Chapter 1429 — Primordial Qi, Roaming the Dao Together
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 2 of 4
As Shen Mu walked upon it, he seemed a sacrificant presiding over the great rite of heaven and earth, and also a seeker of the Dao, every step steady, his bearing devout. Langxuan Divine Emperor also stepped up onto the terrace.
He was like an emperor, his mighty aura unfurling, invulnerable to all arts, untouched by all Daos. Shen Mu carefully felt the baptism of the Yao Pool's Great Dao as he climbed, listening to the sound of the Dao. Though Langxuan too could hear the sound of the Dao, his feelings and insights were far fewer than Shen Mu's.
He was too strong, not merely in cultivation and power, but his mindset was too strong as well, too domineering; he set himself too high.
Shen Mu climbed the first level of the Yao Terrace. Unlike the four Heavenly Gates and the Nine Hells Terrace, both the four Heavenly Gates and the Nine Hells Terrace tempered the heart of the Dao, and both were exceedingly perilous; if one could not pass, it likely meant death!
But the Yao Pool nourished the heart of the Dao; there was no trial or tempering, and instead it nurtured the heart of the Dao and let it grow. A wondrous melody came to his ears, as though the Great Dao were whispering at his ear.
He felt the Great Dao as water, as a mother's body, as the truth, goodness and beauty of the world. He felt too that the Great Dao was like the earth, bearing all things and rearing all things, broadening a man's heart. The highest good is like water; water benefits all things and does not contend.
The earth's disposition is Kun; the noble man carries all things with generous virtue.
He stood upon the terrace and gazed far across the Yao Pool. Its former glory was gone, yet standing here it seemed he could see the jade-green waves of the Yao Pool rippling, nourishing every living thing, the waves like dragon scales.
He turned to look back.
Yuanmu, who had become the Earth Mother Yuanjun, was now nowhere to be seen, leaving only a vast sinkhole; yet he seemed to see Yuanmu lush and verdant, sheltering the Creator forebears in the primeval age.
The Earth Mother carries all things with generous virtue; the Yao Pool is the highest good, like water.
He sensed the thirty-six Great Daos of earthly virtue, and the twenty-four Daos of the highest good. After a long while, Shen Mu stepped forward.
The Yao Pool was a place of sacrifice for the Creator forebears of the primeval age, where they sacrificed to heaven and earth, to the cosmos and the primal wilds. The people of that time were ignorant and unenlightened, not knowing whence their own strength came, nor that they could use the Yao Terrace to nourish their hearts of the Dao.
They possessed only a simple heart.
Coming here, they felt their minds grow calm, as though they could touch heaven and earth, could join with the Yao Sea.
They revered the land that reared them and all living things, revered the Yao Sea that nourished them and all things. Here they sacrificed to heaven and earth and the cosmos, and commemorated their forefathers. In this moment, Shen Mu too seemed to become one of the Creators of the primeval age of ignorance, sacrificing to heaven and earth, sensing the breath of the Great Dao here with a devout bearing.
He walked and paused, and the time he took grew longer and longer. Langxuan Divine Emperor soon overtook him and came to the eighth level of the Yao Terrace.
Looking up at heaven and earth and down at the parched seabed, his heart was filled with a thousand feelings.
By the time Shen Mu arrived here, a month had passed.
Sensing his arrival, Langxuan Divine Emperor raised a hand and pointed to the parched seabed, to the rivers and mountains across the sea, spirited and elated, and laughed loud, "This land is so magnificent. Mu Tianzun, what man would not wish to possess such territory?