Chapter 978 — Sloth in Youth, Vain Grief in White Hair

"Then that woman is the Void Heavenly Venerable?

" Shen Mu gazed at her intently. Yue Tingge had once said that the Void Bridge was a thing of unspeakable terror, and that even he dared not set foot upon it. Yue Tingge was, after all, an existence at the great perfection of the Heavenly Palace realm; for all that he was a scatterbrain who feigned madness and played the fool, his strength was beyond dispute.

That he dared not set foot on the Void Bridge was proof enough of how perilous it was.

The Void Heavenly Venerable, however, was another matter entirely. This woman had already penetrated so deep into the Void Bridge; her strength had truly reached an inconceivable height.

Shen Mu frowned slightly. Yue Tingge had tricked the two Heavenly Venerables into entering the domain of supreme divine consciousness; the Fire Heavenly Venerable was trapped there.

How, then, had the Void Heavenly Venerable escaped?

Why had the Fire Heavenly Venerable warned him to beware the Void Heavenly Venerable?

Was there some deeper meaning in those words?

Why was the Void Heavenly Venerable so determined to cross the Void Bridge — to seek out those vanished Creators, or to find the Land of No Sorrow?

"This Void Bridge is so treacherous that with my strength I likely could not cross it at all. Better to let it be. " Shen Mu's eyes flickered, and he thought, "The Ark of the Other Shore, built by the Heavenly Artisan God Race of the Kaihuang era, can carry one to the Land of No Sorrow.

So long as I can evade the Heavenly Court's eyes and ears, I need only repair that Ark and I can sail it to the Land of No Sorrow. There is no need for me to take such a risk here. " The astrolabe of the Ark of the Other Shore was still in his hands.

In those years, Village Head, Mo Jiang, and the others had found that astrolabe, and the Village Head himself had laid a seal upon it, saying that only when Shen Mu's strength was great enough to break the seal would he be permitted to pilot the Ark of the Other Shore in search of the Land of No Sorrow.

Now, though Shen Mu would not claim that his strength surpassed the Village Head's, breaking the Village Head's seal would be an easy matter. The Ark of the Other Shore was damaged beyond measure; fortunately, by means of the geographical charts Wei Suifeng had left behind, Shen Mu had found Ying Zhao's supreme divine brain hidden in the Taiming Heaven of the Kaihuang Heavenly Court, and from it obtained the blueprints for building the Ark of the Other Shore.

The only difficulty was that the Ark of the Other Shore was a vessel forged by the Heavenly Artisan God Race to travel to the Land of No Sorrow, and the Heavenly Court would surely keep that ship under the strictest watch. To slip past the Heavenly Court's watchful eyes was all but impossible!

"Or perhaps I could build another Ark of the Other Shore.

.

. " He calculated inwardly, "But to build another Ark of the Other Shore would likely require the combined forging of several hundred thousand heavenly artisans before the ship could be brought into being. I cannot find so many artisans; and even if I could, word would easily leak out, and the target would only grow larger.

Perhaps.

.

. " An absurd idea was born in his mind, and once it appeared it could not be suppressed, setting his blood astir!

"Perhaps I can visualize an Ark of the Other Shore. " "Ying Zhao imprinted the blueprints of the Ark of the Other Shore upon my mind; I can make full use of those blueprints to visualize the Ark of the Other Shore!

" "So long as I visualize this ship, and with the Ark's astrolabe besides, I can cross the Void Bridge — and perhaps even find the Land of No Sorrow!

" . .

.

He was greatly stirred. In the outer world he was kept under close watch; with his name as the Mu Heavenly Venerable, wherever he went he could scarcely escape the Heavenly Court's eyes and ears.

But Taixu was different.

Of the Heavenly Court's masters who had come to Taixu, only the Fire Heavenly Venerable and the Void Heavenly Venerable were confident of leaving alive; the others — even an existence like Yue Tingge — had no sure confidence of walking out of this place alive. Here, so long as he avoided the Fire Heavenly Venerable and the Void Heavenly Venerable, he could visualize the Ark of the Other Shore to his heart's content, and then sail it across the Void Bridge! "But before that, I must first raise my cultivation and advance to the Heavenly Palace realm.

Then I can attempt to cultivate the Tai Emperor's Daluo Supreme Divine Consciousness. With the Daluo Supreme Divine Consciousness, visualizing the Ark of the Other Shore will be far swifter!

" Shen Mu acted the moment the thought came. He had never before opened a Heavenly Palace, but he had opened divine treasuries no fewer than twenty or thirty times, and was well versed in the work.

In the Longhan era, however, people had opened their Heavenly Palaces by resonating with the Longhan Heavenly Court and borrowing the power of its ancient gods; only thus could they open a Heavenly Palace within their bodies. In that age the Longhan Heavenly Court still dwelt in the mortal world.

Though it stood high in the heavens, men and gods shared one realm, so it was easy to sense the Heavenly Court and to borrow its power and the power of the ancient gods. When a divine ability practitioner opened a Heavenly Palace, the Southern Heavenly Gate, the Jade Pool, the God-Slaying Platform, the Jade Capital, the Lingxiao Hall, and the other structures within it were all imprints of the corresponding structures of the Longhan Heavenly Court, which made matters very convenient.

In Taixu, however, there was no such convenient path.

So Shen Mu resorted to visualization: he visualized the layout and structure of the Heavenly Court, first sketching out its whole form, and then opening the void to carve out the realm that was the Heavenly Palace. They were dwelling in the last gathering place of the Creators, and Luo Wushuang stood guard over him, watching for any enemy that might come.

Shen Mu sat in silent meditation for a long while, visualizing without cease, and within his Primal Fetus Divine Treasury a Southern Heavenly Gate of glassy jade gradually emerged, the runes and veins upon it slowly growing distinct.

Then the Green Wave Bridge, spanning the Heavenly River, appeared; golden dragons with the great sun in their jaws danced, and phoenixes crowned with vermilion perched upon it. Further in lay the Longevity Star Terrace, the Heavenly Street, the Heavenly Market, the Imperial Carriage Way, the Water Palace, the Three Terraces, the Heavenly Rampart, and the Three Preceptors; following the Heavenly River deeper still came the Jade Terrace, and then the broad Jade Pool, the jade seas and divine mountains, all surging into being.

Past the Jade Pool came the ten great imperial guards — the Left and Right Feather Forest, the Left and Right Dragon Martial, the Left and Right Divine Martial, the Left and Right Divine Strategy, the Left and Right Divine Might — and then the God-Slaying Platform.

Only after the God-Slaying Platform came the Jade Capital City and the Lingxiao Hall. The first Heavenly Palace Shen Mu visualized was modeled on the specifications of the present-day Heavenly Court.

He had some understanding of the Dao runes of each of the ancient gods, and the runes imprinted upon the palaces and halls of the Heavenly Court were likewise the Dao runes of the ancient gods; his would only be more complete and more perfect than the Heavenly Palaces of old. Yet visualization was only visualization; by visualization alone he could not make the Heavenly Palace real.

He still had to open the void and carve the Heavenly Palace into being.