Chapter 795 — The Earth's Essence Fruit

The Water Qilin bore Shen Mu past several imperial tombs and at last caught sight of the Dragon Qilin, who was busy swearing brotherhood with a whole company of dragons and qilins, boasting until the heavens and earth went dark. "I keep a man," he was saying, "one who refines spirit pills for me alone. .

.

" The dragon kings and qilins were green with envy. In mid-sentence the Dragon Qilin caught sight of Shen Mu and the others approaching and hastily shut his mouth.

Yu Tianzun called him over. Seeing Shen Mu so utterly spent, the Dragon Qilin gave a start and said in a fluster, "Let me carry the Cult Master instead. My steps are steady — I won't let him feel the least jolt.

" Yu Tianzun lifted Shen Mu onto the Dragon Qilin's back. The Dragon Qilin stole a glance at Shen Mu's face and found it dark and grim, at which his heart began to pound. "I wonder whether the Cult Master heard what I said just now. .

. " The dragon kings and qilins watched with envious faces as he carried Shen Mu away. Only when the two were far off did they say one after another, "Young and accomplished — truly young and accomplished.

" "Young as Long Pi is, his vision is uncommon. Keeping a human to refine pills for himself — why did such an idea never once occur to me in my younger days?

" .

. .

The Dragon Qilin carried Shen Mu out of the underground space and into the hall of the ruined temple. The phoenix followed and glanced about. Gongsun Yan hurried off to tidy the rooms.

"I usually stay at the Yuanjun Temple," she said, "and have only kept a few rooms for myself. Let me clear out a few more for Sister Feng and Brother Shen.

" The phoenix took out a nest of gleaming gold.

"I cannot sleep in another's bed," she said. "Lay out my nest. " Gongsun Yan assented and took the nest. Before long she had finished. Shen Mu sat at the bedside, his color much improved.

"Sister," he said, "I am much better now. There's no need to fuss over me. The Earth Mother's fruit is indeed effective — I can feel my vital essence returning. It is nothing serious. " Gongsun Yan studied him closely and saw that his color had indeed improved a great deal, and she was full of envy. "This fruit is no ordinary thing," she said. "It grows on the Prime Wood and is called the Earth Origin Dao Fruit. The Prime Wood is the root of heaven and earth in the Yuan Capital, drawing in the spiritual essence and power of the Yuan Capital's heaven and earth, and compounded with the Earth Mother's own cultivation in the Great Dao — that is why it is so rare in all the world. I have heard the Earth Mother say she seldom bestows the Earth Origin Dao Fruit on others; only in the early years of the Longhan era did she pick a few and give them to the Heavenly Emperor to entertain the ancient gods. And even then, when the Longhan Heavenly Court was founded, the number of ancient gods qualified to taste the Earth Origin Dao Fruit was not great.

" Shen Mu turned his head. The halo behind his head turned with him, always remaining at the back of his skull, giving him a sense of unease.

The Earth Origin Dao Fruit hung within the halo formed by the Earth Mother Venerable God's blessing, shriveled and dry — yet the energy within it was truly terrifying. One could not simply bite into it to taste it. What unsettled him, however, was not the Earth Origin Dao Fruit but the blessing of the Earth Mother Venerable God.

He had seen most of the Seven Heavenly Worthies.

Behind the head of each of the Seven Worthies were circles upon circles of halo — the blessing of the ancient gods. The blessings of the ancient gods served all manner of purposes — longevity, fortune, agelessness, deathlessness, indestructibility, and so on — yet Yu Tianzun, who had received the blessings of every ancient god, had still been assassinated, his soul scattered.

Only a million years later had Shen Mu restored him to life — and even then his memories were utterly gone, and he was muddle-headed. It was plain, then, that blessings could not truly guarantee safety. "This halo I gained from the blessing seems more like surveillance.

Even if I flee this place, the Earth Mother Venerable God can sense my position through this halo. I wonder whether I can rid myself of it.

" His spirits flagging, he yawned.

Gongsun Yan rose at once. "Brother Shen, rest for now. " She left the room and closed the door. Shen Mu immediately rose to his feet, glowing with vigor, all trace of his earlier exhaustion gone.

He circulated the Creation Mystic Art and transformed into a three-headed, six-armed form.

Now with three heads, the halo could not wrap around to the back of his skull.

He examined it carefully. Within the halo flowed all manner of exceedingly fine runes; the halo was composed of these runes, and the runes were the smallest particles of light.

After studying it a while, Shen Mu frowned. Apart from the origin-magnetic runes, there were all manner of other runes besides — far more complex than he had imagined.

The origin-magnetic runes were easy enough to account for — Granny Zhu had already deduced more than nineteen hundred of them. If the runes in the halo formed an origin-magnetic divine power, he might still find a way to unravel it. The other runes in the halo, however, gave Shen Mu no end of trouble.

Some of them took the form of rivers and lakes in their lineaments, others the shapes of grass, trees, and flowers, and still others were profound and mysterious patterns whose purpose could not be made out.

Clearly the Great Dao possessed by the Earth Mother Venerable God herself was exceedingly complex. The halo was but the form of a divine power built from these runes.

How to unravel the halo and escape the Earth Mother Venerable God's tracking and sensing — of this Shen Mu could make neither head nor tail. "That's right — Celestial Master Zixi! " His eyes lit up.

As the scholar among the Four Celestial Masters, her learning might not match the Woodcutter Sage's erudition, but her cultivation far surpassed his by no small measure. Perhaps she would have means to unravel the halo. With that thought, Shen Mu reached into the halo toward the Earth Origin Dao Fruit floating there and grasped it. But when he tried to draw the fruit out of the halo, he ran into difficulty.

As he tried to take it out, countless rays of light surged up around the halo, like fine threads connecting to the fruit.

He could move it only a little before meeting resistance beyond imagining. "Others force a sale, but the Earth Mother Venerable God forces a blessing — shoving the Earth Origin Dao Fruit on me whether I want it or not! " Shen Mu seethed with resentment.

The fruit and the halo seemed embedded behind him, impossible to shake off.

To others, the Earth Mother's blessing and the Earth Origin Dao Fruit were treasures they yearned for day and night and could never obtain; to Shen Mu they were a burden and a danger, and he wished he could fling them far away. Stream after stream of energy poured from the Earth Origin Dao Fruit into his divine treasury, absorbed by his primal spirit, then filling the treasury again, strengthening the Six Harmonies Continent upon it and making the continent ever deeper and broader. "The benefits of the Earth Origin Dao Fruit are indeed terrifying — but alas, there is surely a trace of the Earth Mother Venerable God's divine consciousness within it as well, letting her sense my whereabouts. " Seeing that he could not remove the fruit, Shen Mu had no choice but to give up.

He thought, "I need only absorb all the energy in it clean — would that not free me from the surveillance within it? " The vital essence within him circulated according to the Mystic Body Three Cores Art, ceaselessly drawing energy from the fruit and transforming it into incomparably pure dharma power. The Mystic Body Three Cores Art in turn nourished his primal spirit with vital essence, moistened his fleshly body, and strengthened his divine treasury.