Chapter 846 — The Heavenly Palace Under the Dao Ancestor's Rule

Shen Mu maneuvered countless jade slips so that they flew in orbit around the jade pillar. The rune marks on the slips projected into the pillar, taking the form of a youth, and as the slips shifted, the youth within the pillar slowly rotated his body. Shen Mu could distinctly see the internal structure of the youth's brain, and the internal structure of each of his organs.

By shifting the slips' positions, Shen Mu could even magnify the youth's organs and examine still finer structures.

This youth was the Venerable Lord of Heaven. Shen Mu stood before the jade pillar and studied the Venerable Lord of Heaven within it closely; the Venerable Lord of Heaven as reflected by the jade slips gave him a feeling that something was not right.

The projection of the Venerable Lord of Heaven in the pillar was unlike those of other Ancient Star Gods.

Other Ancient Star Gods used calculation arts to construct the runes of the Great Dao, replaying their Great Dao, whereas the Venerable Lord of Heaven used calculation arts to directly construct his own physical body. These jade slips were not meant to recreate a Venerable Lord of Heaven, but merely to recreate the Venerable Lord of Heaven's body.

Shen Mu carefully examined the runes on the slips, and as expected, these runes were not runes of the Great Dao but runes of creation. The runes on the jade slips in those several hundred tiers of jade towers had all been runes of the Great Dao, rune marks formed when the Dao Ancestor used calculation arts to deconstruct the Great Daos of the Ancient Star Gods. Runes of the Great Dao formed by calculation arts differed from runes of creation; the Great Dao of Creation was likewise a Great Dao created by postnatal races, yet it was not a structure of calculation arts.

Shen Mu himself was a great expert in this field, and the runes on the slips could not stump him.

"For what purpose does the Dao Ancestor use these runes of creation to reconstruct the Venerable Lord of Heaven's body? " He sank into thought.

These runes of creation clearly carried less weight than the Great Dao runes of the other tiers. At the time of his death, the Venerable Lord of Heaven's cultivation had only just reached the Heavenly Palace and made him a god.

Yet the Dao Ancestor had placed the runes of creation on the highest tier, setting the Venerable Lord of Heaven above the Ancient Star God Heavenly Emperor. What, then, was his intent?

Shen Mu looked downward and saw that the jade pillar ran straight down to the very lowest level, with tier upon tier of jade staircases spiraling upward around it.

The six faces of the pillar were lined with rows of bookshelves holding jade slips.

Shen Mu pondered. Daoist Master Lin Xuan and Xiao Chunfeng were climbing toward the highest tier, while the girl in red, Yu Hongxiu, was still unconscious.

Suddenly, something stirred in his heart. His vital essence erupted with a roar and surged all the way down along the jade pillar!

Xiao Chunfeng was startled, thinking Shen Mu meant to kill him, but then he saw Shen Mu's vital essence flow into level after level, sweeping up the jade slips from the bookshelves. With a great clatter, countless jade slips unfurled and turned toward the jade pillar!

In these several hundred tiers the jade slips were beyond counting, and now every single one of them unfurled! Controlling so many jade slips, even though Shen Mu had cultivated to the very peak of the Divine Ability practitioner realm, was somewhat taxing.

At this moment the runes on the slips emitted light that shone into the jade pillar, and at once phantom images of Ancient Star Gods, great and small, appeared within it.

Just then the lights reflected one another, and a beam of light shone upward through the pillar's interior! Hum— All the light struck the Venerable Lord of Heaven's body on the highest tier, and for a moment incomparably dazzling radiance burst from the jade pillar! Shen Mu shielded his eyes.

After a moment he adjusted to the blinding light and looked into the pillar.

The phantom images of the Ancient Star Gods, transformed from the rune marks on the slips, were refracted through certain wondrous structures inside the pillar. Within the Venerable Lord of Heaven's body they became points of light, which gradually converged to form the Primordial Fetus Divine Treasury.

After the Primordial Fetus Divine Treasury formed, the Five Luminaries Divine Treasury formed next, with a phantom image of an Ancient Star God on each of the five luminary stars of metal, wood, water, fire, and earth. Then came the Six Realms Divine Treasury: the Earth Mother Primordial Lady and Primordial Wood formed within the light, and dragon veins, phoenix nests, mountain gods, river gods, and other lesser Ancient Star Gods, great and small, each took their places.

Then came the Seven Stars Divine Treasury: the sun, the moon, the stars, and the Milky Way emerged, the Great Sun Star Lord and the Lunar Star Lord each appeared within the sun and moon, and the three hundred sixty celestial stars and their proper deities appeared upon the stars and constellations of the Milky Way.

And the stars, the Milky Way, and the constellations together constructed the phantom image of the Heavenly Lord, forming the Heaven-Human Divine Treasury!

Shen Mu looked further. Below was the Life and Death Divine Treasury: the Nether Capital emerged, and the Earth Lord stood in the darkness beneath the Primordial Capital.

Then came the Divine Bridge Divine Treasury, with a divine bridge leading straight to the Heavenly Palace!

Shen Mu looked toward the Heavenly Palace, and his mind was badly shaken, for more light points formed from rune marks were constructing an incomparably grand Heavenly Palace within the Venerable Lord of Heaven's brow. It was not one Heavenly Palace, but thirty-six Heavenly Palaces! Not only were there thirty-six Heavenly Palaces, there were also seventy-two treasure halls!

This was a complete Heavenly Court! Only, the complexity of this Heavenly Court was beyond imagination, built from the Great Dao runes of the great Ancient Star Gods.

Even the Heavenly Emperor was merely an Ancient Star God seated in the Lingxiao Hall! Leaving aside the Heavenly Court, just the seven great Divine Treasuries alone were vastly different from the Divine Treasuries of the world's Divine Ability practitioners.

The Divine Treasuries within the Venerable Lord of Heaven's body encompassed the Great Dao runes of the Heavenly Lord, the Earth Mother, the Earth Lord, and other Ancient Star Gods, and their complexity far surpassed the Divine Treasuries of today's Divine Ability practitioners. Yet even such complex Divine Treasuries were as nothing compared to the Heavenly Court! One could imagine how complex and meticulous the Heavenly Court the Dao Ancestor had constructed within the Venerable Lord of Heaven's body must be.

If this method spread, it would not overturn the cultivation systems of the world today but would greatly perfect them!

"Did the Dao Ancestor organize these things in the Heavenly Court's Archive Pavilion for the use of the Heavenly Court's powerhouses?

" Shen Mu was dazed.

The scene in the Archive Pavilion was too shocking, yet it was not simply a matter of perfecting the Divine Treasury cultivation system and the Heavenly Palace cultivation system. These Ancient Star Gods whose Dao mysteries had been fully comprehended — any who were disobedient would likely be replaced in the future!

The Heavenly Lord, the Earth Lord — they too would probably be the same.

But what puzzled Shen Mu was: why the Venerable Lord of Heaven?

"Actually, the rune marks on the highest tier could have taken the form of anyone.

Why the Venerable Lord of Heaven? " He was somewhat bewildered.