Chapter 1844 — The Summons from the Holy Court

Though they sounded terrifying, the world noticed nothing. Wave after wave of the great Dao swept through Yuanjie and toward the other heavens, through Yuanjie, Xuandu, Youdu, the Four Polar Heavens, and all heavens and myriad worlds, where sleeping Dao-attainers awoke, ancient gods revived, hermits in famous mountains, peddlers and porters, cart-pullers and浆-sellers no, cart-pullers and vendors of drink, laborers in the workshops, all lifted their heads to sense the summons of the two Dao Ancestors.

Those with power laid power down and handed it to successors, those with families settled their families and packed their baggage, those alone in the world resigned their divine offices and hung their official seals upon the plaques of their gates. The vast majority had forgotten the Ancestral Court, but they still remembered.

They knew of the wars there and knew of the sacrifice of those who held fast there. Since that man summoned them, they would lay down everything and go to the Ancestral Court.

All heavens and myriad worlds lay far apart, and even by the spirit-energy transfer bridge many years would be needed, so these Dao-attainers each bloomed with their own Dao resonance and crossed the void of the universe by their own cultivation, hastening toward Yuanjie to join their fellow seekers of the Dao. Along the way they could not help but startle the world, conjuring all manner of strange signs across all heavens and myriad worlds. People marveled and ran to tell one another that they had seen living legends, living myths. Xu Shenghua and Lan Yutian waited in silence, and two days later, around the Dao hall where they stood, World Trees rose from the ground one after another, and Dao fruits of every color lit up the sky of Yuanjie.

After a hundred days the World Trees had become a grove. After a year the Dao hall was ringed by a forest of World Trees.

Beneath the World Trees stood one sacred being after another, the elite and the sharpest of all heavens and myriad worlds over these three and a half billion years. Their myriad Daos made all Yuanjie shine like the brightest jewel in the universe, rich and resplendent.

The two Old Ancestors waited a hundred years, until all Dao-attainers of all heavens and myriad worlds had gathered here, and Lan Yutian watched that壮观 scene with surging heart.

This was the fruit that man had won for the universe of the seventeenth era with three and a half billion years of his own time. In the end the thousand words in Lan Yutian's breast melted into a single sentence. "To the Ancestral Court!

" That great army of Dao-attainers marched vast and mighty, following Lan Yutian and Xu Shenghua toward the Ancestral Court.

"Three and a half billion years?

" Lan Yutian asked Xu Shenghua. "Yes.

" Xu Shenghua nodded, calm as ever: "Three and a half billion years.

" Yet in his gaze a passion surged and swelled, hard to suppress.

"Is he still there?

" Lan Yutian asked.

Xu Shenghua said, "Still there. " Shen Fengqing caught up with them, fell silent a moment, and asked, "Will this be the last battle?

" "Perhaps.

" Xu Shenghua said, "Perhaps it will be the last battle, perhaps only a beginning.

For us, it is the last battle.

For him, perhaps it is a beginning.

" He paused, then smiled brightly: "He is a man who cannot sit still.

Some call him a silly roe deer, foolish and curious about everything.

I am amazed myself that he could stay peacefully in the Ancestral Court, suppressing it for so long.

Others say he has no patience, and indeed he has none.

Yet this time, his patience has been longer and deeper than anyone's.

" "How has he lived all these years?

" Kaihuang Shen Ye caught up with them and asked, "Since I returned from the Ancestral Court, I have seldom seen him.

Have you ever been to the Ancestral Court?

" "He would not let us return, for fear of alerting the enemy. " Xu Shenghua shook his head: "We have never gone back either.

" Xing An came over carrying his box and said, "In this world, besides us, few still know him. " Jiang Baigui walked over and said lightly, "That we know him is enough. " Xing An glanced at him. The two Sages never got along. Jiang Baigui's gaze searched among the Dao-attainers until at last he found one man, stepped forward, and asked, "Chief Sishen of the Creators?

Where is your mother?

" "My mother exhausted her lifespan in the year I attained the Dao. " Chief Sishen's face darkened as he said, "I arranged her reincarnation, but she would not awaken to her past life, willing to become an entirely new life.

I often go to see her.

She lives well now and no longer knows me.

" He carried a painting on his back, saying Lang Wan had bade him on her deathbed to take it to see that man in the Ancestral Court.

"May I look?

" Jiang Baigui asked.

Chief Sishen took down the painting and handed it to him. Jiang Baigui unrolled it.

In the painting there was a Jade Pool with flowers in the pool, and beside it a great green serpent visualized by divine consciousness, its head broad and wide.

Lang Wan stood upon the serpent's head, her manner not cold and aloof but shy like a young girl. Beside her, a youthful man visualized a fresh flower and offered it to her. Jiang Baigui rolled up the painting and returned it to Chief Sishen, and after a moment he lifted his head and said, "If Heaven had feeling, Heaven too would grow old.

Since the Divine King has chosen to grow old, we should not disturb her.

"