Chapter 1401 — Gathering the Scattered Dao Heart

Though Shen Mu heard his words, he could not condense his spiritual consciousness, still less gather his Dao Heart back together.

Just as Taishi had said, the Nine Prison Platform was no place his present self had any business reaching; this natural heavenly prison ought by rights to rank in the realm that came after the God-Slaying Platform. Yet in the early years of Longhan, when the gods built the Heavenly Court, they did not forge its heavenly prisons after the model of the Nine Prison Platform.

The Heavenly Court's prisons differed from the Nine Prison Platform: they held none of its Great Dao, and so all beings remained utterly ignorant of this realm.

For a full million years, not a single soul had ever studied the Nine Prison Platform. Shen Mu's present realm had not yet reached the Yaochi realm, and facing the trial of the Nine Prison Platform, he had not a scrap of anyone's experience to draw upon.

He could only stand against the Nine Prison Platform alone, and with his Dao Heart sealed, he was once again like an infant adrift in a basket on the Yong River.

Darkness lay all around him; within the basket, only the jade pendant at his chest still gave off a faint, ghostly glow. In the darkness about the Yong River swarmed starved ghosts and demon gods; the monsters raced across the water's surface, appearing and vanishing unpredictably, spying on him.

"The you of old had no Dao Heart at all! You forged it yourself, step by step!

" Taishi's voice came from within the egg, as if from an immeasurable distance: "You must overcome this with your own will, and rebuild your Dao Heart!

You can survive. .

.

" His voice grew ever more distant, ever fainter, until at last it could no longer be heard. Agony closed in around Shen Mu; terror engulfed him.

He was like an infant drifting all alone on the Yong River, with nothing in sight but darkness.

What if — what if Granny Zhu had never heard his cries from the basket, had never walked into the darkness, had never lifted him from it?

Would he still be the man he was now?

Would he still be Mu Tianzun? The Nine Prison Platform of the heavenly prison had shattered his Dao Heart, returned it to its most primal state, broken his fighting spirit, and reduced him to a frail infant.

Eventually the darkness would come for him and swallow him whole.

Shen Mu's eyes gradually dimmed, and at last everything was devoured by the dark.

The Taishi Egg, which had all this while struggled to call out to Shen Mu, fell silent too. It was over.

Shen Mu's Dao Heart was sealed, his fighting spirit extinguished; he could never awaken his Dao Heart again, never again become Mu Tianzun.

Within the Nine Prison Platform, all was utter silence.

In truth, there was no wailing of countless living beings as Shen Mu had heard, nor any seal upon the Great Dao, spiritual consciousness, vital essence, or primordial spirit.

From the very moment he had set foot here, what had been sealed was his Dao Heart. The sealing of the Great Dao, of the physical body, of vital essence, of spiritual consciousness — all of it was mere appearance.

It was precisely because the Dao Heart believed itself sealed that he saw his own body, vital essence, primordial spirit, the Great Dao, and spiritual consciousness all sealed.

The legend of the Lizheng's Overlord Body made people believe they could — that they were capable of anything! But the Nine Prison Platform's sealing of the Dao Heart made people believe they could not — that they were capable of nothing.

Shen Mu lay at the center of the Nine Prison Platform.

He had not moved in a long time, save for the occasional twitch and spasm.

"The being in this world with the strongest Dao Heart cannot withstand the Nine Prison Platform either. I suppose I shall be trapped within his body until the day he dies.

" Taishi murmured inwardly: "Perhaps only when his corpse rots will I be able to escape.

Mu Tianzun, can you truly not break through the prison-sealed Dao Heart?

" . .

. Shen Mu curled up feebly; around him was utter darkness, without a glimmer of light.

"Listen — there's a child crying outside! " "I think little Shen must have another kind of constitution — an Overlord Body that combines the strengths of all four great constitutions!

" "So long as you have conviction, even a mortal body is an Overlord Body!

" "It is hard to destroy the gods in a temple, but harder still to destroy the god within your heart!

" "The way of the sages is nothing other than the daily use of the common people; whatever differs from it is heresy!

" "To act according to one's nature, to follow nature purely — that is what is called the Dao.

" "The reforms I and Imperial Preceptor Jingping have pushed forward are meant to change the situation in which the sects hold the lifeblood of the common people and the nation in their grasp.

I will not merely reform — I will revolt, revolt against these sects, revolt against myself!

" "The Kaihuang Reform accords with Heaven and answers to the people.

" "What use do I have for this sword?

What use? This sword — damn it, it just will not sharpen! " "There is no such place as a Land of No Sorrow in this world!

" "If we rot in the future, there will be those who come after to overthrow us.

There's no need to think about it so much.

" "Take care!

I entrust the future to you too, my friend!

" "Sect Master, you were right.

" .

.

. After a long while, Shen Mu opened his eyes.

His Dao Heart was still sealed, and he was still like a mortal; yet hope for life had been kindled in him. "Taiyi was right.

I never had a Dao Heart before — it was tempered into being. Nor was I ever a being of divine powers, much less a god; I cultivated my way to it.

In the past I was not Sect Master Shen, not Human Emperor Shen, not Mu Tianzun — I won all of that step by step!

In the past I had no soul of my own, no body of my own, but I had my own consciousness!

In the past I had no fellow cultivators of my own, but I had many friends of my own!

In the past I was an orphan with no kin, but I had Yincan Village, and I had Jingping!

In the past I had no path of my own! But now—" He gritted his teeth against the piercing pain, staggered to his feet, and did all he could to control his spiritual consciousness and keep his mind clear.

"But now, I have my own Dao and my own path!

" The pain contorted his consciousness, yet he still desperately roused his spiritual consciousness, forcibly driving the Mysterious Body Three Elixirs Art. He took a step, then another, as though he had returned to Yincan Village, to those bitter days of running while he trained.

Only this time, his steps were utterly unsteady, his body twisted and swaying, as he struggled to walk within that tiny patch of ground at the very bottom level of the Nine Prison Platform of the heavenly prison.

His spiritual consciousness marshaled the vital essence that had already grown rigid, making it circulate in its wake; he desperately drove the art onward, feeling pain as if his bones were being scraped wherever his consciousness and essence passed. He trembled, each step bringing agony beyond enduring.

The Taishi Egg still said nothing. It was watching this scene, watching how a lowly being who had fallen into absolute despair walked out of it, and what it was that sustained him to keep going.

It had always been full of prejudice against the later-born living beings, and its view of the ancient gods was no better: it had been a creator among the later-born who dug it out of the Taishi ore vein, and it was the ancient god, the Heavenly Emperor Taichu, who had imprisoned it.

And yet now, in Shen Mu, it saw a vitality in the living beings of this world beyond anything it could have imagined! Shen Mu's indomitable — even obstinate — will commanded its admiration. In that space some two zhang square, it took him nearly half a shichen to make one circuit.