Chapter 1770 — Audience with the Noble Lord in the Thatched Cottage
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 3 of 4
Shen Mu was startled. An old man pushed the door open from within, raised his head to glance at him, then turned back and carefully locked the door behind him.
Shen Mu studied the old man, who was much shorter than himself. The primordial purple qi within him was all withdrawn; nothing sacred or remarkable could be seen in him at all, as though, thrown into a crowd, he would never be found again.
The eldest young master Tai Shang was just such an ordinary old man.
Tai Yi was a mass of chaotic qi, transforming in ten thousand ways, leaving no trace to be found, now man, now woman, able to take the form of all things between heaven and earth, able even to leap into the long river of chaos and come forth as some other Dao-attainer, utterly unfathomable.
But the eldest young master Tai Shang was ordinary, the sort of man who leaves no deep impression.
On him no ripple of any great Dao could be seen; he seemed extinguished. Yet Shen Mu, who had cultivated the Dao arts and divine powers of Miro Palace as well, could see what a fearsome power this old man's body contained.
He was even stronger than Tai Yi.
Shen Mu sat down; the old man sat down as well, like a withered tree in which no sign of life remained.
Shen Mu's eyes flickered. Suddenly he smiled and said: "Eldest Senior Brother Tai Shang, I once saw our master dissolve into the Dao and enter extinction. Your imitation of him is not very good. When our master dissolved into the Dao and entered extinction, all his thoughts were ashes and the heart of his Dao was dead, and so he fell into death. You, however, imitate only a dead heart of Dao; you have not truly dissolved into the Dao and entered extinction."
The old man across from him spoke, and at his first word Shen Mu was shaken to the core.
The old man spoke in the Primordial Dao-speech. Every syllable held a profound truth within it. The Dao-speech was unfathomable to begin with, and the Primordial Dao-speech held the mysteries of the great Dao still more; a single word could transform into the most terrible divine power in the world.
The Dao-speech that came from the mouth of the eldest young master Tai Shang was obscure and hard to grasp, unfathomable and lofty. At his first word, vision after vision rose before Shen Mu's eyes, as though he had fallen into a great chiliocosm where countless truths became reality and flashed past his gaze.
At the first syllable of the eldest young master Tai Shang's Dao-speech, the history of Miro Palace in the Second Cosmic Era already flashed before Shen Mu, presenting a scene magnificent and vast.
In that Dao-speech, the Master of Miro Palace, at the first dawning of the Second Cosmic Era, entered the world to save mankind and passed down Dao arts and divine powers, striving with all his might for a way to keep the universe from destruction.
A single brief stretch of Dao-speech encompassed the sweeping history of the Second Cosmic Era in one utterance, truly inconceivable; within it was even the tale of the Second Lord Tai Shang entering the Master of Miro Palace's gate, seeking learning and striving onward.
When the Second Cosmic Era began to show the signs of the great destruction, the Master of Miro Palace began actively to plan the founding of Miro Palace, intending to enter the calamity and strive to save everyone by leading them to the next universe.
When the sound of the first Dao-speech fell, the history of the Second Cosmic Era was laid out complete in Shen Mu's mind, including the failure of the Master of Miro Palace.
At the eldest young master's second utterance of Dao-speech, the past of the Third Cosmic Era was all revealed, the ideals of the Master of Miro Palace, his aspirations, the rules by which he acted, and all he had done for the great calamity of destruction, including his failure.
At the third utterance, everything of the Fourth Cosmic Era was revealed.
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