Chapter 1179 — One Leaf, One Universe

This mountain range was terrifying in its length, its slopes sheer and steep, and no sooner had Shen Mu entered it than he sensed something uncanny: the mountain gave a man the feeling that all was not right. Here his vital qi slowed and turned sluggish, flowing as though grit had been mixed into it.

Shen Mu at once roused the Lapis Azure-Sky Banner, and the Twenty-Eight Heavens began to turn; yet the more he strove to marshal the Twenty-Eight Heavens, the more clogged and labored the working became.

Nor was that all — he could feel his very flesh and his primordial spirit going rigid, and the divine blood within him seemed bent on turning solid.

Shen Mu raised his eyes: the twenty-eight layers of heaven of the Azure-Sky Banner had gone a murky gray, and he could not tell what had brought this about.

Long Qilin turned to look at its own tail and cried out in alarm, "Sect Master, I am about to seize up!

" "The power here is exceedingly strange.

Withdraw, all of you, and let me scout the way. " Shen Mu made Yan'er and Long Qilin pull back while he climbed on alone, murmuring low, "By rights, the Taiji ore vein should be yin qi and yang qi, the two polarities of chaos on the verge of dividing yet not yet divided.

This place is somewhat odd. " Before long, leaning on the Lapis Azure-Sky Banner, he came to a mountain path — surely a road cut by the Creators who had entered this place. Plainly those Creators had meant to come here and mine the divine stones, and they must already have found where the ore vein lay.

"If I but follow this path, I can find where the Taiji ore vein lies.

" Shen Mu climbed on and on, and following the path around several hills, he suddenly saw a stone statue of immense height standing in the road.

Approaching cautiously, he saw that the statue faced toward the mining district, one foot lifted as if about to walk, and that on its back were slung the tools of excavation, forged of divine metal. He circled round to the statue's front and looked up: the figure carved there should be a Creator, only for some reason it had been set up here.

"The primordial age had many strange customs and folkways.

This must be the custom of some Creator race that lived by mining.

" He walked on, and suddenly saw another stone statue beside the road, equally tall — an adult Creator, surely.

Looking ahead, he saw that along this road, at set intervals, stood the statue of one or several Creators.

Shen Mu's expression turned grave; one or two statues might still be a Creator custom, but these several dozen could not be custom!

He rose into the air and alighted before one of the statues, studying its brow.

In the vertical eye at the statue's brow was inlaid a primordial divine stone.

"These statues are all Creators!

" Shen Mu looked all around and thought, "The Creators' miners came here, but they met the uncanny power within the Taiji ore vein and were turned to stone! Is this the Way of Creation?

" He grew wary in spite of himself and drew a long breath — and in that breath there was much impurity, until even his own vital qi ran turbid!

Shen Mu was deeply shaken.

He took out the broken sword and lightly drew it across his palm; blood welled from the cut.

He was already in the True God realm, and all the blood in his body had long since become divine blood, possessed of inconceivable power. Were his blood to fall to the ground, even a single drop would become a lake of blood, and the power stored in it could make grass and trees run wild, could bring dead wood back to spring, could turn a thousand leagues of land into dense forest!

Even more, his divine blood could give grass and trees spirit essence, turning them into sprites.

Watered-down Heavenly Venerable though he might be, the divine blood in him held a vast and dreadful vitality!

Yet here, when his blood fell to the ground, it swiftly congealed, all vitality gone, not even seeping through; instead sand and stone began to grow little by little out of the plasma. Shen Mu drew a fingertip lightly across his brow, and the vertical eye opened: countless runes within the Heavenly Emperor's eggshell were roused, the Primordial Origin Stone stirred to life, and in the Shen-character Continent the Great Dao of the Nether Capital began to turn — and in an instant he had taken the whole process of his blood's transformation into his sight.

The substance of his divine blood had altered, from blood to stone; soon the blood that had fallen to earth became a heap of sand and gravel! "The power here can change the very nature of matter.

" Blinking, Shen Mu swept the vertical eye over his surroundings, and saw a mountain range towering and magnificent, with many primordial beasts dwelling in the hills, and the woodlands thick and lush besides.

It was as if this mysterious, unfathomable power touched only him, and did not touch the plants and beasts of the place.

Shen Mu went no further. Instead he came to the roadside and examined a tender blade of grass closely.

In the sight of his vertical eye the blade's veins and fibers grew ever more distinct, ever coarser, until before him surfaced range after range of mountains, and the water in the grass blade became river after river!

He could even hear the surge of whitecaps in his ears!

Shen Mu's heart gave a start. Suddenly he saw that the substance of the grass was altering by degrees; he hurriedly stepped back, and saw the tender blade swiftly grow into a great tree, its branches drooping as though it had grown for a thousand years.

Shen Mu was about to study the veins and structure of the great tree when it began to change again; before his eyes it became a primordial beast, which roared at him and pounced!

Shen Mu's divine sense erupted. With one move, Great Luo Heaven Converges into Wholeness, and the primordial beast's body thinned at flying speed, stretching away infinitely, rising higher and higher.

Yet before Shen Mu's divine art was even complete, the strange beast became a mass of air that fell away. The mass of air struck the ground and, among the hills, became once more a tender blade of grass.

Shen Mu was blank a moment, his brows knit deep.

"One flower, one grass, one world — and yet so manifold in change, with no constant form, no constant force, no constant state.

.

.

" Gazing at the mountains, the waters, the trees all around, a terrible feeling rose in his heart, and he murmured, "This place is far larger than what I see — larger by countless times!

" He gave a shudder and turned back down the mountain at once. Seeing him return, Long Qilin was about to ask why, when Shen Mu picked up a single grain of sand from the ground, laid it in his palm, and blew upon it.

Whoosh — the black grain of sand flew forward, spinning and growing larger and larger, and swiftly became a mass of divine metal the size of a small hill. Long Qilin and Yan'er were startled half out of their wits, staring dumbly as that mountain of black metal flew into the distance and fell into the sea of sand.

Strange to tell, the moment the black-metal hill dropped into the sea of sand it gave a roll and became a primordial beast, which scrambled up and ran for its life.

Seeing this, the void beast could not help but rejoice, and sprang in pursuit, meaning to bite the strange beast dead and eat it — but when its jaws came down, the great beast had become a tiny, insignificant grain of sand, lost in the sea of sand beyond finding.

Long Qilin and Yan'er were left dumbstruck.

"Just as I thought!

" Shen Mu climbed the mountain once more, and abruptly roused the Mystic Body Three Elixirs Art; the qi and blood of his whole body seethed, layer upon layer of radiance blazed outward from within him, ten thousand rays of auspicious light cloaking his body, and he charged up the slope. "This ore vein is no Way of Creation — it is yin and yang meeting, and all things breeding forth.

This is the Way of Yin and Yang!