Chapter 1609 — A Different Path to Attaining the Dao
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 1 of 4
"Attaining the Dao doesn't require a dao tree, dao flowers, or dao fruit?
" Shen Mu and the Empress sisters were each taken aback. In their long-held understanding, the most conspicuous mark of one who had attained the Dao was this: that the great dao should transform within the ultimate void into a dao tree, bloom into dao flowers, and bear dao fruit. Yet the woman beneath the sea said that the path of dao tree, dao flowers, and dao fruit was still very primitive — which did not accord with what they knew.
As far as Shen Mu knew, even the master of Miluo Palace had cultivated a dao tree and dao fruit, and upon his dao tree hung sixteen dao fruits!
Other Dao-attainers of Jade Capital City likewise mostly possessed dao trees and dao fruit, and so did the Fourth Young Master of Miluo Palace. Could there truly be a path in this world that required no dao tree and no dao fruit?
The woman beneath the sea said, "Attaining the Dao is not limited to the single path of transforming the great dao into a dao tree.
As for attaining the Dao by becoming a dao tree — that is, in truth, nothing more than a clever shortcut.
" Shen Mu asked humbly, "Second Sister, why do you say so? I look at our master, the master of Miluo Palace — he too has a dao tree.
Why then do you call it a shortcut? " "The dao tree is the World Tree.
This world already has a World Tree. When you attain the Dao, you shape your own dao in the likeness of the World Tree — is that not borrowing the power of the World Tree?
" The woman sneered, "You spend a lifetime cultivating, attaining the Dao, and in the end you imitate the World Tree, hoping thereby to make your own dao evergreen and undying like the World Tree. If that is not borrowing power, what is? And what is more laughable — imitation is imitation!
" She mocked, "The World Tree can pass through the great kalpa of the universe's birth and destruction, but the World Tree you imitate cannot pass through the kalpa of birth and destruction — is that not laughable? " Her words were full of sense, and Shen Mu could not help nodding again and again as he listened.
The Empress and Lady Yuanmu knew little of the great kalpa of the universe's destruction and felt little at her words, but Shen Mu knew that countless Dao-attainers in Jade Capital City, under the shelter of that divine city, sought to live on into the next universe.
And beneath the roots of the World Tree, innumerable prehistoric powerhouses sought to stow away into the next universe. Most of these people cultivated the path of dao tree, dao flowers, and dao fruit. "Mediocrity is mediocrity!
" The woman mocked, "Even our master, the first to cultivate a dao tree and dao fruit, could not escape falling onto the path of mediocrity.
To cultivate a dao tree is to make it impossible to pass through the kalpa of birth and destruction.
So they can only rely on stowing away.
Only in a second life, having cultivated a second dao fruit, do they have a chance to survive the kalpa of birth and destruction. But to enter the next universe, they still can only rely on stowing away! Even our master, an existence who has cultivated sixteen dao fruits — what of it? " She sneered, "If he wants to come over, must he not still rely on stowing away? This is the sorrow of the dao tree system! " Shen Mu thought for a moment, then suddenly said, "Just now, Second Sister kept speaking of the kalpa of birth and destruction, not the kalpa of destruction.
Why is that?
" The woman's gaze fell upon his face, and she said in admiration, "Seventh is clever after all — no wonder you have been able to stir up trouble for so long. That is right: it is the kalpa of birth and destruction, not the kalpa of destruction.