Chapter 1822 — The Arts of the Heaven-Opening Host
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 1 of 4
In the Jade Capital of the Ancestral Court, Shen Mu and Ling Yuxiu crossed the last long river of chaos and entered the city.
Along the way few had barred their path; they had encountered only a handful of the Heaven-Opening Host of Tian Du and traded blows a few times.
The Dao arts and divine powers of those few were utterly strange and uncanny, wholly unlike those of the Miluo Palace, and they had cost him no small loss.
"Rest assured, my lady.
I will surely return to that point in time and bring Lingyun back. " Shen Mu looked back, and saw the long rivers churning one after another, tokens of the destruction of the past sixteen cosmic epochs; and where the First Epoch's great calamity of destruction had begun, his daughter Shen Lingyun lay stranded.
When he returned there, perhaps for Shen Lingyun it would be but a brief parting from her parents, but perhaps for them a very long time would have passed. The Shen Mu of now did not yet know how long that time would be—not until he returned to the span when the First Epoch's calamity of destruction was about to come yet had not begun, not until the moment he lifted Shen Lingyun into his arms and set her upon his shoulder, would he know that he had been meant to wait so long.
"Devote yourself to your cultivation. " Shen Mu said to Ling Yuxiu, "In the future, if you attain the Dao, you will be able to pass through the First Epoch's calamity of destruction and enter the long river of chaos with me to see her.
" Ling Yuxiu nodded silently.
But she knew her own aptitude was limited; she was not a being of heaven-defying talent like Xu Shenghua or Lan Yutian, and in this life she might never attain the Dao.
She might never be able to return to the past with Shen Mu to see her own daughter.
Still, there was always hope.
Perhaps this was the tribulation the Miluo Palace Master and the First Young Master Taishang had spoken of.
Shen Lingyun had absorbed the power of the calamities of destruction of fifteen cosmic epochs; in the eyes of the old monsters of those fifteen epochs, she was the Child of the Epoch.
Perhaps she was destined to endure this ordeal.
The First Young Master Taishang had told Shen Mu not to absorb the First Epoch's calamity of destruction to nourish Shen Lingyun, and the Miluo Palace Master had been unwilling to confer a blessing—likely because Shen Lingyun's one thread of life lay in the First Epoch cosmos; once the First Epoch's calamity of destruction was absorbed, that thread of life would exist no more.
The couple walked out of the Jade Capital of the Ancestral Court.
Just then, the World-Ferrying Golden Ship flew out from the city and came to a halt behind them. Shen Mu's heart stirred; he had sent the World-Ferrying Golden Ship to escort Shen Lingyun back to the First Epoch, to see her through the calamity of destruction.
And now, the golden ship had returned.
From the golden ship, a lotus leaf drifted up and fell into Shen Mu's Guixu, linking with the Guixu Lotus.
"Lingyun is safe.
" Shen Mu's spirits surged, and he said to Ling Yuxiu with a smile, "Only when she is safe will my lotus leaf return.
This means that one day in the future, you and I returned to the First Epoch and found her!
" The lotus leaf was part of his Dao of Guixu; its mission was to guard Shen Lingyun, and only when Shen Lingyun was truly safe would the lotus leaf return. And this safety referred to the moment Shen Lingyun met Shen Mu; this lotus leaf could not coexist with the lotus leaf in the Guixu of the Shen Mu of that time, so this lotus leaf would vanish—and would be sent by that Shen Mu to his own side!
This was complicated to speak of, but for one who had attained the Dao of Guixu, it was not hard to accomplish! Ling Yuxiu let out a long breath, somewhat comforted.