Chapter 1212 — The Plain Maiden Descends to the Dust

"The Taisu Mine Vein must be that vein of the Nüxin clan — Gong Tianzun's domain.

" Shen Mu murmured to himself, then took out the Taisu Divine Stone Gong Tianzun had given him and turned it over and over in his hand.

The stone was a cube, yet it was changing at every instant; inside was not inside, outside was not outside, and the boundary between them had gone hazy. Back when he first entered the Ancestral Court, he had drawn out the Lapis Azure Heaven Banner and driven it into the Void Beast's skull, and the first place the Void Beast had gone was the Taisu Mine Vein.

Which meant this stone ought to be called the Taisu Divine Stone, and the divine egg within the Lapis Azure Heaven Banner ought to be called the Taisu Divine Egg. The Taisu Divine Egg's purpose was the Taisu Mine Vein; only by obtaining the divine stones and raw stones from that vein could she refine the egg fluid and be born smoothly into the world.

"Gong Tianzun promised to give me a tenth of the Taisu Divine Stones, and I in turn promised to explore the mysteries of the Taisu Divine Stone for her. But now that I have drunk a mouthful of the egg fluid, I fear I will never get to study its workings.

" He gripped the stone and tried to draw its power into himself, but the stone, as though it were no substance at all, bored straight into his hand and raced up his arm to his belly! Shen Mu was startled.

In his organs that mouthful of egg fluid was still shifting through endless transformations, but the instant the Taisu Divine Stone arrived there, a wondrous scene unfolded. The egg fluid changed in a thousand ways, and the Taisu Divine Stone changed with it, matched against it. With every change the two made, Shen Mu felt a vast and boundless Dao resonance of unfathomable subtlety rise from the depths of his heart, while a power pure and exquisite came surging in, reaching every limb and bone, every divine treasury, every heavenly palace.

More than that, his primordial spirit suddenly began to waver between void and solid, now congealing into substance, now dissolving into nothing. The Taisu Divine Stone gradually shrank, and the egg fluid grew ever less, until bit by bit Shen Mu gained a thread of understanding of the Dao of Taisu.

Taisu is the beginning of substance; it is the process by which energy turns into matter, by which the formed becomes the substantial. Energy becomes formed substance — and this is why it can answer every plea.

And because what people beg of the Taisu Divine Egg is a change in matter, the Taisu Divine Egg is able to answer every plea.

This is not the same as the Dao of Taishi. Shen Mu had studied the Taishi Egg and the Dao of Taishi, and had won no small mastery of that Dao; the Dao of Taishi is the Dao by which energy becomes formed yet unsubstantial, holding no matter at all, and therefore it can break Ling Tianzun's divine ability of the immutability of matter. "The Dao of Taichu should be the Innate Primordial Qi — nothing but energy, without matter.

The Innate Primordial Qi is the general principle of all innate Great Daos, which is why the moment Taichu was born he became the leader of all ancient gods, and why his becoming the Heaven Emperor of the ancient gods was only natural.

It is merely that he was polluted by Taidi, and so never attained a perfect form. " Shen Mu pondered for a moment.

"The Dao of Taiji, then, is the principle by which yin and yang become the ten thousand things.

Thus in the Taiji Mine Vein, living things and matter pass through every form — grass and trees can become huge beasts, men and women can become mountains and stones; no constant form, no constant state, mystery beyond mystery, wonder beyond wonder.

" "By rights, the ancient gods of these four great mine veins should not rank above or below one another; once mature and born into the world, any one of them is foremost among the ten thousand Daos, sovereign of the ten thousand gods. Yet Taiyi stands a level higher still.

" "Taiyi has no form, no state, no substance, no qi; he can become any of the ten thousand things, can appear in any age of history, can take the shape of any person.

He was also the first ancient mine god to be born in perfection, and his realm is already beyond all understanding. " The Taisu Divine Stone had now been utterly spent, yet the egg fluid in Shen Mu's belly had dwindled by only a tenth, and he could not help frowning. "Then so be it — before I leave the Ancestral Court, I will first pay a visit to Gong Tianzun's mine vein and collect my tenth of the Taisu Divine Stones.

" He turned about and set off toward the Taisu Mine Vein. In the Hundred Thousand Black Mountains, the woman Taiyi, the Dragon Qilin, and Yan'er finished patching the black mountain that had split open, then carried their buckets off — when all at once the woman Taiyi halted and said with a smile, "Fellow Daoist Taisu, greetings. " Scarcely had she spoken when a tall woman, cold and aloof, her face like ice and frost, stepped out from the shadow of a black mountain, dark-blue radiance behind her shifting between void and solid, impossible to seize or fathom. Yet the radiance of her Great Dao was not whole; it was riddled with great gaps — a piece missing here, a section lost there.

The goddess frowned slightly and said, "My name is Taisu? " "That is what people will call you hereafter. " The woman Taiyi smiled.

"The reason I took a woman's body was to meet you. Between women, words come perhaps more easily.

" The goddess Taisu cared nothing for any of it. "Fellow Daoist, your kindness is noted. Fellow Daoist, this Mu Tianzun runs wild and does evil — why do you still tolerate him?

What he has done, how overbearing it is!

He destroyed my divine egg, ruined my cultivation, robbed me of my primordial fluid; this hatred cannot share the same sky with him!

We were born of the same source — you ought to aid me!

" The woman Taiyi smiled. "Fellow Daoist, you and I are both innate divinities; we are the Dao itself, and once mortal thoughts take root, one's cultivation sinks the lower.

Why haggle with him over every trifle? " Taisu shook her head.

"You have already attained the Dao — that is why you can be so magnanimous, so aloof.

But the chance for me to attain the Dao has been shattered, and I will never tolerate him!

We divinities are destined from birth to be the lords of heaven and earth, the rulers of the universe.

Look at Fellow Daoist Taichu — what glory he has, what vast divine powers! If you have ambitions, you must fulfill them; if you have hatred, you must wash it away in blood.

Otherwise, what use is all this power? " The woman Taiyi frowned. "The deeper one wades into the world, the farther one drifts from the Dao. Fellow Daoist Taisu, the mortal heart in you is too heavy; I fear it will be a great obstacle to you.

" Taisu said coldly, "Fellow Daoist, in skill and divine power I cannot match you, but you must not bar my way. This hatred I will surely repay!

" The woman Taiyi urged her: "You and Taishi plotted together how to seize the world, how to rule all the heavens and ten thousand realms, how to root out those who differed from you. It is because that cause was planted that you reap this fruit today. Why go on being wrong? " Taisu's expression shifted a little, and she said in fury, "The place where Taishi and I conferred was within that boy's eyes — even he did not know of it, yet you knew. Your divine powers are indeed unfathomable.

But since you knew of it, you must also have known that calamity would force me to be born ahead of my time. Why did you not stop him sooner?

Fellow Daoist, you are too partial! " Furious, she laughed and flicked her sleeve.