Chapter 1056 — The Incense Hall Descends Upon the Mortal World

Dozens more Heavenly River branches rushed out ahead of Shen Mu; tower-ships and great vessels descended from the sky and hurled themselves at the place where the Southern Pole Heaven's flames burned brightest.

Shen Mu withdrew his gaze.

At last the palanquin came to the Southern Pole Forbidden Zone. Ahead, the radiance of the Great Way rose in billows; seen from afar it was like a vast altar of flame thrust up from the horizon — yet it was no altar, but a vision wrought of that radiance.

The radiance of the Great Way formed a nest-like structure above, a nest of immense size; from afar the flaming clouds and holy fire seemed to shape a Vermilion Bird rising with wings spread. When the Celestial Dragon Palanquin reached this place it felt the scorching heat; so high was the temperature that even those six Celestial Dragons of the Jade Capital Realm dared not draw near.

Yet the heat here had already fallen greatly, for the Heavenly River Navy had just passed this way; as many as thirty-six broad branches of the Heavenly River flowed into the forbidden zone of the Southern Pole Heaven.

The Heavenly River Navy had marshaled the power of the Heavenly River to suppress this forbidden zone of the Great Way, and many tower-ships and great vessels had already sailed within it, hunting down the gods and demons of the Southern Pole Heaven who had fled here. Not a few gods and demons had taken refuge in the forbidden zone; born in the Southern Pole Heaven, they relied on the advantages of terrain and bloodline to hold off the Heavenly Court's Heavenly River Navy, and the fighting was savagely bitter.

Dragon Qilin drove on, into the radiance of the Great Way of the Southern Pole Heaven. The four emperors of the ancient gods of the Four Pole Heavens all held the places of their birth in the highest regard, and never lightly revealed them to others.

Shen Mu had been to the Eastern Pole, the Western Pole, and the Northern Pole, yet he had never seen the birthplaces of those three ancient god emperors; not even the Western Emperor, who seemed so simple and endearing, had shown him the forbidden zone where the Western Emperor was born. The four ancient god emperors had hidden their birthplaces away, for the forbidden zones held the rules of the Great Way that gave them birth, and they must guard them carefully lest others study them through and through and find their weaknesses.

Yet now this Southern Pole Forbidden Zone had surfaced; even from outside, Shen Mu and the others could feel wave upon wave of terrible palpitations of the Great Way surging out from within it! The six Celestial Dragons drew the palanquin into the forbidden zone, cautious, unknowingly slowing their pace; the heat here was extreme, the radiance more perilous still.

From outside, the forbidden zone had looked like an altar built of radiance; yet driving into it, they found another world within. The radiance of the Great Way that made up the forbidden zone formed mountain ranges tens of thousands of li long; the courses of these ranges shaped natural runes of immense complexity, while finer radiance formed patterns of differing grain inlaid upon the mountains, the ground, and even the air.

These radiances and natural way-patterns were exceedingly dangerous; even natives of the Southern Pole Heaven must tread with care, or they might well trigger the way's might. The power of the ancient gods came from the power of the Great Way, and in this forbidden zone the Great Way had almost taken on substance!

Ahead, the Heavenly River Navy cleared the way; mighty gods and demons one after another wielded the Heavenly River, stream after stream pressing down the fires and bearing down the mountains formed of radiance, while from the tower-ships and great vessels thousands upon thousands of divine soldiers rose and descended to subdue the land. Shen Mu's Celestial Dragon Palanquin followed behind, meeting little danger as it advanced; he saw more and more tower-ships in the sky, and ship after ship suddenly bursting into roaring Dao fire, the gods and demons aboard burned into men of flame, scurrying wildly about the decks, screaming without end.

They had stirred the radiance of the Great Way here and triggered its might. If the radiance could not be suppressed, it would devour them in turn.

Here were not only the Heavenly River Navy but also the rebels of the Southern Pole Heaven; those rebels struck by stealth, even at the cost of deliberately provoking the way's might, to perish together with the Heavenly River Navy.

As the Celestial Dragon Palanquin followed the Heavenly River onward, the officers and soldiers on the tower-ships in the sky saw them but asked nothing; some commander must have given the word, and none barred their way into the Southern Pole Forbidden Zone. "Ahead lies the zone of Dao fire. All halt!

" A deity of the Heavenly River Navy stood at the bow of his ship, relaying the order in a loud voice. "Drive the rebels into the Dao fire!

" Countless divine soldiers flew up from the tower-ships and great vessels and pressed down upon the rebels ahead; the gods and demons of the Southern Pole Heaven were many, ten thousand strong, yet they could not withstand the Heavenly River Navy's crushing advance and were driven deeper into the forbidden zone.

The Celestial Dragon Palanquin halted. Shen Mu, Yan'er, and Dragon Qilin looked on as those ten thousand charged into the zone of Dao fire and one after another burst into flame, body and spirit annihilated, all of them turned to flying ash, not one spared!

"Celestial Venerable Mu! " That deity spoke from on high. "My Heavenly River Navy is about to withdraw; with no Heavenly River here to suppress it, I must ask the Celestial Venerable to bear with it!

" Shen Mu nodded.

The deity gave the order to withdraw, and one branch of the Heavenly River after another swiftly contracted, waves sweeping the tower-ships and great vessels out of the forbidden zone.

That deity's tower-ship stayed at the rear, suppressing the forbidden zone's way-might, remaining to the last. "Celestial Venerable, the Dao fire has nine heavens; this is only the first.

The deeper you go, the more perilous it becomes. Take care, Celestial Venerable!

" The deity flicked his sleeve, and the last Heavenly River branch withdrew.

Shen Mu stepped down from the palanquin and said gravely, "Yan'er, Fatty Dragon, come with me.

The palanquin stays here. Yan'er, use the lantern to suppress the Dao fire.

" Yan'er held up the lantern and guarded their advance, while the Celestial Dragon Palanquin remained where it was. Ahead the Dao fire blazed; the heat rose higher and higher, the flames twisting the void, layer upon layer of void melting away.

Shen Mu glanced back without thinking and could not help but marvel.

Standing amid the flames of the Southern Pole Forbidden Zone and looking outward, the Southern Pole Heaven appeared as a twisted ring, the whole of it gathered into a single view.

This was the first heaven of the forbidden zone's Dao fire; the Moon Celestial Venerable's lantern could handle it with ease.

At the second heaven of the Dao fire, Shen Mu looked back again and saw the countless stars and constellations of the southern sky of the cosmos turned into another ring hanging beyond the forbidden zone, become a further layer of heavens outside the Southern Pole Heaven.

At the third heaven, a still stranger sight appeared: Shen Mu saw the Primordial Realm and the myriad worlds of the heavens turned into a third ring hanging beyond the forbidden zone! And at the fourth heaven of the Dao fire, Heaven Duke's Xuandu had become the fourth layer of heavens!

The Dark Capital was the fifth heaven of the Dao fire, forming a dark halo. The Gulf of Returning was the sixth heaven of the Dao fire: the Dark Capital was dark of hue, but the Gulf of Returning was black, without a glimmer of light.