Chapter 1620 — Against the Tide
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 1 of 4
"That is no fault of Su Muzhe's. He may be the Grand Sacrificer of Wendao Academy, but in my presence he always feels that I am his elder, a woman who lives only in legend. When a man meets a figure out of legend, naturally he is a little ill at ease.
" Venerable Ling said, "So he is forever trying to strike up a conversation with me, and never knows what to say, and ends by pouring out everything about you. Do you remember the time Si Youyou took you to market, set her heart on a bolt of cloth, and having no money on her, left you in pawn at the draper's? She forgot to redeem you; it was the blind elder who felt his way there and bought you back. " "The village headman's mouth . .
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and Granny too! " Veins stood out one by one on Shen Mu's brow. He surveyed the void, steered the golden ship deeper into it, and with a forced laugh said, "Just now Bai Qu'er asked me to put a question to you: what is to be done with the remnants of the Supreme Emperor? She has hidden them away, but her strength is too modest to shelter them through the great calamity. " "The people of Kaihuang's age were also remnants of the Supreme Emperor; the people of Jingping's age are remnants of the Supreme Emperor as well.
To my mind there is no difference between any of them. " Venerable Ling said, "Then let these people be merged into Jingping, and spare me the trouble of running to three places. " She did not press Shen Mu further on matters of the heart.
Compared with a troublesome business like that, she preferred to delve into study.
Once again she immersed herself in the evolution of the Red Rope Knot Seal. That seal touched upon too much knowledge; even for a personage such as her it would take tens of thousands of years to fathom — and from this one could see what a difficult thing it had been to create the Red Rope Knot.
She was by nature extraordinarily clever. In those years Venerable Yu had said with envy that Venerable Ling's aptitude, insight and intellect surpassed even his own. For all that it was spoken in modesty and admiration, her aptitude, insight and intellect were indeed of the highest order.
Shen Mu likewise composed his mind and set to pondering the dao patterns; whenever he failed to understand something, he spoke up and asked. At first Venerable Ling answered him with patience. Later she grew impatient, judging his questions too simple, and snapped, "Everything is in my insights. Go comprehend it yourself!
" Shen Mu's face flushed crimson and he wished the earth would swallow him; he could only go obediently and comprehend it on his own.
At last the golden ship broke through the thirty-fifth layer of the void and sailed into the ultimate void, where the wind of cold silence howled, dissolving all matter — yet against the Golden Ship of Salvation it could do nothing. Venerable Ling pointed out for him the path to the Great Luo Heaven of Divine Consciousness. Shen Mu steered the golden ship onward through the ultimate void; the ultimate void was vaster than the whole of the universe by a measure beyond knowing.
As the universe grows, it grows ever larger, ever broader; the thirty-six layers of the void will gradually merge with the universe, and the spiritual qi and spiritual power between heaven and earth will thereby grow ever thinner, and the distances between galaxy and galaxy ever greater.
"With the strength I have now, can I imprint the ultimate void, and make my own power imperishable? " Shen Mu's eyes shone bright.
He drew the Tribulation Sword and took his stand at the bow, trying to rouse his divine art, seeking to imprint it upon the ultimate void. He executed the divine art of the thirty heavens, beginning with the first form of the Tribulation Sword, Raising the Tribulation, and working through to the thirty-first form, the Silence of the Wheel of Rebirth. Yet these thirty-one great divine arts, once imprinted on the ultimate void, dispersed in a moment like smoke, leaving not a trace behind.