Chapter 1770 — Audience with the Noble Lord in the Thatched Cottage
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 2 of 4
Shen Mu explained to him: "With my present strength I am far from a match for the Third Lord and the Fourth Lord. Only Tai Yi can do this, holding back the two Lords of Miro Palace so that they cannot descend. I think the Ancestral Court will be an excellent training ground, one that will let us grow."
The man at his side never spoke.
At last, the thatched cottage in the Ultimate Void was reached.
Shen Mu moored the ship and stepped down from it. When he came before the thatched cottage, the figure aboard the golden ship gave a long, faint sigh.
Shen Mu turned his head; the figure aboard the ship had vanished.
Shen Mu sat down, drove all other thoughts from his mind, and quietly regarded the cottage's door. After a moment he said in a low voice: "Eldest Senior Brother Tai Shang, will you manifest yourself and grant me a meeting?"
The void was still; there was no sound at all, only the cold, lonely wind blowing without cease.
Shen Mu said mildly: "Through these years my understanding of the Dao arts and divine powers of Miro Palace has deepened, and my knowledge of yours has deepened as well. With my present strength, I am able to wield the Divine Axe of Tai Yi and break open your thatched cottage. But after all, you and I are of the same school. I very much wish to see you."
The thatched cottage showed no sign of life.
Shen Mu smiled slightly and said with ease: "If you do not believe me, I can demonstrate it for you. You probably do not yet know that the Third has taught me a great many things these days."
He rose to his feet and stirred the Dao of Tai Yi; the Dao of Tai Yi took form in his hand as the Divine Axe of Tai Yi. Shen Mu wielded it with effortless mastery, executing the axe-technique Tai Yi had passed down to him.
His face was grave. The divine axe traced slowly through the air before him. The stroke looked ordinary enough, yet it concealed tens of thousands of subtleties, and displayed the Dao arts and divine powers of Tai Yi in their fullest measure.
More than that, the six thousand four hundred great Daos encompassed by this thatched cottage were all broken by that single axe stroke, truly as a blade splits bamboo.
The six thousand four hundred stalks of thatch stood for the six thousand four hundred different Daos of the eldest young master Tai Shang. Each Dao stood at the level of a Dao-attainer, and each was evolved through the Primordial Runes.
In subtlety, in cultivation, Shen Mu had never seen anyone reach the heights of the eldest young master Tai Shang.
Yet however many Daos there were, their root was always the Primordial Runes. And now, after his battle with the Third Lord and six years of torment by illness, six years in which he had entered the Dao through dreams, he had studied the Miro Palace Dao arts hidden in his Dao wound until he understood seven or eight parts in ten.
The axe-technique Tai Yi had taught him through the staff had been aimed at the Dao arts and divine powers of Miro Palace from the first; and with Shen Mu's comprehension of those arts growing ever deeper, his breaking of them this time went all the more smoothly.
Shen Mu put up the axe. The Divine Axe of Tai Yi became the Dao of Tai Yi once more and sank into his divine treasury. His breath was somewhat unsteady, and he gasped for air. He had but lately recovered from grave wounds, and his cultivation had not yet returned to its peak.
"Eldest Senior Brother Tai Shang, what say you?"
Shen Mu steadied his breath, stepped forward, and said in a low voice: "If you are unwilling to talk, then I will forcibly break your seal and set Tai Yi free. If you are willing to show yourself, then perhaps we senior and junior brothers need not tear all face away."
He came before the thatched cottage and once more roused his spirit. Just as he was about to evolve the Divine Axe of Tai Yi from the Dao of Tai Yi, there came a soft creak, and the cottage door opened.