Chapter 980 — The Lure of the Swimming Fish

" Veins bulged on Luo Wushuang's forehead; his one remaining hand pressed the blade's hilt, every vein standing out, as he reminded him, "Cult Master Shen, the purpose of our journey is not to revive these two witches, but to cross the Void Bridge. I beg Cult Master Shen to visualize the Ark of the Other Shore as soon as may be! " Shen Mu looked at the hand gripping the blade and smiled, "Brother Luo, rest assured, I am no muddle-headed man to be seduced by beauty.

My only reason for wanting to revive them was to learn their Great Heavenly Court arts; I have no other designs whatever! Since Brother Luo suspects me, I shall go and visualize the Ark of the Other Shore, and let us leave this place as soon as we can!

" He looked again at the corpses of the two beauties on the ground and inwardly sighed at the pity of it: "With the arts of creation they could still be revived.

. . A pity Luo Wushuang is so stubborn and so fierce!

" Luo Wushuang noticed his gaze and at once stepped forward, tossing the two women's corpses into the void. Shen Mu left with a black face, deeply aggrieved: "I am no dotard lecher like the ancient god Heavenly Emperor — was there any need to guard against me like that?

This is nothing but the love of beauty all men share. Even if I revived them I would never have harbored any other design — at most I would have traded a teasing word or two with them!

" Yun Chuxiu and Lian Huahun had already been shredded by the destroying void beyond the Void Bridge.

Having no other thoughts left, he first made use of the Guixu runes and tried to evolve the Great Guixu Abyss within his own Primal Embryo Divine Treasury.

His cultivation system was unlike any other. For others, the divine treasury and heavenly palace system advanced layer upon layer, each higher than the last; but he had only one divine treasury, and as many as fourteen heavenly palaces.

More crucially, his heavenly palaces were built within his Primal Embryo Divine Treasury, unlike the divine power users and god-demons whose heavenly palaces dwelt high beyond the heavens. It was likewise easier for Shen Mu than for others to alter the structure of his Primal Embryo Divine Treasury.

Quickly he shaped the Great Guixu Abyss into form; it became the Taiji cord of the Taiji diagram, and the Heavenly River flowed from that cord into Youdu beneath the diagram, turning into the Nether River. Crude though his Great Guixu Abyss was, it connected Youdu, Xuandu, and Yuandu, and at once gave Shen Mu a sense of primal energy flowing on without cease, inexhaustible!

In shaping Guixu and opening the way through the three realms, his cultivation had not risen greatly, but his speed in marshaling primal energy and divine consciousness was now far greater, and the visualization of the Ark of the Other Shore went incomparably more smoothly. Soon he had visualized the Ark's outline in the rough; yet to visualize even the cycle of rebirth of the Ark of the Other Shore required an enormous quantity of divine consciousness, and with his cultivation in divine consciousness, visualizing the outline alone drained him dry.

Shen Mu frowned; while his divine consciousness recovered, he entered his dream and became countless tiny Shen Mus, deducing how to fuse the Supreme Dalu Divine Consciousness with the Mystic Body Three Elixirs Art. The process of fusing the Supreme Dalu Divine Consciousness was a process of those countless dream Shen Mus dying in every conceivable manner — bitter and arduous in the extreme.

But the Great Brahma Heavenly King Buddha's Sutra of Immeasurable Kalpas was precisely such a method: one might err and try again countless times, and at the last find the perfect art.

Once Shen Mu had fused the Supreme Dalu Divine Consciousness, driving the Mystic Body Three Elixirs Art to visualize the Ark of the Other Shore was much easier.

The details of the Ark gradually took shape; Shen Mu rested dozens of times more, and at last the great ship grew whole.

As the days passed, Luo Wushuang's wounds healed.

When he went to see Shen Mu, he found that a great ship tens of li long had been visualized into being by him, and his heart was shaken beyond measure. The Ark of the Other Shore was the crystallized wisdom of the Kaihuang era.

Two such ships had been built in all; of them, one was crewed by the Kaihuang leading the mighty of the Kaihuang Heavenly Court's thirty-three heavens, and sailed to the Land of No Sorrow. The other Ark of the Other Shore had been forged by the Heavenly Artisan God Race under the leadership of Emperor Shitian Li Youran; he meant to lead the remnant host to the Land of No Sorrow, but the ship came under enemy attack and was destroyed in the Desolate Ruins.

The Heavenly Venerables of the Heavenly Court had wished to repair that ship too, but its construction was so intricate that without blueprints repair was simply impossible, and so they had no choice but to give it up. And now Shen Mu, by his own strength alone, had actually visualized an Ark of the Other Shore into being!

Though this ship was countless times smaller than the true Ark of the Other Shore, that he should visualize and forge a great ship tens of li long with his divine consciousness still made one marvel at the grandeur and greatness of a Creator. At last, Shen Mu visualized the final component of the Ark of the Other Shore.

Upon the Ark's hull one rune lit up, then a hundred million runes along the hull were kindled one after another; the ship slowly rose and floated in the air, like a small continent!

"Little friend Shen, you may already be counted a Creator. " Into Shen Mu's mind came Shu Jun's voice, full of feeling: "Even in the Primordial era, Creators who could visualize and create such intricate divine artifacts were not many.

There are countless Creators whose attainments in divine consciousness surpass yours, but those who can visualize a divine artifact so vast and complex are few indeed.

In the subtlety of your use of divine consciousness, you have already surpassed those who taught you. " "Many thanks for Brother Shu Jun's praise.

" Shen Mu boarded the great ship he had visualized and came to the bridge.

Luo Wushuang followed him up. Shen Mu took out the astrolabe the Village Head had given him, his expression complicated; after a moment he waved a hand across it, and various sword diagrams surfaced upon the astrolabe, which he broke apart with a crackling flurry! The Village Head's seal was no more. Shen Mu steadied himself and set the astrolabe onto the Ark of the Other Shore's compass.

The great ship rumbled and trembled a few times, slowly adjusted its course, and sailed toward the altar of the Void Bridge.

"The Land of No Sorrow.

" Shen Mu looked toward the Void Bridge, a smile on his face, his gaze exceedingly complicated: "I have come. "