Chapter 1202 — The Peculiar Ore Lode

Shen Mu's seal was so subtle that no one could make it out without looking very carefully.

Shen Mu laughed, "My strength is no match for the Eight Celestial Venerables, but in divine arts I need not be their inferior. This seal looks small, yet in truth it holds a world within.

" He urged the swift boat toward the seal, and everyone aboard grew anxious. The seals of the Eight Celestial Venerables were dreadful things; if they so much as brushed one by mischance and its power erupted, they would likely find no grave to bury their bodies in.

Yet when the swift boat came before the seal over the Rift in the Heavens, they saw the seals of the Eight Celestial Venerables slowly shrinking, while the seal Shen Mu had left behind grew ever larger. This shifting of size bewildered them all.

The swift boat passed into Shen Mu's seal, and a passage appeared leading straight into the heart of the Ancestral Court; looking out from that passage, one could see the seals of the Eight Celestial Venerables clear and distinct.

Beyond the passage lay the layered radiance of the Great Paths, the phenomenon formed by the seals of the Eight Celestial Venerables; standing within the passage and gazing out, one could admire the beauty of the divine arts of all eight Celestial Venerables. Small though the boat was, everyone aboard was an elite of Jingping, and they all brought out paper and brushes and divine calculators, devoting themselves to working out the mysteries hidden in the divine arts of the eight Celestial Venerables.

Some of the young ones sought instruction from the Blind Old Man, and he was patient, giving them careful guidance. Seeing this, Shen Mu slowed the boat to give them time enough to study the Celestial Venerables' divine arts.

By the time the swift boat emerged from the Rift in the Heavens, more than ten days had passed, and the warships of the Heavenly Court had still not arrived. Shen Mu steered the swift boat toward the Great Black Wood, his face grave, and exhorted them earnestly, "The Ancestral Court is a place of deadly peril, void beasts everywhere.

These void beasts can turn their bodies into void, and from void into substance; they come and go like ghosts, able to emerge from anywhere at all.

You must be doubly cautious!

If you go out, you must go with Shujun.

" Shujun laughed, "The divine ability users and gods and demons of Jingping have all cultivated the Creator's method of divine consciousness, so there is no need to panic even when you meet a void beast. Your divine consciousness is not strong, but if several of you join hands, you can frighten a void beast away. " Everyone answered in agreement. Though the swift boat was not slow, against the vast and boundless territory of the Ancestral Court it was far too slow.

The ship traveled through the air for more than ten days and still had not reached the Great Black Wood. Shen Mu deliberately held the pace back as well, so that they would have time to observe the geography of the Ancestral Court.

To Shen Mu, whether the Great Black Wood could be held was of little consequence; these people were the most precious treasure of all.

Should the Great Black Wood fall, at least, knowing the geography well, they might escape with their lives. "My Great Black Wood is foremost among all blessed lands.

When the Eight Celestial Venerables looked on my domain, each of their gazes turned somewhat strange; most likely they were moved by greed.

" Shen Mu thought, "Those two ancient gods in the Taiji Ore Lode have truly been good to me! " When the swift boat had covered half the journey, the ten tower ships of the Heavenly Court finally arrived, late and unhurried.

Yet the commotion of these ten warships was frightening: they drove straight out of the seals of the Eight Celestial Venerables and descended into the sky above the Ancestral Court, and the gods, demons, and soldiers aboard stirred their various divine weapons all in unison, while layer upon layer of rune shields blazed up around the great ships, dazzling beyond compare, guarding the ten vessels so that they were unbreakable. What was more, Emperor Throne powerhouses sat upon the tower ships, releasing imperial might to overawe the giant void beasts.

Yet strangely enough, the void beasts in this void realm seemed to have vanished into thin air, gone without a trace; even with such a commotion, they did not appear.

This was impossible.

The moment a void beast sighted a living creature, it would rush straight at it and devour it, scrambling to be first; when there was nothing to eat, it would gnaw grass and trees down to nothing. When starving, it would even run up into the sky to eat the sun and the moon. But now the void beasts made no move at all.

Shen Mu and his company had been here the longest, and they had not once met a void beast on the attack, which made the Ancestral Court unspeakably eerie.

"The Void Mother Beast has given birth. " Aboard the swift boat, Shen Mu's expression was grave.

He scanned the sky, his gaze probing deep into layer after layer of the void.

His eyes could not see through the void as divine consciousness could, reaching deep into its depths, and so he caught no trace of the void beasts.

Several more days passed, and the swift boat arrived at last at the Great Black Wood.

Gazing at the Hundred Thousand Great Black Mountains, everyone aboard was struck dull. This place was too vast, too wide; broader and more boundless than the Wasteland Ruins of old!

To mine divine ore here, who knew how long it would take.

What amazed them even more was the strange treasure, the Azure Heaven Banner of Lapis Lazuli, which had formed twenty-eight layers of heavens, like worlds upon worlds encircling this place, guarding this blessed land.

Such a feat was truly appalling!

Only the Divine King Shujun, beholding this expanse of a hundred thousand Great Black Mountains, changed color sharply and seemed to want to speak, yet held back.

The swift boat sailed into the twenty-eight heavens, and the Silent Artisan hurriedly bade Shen Mu stop the boat.

He leaped from the deck, strode quickly to the foot of the black mountains on the outer edge of the Great Black Wood, brushed aside the soil, and dug a stone out of the earth.

Shen Mu brought the swift boat down to the ground, and everyone disembarked to look. In the Silent Artisan's hand was a stubborn stone, plain and unadorned, as though scoured for countless years in a riverbed, worn somewhat flat and smooth.

The Silent Artisan opened his box, reached in, and drew out a great hammer.

Everyone peered into the box, but there was nothing inside save some silver pellets, and nothing else at all.

Shen Mu smiled slightly.

Once, he too had been as curious as these young people about what was in that box, and the Silent Artisan had often done such conjuring tricks for him.

The Silent Artisan raised the hammer, meaning to smash the stone open, then suddenly halted, his face grave. "Shen'er, how sturdy is this twenty-eight-fold heaven of yours?

" Shen Mu said, "Not bad.

It can withstand the attacks of Jade Capital and Lingxiao powerhouses, and it will not be broken any time soon.

" The Silent Artisan let out a breath of relief, swung the hammer high, and brought it down savagely upon the stone, saying in a low voice, "Good!

If what is inside this stone gets out, catching it again will be hard! " Clang, a great noise rang out, buzzing in everyone's ears, so that for a long while they could hear nothing else.

At the Silent Artisan's single blow, the stone split open at the sound, and from the broken stone flew something, its whole body streaming with light; it rose and fled, and with a clang struck the world barrier of the outer heavens of the Azure Heaven Banner of Lapis Lazuli, and was bounced back.