Chapter 968 — The Supreme Domain of Divine Consciousness

Yue Tingge led Shen Mu and Luo Wushuang onward, and the divine dragon Shen Mu had visualized followed behind them.

The Daoist's face had turned savage and ferocious again; he glanced furtively this way and that, and at the faintest stir he would dive behind a thicket or a tree, craning his neck to peer about, forever certain that someone meant to do him harm.

The divine dragon too tiptoed along after him, hiding in the same places, thoroughly furtive.

Shen Mu did not know whether to laugh or cry. When he asked the reason, Yue Tingge sneered, "This world is full of malice toward me. It watches my every move, it wants me dead! If I were not a little careful, I would have died long ago!"

He glanced about in panic, lowered his voice, and said, "Shh—let me tell you a secret. The Taixu land is alive! They watch us, they follow our every move, they eavesdrop on us, and they manufacture all manner of accidents to do away with us..."

Shen Mu and Luo Wushuang exchanged looks. That a great master like Yue Tingge, one at the perfected Emperor Throne realm, a figure perhaps scarcely inferior to the Dao Ancestor or the Great Brahma Heavenly King Buddha, should have grown so twitchy and unhinged—this truly astonished them.

"Stop!"

Suddenly frantic beyond measure, Yue Tingge stuck out his rear and lay flat on the ground, sniffing. The divine dragon likewise pressed its nose to the ground behind him, sniffing this way and that.

Yue Tingge raised his head, his face stricken with terror, then suddenly broke into a run, crying, "They are coming!"

Startled, Shen Mu hurried after him. Luo Wushuang followed with a sigh and said, "Shen the Tyrant Body, this Celestial Master Yue has indeed gone mad, and not mildly so. If this madman suddenly flies into a rage and decides to kill us, no one could stop him! We had best keep our distance."

Shen Mu hesitated.

Yue Tingge's condition was indeed abnormal. By rights, even after being trapped in this place for more than ten thousand years, a great master like him should not have gone mad. Could the Empress have damaged his mind?

To follow this madman was indeed perilous beyond measure; after all, no one could predict what a lunatic would do next.

The divine dragon trailed behind them, still sniffing about, when suddenly it seemed to catch some scent. It lifted its head and sniffed hard, puzzled: "Maha?"

Shen Mu and the others had already gone far ahead. The divine dragon was just about to catch up when the earth suddenly split open, and a stretch of ground thousands of mu across became one enormous eyeball!

The huge eyeball beneath the ground rolled with a gurgle and gazed far off at Shen Mu and the rest.

The divine dragon was badly startled; every scale on its body stood on end, and it scrambled and rolled madly after Shen Mu and the others.

"Maha maha!" The divine dragon circled Shen Mu round and round, trying to tell him what it had seen.

"Hungry again?" Shen Mu asked doubtfully.

"Maha!"

The dragon spun in circles in its agitation, at a loss how to describe what it had seen. It looked back, only to find the ground smooth and level again; the great eyeball had vanished.

"Maha?" The dragon raised a claw and scratched at the mane on its head, doubtful.

Suddenly, not far away, a graceful peak split open without a sound, revealing an enormous eyeball. It rolled left and right, its pupil contracting, and focused on Shen Mu and the others.

And the mountain beside it turned into a great ear!

Every scale on the dragon standing on end, it rushed trembling to Shen Mu's side and raised a claw, pointing at that peak: "Maha!"

Shen Mu looked back. The eye in the peak had vanished and the mountain was as it had been; the great ear beside it had likewise disappeared, turned back into a mountain. There was nothing out of the ordinary.

"This dragon has gone mad too."

Luo Wushuang suggested, "Next time, let us kill it and eat it."

The divine dragon hung its head, crestfallen, and trailed listlessly after them.

It was tormented by its inability to speak, unable to tell Shen Mu and the others that Yue Tingge was not mad at all—that this Taixu land truly was a living thing, watching and listening to them.

Before long, the dragon saw the blue sky above their heads suddenly turn into an enormous eyeball; but it no longer had the courage to warn Shen Mu and the others, and only said, in a voice drained of spirit, "Maha..."

It also saw a great tree turn into a great ear, and could only say, faintly, "Maha."

Shen Mu and the others followed Yue Tingge, who was cautious and wary. "You may think this place is all peace and quiet," he said, "but it is in truth deadly. That I have survived at all is thanks to my quick wits. Good brother..."

He gently stroked the beast's leg, roasted golden and dripping with fat, and said tenderly, "Good brother, here there is only you and me. We shall be brothers for life... Who are you?"

He suddenly caught sight of Shen Mu, Luo Wushuang, and the divine dragon following behind him, and his face turned wary.

Shen Mu cleared his throat and said, "Celestial Master Yue, we are..."

"I remember you now!"

Light dawned on Yue Tingge. He tossed the beast's leg aside and laughed. "Heavenly Venerable Mu, and One Hand. Of course I remember you. Heh heh, we are on our way to that place. Be careful. Let me tell you a secret—the Taixu land is alive..."

The beast's leg hit the ground with a loud thud. Yue Tingge glanced at it warily and sneered, "Tempting me with a roasted beast's leg? Do you take me for a three-year-old child? Let us hurry. They are watching us! We must find Heavenly Venerable Huo and Heavenly Venerable Xu as quickly as we can—that fellow Kaihuang is about to arrive!"

Shen Mu's scalp prickled; inwardly he wanted to beat a retreat. But hearing that Kaihuang was about to arrive, he had no choice but to steel himself and follow.

Yue Tingge continued to lead the way. As they walked, Shen Mu suddenly noticed that Yue Tingge's head had turned perfectly square, as though it had become a box, and on that box grew perfectly square eyes, perfectly square ears, nose, and mouth!

The Celestial Master's neck, body, legs, and arms had likewise become perfectly square blocks, and every finger and every joint had become linked blocks as well!

Shen Mu and Luo Wushuang were startled, and then discovered that they too had become block-people just like Yue Tingge!

Shen Mu turned to look at the divine dragon, and the dragon had actually become a bizarre creature made of a heap of blocks joined together!

The trees around them were blocks, the leaves were blocks, the mountains were blocks; even the water flowing in the river was a swarm of blocks flowing along the riverbed!

"This place is... a strange divine ability visualized into being by the divine consciousness of the Taixu Creators! Or rather, they have created another consciousness illusion within the Taixu land, and the rules of the great Dao in this consciousness illusion are utterly different from those outside!"

Shen Mu looked up and saw perfectly square clouds in the sky and a perfectly square sun. He took out his sword pellet, and the sword pellet had actually become a block as well!

He channeled his mana, and the sword pellet became a treasured sword—and the sword was actually composed of a heap of blocks!

Shen Mu opened the vertical eye in his brow. That eye, at least, was still normal; it had not become a block.

He roused his divine consciousness and poured it into the Primordial Stone, shouting, "Break!"

His divine consciousness was exceedingly powerful; yet now, when he drove it through the Primordial Stone, amplified by the Stone, and it burst out from his vertical eye, it had become blocks of consciousness that flew dancing through the air in all directions.

Shen Mu's eyes went wide, and he was somewhat baffled.

This did not seem like an illusion at all; rather, it seemed like a real and true world.