Chapter 1796 — Telling Black from White
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 2 of 4
His back had already sunk into the stele's surface, but his hands and legs were still braced outside, and he cried out fiercely, "If you have the ability, fight me to the death! What sort of skill is it to deal with a cripple?"
The First Young Master, Taishang, was expressionless. He raised his palm, and with a thunderous boom, the old man Dongyang's legs and arms could no longer hold out; he was forced bodily into the stele and sealed within.
The five of them stood behind the mirror surface of the stele, watching Taishang approach Shen Mu, grief and despair written on their faces.
The cripple had finally found hope of revival, yet Taishang's arrival had shattered that hope to bits!
The First Young Master, Taishang, came before Shen Mu. Shen Mu's cultivation too was suppressed by the complete obelisk forest, and the dream slowly faded.
He opened his eyes: "Senior Brother Taishang. Did you not say you were impartial, favoring neither me nor the third and fourth? Why then have you come today to stop me?"
The First Young Master, Taishang, sat down before him, his gaze passing over him to rest on the cripple and the coffin, and said, "I will not favor you, nor will I favor them. But you should not attempt to revive the Lord of Tiandu."
Shen Mu was perplexed, and said, "I beg Senior Brother to enlighten me."
"The Master killed the Lord of Tiandu with no trace of selfishness — it was because of what the Lord of Tiandu did. The Great Dao of heaven and earth is a public instrument, utterly impartial and selfless; the Dao does not favor you because you are a Dao-attaining one, nor ignore you because you are obscure. But Tiandu's opening of the heavens turned this public instrument of the Dao into a private one."
Taishang spoke unhurriedly: "You have never been to the Seventh Epoch, and do not know its circumstances; thus your sympathy for the Lord of Tiandu is forgivable. In the Seventh Epoch, after Tiandu City opened the heavens and split the earth, the Great Dao became private, belonging to the heaven-openers of Tiandu City. The myriad living beings of that time were forced to cultivate their Dao. Yet the heaven-openers of Tiandu City could control the Great Dao of heaven and earth and do as they pleased, and among them were no few who acted wantonly."
Shen Mu raised his eyebrows and said, "The enmity between the Master and the Lord of Tiandu was stirred up by Elder Wuyai. How the title of Dao-defiler came to be — Senior Brother Taishang should know better than I."
"What manner of being is the Master? Elder Wuyai's influence over him was limited — at most he helped him confirm his own thoughts. Elder Wuyai thought himself too important, but in the Master's heart, he was not so important."
The First Young Master, Taishang, said calmly, "Tiandu City taught all without discrimination, and among them were many of depraved morals. The heaven-openers could seize and bestow their Great Dao at will, robbing others of their bitter cultivation or granting others cultivation on a whim, according to their own likes and dislikes. The entire history of the Seventh Epoch was a foul miasma, and no others attained the Dao. The Master went to reason with the Lord of Tiandu, exhorting him three times, and each of those three times, I was at his side."
Shen Mu frowned.
He knew little of the enmity between Tiandu and the Milo Palace, and now, hearing Taishang speak of its history, he realized it was far more complex than he had imagined.
"Each of the Master's three visits to Tiandu City was made in the manner of a fellow Daoist, to discuss and seek instruction, hoping to persuade the Lord of Tiandu to abandon his original philosophy. But after the Master arrived at Tiandu City, what he received was the mockery and scorn of the heaven-openers, and what he saw were cold looks and white eyes."