Chapter 994 — Twin Serpents Chant, Flower Fragrance Assails

"Having passed the trial of the ancestral spirits, you now possess the most profound knowledge, and with it the authority to lead the Creator race." Langwan the God King continued.

Shen Mu had been somewhat uneasy a moment before, but at these words his spirits instantly soared.

"In these two days you will remain here, and I will instruct you in the visualization combat art."

"Two days is a short span," said Langwan the God King, "but I believe that with the Holy Infant's wisdom, you will be able to grasp the visualization combat art in its essentials, and best of all, to fuse visualization with your own vital essence."

Shen Mu was thin and gaunt, and fearing that his blood and divine consciousness would not hold out, he hastily took out the Hongmeng Primordial Liquid and flicked a single drop into the Primal Embryo Divine Treasury to replenish his vital essence and divine consciousness.

Seeing this, Langwan the God King could not help but frown. "You are helping Shujun the God King restore his body?"

Shen Mu nodded.

"Shujun the God King is old, outdated, and obstinate in his own conceit. There is no need to save him."

"If you cannot bring yourself to do it," said Langwan the God King, "I will rid you of him. Refining him to death would be easy enough."

Within the primordial stone, Shujun stamped and raged, cursing Langwan the God King for her cruelty and ruthlessness, for giving no thought to the bond between their kind.

Shen Mu shook his head. "I promised Shujun that I would help him restore his mind, and I will do it. God King, if I were a man who broke faith and betrayed his word, would you still trust me so?"

Langwan the God King thought for a moment, then shook her head.

Shen Mu's complexion recovered somewhat, and he kept two or three parts of his divine consciousness in reserve, ensuring that he could still wield his divine-consciousness divine powers.

Langwan the God King circulated her divine consciousness and visualized step by step, and a rune gradually appeared before her, from void to substance, growing ever more distinct.

Shen Mu followed her, learning bit by bit, and tried as well to visualize runes with his divine consciousness.

Langwan the God King taught with great care, yet Shen Mu learned with astonishing speed. What she passed on to him were all fundamental runes, and in this Shen Mu was himself a master, so he took to it with ease.

He could even point out flaws in Langwan the God King's work and complete her runes for her.

The Creator race usually instilled their knowledge into their juniors through divine consciousness, but this method had a drawback: it made the errors of one's forebears hard to discover.

Langwan the God King rejected that approach and instead adopted the clumsiest method, teaching Shen Mu hand over hand rather than pouring knowledge directly into him.

She wanted Shen Mu to correct her shortcomings as well.

As for fundamental runes, the Creators had studied them, but after all they had dwelt in the Other Shore World for hundreds of thousands, even a million years, and in the Great Void for longer still, with almost no contact with the outside; they could only steal scraps of the runes of the Carefree Land, and so their attainments in runes fell short even of Shen Mu's.

In divine-consciousness divine powers, however, their attainments were far beyond anything Shen Mu could reach.

Though Langwan the God King was nominally teaching him, in truth the two were learning from each other.

Time passed swiftly; before they knew it a whole day had gone by, and Shen Mu could already visualize the various fundamental runes with skill. At a single stir of thought, his divine consciousness would construct the rune.

He also discovered that runes formed from divine consciousness fused with vital essence were far more terrifying in power, several times mightier than runes formed from vital essence or divine consciousness alone!

In the Azure Feather Hall, Langwan the God King, her figure ethereal and graceful, visualized an azure serpent. She stood upon its head as the great snake lunged and struck, battling Shen Mu.

And Shen Mu likewise stood upon the head of a white serpent he had visualized, conjuring all manner of divine powers to fend off her attacks, fusing the Dao arts and divine powers he had learned and comprehended in the past with visualization to strengthen their might.

As the two unleashed their various visualized divine powers, a wave of the hand sent blossoms raining from the heavens; a single stroke burst the starry sky into being. At one stir of divine consciousness, heavenly fire descended and flame consumed the world; at another, meteors fell from the sky and the earth shook and the mountains swayed.

They visualized gate after gate, and within each gate lay a world. Borne by the two great serpents, azure and white, they threaded through the gates, roaming among the worlds they had visualized, over high mountains, across vast oceans, through glaciers and great marshes, appearing and vanishing like ghosts.

At last the azure and white serpents twined tail to tail, their bodies coiling, lifting the two ever higher and drawing them ever closer, while visualized divine powers danced around them, transforming into strange phenomena that clashed and annihilated one another without cease!

Shen Mu's visualized divine powers were endlessly varied, fusing visualization with the Great Dao of the ancient gods and with the acquired Great Dao; so many were his methods that even Langwan the God King was dazzled.

The entwined azure and white serpents drew them ever nearer, and the collisions of their divine powers grew ever more violent.

At last they were close enough to touch, the two coiled serpents making them like twin stars revolving about each other; their exchanges grew fiercer still, divine powers pouring forth without end.

Suddenly a flower bud was visualized into being in Shen Mu's hand. The flower slowly bloomed, gorgeously hued in purple and crimson, utterly enchanting.

Its petals were many, unfurling outward one after another; the stamens emerged, and a fragrance assailed the nose.

Langwan the God King spotted the opening and raised a finger to press upon Shen Mu's brow, her divine consciousness invading his body.

But at that very moment the delicate, vivid flower was offered up before her, and Shen Mu said with a smile, "For you."

Langwan the God King was taken aback for a moment. She withdrew her finger and pulled back her divine consciousness, saying coolly, "This is a contest. I meant to test the progress of your cultivation over these two days, yet you let your mind wander. You disappoint me."

She took the vivid flower from Shen Mu's hand, turned away, and held it to her lips to smell it; the sweet fragrance seeped into her heart.

A faint smile appeared on Langwan the God King's face. Barefoot, she stepped down from the azure serpent's head, and her voice drifted back: "You must not do that again... Well, are you not coming? The hour of the Grand Sacrifice draws near."

Shen Mu hastily leaped down from the white serpent's head and followed in her steps.

Behind them the azure and white serpents still twined and lingered together; then of a sudden they parted, necks crossing, and swam off into the forest of the Azure Feather Hall.

Shen Mu came to the pool of Hongmeng Primordial Liquid and fetched several jade bottles, intending to fill them with some of the liquid. Seeing this, Langwan the God King shook her head. "Your bottles are too small. How much could they hold? I sense upon you the aura of the Cangshan Clan's Gourd-Heaven Bottle. Just use the Gourd-Heaven Bottle to draw some."

Shen Mu took out the Gourd-Heaven Bottle that the chieftain of the Cangshan Clan had given him. Within the bottle was a complete cosmos, its inner space vast and boundless; to hold a pool of water was nothing, for it could hold an entire starry sky with ease!