Chapter 1323 — The Mine Mutiny

A wondrous Dao resonance spread from Shen Mu's vertical eye. The Dao patterns of the Way of the Great Beginning spilled out from that eye, gorgeous and exquisite, and wherever they passed the mist dissolved little by little, until all around grew clear and bright.

The Dao patterns of the Way of the Great Beginning were profound and unfathomable, a system unto themselves. Even though Shen Mu had once used the Unchanging divine ability to reverse-engineer them, and had learned much besides from the Great Beginning within the egg, he still found them obscure as he watched them pour from his vertical eye.

The mist scattered completely, and he suddenly realized that he stood at the very center of a natural altar.

The altar was vast, several hundred zhang across, and rose some ten zhang higher than the ground around it.

It seemed to be made of flowing water, utterly smooth; he stood as though upon a water's surface, while beneath it lay intricate Dao patterns of the Great Beginning, wrought into runic seals.

Seals large and small kept kindling, flickering in and out.

He was studying the altar when of a sudden the Egg of the Great Beginning leaped out of his vertical eye. Shen Mu did not stop it.

Round and plump, the egg landed on the water with a thud. It rocked twice to the left and right, as though hunting for a comfortable position.

Shen Mu cleared his throat in warning. "Brother Dao, you cannot nest here. This place is already claimed by Heavenly Consort Yan. Nest here, and she will catch you. Our proper business is still to find the primordial stone of the Great Beginning..."

"The primordial stone of the Great Beginning is right here."

The Great Beginning in the egg was thoroughly at ease, and hummed: "I know I cannot stay long. If I linger, Heavenly Consort Yan will surely catch me. She is not like you. She and the Heavenly Emperor of the Great Origin share the same temper. Rest easy, I am only resting a little while, reminiscing about childhood..."

Shen Mu looked all around, east and west, yet never saw where the primordial stone of the Great Beginning might be.

He turned a full circle and still could not find it, and could not help saying, "Brother Dao, Heavenly Consort Yan will be back soon, and we must leave as quickly as we can. Where exactly is that primordial stone?"

Scarcely had the words left his mouth when ripples suddenly stirred across the altar's water, and a round water sphere rose slowly, floating between the Egg of the Great Beginning and him.

Shen Mu examined it closely and astonishment crossed his face. He reached out to touch the water sphere, and before his palm had even drawn near, he saw his fingers already beginning to turn insubstantial.

His hand was becoming pure energy.

Startled, he snatched his hand back at once.

The Egg of the Great Beginning rolled out of the little hollow in the altar's water. "You cannot simply reach out your hand. You must use the Way of the Great Beginning that I taught you. Try again."

Shen Mu tried to rouse the Great Beginning runes he had condensed, circulating the Mystic Body Three Elixirs Art, spreading the runes across his palm.

This time, he finally touched the water sphere.

And then his expression turned strange.

His palm passed clean through the middle of the sphere without the least obstruction.

Shen Mu swung his hand again, and still did not touch the sphere at all.

He roused his vital qi and tried to lift the sphere, but the sphere seemed not to exist; his vital qi could not raise it in the slightest.

"The primordial stone has no substance, only form. You can see it, but you cannot touch it."

The Egg of the Great Beginning rolled to his feet. "To touch it, you must change its form."

Scarcely had it spoken when the water sphere's form changed. Shen Mu felt out this strange primordial stone; touching it was like holding up a crystal ball, yet oddly he could sense no temperature at all, as though he were not touching anything.

"It does not dislike you," said the Egg of the Great Beginning.

Shen Mu saw his own palm growing gradually insubstantial. Even the Great Beginning runes could not wholly shield his flesh; wherever they failed to shield him, the primordial stone's influence converted matter into pure energy.

"How am I supposed to carry this stone away?" His head ached; he was deeply troubled.

If he bore this strange primordial stone with him, then wherever he passed, all matter would likely cease to be, keeping its form while losing its substance, turning into every sort of bizarre energy body. Even those who came near would be rendered insubstantial.

More critically still, energy bodies were extremely unstable. If such bodies lay everywhere, they would surely trigger a tremendous explosion.

The Egg of the Great Beginning laughed. "That you need not worry about. I can carry it away and draw upon the stone's power. In time, its influence will gradually weaken."

Shen Mu nodded. The primordial stone of the Great Beginning was truly savage; to carry such a thing was to carry a weapon of wholesale slaughter. If he could not control it, he would likely blast his way along every step of the road, and one careless moment would see even him assimilated into an energy body and blown apart.

Aboard the ghost ship, when he had used the Way of the Great Beginning to collide with Heavenly Venerable Ling's Unchanging divine ability, he had already tasted that once.

"This stone may well be the most vicious of all the stones in the five mineral veins!"

He was just about to stow away the Egg of the Great Beginning and the primordial stone when the egg suddenly capered upon the altar. "Heavenly Venerable Mu, take the altar too!"

Shen Mu hesitated, then tried releasing his mana to draw the altar as well into the vertical eye between his brows. But the instant his mana surged out and sought to move the altar, the entire mining district abruptly boiled over.

The district shook with a roar. Every Great Beginning divine stone blazed forth, and stream after stream of strange power poured toward the Great Beginning altar.

Wherever that radiance passed, all things became nothingness. Even the ancient deities in the district were in a single instant rendered insubstantial, body and soul vanishing utterly.

Shen Mu's blood ran cold. He hastily thrust the Egg of the Great Beginning before him, only to find the light coming from every direction; unless he could burrow inside the egg, he would certainly not withstand it.

"Damn... wait, the primordial stone!"

At once his body shrank, and with a swoosh he vanished into the primordial stone, becoming a tiny Shen Mu seated upright within that water-sphere-like stone.

Countless beams of divine stone light shone in unison upon the primordial stone, seeking to refine this wretch who had thrown the whole district into chaos.

"Brother Dao of the Great Beginning!" Shen Mu shouted.

The Egg of the Great Beginning hastily drove the primordial stone. With a tremendous boom, the stone blazed with light, as though contending against those divine stones.

The two radiances collided, and a world-shaking surge swept in every direction. A pillar of light shot straight into the clouds, blazing with unearthly brilliance above the Ancestral Court.

And in the mining district, the miners who had escaped the divine stones' light had no time to flee before the second wave overtook them; one after another they were rendered insubstantial in the glow, reduced to a void state that had both form and energy.

The white cat Xiao Qi, outside the district just then, whipped its head around and saw the light flooding and surging out like a tide, rushing toward it at furious speed. Its fur bristled; with a shriek it fled outward.

At the same time Xiu Hongsu was alerted, and hastily drove the Heavenly Venerable treasure suspended high above the district.