Chapter 808 — A Breed Apart

The donkey ran a full circuit around the battlefield of the two Earth Mothers, and the scholar dropped down countless black and white pieces. She raised her head to observe the heavens, then suddenly cried out, swept her feather fan toward the battlefield, and waved it with all her strength! Far away, Shen Mu was hurrying along the road when his heart suddenly lurched; he turned his head at once, and his jaw dropped. In the ancient battlefield where the two Earth Mother Primal Ladies stood, two streams of light, one black and one white, suddenly twisted together and shot straight into the sky, like two great dragons, one black and one white, rampaging and coiling there! He was already very far from the ancient battlefield, ten thousand li at least, and yet he could still see those two streams of black and white light with perfect clarity; one could well imagine how vast those lights must be, forming a strangling force that could destroy heaven and earth!

"Is this a divine ability?

No, no, no one has such mighty dharma power!

This is a formation!

" He stared, utterly spellbound: a formation brimming with the calamity of slaughter was destroying everything in the Earth Mothers' battlefield!

He was too far away to see the formation's transformations, yet he could feel the shifts and the killing intent within it as the throbbing reached him. The might of this baleful formation was enough to make the heart quail.

"Who is laying this formation? Could it be that someone is borrowing the laws of heaven and earth to destroy the Earth Mothers? With the Primal World's seal broken, far too many powerhouses have appeared.

" He turned his head back, steadied his mind, and devoted himself to studying the realm of the Life-Death Divine Treasury.

The Life-Death Divine Treasury was the treasury opened up by Heaven Venerable You, that is, the old man of the Yin couriers.

It was the sixth divine treasury in the system of divine treasuries, leading straight to the Nether Capital, comprehending life and death and borrowing the power of the Nether Capital. Shen Mu's understanding of the power of the Nether Capital went without saying, but his Life-Death Divine Treasury was different from others, divided as it was into the Nether Capital and the Mystic Capital; on this point there was no predecessor's experience to draw on.

He would have to work it out himself.

"And the crux is that above the Life-Death Divine Treasury I have no road left; I still need to open the Divine Bridge Divine Treasury. " Shen Mu's eyes flickered.

The Dragon Qilin advanced at an unhurried pace, while Heaven Venerable Yu worked hard at learning to refine spirit pills as rations for the Water Qilin; every so often the pill furnace would explode, leaving him covered in soot.

"I have refined a whole furnace! " Heaven Venerable Yu's delighted voice came; he pulled a handful of spirit pills from the scalding furnace and, under the Water Qilin's expectant gaze, stuffed them into his own mouth.

At once Heaven Venerable Yu's face turned green and he foamed at the mouth. It took Shen Mu some effort to bring this worthy younger brother back from the brink, cure the poison, and patiently instruct him: "Pill refining is a task of temperament and a task of skill, and it is also very dangerous.

If the proportions of the spirit herbs are even slightly off, or the heat even slightly off, what comes out may not be a spirit pill but a poison pill.

From now on, when you refine a batch, do not eat it yourself first; let Ah Shui eat first.

" The Water Qilin, face black, carried Heaven Venerable Yu on its back and trudged on in silence. "Oh, right, are not the spirit pills you refine Ah Shui's rations?

" Shen Mu suddenly realized, and asked, puzzled, "Why did you eat them yourself?

" Heaven Venerable Yu hung his head and admitted his fault. "They smelled so good, I could not help myself.

.

. " Shen Mu shook his head, tossed him some more medicinal ingredients, and went back to pondering the Life-Death Divine Treasury and how to open the Divine Bridge Divine Treasury. He thought and thought, now and then pacing back and forth on the Dragon Qilin's great head; Gongsun Yan, her hand held by his, had no choice but to pace back and forth with him. The energy of the Earth Origin Dao Fruit raised her cultivation swiftly, and her primordial spirit grew ever stronger; as the little Yuan Wood grew, it awakened more and more of the Primal Capital Great Dao in her. Gongsun Yan was somewhat dazed, not knowing what changes had come over her; she wanted to ask Shen Mu, but did not wish to disturb him, and so could only keep it bottled up.

She stared at the ground, feeling that this land held a peculiar attraction for her, rousing in her a longing to drop down at once and take root.

Right now she very much wanted to plant her primordial spirit and become a great tree, and best of all to keep a nest of little phoenixes in her canopy.

Suddenly she sensed that there was a tree within Shen Mu as well, a tree that propped up the heavens and stood upon the earth, running through Shen Mu's divine treasuries, and it too was ceaselessly drawing nourishment from the Earth Origin Dao Fruit.

"Could he be a tree too?

" Gongsun Yan blinked, and her heart was rather glad. "If he is a tree too, then we can find a warm place and put down roots, hand in hand, root joined to root, basking in the sun together.

And then in our canopies would live several nests of little phoenixes, and these phoenixes would sing now and then and visit one another. .

. " She yearned greatly for such a happy life.

Yet the Jianmu within Shen Mu was not as she imagined. The Jianmu had been created by Xu Shenghua, and Shen Mu had perfected it together with him; it was built chiefly of the arts of calculation and primal qi, used to achieve communion between heaven and earth, to open one divine treasury after another and merge all the divine treasuries into one.

"The Divine Bridge Divine Treasury is a flying bridge linking to the Heavenly Palace; the primordial spirit mounts the bridge, rises step by step, and so arrives outside the Southern Heavenly Gate. The Jianmu Divine Bridge can achieve the same effect, but the Jianmu Divine Bridge is too difficult, only a little easier than ascending to the Heavenly Palace by the martial way, and the mathematics involved is too complex.

" Shen Mu calculated silently in his heart. "The Martial Combat Heavenly Master destroyed my Divine Bridge Divine Treasury and made me open it anew; this is a chance for experiment.

Surely the Divine Bridge Divine Treasury is not the only thing that can ascend to the Heavenly Palace? Perhaps there are other ways.

" His interest kindled, he at once set about trying it, experimenting within his own body.

"Could I open a Far Shore Divine Treasury? Boarding a Far Shore ark, one could go straight to the Heavenly Palace at the Far Shore? " All manner of ingenious ideas welled up in him. "The Innate Jianmu Divine Bridge is too hard to cultivate, so I could forge a Jianmu Divine Treasury and plant the Jianmu within the seventh divine treasury; that would be simpler than the Innate Jianmu Divine Bridge, and the Jianmu would grow and reach straight to the Heavenly Palace.

" "I could also forge a Heaven-Reaching Rope!

Let a Heaven-Reaching Rope hang down from the Southern Heavenly Gate, and climb along it up into the Heavenly Palace. " "Right, I could also forge an Ascension Pool Divine Treasury! Using the Jade Pool of the Heavenly Palace, ascend from below, pierce straight through the Jade Pool, and land upon the Jade Terrace!

Hmm, but in that case one's realm would leap at once to the Jade Terrace realm and one would become a heavenly god; that would require a divine-ability wielder to possess dharma power as vast as a true god's. It is all but impossible for anyone to have such immense accumulation. But the method is feasible. .