Chapter 1676 — The Seventh and the Third
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 1 of 4
There were but twenty-four Treasure Halls, and those twenty-four Treasure Halls stood for twenty-four Enlightened Ones of a past universe, beings such as Yuan Sheng, who might be called the mainstay of Miluo Palace! Yuan Sheng, for instance, had lived through three cosmic epochs, and his strength far surpassed that of the present Emperor Haotian, Taichu, and Kaihuang.
Though he died at the hands of the Ten Heavenly Venerables, it was because his true self never truly reached this universe, with only his Dao fruit and Dao tree descending, and because, plotted against by Wei Suifeng and Shu Jun, he was forced to trade a hard blow with Nanxiang Yuanjun and was grievously wounded, and only thus could the Ten Heavenly Venerables slay him.
Though Yuan Sheng was dead, the others of the Seventy-Two Halls still lived. Emperor Haotian and Taichu had together taken away fifty-six Treasure Halls, and sixteen Treasure Halls remained in Yujing City of the Ancestral Court, among them the Pixiang Hall of Yuan Sheng of Miluo Palace.
Though Shen Mu mocked these twenty-four prehistoric Enlightened Ones with his tongue, in his heart he did not despise them in the least.
Any who could attain the Dao in prehistory and live until now had extraordinary achievement, and even if their true bodies could not descend, they were not to be trifled with!
These twenty-four Enlightened Ones were not merely a little stronger than before, but stronger by far, beyond measure!
When last they stopped Shen Mu from attaining the Dao, their power came from those Treasure Halls, and those Treasure Halls were the Seventy-Two Halls comprehended by Shen Mu himself, not the true Seventy-Two Halls.
Seizing the chance to descend, they were none of them too strong, able only to send down projections of their own flesh and projections of Dao tree, Dao flower, and Dao fruit.
Shen Mu, moreover, had borrowed the cycle of creation and destruction of the Shenzang Universe to wholly refine and absorb the projected power they sent, holding the advantage of terrain and the advantage of his own unified arts. But now the Treasure Halls of these twenty-four Enlightened Ones had truly and tangibly appeared within the Yiqi Daluo Heaven, and this was Taichu's Yiqi Daluo Heaven, not Shen Mu's Yuantai Shenzang.
Whether he could prevail over these twenty-four Enlightened Ones, he had no confidence at all.
More crucial still, Taichu stood beside them! Shen Mu wore a smile and leaned upon his Calamity Sword without moving.
The twenty-four Enlightened Ones likewise stood towering there without moving. This time they did not send down projections of their Dao trees, Dao flowers, and Dao fruits, yet hall after hall seemed to come alive, the rune patterns, Dao patterns, and Dao chains of the Treasure Halls reviving and suffusing the air with the Dao resonance unique to Enlightened Ones!
Their flesh grew ever stronger, their power rising madly, the rune patterns, Dao patterns, and Dao chains of the halls soaring up to drill into their bodies and swell their strength.
Taichu, feeling surge after surge of mighty power, was secretly startled: these twenty-four existences were already undying and imperishable.
Though their true bodies could not descend, with but a drop of his blood they could raise their strength to this stage, like twenty-four Heavenly Venerables, truly terrifying!
"Taichu, you see it now?
" Shen Mu smiled faintly and said leisurely: "You and Venerable Haotian have both gone astray. " Taichu started slightly: "What makes Venerable Mu say so?
" "These twenty-four prehistoric fellow Daoists, the fruit of their cultivation was not a Lingxiao Hall or a Zixiao Hall, but each attaining the Dao through his own art and transforming it into his own great hall.