Chapter 1482 — The Journey Is Long — Where Does It End?
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 1 of 3
Shen Mu looked at the Lord of Heaven's primal spirit within the Nine Nether Great Prison, and hope still showed in his eyes. He earnestly hoped the Lord of Heaven could walk out of the Nine Nether Great Prison, proving that his insight into the Heavenly Dao ran so deep that not even the Nine Nether Great Prison could lock away his heart of the Dao! Only then would the Lord of Heaven be a Lord of Heaven who possessed the heart of Heaven, and not a Heavenly Venerable Hong ruled by desire!
Only then would he exert all his strength, and guard the Lord of Heaven's life even at the cost of his own!
Yet in the ninth tier of the prison, the Lord of Heaven's primal spirit never did as he wished; it never walked out of the Nine Nether Great Prison.
The heart of the Dao was not so easy to cultivate as the world imagined; to cultivate it to completion, one needed not only mighty dharma power and perception of the great Dao of heaven and earth, but also tempering in the red dust of the mortal world.
The Lord of Heaven dwelt in Xuandu, too high and too far, and he himself resisted the Heavenly Dao; thus his heart of the Dao was not so strong as Shen Mu had imagined. Yet the Lord of Heaven was still suppressing the consciousness of the Heavenly Dao, and had not let it attack Shen Mu, and this raised a thread of hope in Shen Mu once more.
However, as the stabbing pain of the Nine Nether Great Prison grew deeper and sharper, the Lord of Heaven's resistance to the Heavenly Dao's consciousness grew ever more difficult. Tian Shu, Zai Fu, Luo Wushuang and Zhe Huali gripped their blade hilts with all their strength, staring at the surroundings, sweat and blood running down together from their brows.
They no longer urged Shen Mu on, for once Shen Mu made up his mind, he seldom changed it.
They were Shen Mu's friends, his kin; they understood everything he did.
Suddenly Shen Mu dispersed the Nine Nether Great Prison, and the pressure of the Heavenly Dao around them dispersed with it. The four felt their bodies go limp and nearly sank to their knees. In the end Shen Mu had changed his course, had compromised; he had not held out to the bitter end.
"He fears for our lives.
" Zai Fu leaned on his heavenly blade to keep from falling, and thought: "If Shen-er were here alone, he would likely stake his own life on the gamble of whether the Lord of Heaven would walk out of the Nine Nether Great Prison.
But with us at his side, he dares not gamble; in his heart, our lives matter as much as the Lord of Heaven's.
" Shen Mu closed his eyes and did not look at the Lord of Heaven's primal spirit as it came toward him.
The primal spirit came to his side, still wearing the guise of that white-bearded old man who had once been chased all over the Shenzi Continent by Shen Fengqing, kindly of brow and gentle of eye, and it smiled and said: "Shepherd Heavenly Venerable, the obsession in your heart runs too deep. " Shen Mu's eyes flew open, and a smile appeared on his face. He took out paper and brush, spread them on the ground, bent low, and with flying strokes quickly drew a scroll of the Nine Nether Great Prison upon the paper; then he rolled it up in haste and handed it to the Lord of Heaven. The Lord of Heaven was briefly startled, then took the painted scroll.
"Brother of the Dao, do not open it now.
Open it after I have gone. " Shen Mu smiled: "That way, even if the Heavenly Dao wishes to attack me, it will have no way to reach me. " The primal spirit asked: "What will happen when I open this scroll?
" "As before.
" Shen Mu concealed nothing: "You will be locked by the Nine Nether Great Prison, fall into it, and feel the piercing pain of the heart of the Dao. " The primal spirit asked: "And if I do not open this scroll, but destroy it instead?
" "Then I will leave Xuandu and no longer hinder your seeking of death.