Chapter 745 — The Prodigies of High Antiquity

They could not find Yin Tianzi anywhere; presumably he had gone to seek out the Heavenly Venerable of the Imperial Way. The Heavenly Venerable had invited him to the gathering, so their relationship must be considerable. Many had come to this gathering, and many were discussing the great matter the Heavenly Venerable was to announce—some said he was about to create the eighth Divine Treasury, some said he had found a way to make the primordial spirit undying, and still others said he intended to take a spouse, and so on.

Every kind of rumor was abroad.

Shen Mu looked this way and that, and saw many divine ability users gathered in groups of three or five, passionately expounding the insights and understandings they had gained in recent days, demonstrating before the crowd the divine abilities and Dao arts they had comprehended. He and Kaihuang listened for a while. The Dao arts and divine abilities of this era were still crude and simple, far less refined than those of later ages, and held little meaning for them.

Yet for this era, they were no small matter. "If I were to speak of the cultivation methods and divine abilities of our later age, I fear it would cause a tremendous shock.

" Shen Mu shook his head. The Dao arts and divine abilities of later ages were too exquisite.

If he told the people of this era, astonishing the world would be the least of it; the change to the future would be too terrible. He could not take such a risk. He glanced at Kaihuang. After inferring that Shen Mu too was a man of the future, Kaihuang had told him not to try to change the past.

Thinking it over now, Kaihuang's words did have their reason. The gathered crowd listened as though intoxicated, and one after another people expounded their Dao arts and divine abilities—truly a hundred flowers blooming, a hundred schools contending. Some of their fantastic ideas made even Shen Mu and Kaihuang start abruptly, and they could not help but listen closely; these were forms of Dao arts and divine abilities they had never imagined.

People of later ages, situated within an already established system of Divine Treasury cultivation, needed only to cultivate step by step according to what their predecessors had passed down, without exerting their minds, and could still reach very high achievements—and so they lacked creativity. But the people of this era had no such rigid frameworks, and easily leapt beyond the Divine Treasury cultivation system, possessing divine abilities and Dao arts that seemed inconceivable to Shen Mu and Kaihuang. Yet the reason these divine abilities and Dao arts could not be seen in later ages was not that these lost arts were inferior, but that they had failed in competition with the Divine Treasury cultivation system, and so were lost.

The Divine Treasury cultivation system was the easiest to learn and the easiest for people to accept; having stood the test of time, when most people cultivated the Divine Treasury, those who cultivated other paths became a minority, their transmission grew ever more difficult, and in the end they were lost. Shen Mu and Kaihuang squeezed through the crowd, hoping to glean more useful ideas from these ancient people, when they heard a voice say, "Ling Tianzun! Ling Tianzun! What do you mean when you say time does not exist?

" Shen Mu and Kaihuang looked over almost simultaneously, and saw many divine ability users gathered around a woman. Her clothing was simple and archaic: a peach-wood hairpin thrust carelessly into her hair, straw sandals on her feet, a leopard-skin skirt and a short jacket. Though unkempt, she possessed a strange beauty, a wildness about her. "Ling Tianzun, who opened the Six Realms Divine Treasury, is a woman?

" Shen Mu and Kaihuang were slightly taken aback. The woman was expounding her principle, unhurried. "All things, including space, are matter. Divine abilities too are arrangements and orderings of matter, formed by primordial qi particles into different combinations, expounding the principles of the great Dao and forming power.

Is time matter?

It is not. You cannot touch time, and therefore time does not exist.

" The crowd fell into thought. Some shook their heads, but could think of no words to refute her. Shen Mu stepped forward. "Ling Tianzun, then why do we grow old? People are born, age, sicken, and die—is that not growing old as time flows on? " Ling Tianzun looked at him, and suddenly drew out her hairpin.

The peach wood was already withered and dry.

"Brother, do you think this hairpin has already died of old age? " she asked. Shen Mu nodded.

Ling Tianzun activated her divine ability, and the peach wood gradually turned green, then red, then put forth branches and sprouted, growing tender buds, and one after another peach blossoms bloomed from the revived dead branch, while several peach leaves pushed out fresh shoots.

"Is this me reversing time?

" Ling Tianzun asked with a smile.

Shen Mu was dumbstruck, then shook his head. "You only used a creation divine ability to change the structure of the dead wood, to bring it back from death. . .

wait, I understand what you mean!

" A look of disbelief came over him, and he blurted out, "You mean time is our illusion! Our birth, aging, sickness, and death are in fact changes in the matter of our bodies. Time does not exist—it is a false appearance caused by the changes of matter!

" Ling Tianzun looked at him with both shock and joy, and said delightedly, "I have finally met someone who can understand my words! I told the Heavenly Venerable and the others my thoughts, and they said I was talking nonsense! You are my fellow Daoist! Yes—time does not exist.

If time existed, then there would be time divine abilities in this world! But there are no time divine abilities in this world; there is only the false appearance caused by the changes of matter! You called my divine ability just now a creation divine ability? Creation—well named! Truly well named! " Her mind was simple and pure; when she said "truly well named," the feeling she revealed came from the heart, with no excess of adjectives. Shen Mu was profoundly shaken, standing there like a wooden statue, murmuring, "Then is it possible for someone to return to the past? " "The past does not exist.

What exists is only matter in change. " Ling Tianzun's eyes sparkled.

"If matter can return to a past form, then one can return to high antiquity. That is what I believe.

Can you understand me?

" The surrounding crowd still could not understand her, and a humming of discussion rose, mostly criticism. Someone said in a low voice, "Ling Tianzun has lost her mind. .

. " Ling Tianzun was angered, and shouted, "In the future I will surely create a divine ability that freezes matter in eternal stillness!

So long as one stands upon that matter, one can see the entire universe's past, present, and future! "