Chapter 1435 — Red Dust Becomes the Dao Path

Upon the ruin were strange structures forged of the finest divine gold; though covered in mottled rust, the ripples of the Dao could still be seen flowing across their surfaces. That must have been the ruin of a highly advanced civilization, which had forged a divine city from peerless divine gold in an attempt to survive the great destruction of the universe — to pass through that great destruction and come into the new universe.

Yet Shen Mu saw no living beings there; it was as though all life had been destroyed. But since it was a fragment of Daluo Heaven, it could hardly be so simple. The Empress, however, could not see this, and did not understand the Taiji ancient gods' dread. "Daoist brothers," she said, "since you are locked down and can raise neither your cultivation nor your Dao here, then you cannot emerge complete.

You have halted your growth. What help, then, can you speak of giving me?

" She said coolly, "Forgive my bluntness: profit comes first. If I am to gain no sufficient profit, why should I work with you?

You can do nothing for me; an alliance with you, joining hands against the calamity to come, would be an idle jest. " Shen Mu's eyes flickered. "So then, the two Daoist brothers mean to emerge ahead of your time," he said.

The Empress was startled inwardly; at his prompting she too grasped the crux at once. The reason the Taiji ancient gods had sought her out was, most likely, that they had conceived the wish to emerge early!

If the Taiji ancient gods emerged and left the mining ground, they might indeed become her right arm.

The ancient god in the egg said in praise, "Mu Heavenly Venerable is indeed exceedingly clever — hearing the tune, he knows its meaning.

What a pity your strength is insufficient; otherwise we would surely have chosen you as our ally rather than Her Majesty the Empress.

You guess rightly: we have indeed conceived the wish to emerge.

" The female voice said, "We are trapped here. The mining ground lies before us, yet we can draw no power from it and comprehend no Dao within it, and our heart of Dao has been damaged and troubled by the red dust. Rather than guard the Taiji mining ground forever, we may as well emerge early and walk a circuit through the red dust.

" The male voice said, "The trifling affairs of the red dust have damaged our heart of Dao. We have gained a cunning heart, a fearful heart; we have gained joy and anger, sorrow and delight; we have gained greed, worry, slaughter, plotting, the desire for power, profit, craft, deceit, and scheming — all the base passions that hinder our attainment of the Dao. Since it was the red dust that gave them to us, then we must walk a circuit through the red dust.

" The female voice said, "Only by walking a circuit through the red dust can we see through greed, worry, the desire for power and profit; only so can we cast off the cunning heart and the fearful heart and bring our heart of Dao back to the uncarved simplicity that was before living beings ever came to be — and thereby attain the Dao and be liberated. " The words of the Taiji ancient gods touched Shen Mu and the Empress differently, and each gained a different insight. What the Empress recalled was the time of her own birth, when the Dao of Guixu bestowed consciousness upon her; in those days her consciousness was utterly simple, and in perfect accord with the Dao of Guixu. The heart of Dao is my own heart.

She had been born in a lotus within the great abyss of Guixu, in quiet and in beauty. But when had all of this begun to change? Was it when the Creator discovered her, a Dao-born ancient god, and felt her power of birth and nurture, and so worshiped her and prayed for her protection, that their race might be fruitful and multiply?

Was it when the Creator sought to use her power to uproot its rivals?

Was it when Taichu met her and the two came to love each other? Or was it when she herself felt the worship of the Creator, the worship of all living beings, and savored power and desire?

Only she had not the Taiji ancient gods' high awakening; she never recognized this in herself, and so sank down into the red dust.

What Shen Mu thought of was something else.

He felt that the Taiji ancient gods' way — tempering the heart of Dao in the red dust — was indeed a workable path.

After all, he too had struggled and rolled through the mortal world, growing little by little; his heart of Dao had grown along the way, and his Dao realm had risen step by step with it. Then he thought of another matter: Lan Yutian.

The Heavenly Venerable Yu of old had been troubled by the trifling affairs of the red dust, and so his heart of Dao was less pure than Lan Yutian's; while the Lan Yutian of today, though he walks within the red dust, is more like an egg-born ancient god from before the birth of living beings — without thoughts of gain, without desire for power, without those troubling thoughts, with nothing left but a heart of Dao pure beyond compare.

Compared with the other egg-born ancient gods, all save Taiyi, he was more like an egg-born ancient god, silently drawing sustenance from the vast mining ground that is the red dust, raising himself higher.

He was the one closest to attaining the Dao.

And within Shen Mu's Primordial Fetus Divine Treasury, the Taishi in the egg had his own insight as well; unknowingly he stopped drawing power from the Taishi primal stone and the Taishi lode, and quietly pondered the road he would take.

"The Taiji ancient gods took form after me, and yet their understanding of the Dao already stands above mine.

" He could not help sighing, feeling that he had gained much: "Her Majesty the Empress has seized my Taishi mining ground. Even if I take it back through Mu Heavenly Venerable's hand and absorb the whole of the mining ground's power, I still cannot reach perfection, cannot attain the Dao, cannot transcend. I too must walk a circuit through the mortal world and temper my heart of Dao, as the Taiji ancient gods have done; only then may I reach the level of our brother Taiyi.

" Each had gained something; each had come to an understanding — only what each understood was not the same.

The Taiji ancient god in the egg said, "This time we invited Her Majesty to come because our own power is not enough to break open the divine egg. We ask Her Majesty to lend us her aid. " The Empress rose to her feet.

"It is only fitting that I help," she said gravely. Shen Mu also rose to his feet.

"Daoist brothers within the egg," he said gravely, "once you have emerged, how will you treat me?

I wish to know where the two of you stand. " The Empress looked toward him; a flash of killing intent crossed her lovely eyes.

"Mu Heavenly Venerable, you and we Ten Heavenly Venerables are grasshoppers strung on the same rope.

You would do well to recognize your own weight and set your position right, and harbor no excessive notions. Otherwise you will only invite a fatal calamity. Guixu is one of the few places in all the world that can erase you, and the Guixu Great Dao is one of the few Daos that can break the art of Material Immutability! " Shen Mu laughed heartily, killing intent boiling around him: "If in days to come the two Daoist brothers mean to make an enemy of me, then today I will stake my life and fight to the death!

Think it over, you two!

" He turned. "Empress, if you believe the Guixu divine arts can erase me, then by all means, try!

"