Chapter 970 — Three Battles at the Heavenly Origin

"The Great Emperor's Seal was left to me by Heavenly Venerable Cloud. Besides the Seal and that altar, the Dao Ancestor said Heavenly Venerable Cloud also left Kaihuang a scroll of maps charting the Taixu."

Shen Mu lifted his head to the Great Emperor's Seal, whose power grew ever fiercer, and knit his brows slightly.

Judging by these few things Heavenly Venerable Cloud had left behind, as far back as the Dragon Han era he had already known a great deal about Taixu — his understanding of it surpassed even that of the ten Heavenly Venerables of today.

There were rumors that Kaihuang had built the Sorrowless Land within Taixu, and that this was why it was so hard to find. The ten Heavenly Venerables had repeatedly sent men deep into Taixu, and their purpose too was to seek out the Sorrowless Land and root out Kaihuang, that hidden peril.

If the Sorrowless Land truly lay within Taixu, then the map Heavenly Venerable Cloud had left to Kaihuang must have been of great help in founding it!

"Then why should Heavenly Venerable Cloud's mortal body appear within the Great Emperor's brow?"

Shen Mu's heart brimmed with doubt and dread, and Luo Wushuang and Yue Tingge were shaken to the core as well. They raised their heads and looked at the square seal.

That precious seal could actually break the suppression of the Supreme Domain of Divine Consciousness and free them from the rules of this uncanny place — truly beyond belief.

Yet Shen Mu and Shu Jun knew the truth in their hearts: this Great Emperor's Seal was the Great Emperor's own treasure, and in this place it could draw upon the Great Emperor's power to form a comparatively stable domain.

It was not the Great Emperor's Seal that broke the Supreme Domain of Divine Consciousness. It was the Great Emperor.

The might of the Great Emperor's Seal came, in truth, from the Great Emperor.

Suddenly Shen Mu spoke. "Celestial Master Yue, Luo the Divine Blade, with this precious seal in hand, why not go to that place and explore the mysteries of this Supreme Domain of Divine Consciousness?"

Luo Wushuang hesitated, then nodded. "Very well. At the very least, we must pull Heavenly Venerable Fire out of there."

Shen Mu looked to Yue Tingge, and saw that he raved no longer, his features savage no more. Instead he wore the air of a wise man directing affairs from behind his lines. He nodded and said, "If Heavenly Venerable Mu possesses such a treasure, then perhaps the mysteries of this place may be unraveled. A journey of this kind calls for a guard of the dharma. Let me be your guardian."

Shen Mu blinked. Yue Tingge's sudden turn to sobriety was something he could truly not get used to.

This Daoist was by turns raving and demented, by turns savage and ferocious, and now clear-headed again; there was no fathoming him, no telling when the fit would seize him once more.

Yue Tingge bowed low, hands clasped to the ground, bearing the mien of a master who had attained the Dao, and said with a smile, "Yue Tingge of the Daoist sect pays his respects to Heavenly Venerable Mu. Ever since I set foot in Taixu I have lived in a muddled haze; only today have I found rare clarity. I must have given you much amusement along the way."

Luo Wushuang said quietly, "Shen the Tyrant Body, this man cannot be trusted."

Shen Mu laughed. "We are all in the same boat now. What is there not to trust? Celestial Master Yue is a wise man of the Heavenly Court. How do you think we should explore this Supreme Domain of Divine Consciousness?"

Yue Tingge pondered. His vital essence turned into countless stars, forming a great circle a hundred zhang across, slowly revolving. "Ahead lies the core of the Supreme Domain of Divine Consciousness," he said. "Even Heavenly Venerable Fire was trapped there and could not free himself. I will use the stars as a clock: they revolve about the center, and one full circuit is one day. I shall leave the stars here. With this precious seal to protect us, we enter the Supreme Domain of Divine Consciousness. If you see the stars' motion quicken, that means we have been trapped by the domain and the seal can no longer break it; then we must turn back with all speed."

"A clever method," Shen Mu praised.

They set off at once. Shen Mu governed the Great Emperor's Seal with his divine consciousness, and it hung high above their heads as the three of them and one dragon crossed the abyssal void with utmost caution, drawing near the Lotus Continent.

Shen Mu looked back, and saw the ring of stars standing upright a hundred zhang tall upon the cliff wall, turning along its starry graduations.

Within the Supreme Domain of Divine Consciousness it was not that time flowed at a rate unlike the outside world, but that matter itself changed at a different rate. Here divine consciousness was so strong that it stilled the flow of matter; even a being such as Heavenly Venerable Fire was trapped in it.

Luckily, the protection of the Great Emperor's Seal let them pass through this motionless time and space.

They climbed onto the Lotus Continent, and saw the roots sprouting from the Great Emperor's feet — monstrous in their thickness, shocking to behold. The Great Emperor's mortal body could well rival the Primordial Tree in its vastness; those roots struck deep into the Lotus Continent, and where they swelled up from beneath the ground they formed mountain ranges.

The rivers of blood upon the earth were fearsome in their width and even more fearsome in their length, and within those blood rivers dwelt a multitude of grotesque creatures — dreadful species born, surely, of the Great Emperor's divine blood.

Luckily, this was the Supreme Domain of Divine Consciousness: these creatures were pinned fast by the domain, unable to stir.

Shen Mu and the others flew over the mountain peaks and looked about them. The divine powers of the Creators had wrought magnificent vistas here, dazzling and many-hued. Flying amid it all, they seemed to travel through a kingdom of giants, where every last thing appeared monstrously vast.

"Do not touch anything here."

Shen Mu spoke gravely. "Most things here are transformations of divine consciousness. Beware the Creators' divine consciousness invading you; if that happens, you may no longer be yourself."

Shu Jun gave a cold snort. This was the voice of experience from Shen Mu, learned from Shu Jun himself. He had once nearly seized Shen Mu's mortal body, only to be blocked by that strange eye of Shen Mu's.

The Creators here were dead, yet their divine consciousness remained. The powers of the Creators were uncanny; perhaps they truly could, by divine consciousness alone, rise again from death.

They pressed gradually deeper into the Lotus Continent, drawing ever nearer to the Great Emperor. Shen Mu, Yue Tingge, and the rest kept glancing back at the star ring upon the cliff, reckoning the speed of its turning.

The star ring's rate of rotation had not changed greatly all this while, which set their hearts somewhat at ease.

They drew closer to Heavenly Venerable Fire as well — when suddenly Shen Mu's heart clenched. The star ring's speed had abruptly surged!

Before, the star ring had turned at a rate of one circuit a day. Now, in a brief moment, it completed a full circuit!

They felt nothing amiss here, and thought their own pace normal; yet had one stood beside the star ring and watched them, their movements would have seemed inconceivably slow!

"The Supreme Domain of Divine Consciousness here is immeasurably strong, beyond what the Great Emperor's Seal can withstand."

Yue Tingge had marked the quickening too, and said in alarm, "We should turn back at once. There is still time to turn back!"

In the brief moment it took him to speak, the star ring had turned two circuits already — which meant two days had passed outside the Supreme Domain of Divine Consciousness!