Chapter 1074 — The One Who Rewrote the Laws of Realms

Among his fifteen Heavenly Palaces, the first in rank was the Main Heavenly Palace, transformed from the Great Dao hidden within the Primal Embryo Divine Treasury.

Ranked second was the Great Luo Divine Consciousness Heavenly Palace, and after it came the Sword Heavenly Palace, the Dragon Heavenly Palace, the Demon Heavenly Palace, the Creation Heavenly Palace, the Martial Dao Heavenly Palace, and the Painting Dao Heavenly Palace.

These eight Heavenly Palaces were complete.

The remaining palaces -- the Blade Heavenly Palace, the Healing Heavenly Palace, the Divine Power Heavenly Palace, the Forging Heavenly Palace, the Buddha Heavenly Palace, the Thief Heavenly Palace, and the Formation Heavenly Palace -- were broken and incomplete.

This time Shen Mu sought to have his primordial spirit break through the Southern Heavenly Gate of the eight complete Heavenly Palaces; that alone would count as stepping into the realm of the true gods, incomplete though it might be.

Once Zai Fu, Lord Huo, and the others achieved something in their cultivation and comprehended a technique leading straight to the Imperial Throne, Shen Mu could simply learn their techniques from them and perfect the seven Heavenly Palaces that remained. His Mystic Body Three Elixirs Art could now be reckoned a Lesser Heavenly Court technique, still some distance from the Great Heavenly Court technique of the eighteen Heavenly Palaces.

Shen Mu drove the Mystic Body Three Elixirs Art; his primordial spirit stood before the Southern Heavenly Gate of the Main Heavenly Palace, and all at once his primordial spirit divided, one into sixteen, sixteen primordial spirits appearing within the sixteen Heavenly Palaces.

This was the art of primordial spirit division from the Undying Divine Consciousness of the Three Primordial Spirits. The Crimson Emperor's Undying Divine Consciousness of the Three Primordial Spirits, improved by his own hand, had been merged into the Mystic Body Three Elixirs Art.

Unlike others who cultivated Heavenly Court techniques -- Lady Yuanmu, the Empress, and their like, whose Great Heavenly Court techniques employed projections of the primordial spirit, projecting it into one Heavenly Palace after another, never true primordial spirits -- Shen Mu used the division of the primordial spirit, and what he used were true primordial spirits.

Shen Mu's sixteen primordial spirits advanced shoulder to shoulder and stepped together through the Southern Heavenly Gate. Formless pressure assailed him. The pressure of the Southern Heavenly Gate was most strange: it came from every direction, and every inch of skin on the surface of his primordial spirits bore immense pressure; and more than that, every corner within the bodies of his primordial spirits bore pressure from all four sides and eight directions.

Once Shen Mu had not understood where this pressure came from, but now he knew it for what it was: Dao pressure.

The Heavenly Palace realm imitated the structure of the Heavenly Court; the Southern Heavenly Gate was the Heavenly Court's Southern Heavenly Gate, and that gate was transformed from the Great Dao of the ancient gods.

It could be said that for every divine being who entered the divine realm, their Southern Heavenly Gate was a projection of the Heavenly Court's Southern Heavenly Gate; only by entering the gate and enduring the Dao pressure, by walking into the Heavenly Palace, was one reckoned a true god. Yet within Shen Mu's Heavenly Palaces there were Southern Heavenly Gates transformed from acquired Great Daos; the pressure brought by the four palaces -- the Sword, the Creation, the Martial Dao, and the Painting Dao -- differed one from another, and was nothing like the pressure of a traditional Heavenly Palace's Southern Heavenly Gate.

The Southern Heavenly Gate of the Sword Heavenly Palace was as though countless flying swords stabbed into his primordial spirit from every direction within his body, destroying the sword dao of his primordial spirit, forcing him to rouse his sword dao in resistance.

It was as though he faced Kaihuang, that Great Emperor of the Sword Dao; his primordial spirit, beyond his own will, executed one sword move after another, contending against that formless Kaihuang.

In the Southern Heavenly Gate of the Painting Dao Heavenly Palace, he seemed to walk into countless inconceivable worlds of the painting dao; every step forward was like passing through ten thousand worlds, enduring every kind of tribulation. His primordial spirit took the Dao as its brush and vital qi and divine consciousness as its ink, painting one grotesque and dazzling world after another within the Southern Heavenly Gate, as though contending against Kuisou, that Sage of Painting, holding off the painting dao with the painting dao.

In the Southern Heavenly Gate of the Creation Heavenly Palace, he seemed to encounter the Crimson Emperor and the Bright Emperor, those two masters, and to contend in the dao of creation against a most majestic Great Emperor of Creation! In the Southern Heavenly Gate of the Martial Dao Heavenly Palace, he seemed to contend against the mightiest Great Emperor of the Martial Dao, as though facing the Martial Combat Celestial Master himself!

Shen Mu's eight primordial spirits strode forward as one; the pressure of the Southern Heavenly Gate grew heavier and heavier, shrinking his primordial spirits little by little. He decided on the instant, mobilizing the functions of his fleshly body, spirit and flesh made one, to resist this pressure and struggle onward.

To resist a traditional Southern Heavenly Gate was the simplest thing of all; to resist the Heavenly Palaces formed by acquired Great Daos was the hardest.

For the Great Dao of the ancient gods had been studied through and through, whereas the acquired Great Daos had only just begun. His main primordial spirit, the Great Luo Divine Consciousness primordial spirit, the Dragon primordial spirit, and the Demon primordial spirit each passed safely through the Southern Heavenly Gate, yet the Sword primordial spirit, the Martial Dao primordial spirit, the Painting Dao primordial spirit, and the Creation primordial spirit remained trapped within the gate.

The treasure carriage drove on into the depths of the starry sky, and without his noticing came again to the Heavenly River. The Dragon Qilin controlled the carriage's course, while Yan'er strove to digest the ancient god she had devoured.

"At this rate, it will take roughly half a year to reach the place the Hierarch spoke of.

" Dragon Qilin gazed ahead; the Heavenly River's course now was vastly different from that of later ages.

Far off he saw a silver river plunge down from the high and remote reaches of the cosmos, then flow toward the four poles of the universe.

Countless stars revolved around this silver river; the waters of the Heavenly River must flow out from Xuandu, and at the head of that silver river should stand Xuandu.

At this moment the Heavenly Dragon Treasure Carriage was bound for the region beneath the silver river.

The carriage's interior was vast; Shen Mu cultivated, with no leisure to heed the others, while Dahong and Gu Xiao tried to draw words out of Luo Xiao.

Yet though the two spoke with flowers on their tongues, Luo Xiao never once said where the Grand Void truly was. Time drifted on, and on this day the Heavenly Dragon Treasure Carriage at last came beneath the silver river; it went no farther onward, but advanced deeper toward the place where the silver river fell.

And at this moment Shen Mu finally broke through the Southern Heavenly Gate of the Sword Heavenly Palace; before long he broke through the Southern Heavenly Gates of the Martial Dao and Creation Heavenly Palaces as well, leaving only the Painting Dao unbroken.

"Hierarch, the destination is nearly here!