Chapter 1184 — The Ebony's Rings of Years

The ancient god egg within the Azure Heaven Canopy and the Taishi Egg had already brushed against much of the world's affairs; both eggs had been dug out at a very early time, and Shen Mu keenly perceived that the two ancient god eggs were no longer pure. The ancient god egg of the Azure Heaven Canopy granted every request; it was a treasure unearthed by the Nüxin Clan, and having passed through the calamity of the Creators' downfall, it fell into the hands of the Northern Emperor Xuanwu, who refined it into the Azure Heaven Canopy.

As for the Taishi Egg, which branch of the Creators had dug it out was unknown, but later it too fell into the hands of the Heavenly Emperor Taichu. Because the Heavenly Emperor Taichu had been imperfect at his own birth, he dreaded the coming of an egg-born ancient god born perfect, and so he sealed the Taishi Egg away and hid it within Zhaoyang Hall.

Once unearthed, they had tasted the treachery of human hearts.

The Heavenly Emperor Taichu, an egg-born ancient god himself, had nonetheless become a ruthless ruler; and so Shen Mu felt that the ancient gods within these two eggs might be nothing like the two in the Taiji Vein, so placid and detached, nor like the ancient god in the Hundun Vein, so aloof and transcendent. Ever since the two ancient god eggs had begun to commune with one another, they had always avoided him; plainly they were scheming something.

"Before long I shall decipher the Dao tongue of the Taishi Egg, and from the language in which they converse, I shall then decipher the Dao tongue of the ancient god egg in the Azure Heaven Canopy. Once both tongues are broken, I will know what they are saying to each other. " Shen Mu strode out of the vein, setting aside for the moment the question of how to deal with the two ancient god eggs, and hurried down the mountain. Summoning Dragon Qilin and Yan'er, he said, "We are leaving this place.

" Dragon Qilin and Yan'er were astonished.

"Sect Master (Young Master), what a treasure ground this is! Why give it up? " Shen Mu glanced at the Void Beast beside him and smiled.

"Heaven-sent treasures go to the fortunate and are dwelt in by the virtuous. My fortune and virtue are insufficient; if I seize this place by force, calamity will surely follow.

" Dragon Qilin and Yan'er were utterly bewildered.

In the past Shen Mu had always cleaned a place out when he could; how could there be any sense in entering a mountain of treasures and returning empty-handed? All the more so since this was one of the five supreme veins of the Ancestral Court, and the five veins held five different powers, one might even say five different systems of cultivation, five different directions, five different paths!

Relying on the Taichu godstone alone, the race of Creators had developed the art of creating through divine sense, ruled the universe of the Primordial Era for countless eons, and even enslaved the ancient gods!

If the Taichu godstone alone was so formidable, the other godstones could hardly be inferior; to hold one treasure vein would open up far greater possibilities in the future. But Shen Mu meant to leave, and so they could only follow him.

"What a pity, those few mu of fields I had only just planted. .

. " Dragon Qilin looked ruefully at the land he had reclaimed, thinking, "Vast as this world is, it cannot hold even a few mu of good farmland.

" They entered the Black Sand Desert once more and made their way outward.

Ahead, black sand filled the sky, the wind and grit raging so fiercely that they had to raise the Azure Heaven Canopy over themselves.

Shen Mu glanced back without thinking, and froze.

The Black Sand Desert they had crossed had become a vast starry sky; countless stars formed rivers of stars, and the surging black sand was the surging of those stars, like the tides. He drew back his gaze and looked ahead: the desert met the sky, all darkness, so black he could not see his own fingers.

"Truly a strange land, to have given birth to such gods and demons.

" He took out a Taiji godstone and poured his vital qi into it. At once the qi split in two and became yin and yang qi.

Shen Mu was startled: the yin and yang qi that his vital qi became in passing through the godstone was mightier than the qi he had poured in, and held far more transformations, as though it could evolve all things between heaven and earth.

"This Taiji godstone likewise holds a way of cultivation, much like the Taichu godstone and the Creators.

If the Taiji Egg were dug out, then those who master the eight primal Taiji stones would become eight Great Emperors, and the two ancient gods within that egg might well become another Heavenly Emperor Taichu.

" He put away the Taiji godstone, turned, and waved toward the Taiji Vein. Of the five egg-born ancient gods, two had already come into the world; when the ancient gods within the Taiji Egg would emerge, none could say.

If those two came into the world, what changes would they bring upon it? "I forgot to ask them: was the Void Beast created by someone? Created by that egg-born ancient god who has already come into the world?

And for what purpose was the Void Beast created?

" Shen Mu frowned slightly. After the Heavenly Emperor Taichu defeated the Creators and the Great Emperor, he had joined with nearly every powerful being of that age to seal the Ancestral Court, and the purpose was to seal the Void Beast here.

Moreover, the Divine King Gongyun, that is, Palace Heavenly Venerable, though a Creator herself, likewise held that the Void Beast should be sealed here and must never, ever be released. Plainly, even the Creators believed that the being who had created the Void Beast meant no good.

What story lay behind all this? When the Heavenly Emperor Taichu sealed the Ancestral Court, had he meant to seal away that egg-born ancient god who had come into the world along with it?

They traveled north for more than ten days, and at last came in sight of the black tree of which the two ancient gods of the Taiji Vein had spoken. Shen Mu looked up, and was shaken to the heart: had those two ancient gods not told him this was a black tree, he would never have made out its true face.

Ahead, countless black mountains stood, strange peaks jutting up, proud and jagged; from afar, a hundred thousand great mountains ranged one after another, scattered like stars, forming a circular course of ridges, ring locked within ring, and one could not tell at all that this was in truth the stump of a single tree!

This was indeed the stump left by an exceedingly ancient tree; the ring-shaped structure of the mountain bodies was in fact the growth rings of this black tree!

Yet though a hundred thousand great mountains were arrayed ring upon ring, the growth rings did not appear many.

Shen Mu flew up high and counted. The mountains here formed only sixteen circles; judged by the growth rings of a tree, this black tree should be only sixteen years old. "A sixteen-year-old tree, grown so large?

" He could not help but laugh, and shook his head. "That pair of ancient gods said this place is a treasure ground second only to the five ancient god veins; then my domain shall stand here! " Shen Mu drove the Void Beast over the dark, brooding mountains, straight for the heart of the black tree.

At the center of the hundred thousand great mountains stood a great black peak, sheer and towering, yet with a summit perfectly flat.

Shen Mu took out the Azure Heaven Canopy and drove it with a thud into the middle of that sheer peak, then cried in a low voice, "Rise!

" Hum— Layer upon layer the canopy of the Azure Heaven Canopy unfurled, and heaven upon heaven swelled outward in turn, soon covering ring after ring of black mountains, until all sixteen rings of black mountains lay wholly within its twenty-eight heavens. Having secured his domain, he at once opened the vertical eye between his brows, visualized creation, and brought forth a palace complex.