Chapter 1406 — The Four Heavenly Gates
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 1 of 3
"Shrewd as Long Xiao is, his is not great wisdom but small cleverness.
We must guard against him. " Walking toward the Ancestral Court's South Heavenly Gate, Shen Mu thought, "He excels in consciousness and in bodily strength, but like the Creators of the Primordial Era, he cannot refine his soul. His soul is weak beside his body and his consciousness; should he break his word, then that day will be his death day. Lady Yuanmu, though — for the sake of the interests on the back of the Ancestral Court, she abruptly sent down an artifact Heavenly Venerable.
That I did not foresee.
" The descent of the artifact Heavenly Venerable upon the back of the Ancestral Court drew all nine Heavenly Venerables there, and yet to this day no battle had been joined. If Hao, Hong, Huo, Lang and the rest, the nine Heavenly Venerables, wished to destroy the artifact Heavenly Venerable, it would in truth be no difficult thing.
A single combined strike from the nine of them could not be withstood even by an existence such as the Heavenly Duke or the Earth Earl; it would surely kill.
Mighty as Lady Yuanmu's artifact Heavenly Venerable was, it too could not withstand it. The reason they had not struck was that they did not know who Lady Yuanmu was; moreover, Lady Yuanmu had only sent the artifact Heavenly Venerable down, without her true body appearing, and they also feared that once the artifact Heavenly Venerable was destroyed, Lady Yuanmu would go over to Kaihuang and the Heavenly Duke and the others, swelling the strength of their enemies. More crucially still, Lady Yuanmu had no fundamental conflict with them, and was no enemy with whom it was a matter of life or death.
That being so, why not share a little profit with Lady Yuanmu and buy themselves an ally?
Having passed through the Nine Hells Terrace, Shen Mu's dao heart grew ever more limpid, and his judgment of the world's affairs ever more lucid; in but a short time he had sorted out cause and effect, and even reckoned the shifts of the future.
The Nine Hells Terrace realm was indeed a wondrous thing; it let him cleanse his heart and see his nature, granting him a finer grasp of himself and of the world's affairs. "The Nine Hells Terrace realm will surely shine brilliantly among the gods in time to come, and become a realm of utmost importance!
Yet it will also be the realm with the highest death rate, I fear no less than the death rate of the God-Slaying Terrace realm, and perhaps even higher!
Then again. . .
" Shen Mu's expression turned strange. The Nine Hells Terrace realm ranked after the God-Slaying Terrace realm and before the Jade Capital realm; and he had already cultivated the Nine Hells Terrace realm, while his cultivation realm had only just arrived at the Jade Terrace realm.
So what realm was he in now?
"That can only mean that even the Heavenly Palace Dao Realm system is still imperfect, unable to set out my realm perfectly. And even a perfect Heavenly Palace Dao Realm system would be but one part of my realm.
If I carry the Heavenly Palace Dao Realm system to its very end, will there still be a road before me?
How should the road ahead be walked? " He halted, pondering in silence; after a moment he went on again, thinking, "The Heavenly Palace Dao Realm system is at present built upon the Ancestral Court and the innate Great Dao; beyond these, there is also the opening and developing of the acquired Dao. In the acquired Dao there is still much to be achieved. The Woodcutter Sage's Dao of the acquired, the road by which the acquired overcomes the innate, is likewise a road of immeasurable importance!
But the Ancestral Court is the key to the perfect union of the Dao Realm system and the Heavenly Palace system; no matter what, I must gain firm footing in the Ancestral Court.