Chapter 1499 — A Mysterious Figure Borrows a Wonder
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 1 of 3
Shu Jun's great, shaggy head was exceedingly conspicuous. Only when he saw every gaze gathered upon him did he breathe a sigh of relief, and he said in a low voice, "This Pixiang Hall is a structure of Yujing City."
"Which Yujing City?" Everyone was somewhat bewildered.
There were far too many Yujing Cities. The Jingping Kingdom had a Lesser Yujing; the Heavenly Court had a Yujing City; and the heavenly palaces of the other Great Emperors all likewise possessed structures called Yujing Cities.
"The Ancestral Court's Yujing City."
Shu Jun paused, then said, "In those years, when I was still a God King of the Primordial Era, I once journeyed with the Great Emperor, Taichu, and other God Kings to explore a mysterious place. That place was the Ancestral Court's Yujing. We beheld many inconceivable things..."
His expression turned strange; plainly, even now, he still found it inconceivable. After a moment, he continued, "There we suffered grievous casualties. But our discoveries were too terrifying, and so we sealed that place away. I surmise that it was on that expedition that one of us carried the Pixiang Hall out."
Shen Mu studied the Pixiang Hall. This great hall was indeed no treasure that the Creators of old could have fashioned. In the Primordial Era, the Creators fought by means of divine consciousness and visualization; their architecture, too, was overwhelmingly minimalist, devoid of ornament, having developed no art of its own.
Every era possesses its own unique artistic inheritance. The architecture and aesthetics of the Longhan Era were dominated by ancient-god totems and the worship of ancient gods; images of grotesquely featured ancient gods were everywhere. The Chiming Era exalted the beauty of yang vigor; everywhere were mighty god-demons with three heads and six arms, displaying the aesthetic of physical power. In the Shanghuang Era, the Northern and Southern Shanghuang stood opposed: the Northern Shanghuang ruled as demigods, while the Southern Shanghuang was ruled by the human race. The Southern Shanghuang's creed was that human life outweighs heaven itself, and so their art chiefly expressed the notion that man can conquer heaven. By the Kaihuang Era, divine abilities had grown refined and art had reached its zenith; the art of this era was exceedingly intricate, mostly displaying the acquired Great Way and the affairs of daily life. And the art of the Jingping Era had not yet fully developed, being all the more varied in kind—the Blind Elder, for instance, excelled at painting gods, ghosts, demons, and monsters, and was likewise skilled at painting beauties.
But the artistic style of the Pixiang Hall had no inheritance relationship with any of these eras. The Pixiang Hall might indeed have come from the Ancestral Court's Yujing City. Yet this art was plainly not innate—it was art created by people. And that was strange indeed!
"Could it be that the Ancestral Court's Yujing City was not naturally formed, but man-made?"
Shen Mu's expression turned strange. Having witnessed the Ancestral Court's Four Great Heavenly Gates, the Nine Hells Terrace, the God-Slaying Terrace, the Heavenly Sea, the Jade Terrace, and other such places, he had held a preconceived notion: that the Ancestral Court's Yujing City, too, was a wondrous place formed by the Great Way of heaven and earth. But judging by the Pixiang Hall, this Yujing City was likely no natural spectacle shaped by heaven and earth, but a divine city made by human hands!
Before the Creators there had been no civilization. In what era, then, had Yujing City been forged?
Alarm rose in his heart. Recalling the coffin of the previous universe beneath the Jade Pool and Jade Terrace, and that the entire Ancestral Court was a vast sacrificial altar, he formed a conjecture.