Chapter 810 — The Supreme One Comprehends the Great Dao

Shen Mu brought the others to a residence in the capital. It was a large estate, quiet and elegant, and many maidservants were bustling this way and that, seeing to the household's daily needs.

"Ling'er certainly handles money well."

Shen Mu was delighted. He made some inquiries, and one of the maidservants said, "Sister Ling'er comes here now and then to stay a while and entertain friends like the Tiger Venerable and the Princess, but she hasn't been by lately."

"Why is she like me, forever running about? And with the world in such chaos now, it's terribly dangerous."

Shen Mu shook his head, settled Heavenly Venerable Yu, Gongsun Yan and the rest into their rooms, and at once set about trying to open the Other Shore Divine Treasury.

The Other Shore Divine Treasury took the Life-and-Death Divine Treasury as its root. It was the simplest of all the divine treasuries; Shen Mu's early work consisted chiefly of designing the Other Shore Ark, for the Other Shore Ark was this very treasury.

He drew on the Other Shore Ark he had seen in the Desolate Ruins, and he also studied the old underworld courier's paper boat.

The Other Shore Ark was a treasure ship built to carry one to the Land of No Sorrow. The Woodcutter Sage had designed it and Emperor Shakra Heavenly King Buddha had forged it, and yet in the end it had been destroyed in the Desolate Ruins.

What Shen Mu prized was the ship's power to cross the void.

The old courier's paper boat, by contrast, could carry the living and the dead to and fro through the Nether Capital. The sixth divine treasury was the Life-and-Death Divine Treasury, which connected to the Nether Capital; so Shen Mu took the cleverest route of all. Borrowing the paper boat's power to pass through the Nether Capital, he made the Other Shore Divine Treasury rise out of the Life-and-Death Divine Treasury, cross the void, and fly up to the Southern Heavenly Gate of the Heavenly Palace.

This was by far the simplest way. The Other Shore Divine Treasury was forged inside the Life-and-Death Divine Treasury, where there was solid footing to work from; the primal qi would gather there, and opening it would be comparatively easy.

To open it in the void itself, however, would be much harder. Primal qi gathering in the void within one's own flesh was extremely difficult — the equivalent of hewing out heaven and earth in the void of a body — and Shen Mu did not yet have enough confidence for that.

"Of the seven divine treasuries opened by the Seven Heavenly Venerables, only Heavenly Venerable Yu's Primal Embryo Divine Treasury is a pure creation of the void. It draws power from the void to open the spirit terrace and forge the spirit embryo, and in doing so it gave all living beings a spirit and a soul."

"The other six Heavenly Venerables all borrowed the power of the ancient gods of heaven and earth."

"The Five Luminaries Divine Treasury borrows the power of the Lords of the Five Luminaries; the Six Realms Divine Treasury borrows the power of the Earth Mother; the Seven Stars Divine Treasury borrows the power of the sun, the moon and the Lords of the Five Luminaries; the Heaven-and-Man Divine Treasury borrows the power of the Lord of Heaven; the Life-and-Death Divine Treasury borrows the power of Lord Earth; and the Heavenly Bridge Divine Treasury borrows the power of the Dragon Han Heavenly Court. But the Heavenly Emperor of the Dragon Han Heavenly Court is no more, so there is no power left to borrow, and therefore the Heavenly Bridge Divine Treasury cannot be reopened."

"Then for the Other Shore Divine Treasury, whose power among the ancient gods am I to borrow?"

Shen Mu mused. To open the Other Shore Divine Treasury, the treasury's power had to flow back into the one who wielded the divine arts; only then was it truly a realm.

Among the Seven Heavenly Venerables, six had borrowed power. Only Heavenly Venerable Yu, whose talent was without peer, had borrowed nothing at all. That was supreme genius.

"Borrowing the power of any one of the ancient gods seems to be no good thing."

Shen Mu pondered and found no answer — then all at once it came to him. He went to find Heavenly Venerable Yu, and found him sitting there blankly, lost in a daze.

Shen Mu was about to step forward, then abruptly halted. The little fat boy was propping up his plump chin, eyes vague and distant; yet within and around his body primal qi was circulating, opening a divine treasury. Shen Mu gazed with his sage pupils and saw that inside that treasury Lan Yutian's spirit embryo was slowly taking shape.

Shen Mu's whole body shook. He made no sound to disturb him.

Heavenly Venerable Yu had died a miserable death. At the great upheaval at the Jade Pool a million years ago, every divine treasury he had already opened had been shattered inside his body, and even his heavenly palace had been destroyed.

When Shen Mu remade his body for him, there had been no divine treasury and no heavenly palace within him at all.

And now this Heavenly Venerable Yu, fattened up by relentless eating, had taught himself with no master at all and opened a Primal Embryo Divine Treasury all over again!

The reason Shen Mu had taught him no divine arts or techniques and had let him comprehend things for himself was precisely that he knew Heavenly Venerable Yu's talent to be extraordinarily high — perhaps even above his own. Unwilling as he was to admit it aloud, in his heart he admired Heavenly Venerable Yu beyond measure.

He looked forward greatly to the reborn Lan Yutian growing into another Heavenly Venerable Yu!

Just now Heavenly Venerable Yu had fallen into a wondrous state of comprehending the Dao, so Shen Mu did not interrupt him.

Such a state of enlightenment was rare. It was a chance for Heavenly Venerable Yu — and a chance for Shen Mu as well, for through it he could observe the means by which Heavenly Venerable Yu had opened the Primal Embryo Divine Treasury.

Heavenly Venerable Yu remained deep in enlightenment while Shen Mu observed intently and sought to grasp it, and gradually he sensed where the power came from with which Heavenly Venerable Yu shaped the spirit embryo and the Primal Embryo Divine Treasury.

It was the power of heaven and earth, and it was also power from within himself. In his enlightenment, Heavenly Venerable Yu was summoning both the power of heaven and earth and his own to shape the spirit embryo.

To Shen Mu it felt as though he had become one with heaven and earth.

This was not the peculiar insight of the Western Lands, where all things have spirit and all things have gods; this was a true and literal merging.

"Such talent truly is unmatched."

Shen Mu sighed inwardly. "If he and I had been born in the same age, I would only dare call myself a false Overlord Body, while he would be the true one. Still, I am not so bad myself."

He was rather pleased with himself.

Having single-handedly devised twenty-six kinds of seventh divine treasury, Shen Mu had every right to be.

At last Heavenly Venerable Yu woke. He looked around him in confusion, and only then noticed Shen Mu. Flustered, he said, "Brother, when did you get here?"

"Not long ago."

Shen Mu waved a hand, telling him to stay seated, and sat down beside him. "Just now you suddenly opened a divine treasury. Can you tell me what you were thinking?"

"I'm too fat."

Heavenly Venerable Yu blushed and scratched his head. "When I look down I can't see my own toes anymore, so I wanted to refine this fat away, and then I started wondering how to cultivate. I could feel all sorts of wondrous powers between heaven and earth, and all sorts of wondrous powers inside my own body too, so I thought I would open a place inside my body to gather and store those powers. After that my thinking kept growing clearer and clearer, as though I had done this sort of thing before, and it came to me very easily."

Shen Mu smiled. "You did very well. Do you have any thoughts about a cultivation method for the Spirit Embryo realm?"