Chapter 705 — The Blazing Thoroughfare

Shen Mu watched Xu Shenghua depart. Ning Jin had been taken by Yama to Fengdu, where perhaps he might find a place suited to his survival.

"Each of them has his own brilliance. And now the trouble with the Lady Tianyin has been settled as well. With three hundred and twenty-four kinds of runes of the Tianyin Realm, that realm will no longer be a dead and lifeless world—it will become a thriving, flourishing heaven among the heavens!

" Shen Mu sighed inwardly. In the days to come, many wielders of divine abilities would enter the Tianyin Realm, making it flourish more and more, and the divine arts would contend like a hundred schools of thought and bloom like a hundred flowers.

The Jingping Reforms were no empty talk either. With the Lady Tianyin as an ally, the force of the reforms would only grow stronger.

But all of this would take time.

As things stood, Jingping had not yet grown strong, nor had the Tianyin Realm.

"Right now is in fact the most perilous hour.

The flame of reform could be snuffed out at any moment. " Shen Mu's brows knit slightly, then smoothed as he put such vexations from his mind. Together with Yan Jingjing he sought out Long Qilin, and found him doing hard labor alongside He Yiyi, ordered this way and that by the women of the Western Lands.

Long Qilin was on the verge of tears yet had no tears to shed, and what was worse, he could not refuse. These women divine-ability practitioners of the Western Lands cultivated the divine art that all things have spirit and all things have gods, and at the slightest whim they would use a strange divine art to seize control of his body and set him to work. "Fat Dragon is actually this diligent?

" Shen Mu was deeply gratified.

He laughed and said, "Fat Dragon, come carry my sword elixir. It is time we returned to Jingping.

" The sword elixir stood over thirty zhang tall, solid and terrifying. Long Qilin had meant to refuse, but a thought struck him: "I have done so much work for the girls of the Western Lands. If I do not help the Sect Master, I fear I will not get so much as half a spirit elixir from now on!

" He steeled himself and hoisted the sword elixir onto his back.

Shen Mu was delighted. "Fat Dragon really has become diligent.

" Ever since Yan Jingjing received that wisp of pure yin qi from Shen Mu, she felt her foundation gradually steadying and her body growing better and better, and she was glad at heart.

The two walked and talked, laughter unceasing. Shen Mu escorted Yan Jingjing to Xiquan and said, "The Emperor will issue a decree summoning you forth, to use the sun upon the Dawn Boat to shine upon Taihuang Heaven and Luofu Heaven, restoring life to those two heavens. But you need not worry. Once you find a pure yang spirit body and a pure yin spirit body, you will no longer need to pilot the Dawn Boat hither and thither. Your cultivation realm is high, it is true, but your foundation is unsteady. You must leave Xiquan and go to Jingping to study, to learn some fundamentals.

I will be waiting for you in Jingping.

" The two parted with reluctance.

Shen Mu watched her walk into Xiquan, then continued eastward. Seated on Long Qilin's back, he took out the Xuandu Heavenfire and examined it closely.

Since obtaining this heavenfire prism, he had not yet had the chance to scrutinize it.

He had used it only once; at all other times it had been given over to Yan Jingjing. "If it is fire, why does it have substance? Why has it become a flame crystal?

" He could not help but wonder. This heavenfire prism was the heavenfire of the Lord of Heaven. Its power was great, but unfortunately he could not control its intensity; his attainments in this regard were far inferior to the refinement of Yan Jingjing's fire-element divine arts. Then he suddenly noticed that the crystal structure of the heavenfire prism was constantly changing.

Startled, he looked more closely, and saw that within the prism there were also many flames of crystalline structure.

These flames were crystals formed from several hexagonal rhombi, endlessly arising and annihilating—most intriguing. "A strange phenomenon of the arts of calculation. " Shen Mu's spirits rose.

He looked on, and saw that within the hexagonal rhombi of the heavenfire there were yet other flame crystals, in the form of equilateral octagons—unstable, now flat, now round. His interest mounting, he looked deeper, and saw that the heavenfire was layered in structure upon structure of calculation.

The further in he went, the more complex the structures became. He kept peering deeper into the heavenfire, and layer after layer of calculative structure revealed itself. The crystal forms further in were no longer confined to a single simple geometric construction, but grew ever more complex.

Shen Mu took out measuring tools, noted his measurements on paper, then assembled his own calculating elemental soldiers to compute, writing out column after column of equations as he tried to unravel the mysteries of the heavenfire. His research delved ever deeper.

He forgot day and night, utterly absorbed in the transformations of calculation.

Without realizing it, he had explored to the very core of the heavenfire, and there he saw tiny points colliding with one another at unimaginable speed, generating tremendous heat and destructive force. Strangely, each of these infinitesimal points followed its own distinct trajectory, tracing out perfect calculative structures as it moved. If vital qi were used to drive the heavenfire, these collisions would grow even more violent, and the temperature of the heavenfire would reach its utmost extreme!

"Is this the most minute form of the heavenfire crystal? " Shen Mu seemed to see before him the most beautiful of paintings, and he could not help but be intoxicated by them.

The arts of calculation were the most perfect and beautiful of pictures—and the two great canons of calculation of the Daoist sect could no longer explain the microscopic structure of the heavenfire. The Taixuan Canon of Calculation and the Sunü Canon of Calculation could explain the macroscopic structure of the cosmos and the stars, but they were wholly inapplicable to the microscopic structure of the heavenfire.

Shen Mu calculated and extrapolated without cease.

His records grew ever more numerous, and his analysis of the heavenfire's microscopic structure ever more extensive. He was immersed in it, and the mathematical equations he compiled could well be gathered into a new canon of calculation. Long Qilin, bearing the sword elixir on his back, found walking rather laborious; and since Shen Mu was absorbed in the microscopic calculations of the heavenfire and had no time to urge him on, Long Qilin grew slack as well.

By the time they reached Jianglong City, more than ten days had passed. At last, Shen Mu finished analyzing the microscopic form of the heavenfire, completing the final calculative equation.

Shen Mu stretched lazily, sorted the thick stack of papers, and read through them from beginning to end. A satisfied smile appeared on his face.

"The Daoist sect's canon of calculation is called the Taixuan Canon of Calculation.

Xuan means 'great. ' Wei means 'small. ' So I shall call this canon of mine the Taiwei Canon of Calculation.

" The Taiwei Canon of Calculation and the Taixuan Canon of Calculation were entirely different systems of calculation, employing wholly different arts.