Chapter 988 — Three Bouts

Merely to visualize the Jade Capital Pearl was not enough to pass the trial of Divine King Langwan. He had still to turn it from void to solid, from phantom image into reality, visualizing in minute detail its mountains and waters, its trees, its runes, its buildings, and its ancient gods, and making them all corporeal. This was the truest test of a Creator's consciousness.

Had Shen Mu not sealed those nine Creators, their mischief would have made it impossible for him ever to visualize the Pearl, let alone turn void into substance.

But now he had ample time. Shen Mu sat at the center of the Jade Capital Pearl, his consciousness pouring forth unceasingly, as though ten thousand invisible painters held invisible brushes, sketching and creating a world within the bead, making that world ever more true.

After no one knew how long, he at last withdrew his consciousness and visualized no more, then stepped through the Pearl and returned to the altar.

The many Creators crowded forward to examine it closely, Xiu Zhong inspecting it with particular care. The Jade Capital Pearl Shen Mu had visualized was much smaller than the sacred relic of the Xiu clan, and in every respect no flaw could be found, save only that the ancient gods in Shen Mu's Jade Capital City were somewhat different from those in the Xiu clan's relic.

Xiu Zhong smiled. "The Holy Infant lives up to the name.

Workmanship of this order already places you among the foremost of Creators, though your cultivation of consciousness is still a little lacking. And the forms of these gods and demons are somewhat off, but that must come from insufficient knowledge, which is no fault of the Holy Infant. . .

" He had only just spoken when suddenly the ancient gods within the Pearl began to move, each of the gods in the City moving and bearing himself differently from the rest, and the great Dao runes upon their bodies each different as well! More than that, the two hundred and fifty-six ancient gods each chanted Dao words from their mouths, two hundred and fifty-six different utterances, different tongues mingling together into a vast Dao resonance that issued from the bead, unspeakably sacred and solemn! As the Dao resonance shook forth, every runic pattern within the Pearl, sun and moon, mountains and rivers, lakes and seas, all burst into light, and the whole Pearl seemed to gather the power of an entire heaven, giving off a terrifying throb!

The clan chiefs started in fright and hastily drew back. Light shining from the Jade Capital Pearl Shen Mu had visualized projected outward through a space a thousand zhang across, its veins and runes cast forth, projecting outside that Pearl a second Jade Capital Pearl a thousand zhang in extent!

Only, what lay within was substance, and what lay without was phantom. Yet the runic structure of the phantom also possessed might, sun and moon and mountains and rivers and lakes and seas condensing without cease, growing ever more true, the Jade Capital City emerging, gods and demons of every kind standing erect, different Dao words sounding from their mouths. Hummm — The phantom Pearl trembled, light erupted, and a second projection formed, beyond the two Pearls a third and still more majestic Jade Capital Pearl!

All around the altar were enfolded within it, gazing in fascination at this third heaven formed by the second projection. Hummm — The third heaven projected again, forming a fourth heaven, then a fifth heaven, a sixth heaven. After the Pearl had formed the sixth heaven, the projected phantoms grew ever dimmer, unable to carry out a sixth projection.

Standing upon the altar, Shen Mu slowly closed the third holy eye upon his brow, and the tier upon tier of heavens gradually dispersed, until at last the Pearl became a spirit bead the size of a fingertip and fell into his palm.

"Xiu Zhong, can your Xiu clan's relic be used like that? " asked Can Nu, chief of the Zi Li clan. Xiu Zhong stared blankly and shook his head.

"No.

" Shen Mu handed him the Pearl he had visualized. "The ancient gods you visualize lack some runes, and so cannot project a second heaven. I have filled them in.

So long as one's consciousness is strong enough, the second heaven projected from the Pearl can also be made real.

My consciousness is not strong, so I could only project to the sixth heaven. The Xiu clan is remarkable.

The power hidden in this Pearl is terrifying beyond measure!

" He could not help praising it.

"Had I not no shallow attainment in painting, forging, art, and mathematics, I might truly have failed to visualize it!

The Xiu clan is indeed extraordinary!

" Xiu Zhong carefully pinched the Pearl he had visualized, his heart utterly at a loss. "The Jade Capital Pearl our clan visualizes does not have this function.

.

.

" He hastily asked, "With the gods' runes completed, can it project onward without end? " Shen Mu shook his head. "Just now when I visualized, pressed for time, I only calculated to the eighteenth decimal place, the void digit. That is to say, the Pearl can project eighteen heavens. After eighteen heavens, insufficiency in mathematics will make the error of the projection grow ever greater, and heavens projected thereafter will carry no power for being too far in error.

" Xiu Zhong gaped. "Mathematics?

" Shen Mu nodded. "Mathematics.

When Creators visualize simple things, a mirror for instance, no mathematics is needed, but for complex things, runic structures and the like, mathematics is required.

If I used mathematics alone, I could not forge a perfectly round sphere, but visualization joined with mathematics can raise the precision of a forged object by several orders of magnitude. If the precision is high enough and the consciousness strong enough, then projection can continue without limit! " Xiu Zhong remained somewhat perplexed. Shen Mu shook his head helplessly and forlornly. These Creators did not understand mathematics.

Creators had almost no need of mathematics, for they could visualize the most perfect mirror and every kind of pattern, and so had never developed it.

Yet visualization was not omnipotent, and in fine construction it needed mathematics to supplement it. Divine King Langwan smiled. "Since you have passed the first trial, let the second begin, the trial of the flesh. This one is simple, only combat of the body, employing no consciousness at all, flesh alone. " Nine more Creators stepped forth, their bodies towering as mountains.

Shen Mu's heart quailed.

He glanced at Xiu Zhong and murmured, "No danger?

" Xiu Zhong was full of confidence. "For the Holy Infant, no danger!

" Shen Mu glanced at Shu Jun, who crowed triumphantly, "Use the consciousness body-forging art I taught you, and you will beat them till they piss themselves!

" Shen Mu was furious. What the fellow had taught him was the Three Enclosures Upper Consciousness, never any body-forging art!

Every scrap of consciousness art he had pried from Shu Jun had required an exchange, so the arts he cultivated were all incomplete.

The body-forging art he had comprehended came from the consciousness of Tai Di, the Da Luo Unsurpassed Consciousness, wherein one takes the self as the universe, hiding two thousand ancient gods within the body.

The Da Luo Unsurpassed Consciousness was indeed formidable, yet he had cultivated this body-forging art only a short time, and did not know whether he could stand against grown Creators.

Shen Mu steadied his spirit, calmed his breath, and stirred his consciousness. At once it surged from his mind into his third holy eye, and passing through the Tai Chu Origin Stone, became Da Luo Heaven!

His consciousness erupted within the Origin Stone, his head as the Heavenly Court, his cinnabar field as Yuan Capital, his sea of qi as Guixu, his Yongquan points as Youdu, his four limbs as the Four Poles and Four Signs, his spine as the Thirty-Three Heavens.