Chapter 1384 — Summoning the Shadows of the Elders

".

.

. a leaf of the Dao Tree?

" Shen Mu's eyes flickered, and inwardly he sighed with regret—he had come but a hair's breadth from seizing that leaf.

Tai Yi's Dao Tree was surely incomparably mighty, and the leaves upon it must surely bear powers beyond all fathoming; could he but obtain one, he might certainly refine it into a treasure of the profoundest mystery. "But why does that leaf look so familiar? " Shen Mu mused.

He had seen leaves of that kind before, within the Daluo Heaven of Tai Di's divine consciousness—and not only there; he had seen such leaves in the little iron bucket that Tai Yi was forever carrying about. When Tai Yi was feeling lazy, he would hand them the branch and have them sprinkle the water from the bucket over the cracked Great Black Mountain with it, mending the mountain. The leaves upon that branch were exactly like the leaf Yan'er had just carried in her beak.

"So then—all this while, we have been sprinkling water with branches and leaves from the Dao Tree?

" The vertical eye at the center of Shen Mu's brows rolled and opened once more with a gurgle, and inwardly he lamented: "Had I only known, I would have secretly plucked a leaf or two. . .

If the branch and its leaves come from Tai Yi's Dao Tree, then what manner of water is the water in his bucket? " Why was it that a single drop of that water could suppress the chaos qi in his eye, enabling his vertical eye to see through even the composition of the Great Way within the primordial spirits of the Lord of Heaven and the Lord of Earth?

He could not help growing more and more curious about the water in that little iron bucket.

The Lord of Heaven said, "Heavenly Venerable Mu, test this vertical eye of yours as it now is, and see what power it holds.

" Shen Mu's heart stirred; once again he roused his vital qi and his divine consciousness, and drove the vertical eye between his brows.

Yet no sooner had he done so than chaos qi came surging up from the depths of his pupil, and in a moment his vertical eye was a mass of chaos, unable to make out anything at all. He hurriedly stopped, and the chaos qi of itself withdrew into the depths of his pupil and vanished.

This vertical eye possessed no power whatsoever.

Yet when he looked upon the Lord of Heaven and the Lord of Earth, he could still see the structures of the Great Way within their primordial spirits.

This vertical eye was far too strange.

The Lord of Heaven and the Lord of Earth were likewise at a loss.

The Lord of Earth had seen the might of Shen Mu's vertical eye for himself; Shen Mu had once used this eye to seal Heavenly Venerable Xiao, and had even sealed Heavenly Venerable Xiao's divine artifact, Yu Tianzun—only thus had Heavenly Venerable Xiao's arrogance been quelled. Otherwise, in the battle of the Peach Grove, to say nothing of banishing Heavenly Venerable Xiao, whether Heavenly Venerable Yue, Heavenly Venerable You, and the Lord of Earth could have withdrawn unscathed would have been far from certain. By rights, the materials used to forge this new vertical eye far surpassed those of the one before: the Lord of Earth's horn of origin was mightier than the Shen-character continent of old, and the Lord of Heaven's crystal of the Heavenly Dao was a thing the former vertical eye had never possessed; and with the Lord of Heaven and the Lord of Earth themselves tempering and refining it for Shen Mu with the blessing of their respective Great Ways, its power should only have surpassed what came before.

Yet now it was plain that the new vertical eye possessed no power at all. "The trouble most likely lies in the chaos eggshell.

" The two holy beings knew it well enough: Shen Mu loved grand deeds and grander displays, and loved to pile up the finest of everything; yet the finest things are not always truly of use. Had Shen Mu used the eggshell of Tai Chu, Lord of Heaven, then the power of this eye would have surpassed the old by countless times over; but in exchanging it for Tai Yi's eggshell, he had instead rendered himself unable to draw out the vertical eye's power at all. What they did not know was that, though Shen Mu could not bring out the vertical eye's power, by the strength of the vertical eye alone Shen Mu was still able to see through their primordial spirits. Were it any other art or divine ability, even one wielded by a Heavenly Venerable, Shen Mu would pierce it at a single glance. That was the fearsome power of the vertical eye.

"Heavenly Venerable Mu, we have done what we promised you.

This place of yours is perilous beyond measure, no place to linger; it is time for each of us to return. " The Lord of Heaven and the Lord of Earth took their leave, and Shen Mu escorted them out of the Hundred Thousand Black Mountains; only then did the two holy beings depart, each by his own arts.

Within the Hundred Thousand Black Mountains there was no way to leave directly; they had to walk clear of the mountains before they could return to their own worlds. Before the Lord of Earth departed, he said, his words heavy with meaning, "These black mountains are an ill-omened place, unfit for peaceful dwelling. In the age of the Primordial Ancients, countless uncanny things came to pass here.

And this is one of the few places into which we cannot descend directly, nor depart directly. A gentleman does not stand beneath a crumbling wall—Heavenly Venerable Mu, think thrice.

" Shen Mu thanked him and bade the Lord of Earth farewell.

"How could I not know the peril of the Great Black Mountain?

" he said in a low voice. "But the greater the peril, the greater the opportunity—that is a truth I have understood since childhood.

There may be no place under heaven whose peril can be named alongside the Great Black Mountain's; yet the opportunities it holds likewise have no equal anywhere.

" This, and this alone, was why he would remain even knowing full well the danger of the Great Black Mountain. Shen Mu gathered Wei Suifeng, Granny Zhu, Crown Prince Youming, Yu Chudu, and the others; Long Qilin and Yan'er, and the Blind Elder and the Silent Craftsman, were invited as well.

He said, "Shu Jun has led the First Ancestor, Lan Yutian, Xu Shenghua, and the rest into the far side of the Ancestral Court. That place is perilous beyond measure. I mean to employ the art of summoning, and see whether I can summon them back. " "Can people be summoned as well?

" Yu Chudu asked, perplexed.

"To summon giant beasts is already beyond belief—would summoning people not be even more shocking to the world?

" Shen Mu laughed. "Nephew, the wonder of any art lies in the mind that wields it. When you learn a divine ability, you must learn to reason from one case to three. There is no great difference between a man and a giant beast; both are life.

The art of summoning but forges a bond with the one to be summoned, and through powerful divine consciousness draws him from another space into the space we occupy now.

" Yu Chudu half understood, and nodded again and again. Shen Mu said to Wei Suifeng, "Do not let your disciple teach Hua Xuanxiu. Any more of his teaching and she will be ruined. " Yu Chudu's face flushed crimson.

Wei Suifeng too had seen that this disciple of his was greatly lacking in quickness of wit, and he laughed.

"Then let me do the teaching. " Shen Mu shook his head.

"You are just the same as your disciple. " Wei Suifeng's face flushed red, and he said in anger, "If you are so capable, then you teach her! " But Shen Mu found the business troublesome, and glanced at Granny Zhu. Granny Zhu took his meaning and said with a smile, "I am still teaching little Wenyuan and Crown Prince Youming; still, there is no harm in letting Xuanxiu follow me as well.

Crown Prince Youming is too old, little Wenyuan too young—she will make a fine companion for them.

" Patriarch Wenyuan's face flushed red, and he stammered, "Call me Patriarch—not little Wenyuan.

. .

Shen'er.

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