Chapter 1584 — Unrivaled for Six Billion Years
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 1 of 4
That was the Great Luotian of Divine Consciousness.
In the Primordial Era, countless Creators had offered sacrifice to Taidi, making his flesh and his divine consciousness immeasurably mighty, breaking past every limit.
With all the myriad races sacrificing to him, Taidi branded the Ultimate Void with his divine consciousness, and thus the Great Luotian of Divine Consciousness came into being: the Dao Tree grew, the Dao Flower bloomed, the Dao Fruit formed, and from then on he was deathless and indestructible. Yet his cultivation had come from sacrifice, not from his own practice; his comprehension of the Dao of Divine Consciousness had reached only the thirty-fifth heaven, and so his Dao Fruit was a green fruit that could never ripen.
He had been plotted against by the Primordial Sage of Miluo Palace. In those years, when they explored the Jade Capital of the Ancestral Court, he and Taichu's party had come upon Pixiang Hall; after taking that hall, they found within it the Primordial Sage of Miluo Palace, a mighty being who had passed through two great tribulations of destruction.
So Taidi and the others paid homage to the Primordial Sage of Miluo Palace, and the Sage harbored treacherous designs; his path was that of attaining the Dao through faith, and he made Taidi and the rest believe in him, that their faith might help him descend.
Taidi and his companions were trapped in Pixiang Hall with no way out, and in the end it was only by Taichu's power that they escaped it, sealing Pixiang Hall away together with the Primordial Sage of Miluo Palace. What the Primordial Sage of Miluo Palace had taught Taidi was the way of attaining the Dao through faith, but he had deliberately sabotaged Taidi and taught him only part of it.
Taidi fused the Dao of Faith with the Dao of Divine Consciousness and made the Creators of the Primordial Era sacrifice to him; only thus could his divine consciousness reach straight into the Ultimate Void and lodge itself there. But because the Sage's teaching had been incomplete, he was tainted by the sacrificial power of the Creator race, and could never advance another step.
His goal was not merely the Heavenly Emperor's physical body, but Xiao Tianzun—and the Dao of Taichu! Shen Mu, Kaihuang, Hao Tianzun, and Xiao Tianzun fought one another ferociously, for the Heavenly Emperor's body and for his destruction—but was he not himself waiting for this very chance, to devour Xiao Tianzun and transform his divine consciousness into the Dao of Taichu?
Shen Mu and Kaihuang wished to destroy him; Xiao Tianzun and Hao Tianzun wished to devour him; but he too was waiting for this chance to make himself whole!
And now, at last, the chance had come! Kaihuang wielded his sword and fought Xiao Tianzun fiercely; of these two, one had attained the Dao through the Dao-realm, the other through power. Xiao Tianzun held the advantage of a deeper, more vigorous cultivation, and the might of the Dao of Taichu was terrifying; Kaihuang held the advantage of a profounder attainment in the Dao-realm, and his attacks were stronger.
Neither could slay the other in a single move.
Though Xiao Tianzun had the worse of it, so long as Kaihuang could not kill him he would rely on the mysteries of the Dao of Taichu to restore himself; and Kaihuang, by the sword-Dao that split heaven from earth, broke apart his Taichu primal qi and whittled away his cultivation. As for Shen Mu's side, it was a pure contest of strength against divine arts. The Heavenly Emperor's body was mighty, and Shen Mu's divine arts surpassed all others; Hao Tianzun, because what he cultivated was the Zixiao Hall, had greatly altered his divine arts and Dao techniques.
Their struggle too was deadlocked, and in a short time neither could gain the upper hand.
But Shen Mu, relying on the Heavenly Emperor's body being stronger—and not his own—met whatever divine art or Dao technique Hao Tianzun used with a life-for-life style of fighting.