Chapter 1770 — Audience with the Noble Lord in the Thatched Cottage

The Golden Ship of Salvation sailed into the Ultimate Void. Shen Mu stood at the prow; the golden ship drifted quietly on, bearing along the course he held in his heart.

"Forty-two years is very near now. You should be appearing soon as well."

Shen Mu stood at the prow and did not look behind him. Behind him a figure had appeared, dim and hazy; if any eye should fall upon that person, that person would vanish.

Shen Mu did not look at him, but spoke to himself: "The war with the Heavenly Court is nearly over. In this war Wuyou Township was destroyed; of its soldiers and officers only a little over two thousand remain. But its common people were preserved. They live now in Jingping and live well. They have come into contact with the Jingping Reforms, and soon they will accept the reforms and throw themselves into them."

He laughed aloud. "I know that if you were still here, you would say with never a smile that all these sacrifices were worth it. Yet seeing old friends depart one by one would still grieve you, though you would never show it."

At his side, the man gazed far into the boundless void and stood silent.

"I did not resurrect them. I did not try to resurrect anyone."

Shen Mu went on: "The Wheel of Reincarnation has now been established, and within the wheel all beings are equal. Tubo will reward or punish them according to the good and evil they did in life. If a man has done too much evil, the fire of karma will burn him to ashes. But after they pass through the wheel, those reborn will not remember their former lives."

He smiled slightly. "I will promote a new system of Dao realms for the Ancestral Court. The old systems will all be cast aside. In this way, perhaps the great calamity of destruction may be resolved. You may well be the last Dao-attainer of the old system."

The man's eyes were deep; he did not speak.

"After this defeat, Hao Tianzun will return to the Ancestral Court."

Shen Mu continued: "Along the way he has lost soldiers and officers, his vitality gravely wounded, his followers deserting him. Whether he will still have a million troops left when he reaches the Ancestral Court is unknown; at most he may have only a few hundred thousand. He can no longer stir up the storms of the world, but he will not resign himself to it. The Dao-attainers of Miro Palace will seize the chance to descend; the Third Lord and the Fourth Lord will not give up. Hao Tiandi has thrown himself wholly into their camp, and may even join hands with the stowaways of the World Tree."

He smiled slightly. "When you return, there will be much to do, and you will not be idle. We will fight shoulder to shoulder again, against all the perils of the Ancestral Court. Yet I am glad at the thought of the war with the Ancestral Court."

He laughed aloud: "The Dao-attainers of the prehistoric age, the stowaways, stole the spiritual qi and spiritual power of heaven and earth and took up far too much of the universe's energy. It is well that they have come. Kill them, return their power to this universe, and this universe may live the longer. Lord Shang killed Tai Chu and brought blessing to the Yuan Realm; if these Dao-attainers die in the Seventeenth Era, our universe will keep on growing, and it may live as long as the First Era did, three hundred billion years. Three hundred billion years is a long time."

His gaze reached far. "This will be the most glorious of all the eras. You will see it all."

The Golden Ship of Salvation drifted on, unhurried, ever faster.

"The reason I must go to see Tai Yi is that the first counterblow of the Third Lord and the Fourth Lord will surely be ferocious beyond measure, and I may not be able to withstand it. Our situation looks excellent, yet it is as precarious as a heap of eggs."

Shen Mu explained to him: "With my present strength I am far from a match for the Third Lord and the Fourth Lord. Only Tai Yi can do this, holding back the two Lords of Miro Palace so that they cannot descend. I think the Ancestral Court will be an excellent training ground, one that will let us grow."

The man at his side never spoke.

At last, the thatched cottage in the Ultimate Void was reached.

Shen Mu moored the ship and stepped down from it. When he came before the thatched cottage, the figure aboard the golden ship gave a long, faint sigh.

Shen Mu turned his head; the figure aboard the ship had vanished.

Shen Mu sat down, drove all other thoughts from his mind, and quietly regarded the cottage's door. After a moment he said in a low voice: "Eldest Senior Brother Tai Shang, will you manifest yourself and grant me a meeting?"

The void was still; there was no sound at all, only the cold, lonely wind blowing without cease.

Shen Mu said mildly: "Through these years my understanding of the Dao arts and divine powers of Miro Palace has deepened, and my knowledge of yours has deepened as well. With my present strength, I am able to wield the Divine Axe of Tai Yi and break open your thatched cottage. But after all, you and I are of the same school. I very much wish to see you."

The thatched cottage showed no sign of life.

Shen Mu smiled slightly and said with ease: "If you do not believe me, I can demonstrate it for you. You probably do not yet know that the Third has taught me a great many things these days."

He rose to his feet and stirred the Dao of Tai Yi; the Dao of Tai Yi took form in his hand as the Divine Axe of Tai Yi. Shen Mu wielded it with effortless mastery, executing the axe-technique Tai Yi had passed down to him.

His face was grave. The divine axe traced slowly through the air before him. The stroke looked ordinary enough, yet it concealed tens of thousands of subtleties, and displayed the Dao arts and divine powers of Tai Yi in their fullest measure.

More than that, the six thousand four hundred great Daos encompassed by this thatched cottage were all broken by that single axe stroke, truly as a blade splits bamboo.

The six thousand four hundred stalks of thatch stood for the six thousand four hundred different Daos of the eldest young master Tai Shang. Each Dao stood at the level of a Dao-attainer, and each was evolved through the Primordial Runes.

In subtlety, in cultivation, Shen Mu had never seen anyone reach the heights of the eldest young master Tai Shang.

Yet however many Daos there were, their root was always the Primordial Runes. And now, after his battle with the Third Lord and six years of torment by illness, six years in which he had entered the Dao through dreams, he had studied the Miro Palace Dao arts hidden in his Dao wound until he understood seven or eight parts in ten.

The axe-technique Tai Yi had taught him through the staff had been aimed at the Dao arts and divine powers of Miro Palace from the first; and with Shen Mu's comprehension of those arts growing ever deeper, his breaking of them this time went all the more smoothly.

Shen Mu put up the axe. The Divine Axe of Tai Yi became the Dao of Tai Yi once more and sank into his divine treasury. His breath was somewhat unsteady, and he gasped for air. He had but lately recovered from grave wounds, and his cultivation had not yet returned to its peak.

"Eldest Senior Brother Tai Shang, what say you?"

Shen Mu steadied his breath, stepped forward, and said in a low voice: "If you are unwilling to talk, then I will forcibly break your seal and set Tai Yi free. If you are willing to show yourself, then perhaps we senior and junior brothers need not tear all face away."

He came before the thatched cottage and once more roused his spirit. Just as he was about to evolve the Divine Axe of Tai Yi from the Dao of Tai Yi, there came a soft creak, and the cottage door opened.

Shen Mu was startled. An old man pushed the door open from within, raised his head to glance at him, then turned back and carefully locked the door behind him.