Chapter 1537 — All Beings Scramble to Cross
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 1 of 4
Shen Mu walked on along the palaces of those who had attained the Dao, halting at every hall he came upon to ponder the profound mysteries of the Great Dao stored within these treasure halls, and his harvest was rich.
Set against the Woodcutter's method of the Great Heavenly Court, with its Thirty-Six Heavenly Palaces and Seventy-Two Treasure Halls, the treasure halls of this Jade Capital City of the Ancestral Court did not walk the road whereby the Innate Dao guards the Acquired Dao, but the road whereby the Innate guards the Innate. "If Teacher Woodcutter's method can be made to work, then perhaps one may leap free of the Master of the Miluo Palace's grasp.
" Shen Mu mused: in the Woodcutter's method, the Seventy-Two Treasure Halls are the Innate Dao, and the Thirty-Six Heavenly Palaces the Acquired Dao; the Innate guards the Acquired, and by this one cultivates the true Heavenly Court realm and lays a foundation that will not shift.
Between the two there would seem to be only the difference of the Thirty-Six Heavenly Palaces, yet the difference is fundamental: the Woodcutter's method takes the Acquired Dao as its master, and the Innate Dao merely as its aid. The Woodcutter himself never cultivated such a discipline; he passed it on to Jiang Baigui.
In that year, when Taihuang Heaven preached the Dao, the former Imperial Preceptor of Jingping ascended the altar; Sage Woodcutter shouted out his questions, Jiang Baigui gave his answers, and so won the Woodcutter's favor, who permitted him to stand upon the altar. Afterward Jiang Baigui spent several years, out of three hundred and sixty kinds of Acquired Great Dao, selecting the thirty-six that suited him best, and thereby chose his own path of cultivation.
Sage Woodcutter had only inferred that such a method could cultivate the true Heavenly Court and fashion a great master surpassing the Ten Heavenly Venerables; but whether or not he could truly cultivate it, he could lend no help — that rested on Jiang Baigui's own wisdom.
"My third junior brother's Acquired Heavenly Palaces have already been opened, and he has cultivated the Seventy-Two Treasure Halls by his own method; then he has no need to come to the Jade Capital City. This realm of Jade Capital is no longer a snare for him.
" Shen Mu walked on, and could not help sighing within: his own path of cultivation had been crooked and hard, yet Jiang Baigui's road already lay smooth and open before him. If Jiang Baigui were to cultivate to the Emperor Throne realm, he would be the one who gathered into himself all the civilizations of the past million years, and there would be no second.
"Strange — the Ten Heavenly Venerables have split into two bands. " He halted before another treasure hall, examined the traces of battle there, and found that those who had struck were no longer Heavenly Venerable Hao and his company, but Heavenly Venerable Xiao, Heavenly Consort Yan and others.
The ten Heavenly Venerables had divided into two bands, each fighting its own war; judging by the footprints they left, one band was led by Heavenly Venerable Hao, the other by Heavenly Venerable Xiao. "The Ten Heavenly Venerables have broken apart.
Strange — by the footprints there are only nine of them; Heavenly Consort Qiang is not among them.
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" Shen Mu formed his own judgment: the Ten Heavenly Venerables were circling among the outer treasure halls, divining the Great Dao contained in hall after hall. Plainly, besides Heavenly Venerable Hao, who had the guidance of a "master" and understood the function of the Seventy-Two Treasure Halls, Heavenly Venerable Xiao also had the guidance of a "master"!