Chapter 1301 — The Two Modes Dharma Eye

Shen Mu turned a deaf ear to it all. He opened the vertical eye between his brows, but everything he saw through it swam in a blur, and he knew the ancient god Taishi within the egg was playing tricks; there was nothing for it but to take the ancient god's egg out.

Only then did the Taishi Egg breathe easy. The round egg rolled several turns across the ground, putting distance between itself and the breach in the Shen-Character Continent, lest Shen Mu cram it back in and wedge it fast.

"The ancient gods of the Taiji lode and I are on excellent terms — we talk together famously. If I use the Taiji primal stone they gave me to sharpen the power of my sacred pupil, surely they won't hold it against me?"

So Shen Mu consoled himself, and once more set his mind on the Taiji primal stone. He rolled the stone up and stuffed it into the pupil of his vertical eye, plugging the breach.

"Mu Tianzun, you are courting death!" cried Taishi within the egg. "The ancient god of the Taiji lode is sly and treacherous — more treacherous than I am by a margin you cannot reckon. Of the five great lodes, Taiyi came forth earliest of all; every other ancient god's egg was dug out, his alone was not. You may judge from that how vicious and cunning he is — and you dare to use his primal stone!"

Shen Mu tried to rouse the Taiji primal stone. He shut both his eyes and looked around with the vertical eye alone, and at once everything turned strange.

Mountains and stones, trees, rivers, cloud-breath, and even flowers and grasses, men and insects, birds and beasts — all had become a bizarre spectacle of the two qi of yin and yang tangled together!

Shen Mu was astonished beyond measure. He raised his hand gently and pinched a drifting leaf between his fingers. In his eye the leaf still wore the shape of a leaf, yet its essence had already become yin and yang qi.

At the faintest stir of his thought, the leaf dissolved on the instant, scattering away as a wisp of yin and yang qi.

Shen Mu opened his own eyes. The leaf was utterly gone, leaving no trace at all, not even ash.

He roused the vertical eye in his brow again and gave a light wave of his hand. A boulder ahead, two or three men tall, dissolved in an instant into threads and strands of yin and yang qi that melted away between heaven and earth.

"This Taiji primal stone is mightier even than the Taichu primal stone!"

He could not keep from exulting. Another flick of his fingers, and a great tree was abruptly transformed: the yin and yang qi that composed it shifted, and it became a giant octopus, its tentacles unfurling as it skimmed over eaves and walls and sped away into the distance.

Taishi within the egg sneered, "You are finished. You are done for. You have stolen the power of Taiji, the karma is deeply sown, and that ancient god will never let you go."

"They treat me very well," Shen Mu said hotly. "Don't talk nonsense!"

"Treat you well?" Taishi in the egg sneered. "If they treated you well, would they have beguiled you into going to the Great Blackwood?"

Shen Mu was slightly taken aback, then shook his head and laughed. "The Great Blackwood is the Ancestral Court's first holy ground — easy to hold, hard to storm. Even the Void Beasts dare not set foot there lightly, and the ancient god Taiyi keeps watch over it. There are lodes in abundance there; choosing it was truly a wise move!"

The Taishi Egg rocked to and fro, seeming utterly without words for him, at a loss how to bring him to his senses.

"Between Taiji and Taichu there is no high and no low; it is only that the Taichu primal stone does not suit you, while the Taiji primal stone fits you better."

Taishi in the egg set the earlier matter aside. "The Taichu primal stone suits the Supreme Emperor better. By the way, why did you ask the Supreme Emperor for the heart of Heavenly Venerable Hao?"

Shen Mu surveyed the Jingping scenery around him and took his bearings. Without a flicker of feeling in his face, he said, "I merely fear the Supreme Emperor, and I was unwilling to have Mu Tianzun lose face. So I asked him for some trifle or other — at least it was an exchange, not coercion."

Taishi in the egg did not believe one word of it, but since Shen Mu would not speak, he could not guess at his thoughts either.

Far off, Shen Mu caught sight of the true body of Gongsun Yan, the Primal Lady of Earthly Virtue: that primal tree was lusher and more verdant than ever, its canopy broader than before, standing in the east of the Primal Realm, drawing every eye.

The Earthly Virtue Celestial Palace upon the primal tree's crown had already been completed. Most of the officers and soldiers in the palace came from Jingping; the Heavenly Court had enfeoffed Gongsun Yan as the Primal Lady of Earthly Virtue, to govern half the realm — yet many in the Primal Realm would not submit.

In Gongsun Yan's name Jingping attacked those unsubmissive kingdoms, and now its territories spread outward, its dominions several times greater than of old.

Shen Mu looked about at the land and its customs, and saw that Jingping's heavenly artisans were throwing up sky bridges in the conquered territories, laying roads, opening supervisory foundries, working the lodes, seeking to lead the people of these new domains by Jingping's own principles.

"The Emperor expands too swiftly, and Jingping's officers and soldiers have not kept pace. We must halt, and spend a span of time rearing new young champions, or the realm will not hold."

Shen Mu entered the Upper Capital of Jingping and said to Ling Yuxiu, "The lands of Taixu can no longer be held; they cannot last much longer. To draw such notice now will bring the Heavenly Court's suppression down upon us."

Ling Yuxiu agreed.

Shen Mu then fetched blueprints in a multitude that would have sweated an ox and filled a warehouse to the rafters, and said, "These blueprints describe a Creation Divine Artifact of extraordinary complexity. Does Jingping have heavenly artisans enough to forge such a thing?"

Ling Yuxiu gazed at the mountain of blueprints, appalled. She turned over a few at random, frowned, and said, "With blueprints as intricate as these, refining such a thing would call for artisans beyond counting! It could not possibly be forged in a short time!"

Shen Mu probed, "How long?"

"Merely for the artisans to comprehend these blueprints would take more than ten years; to refine it would take far longer."

Ling Yuxiu reckoned a moment. "The various supervisory foundries must also keep working, forging other divine weapons to sell to the Heavenly Court — we have no such surplus of hands. To forge it would take a hundred years."

"A hundred years is too long; we cannot wait so long!" Shen Mu said flatly. "The foundries can spare few artisans, so go and summon the Daoist sects, and let those Daoist priests come down from the mountains to lend aid! And Xu Shenghua of the Western Lands — invite him as well, to forge the Creation Divine Artifact with us."

Ling Yuxiu hesitated. "The situation is so urgent that even Xu Shenghua must be summoned?"

Shen Mu nodded. "Within a hundred years, this heaven and earth will be overturned. Taixu cannot hold even ten years. Once Taixu is levelled, the Ten Heavenly Venerables will surely move against the Lord of Heaven. When the Lord of Heaven dies, Tu Bo alone will not be able to prop up the sky, and the other ancient gods, the Three Emperors, will bear up even less. If forging the Creation Divine Artifact takes a hundred years, then Jingping will have no prospect whatever against a unified Heavenly Court!"

Ling Yuxiu felt a chill in her heart, and straightway sent men to invite Xu Shenghua and Dao Lord Linxuan.

Shen Mu let out a breath. "I must return to the Ancestral Court; I will not linger here long. If in time even Jingping cannot be preserved, the Ancestral Court may be the last refuge of Jingping's human race."

Ling Yuxiu nodded silently. "Take care on the road."