Chapter 1535 — Alone into the Imperial Capital
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 2 of 4
Shen Mu hesitated. He was filled with curiosity about the cultivation methods of the Woodcutter Sage's seventy-two treasure halls and thirty-six heavenly palaces, and greatly wished to cultivate them too.
Yet to cultivate such methods plainly consumed immense time and effort; otherwise Jiang Baigui would not still be at the Yaochi realm today.
The Woodcutter Sage cultivated three hundred and sixty heavenly palaces, three hundred and sixty kinds of acquired great dao, and the time it consumed was greater still.
With all the wisdom of his life, he might never succeed in cultivating the Heart of Heaven, let alone the Spirit-Slaying Platform.
Seeing that Shen Mu was not much inclined to learn, Jiang Baigui did not press him, and straightaway departed with Emperor Yanfeng.
Shen Mu then saw off King Yama, and took his leave of the South Emperor, saying, "Elder Sister, the Ancestral Ground of the Dao Fire, I need to borrow for a time."
The South Emperor said, "Take it as you please. This ancestral ground is no longer mine."
Shen Mu was slightly startled, and the South Emperor laughed. "I have died once, and shaken off all entanglement with the Ancestral Ground of the Dao Fire. It was seized by Heavenly Venerable Fire, then snatched away by Heavenly Venerable Moon, and now it has fallen into your hands and been refined by the heavenly artisans; it has long since had nothing to do with me. It cost me great effort to shed my identity as an ancient god; how could I cling to an old house?"
She had always been of a generous and forthright nature, and this time, having died and come back to life, she saw things more openly than ever.
Shen Mu laughed heartily. "Elder Sister is as free-spirited as ever. Since you cast aside even the Ancestral Ground of the Dao Fire like a worn-out sandal, why must you have your divine soul back?"
The face of South Emperor Vermilion Bird darkened. She said lightly, "Bai Yuqiong says she is not me, yet she is still me. Brother Mu, though you are the Grand Dharma Master Undying Through Myriad Kalpas and can revive souls, your insight into the resonance between my two souls of Heaven and Earth and my divine soul is still shallow. Since my rebirth I can sense with perfect clarity that other self of mine; I can sense Bai Yuqiong. And she can sense me. I have a premonition that in the future we will yet return to one body."
She smiled brightly. "Brother Mu, as South Emperor Vermilion Bird I have lived but one life; this now is my second. As Bai Yuqiong, she lacks two lives to reach two hundred. When we return to one body, I will be both the South Emperor and Bai Yuqiong. By then, when we look back upon the kalpas we endured through those two hundred lives, and our hearts of dao are made whole, we will most likely smile in perfect understanding."
Shen Mu thought for a moment, and did not press her. To Yan'er he said, "Look after your mother well. And feed her less; she has grown fat already."
The South Emperor scolded him in anger and made as if to strike; Shen Mu laughed and dodged away.
He took his leave of the South Emperor and Lady Tianyin, and bearing the Ancestral Ground of the Dao Fire, departed the Tianyin Realm together with the Blind Elder, Granny Zhu and Prince Youming, returning to the Ancestral Court.
The Silent Craftsman, meanwhile, was still within the Ancestral Ground of the Dao Fire, standing erect there as before, in the midst of comprehending the dao.
When the heavenly artisans bring forth things, the Great Dao begins to take form. Perhaps this forging of a sword for Shen Mu would let the Silent Craftsman enter an utterly new dao-realm in the way of casting, and drive that acquired great dao of casting to a height never seen before.
"Shen'er, are you not returning to the Holy Mountain?"