Chapter 1772 — The Master Freed

A doorway had appeared upon the Chaos Palace, a change even Shen Mu himself had not foreseen, and his primordial spirit at once stepped forward to stand before the gate of the Chaos Palace. He had long thought it would be hard for him to cultivate the Chaos Palace to completion, and the master of the Miluo Palace had once said that, never having been tempered in a true Annihilation Calamity, Shen Mu would find it hard to comprehend what true Chaos truly was.

For that very reason, though he had cultivated the Chaos Palace, the precious palace had neither door nor gate and could not be entered. If he wished to walk this path to perfection, he must return to the past, endure one Annihilation Calamity after another, and taste the true essence of Chaos.

Shen Mu himself deeply agreed with the judgment of the master of the Miluo Palace.

But how could he at this juncture return to past universes to become the Seventh Young Master?

He chose to remain.

Yet now the Chaos Palace had gained a doorway, a sight that filled him with both shock and delight.

The transformation of the Chaos Palace seemed impossible, yet it was only to be expected.

Since his encounter with the master of the Miluo Palace across Chaos, he had made breakthrough after extraordinary breakthrough, bringing the Dao of the Returned Void to great completion, deepening the Chaos Sea, forging the Hongmeng body, attaining the Hongmeng primordial spirit, comprehending the Heaven-Opening Chapter of Tiandu, and awakening to the Dao of Taiyi and its divine powers.

Nor was that all, for with the aid of the Dao wound left upon him by the Third Young Master of the Miluo Palace, he had fathomed many mysteries of the Hongmeng divine arts of the Miluo Palace and resolved his own Dao wound.

He could now be said to have gathered into one the paths of the Miluo Palace and Tiandu, and to hold a still deeper understanding of the Dao of Chaos. His primordial spirit stood before the Chaos Palace and thrust open that heavy, solid portal, and as the Chaos Palace swung open, what met his Yuansheng eyes were rivers of Chaos, one after another! Shen Mu's heart started, and his primordial spirit hastily checked its steps.

Sixteen long rivers of Chaos lay within his Chaos Palace, and beneath each river could be seen the magnificent history of sixteen universe epochs, with countless beings struggling, rising and sinking, and dying within the waters. Within his Chaos Palace stood revealed the Annihilation Calamities of sixteen universe epochs!

It was not that his Chaos Palace concealed within it the Annihilation Calamities that had destroyed sixteen universe epochs, but that this Chaos Palace of his was joined to the Annihilation Calamities of those sixteen universes!

This was the road he must travel to attain the Dao! He must cross these sixteen rivers of Chaos before he could reach the throne at the heart of the Chaos Palace!

When he and the master of the Miluo Palace had met across the Chaos Palace, the master had been within the palace and he without, and thus they had spoken.

Shen Mu had earlier assumed the master of the Miluo Palace must have been inside his own Chaos Palace, but now it seemed the master had not been in the palace at all, but within the Chaos river of some universe epoch! The master must have seen a Chaos Palace suddenly appear in a future universe, and so pierced through layer upon layer of Chaos to come before this great hall.

He had thought Shen Mu was within the palace, and Shen Mu had thought he was within the palace, and so across time and space they had held their dialogue, neither ever beholding the other's face.

In that wondrous exchange, the master of the Miluo Palace had come to understand Shen Mu's condition, and therefore told him he must return to the past and pass through one Annihilation Calamity after another before his cultivation could be made perfect. Now, beholding these sixteen rivers of Chaos, Shen Mu knew the master's words had not been idle.

"If I would attain the Dao, I must endure these sixteen rivers of Chaos.

The master must even then have seen the Chaos Palace enthroned upon sixteen rivers of Chaos, and that was why he spoke as he did.

" His primordial spirit stood before the first river, yet never lifted its foot to tread its surface.

For he had divined a truth, that should he set foot upon a river of Chaos, he would sink into it and fall into a primeval universe! He absolutely could not allow himself to enter a primeval universe now, for he must remain in Jingping!

This first river was the Annihilation Calamity of the First Universe, and to tread within it would be to fall into the First Universe, and when would he ever return? "To hell with it!

" Shen Mu surged with Hongmeng vital energy and drove the Taiyi divine axe with all his heart, thinking, "Settle what lies before my eyes first. What comes after can be faced after.

" He threw open the portal of the Chaos Palace, his cultivation soaring, his grasp of the Dao of Chaos deepening. Within Chaos there is no Great Dao, and what he would open up was a new Dao, a Dao that leapt free of both the Miluo Palace and Tiandu, which was why the master of the Miluo Palace had said he could not quite see through it.

Though Shen Mu was not yet perfected, and could give no clear account of the Chaos Palace and the Great Dao of Chaos, the rise in his cultivation and strength was real beyond doubt!

Like a giant sundering heaven and earth, he drove the great axe forward, rending asunder more than half of that wicker portal as if withering rot giving way! Yet the further he went, the heavier the pressure grew, for the six thousand four hundred Daos of the thatched hut resisted him almost as one!

Shen Mu suddenly raised his foot and stamped down hard, and beneath his feet emerged the phantom of the altar raised by the host of Tiandu when they opened the heavens!

With his own Hongmeng vital energy he evolved the Heaven-Opening Altar, his whole body steaming with purple vapor mingled with Chaos qi, his power climbing anew!

Hiss-- The two door panels flew up and spun away to either side!

Shen Mu dispersed the Taiyi divine axe, braced his hands upon his knees, and panted hard, shock and joy warring in his heart, thinking, "It is done.

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. " He had scarcely formed the thought when every thatch upon the hut also leapt skyward and snapped in two in midair!

Shen Mu stared wide-eyed, at a loss.

Once severed, the thatch of the hut dissolved into wisps of Hongmeng purple vapor and vanished like smoke. Crack!

The roofless hut abruptly split apart on all sides, turning likewise into streaks of Hongmeng purple vapor that scattered and were gone! "Senior Brother Taishang, this is none of my doing!

" Shen Mu cried hastily in a loud voice, "Senior brother, I was only opening a door.

Your Taishang Palace was certainly not wrecked by me!

" The hut evaporated.

And behind where the hut had stood, the Dao-tree of the Eldest Young Master Taishang snapped with a sudden crack, then broke into drifting motes of light that swiftly dispersed!

Shen Mu stared, stammering, "Impossible, impossible.

.

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My strength could never have cleft your Dao-tree, nor could it have cleft your Taishang Palace.

You are trying to frighten me!

You mean to extort me.

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" The Dao-tree of the Eldest Young Master Taishang vanished utterly, leaving no trace.

The hut too was gone, leaving only a lone Dao-Burying divine coffin standing solitary in the ultimate void.

Shen Mu wavered between shock and doubt, for he surely could not have hacked the Taishang Palace to pieces, nor reduced the Dao-tree of the Eldest Young Master Taishang to ashes, so what in the world had happened?

"Most likely the Eldest Young Master Taishang saw me break his seal and so took back his Dao-tree and Taishang Palace.

It must be so! " Shen Mu steadied himself and muttered, "Do not think to pin this on me.

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