beside them! Shen Mu wore a smile and leaned upon his Calamity Sword without moving.

The twenty-four Enlightened Ones likewise stood towering there without moving. This time they did not send down projections of their Dao trees, Dao flowers, and Dao fruits, yet hall after hall seemed to come alive, the rune patterns, Dao patterns, and Dao chains of the Treasure Halls reviving and suffusing the air with the Dao resonance unique to Enlightened Ones!

Their flesh grew ever stronger, their power rising madly, the rune patterns, Dao patterns, and Dao chains of the halls soaring up to drill into their bodies and swell their strength.

Taichu, feeling surge after surge of mighty power, was secretly startled: these twenty-four existences were already undying and imperishable.

Though their true bodies could not descend, with but a drop of his blood they could raise their strength to this stage, like twenty-four Heavenly Venerables, truly terrifying!

"Taichu, you see it now?

" Shen Mu smiled faintly and said leisurely: "You and Venerable Haotian have both gone astray. " Taichu started slightly: "What makes Venerable Mu say so?

" "These twenty-four prehistoric fellow Daoists, the fruit of their cultivation was not a Lingxiao Hall or a Zixiao Hall, but each attaining the Dao through his own art and transforming it into his own great hall.

" Shen Mu let his gaze sweep one by one over the Chaohui Hall, Lingxu Hall, Baoguang Hall, Tongming Hall, and other Treasure Halls, and said unhurriedly: "In their hearts, you and Emperor Haotian are still not their own. They never imparted to you the true Yujing Enlightenment. If it were the true art of attainment, you would not cultivate a Lingxiao Hall or a Zixiao Hall, but cultivate your own Treasure Hall, cultivate your own imperial seat, and attain your own Dao.

" Taichu's heart turned cold, and he said nothing.

Just as Shen Mu said, the great Dao of these twenty-four prehistoric Enlightened Ones had in the end each become its own Treasure Hall, and not a Lingxiao attainment or a Zixiao attainment.

It was plain that the Lingxiao attainment and Zixiao attainment he and Emperor Haotian walked were a trap!

Shen Mu was not wrong in the least: he and Emperor Haotian were but pawns of the Third and Fourth Young Masters, not those the Third and Fourth Young Masters counted as their own. "But matters have come to this, and there is no road back.

" Taichu said silently to himself. Suddenly the twenty-four prehistoric Enlightened Ones moved as one, assailing Shen Mu from all sides! For the first time the divine arts of the prehistoric great Dao appeared in this universe. In their own eras these existences had each been a heaven-soaring genius standing upon the summit.

Though their divine arts differed from those of this universe, their might yielded nothing!

Nay, tempered a thousand times, as followers of the Lord of Miluo Palace, in finesse and in application they surpassed the present Heaven Court by countlessfold!

One of them had plainly walked the path of attaining the Dao through strength, cultivating the flesh, primordial spirit and flesh knit as one, his bodily power rare in all the world.

His moves resembled the martial path, vast and sweeping, like a giant sundering heaven and earth, tearing sun and moon with his hands, joining heaven and earth in his palms!

Another walked the path of innate holy fire, his flames refined into a wind of thermal extinction surpassing Venerable Fire, his art warping space, and with one strike his raging flames melted all things!

Yet another walked the path of the Heavenly Dao, his cultivation comparable to the Ancestral God King, yet his arts more exquisite and wondrous than the Ancestral God King's!

One prehistoric Enlightened One after another erupted in concert, slaying toward Shen Mu! Taichu fell back a step, suppressing the wound between his brows, waiting for his moment.

His wounds were heavy. His flesh could be called the mightiest flesh in the world today.

With this flesh Tai Di could sweep all before him undefeated, until at last, ambushed by Venerable Ling, he perished in Dao and body.

Yet by this day Shen Mu had grown to the point where he could batter this undefeated flesh.

In their clash just now, he had nearly been slain by Shen Mu! He had hurt not only flesh but primordial spirit, for Shen Mu's Calamity-Breaking Sword was skilled at wrecking the great Dao, and that thrust into his brow had left a grave Dao wound.

In the instant his foot fell back, Shen Mu's domain erupted, howling and spinning, crashing against his Yiqi Daluo Heaven!

Taichu lost his footing and fell back another step, his Yiqi Daluo Heaven sent spinning and flying backward by the impact.

A domain cultivated to the utmost, branded upon ultimate void, is a Daluo Heaven: Tai Di's Divine Consciousness Daluo Heaven, Kaihuang's Sword Dao Daluo Heaven, are both domains.

And now Shen Mu's Shenzang domain clashed with Taichu's Yiqi Daluo Heaven and yielded nothing, filling him with astonished dismay. "His growth is too swift.

At but the thirty-second heaven of the Dao Realm he does this.

Fortunately he has not cultivated a Dao tree. .

.

" Taichu had just thought this when suddenly behind Shen Mu a World Tree rose from the earth, suffused with the Dao resonance unique to Enlightened Ones!

Taichu's eyes twitched violently, and he cried inwardly that things boded ill. With the appearance of this World Tree, Shen Mu's aura soared, bearing much of an Enlightened One's bearing!