Chapter 799 — Immeasurable Cataclysm

Within the Shen-Character Continent, the Lord of Earth, the Lord of Heaven, the Crimson Emperor and the Great Sun Star Lord and others were drinking tea with an old Buddha when all at once the sky turned blazing bright. The Lord of Heaven laughed heartily: "Old Buddha, you wake so seldom that you have never seen the like, have you? The Shen boy has lifted the willow-leaf seal from between his brows, to let us out for a breath of air! " The Brahma Heaven King Buddha raised his head and looked at the sky, and sighed: "What sin is this.

To hold the Divine Son of Youdu in bonds, so many masters must stand guard here, and even then we are let out for air but seldom. " In the distance, Shen Fengqing, his face beaten black and blue, sat amid the mountains, his two plump little legs crossed and his arms folded over his chest, stewing in his sulk.

The old Buddha who had been pressing them down from midair suddenly woke and came down out of the sky; Shen Fengqing came to strike at the old Buddha, but the five great masters of the Shen-Character Continent fell on him in a pack, and before he could even bring out the Slaughter Cauldron the elders beat him into headlong flight. The elders had seized the best places in this prison for themselves and driven him into the mountains.

This big-headed doll was now turning over in his mind how to win his territory back, but the Slaughter Cauldron had been snatched away by the elders and pinned down by the Molten Lord of Earth, so he could not take it back. With the Slaughter Cauldron in hand, he might still have salvaged his face. "Join hands with my wicked little brother, and we can put these old men down!

" The big-headed doll raised his head and looked at the sky, thinking: "Once I have the old men pinned down, I will pin my wicked little brother here as well, and then I can run out and enjoy myself. " Suddenly Shen Mu's spirit-consciousness came from beyond the heavens: "Lord of Heaven, Lord of Earth, come and see whether the one outside is the Earth Mother. .

.

Eh, the King Buddha has woken?

" His spirit-consciousness touched down and took human form, and he saluted the assembled company. The Lord of Heaven laughed: "The old Buddha woke not long ago.

He said the seal on the Primordial World had been lifted, that the Barren Ruins had turned into the Primordial World, and that even the twenty heavens of the Buddha World had been forced to border on the Primordial World, which compelled him to wake. And it is a good thing the old Buddha woke; otherwise your elder brother would have made himself lord of this place.

" The Crimson Emperor said: "The old Buddha has brought some fine tea.

Let the Shen boy have a taste as well. " Shen Mu shook his head in haste: "There is no time for tea. I must ask the elders to look and see whether the Earth Mother Venerable God outside is genuine. I came to the place where the Earth Mother Venerable God fell, and there I saw a remnant soul of hers, with only the earth soul left, hidden in an underground palace beneath the earth, where there are also the imperial tombs of nine Shanghuang emperors.

It did not look false.

I even summoned her soul. And now another Earth Mother Venerable God has appeared, and she too looks genuine! " "Such a thing can be? " The elders rose one after another and looked beyond the heavens. Through Shen Mu's third eye they saw the Earth Mother Venerable God standing quietly beneath the Origin Wood. That ancient god's fleshly body was vast, and the other deities standing at her side seemed exceedingly small.

Great as the Earth Mother Venerable God's body was, beside the immeasurably vast bodies of the Lord of Heaven and the Lord of Earth it was still much smaller, not so outrageous.

Even so, compared with other later-born beings and demigods, she was unbelievably large.

"This is the Earth Mother Venerable God," said the Molten Lord of Earth. "Beyond doubt. My eyes are keener than any Book of Life and Death; they see through to the essence of a soul, and I am not mistaken.

Her soul is the Earth Mother's soul. " The Lord of Heaven said: "This body is indeed the Earth Mother's body.

Were it false, it could hardly escape my heavenly eye.

Shen boy, the Earth Mother you met in the underground palace was certainly false.

" Shen Mu was at a loss. He shook his head: "But I myself summoned the soul of that Earth Mother in the underground palace, and gathered for her all the black soul-sand of her heaven soul and her god soul.

The Earth Mother Venerable God cannot have other souls scattered abroad. . .

Surely the Earth Mother does not have two souls? " Suddenly he came to himself and cried out: "Is the Earth Mother the Empress of the Longhan Heaven Court? Twin sisters?

Is this Earth Mother in truth the elder or the younger sister of the true Earth Mother? " The Lord of Heaven shook his head: "Your thoughts run too far.

The Earth Mother Venerable God is not one of that pair of twin blossoms. The Empress and her sister have another origin, and besides.

. .

" He did not go on, and said: "In any case, it is not them.

Strange, though. If this one is the Earth Mother, then who on earth was the Earth Mother whose soul you summoned in the underground palace? " The Molten Lord of Earth's voice was somewhat sinister, enough to make the flesh creep: "Shen boy, for whom did you summon a soul? " Shen Mu's mind rang like a struck bell; he stood dumb as a wooden fowl, and said with difficulty: "You mean I was caught in a snare?

That cannot be.

In the underground palace there were many demigods, all of them the Earth Mother's old subordinates.

If I was snared, surely they would not have been deceived as well? When the Earth Mother was slain, they all sank into silence in the underground palace together with her.

. .

" The company frowned.

The Crimson Emperor said: "Is it possible that another Earth Mother was born from the Origin Wood? " Seeing Shen Mu's confusion, he said: "The Earth Mother was herself transformed from the Origin Wood.

When I founded the Crimson Bright era I once paid her a visit, and I know her roots. " The Lord of Heaven shook his head: "The Origin Wood is dead; it cannot give birth to another Earth Mother to replace the original. Crimson Emperor, your words are somewhat appalling to hear. . . " "Appalling or not," the Brahma Heaven King Buddha said suddenly, "there is indeed such a method. And that method was created by me.

" Everyone turned to look at him. The Brahma Heaven King Buddha sighed: "My art took shape in the Longhan years.

To speak plainly, entering the Dao through dreams sounds too fantastical; in truth, it is to divide into thousands upon thousands of selves, to wander and be tempered in world after world, to pass through the red dust, to endure countless kalpas of tribulation. To me, that red dust is one illusory dream after another; yet those selves of mine have true souls, true bodies, true experience. Their cultivation, their experience, their Dao-hearts will at last return to my original body and become my dreams one by one. " The Lord of Heaven praised him: "The old Buddha's scripture has passed through immeasurable kalpas and seen through the red dust; that is why the Heaven Court covets it and wishes to take it for itself. " The Brahma Heaven King Buddha shook his head: "They do not want my art for the Buddhahood within it; in truth they are gathering Emperor-Seat level arts for the sake of the realm called the Heaven Court. To obtain a complete Heaven Court realm there is a simple method: find thirty-six Emperor-Seat arts that do not repeat one another, and combine them into a single Heaven Court art. Emperor-Seat arts are not few in this world, but many of them repeat, so it is a thousand times difficult.

My Dream-Entry into the Dao, the Immeasurable Kalpa, is one of them. " The Great Sun Star Lord suddenly understood, and asked: "Old Buddha, can this art cause a new soul to be born within a corpse?