Chapter 1663 — Summoning the Soul of That Old Man

The Ancestral Court.

The Sky Sea. Emperor Haotian descended upon the Sky Sea and walked upon its waters; the surface did not stir, calm as a mirror.

Emperor Haotian thought of Shen Mu, of the humiliations Shen Mu had once dealt him, and still the Sky Sea showed no ripple at all. "The demon in my heart is utterly erased.

" His heart was perfectly still, and he felt the manifold subtleties of Dao arts and divine powers come crowding in upon him; the Dao resonance about his body rose steadily.

These were the signs that he was about to break through into the Dao Realm! The Myriad Dao Heaven Wheel spinning behind his head grew ever more powerful, its Dao resonance ever heavier, and after a long while it suddenly began to split, again and again, hum, hum, hum, until thirty-one Myriad Dao Heaven Wheels appeared above the Sky Sea, the forward and the reverse perfectly distinct! One stage of the Dao Realm, one heaven.

These thirty-one Myriad Dao Heaven Wheels stood for his achievement of the thirty-first heaven of the Dao Realm! ! Abruptly all the Myriad Dao Heaven Wheels merged as one, and behind his head they became a single heaven wheel, turning slowly. As the second of the Longhan Heavenly Venerables to open up a realm, Emperor Haotian's aptitude and insight were both superb.

"Kaihuang, who founded the whole system of the Dao Realm, a talent so dazzling the world was struck blind by it.

A pity you died. That I never truly fought you to a conclusion is the regret of my life.

" His robes flapping, Emperor Haotian rose slowly from the Sky Sea and set off toward the Heavenly Court. "Kaihuang is dead, the Shepherd Heavenly Venerable is wounded.

Who in this world can still be my rival, or help me take another step forward? " A thread of melancholy welled up in his heart, yet no sooner had he reached the Heavenly Court than a divine official came to announce, "Your Majesty, a man named Xing An has come up from the lower world.

He says Your Majesty summoned him, to serve as Master of the Zaofu Palace. " Emperor Haotian's eyes lit up, and he laughed aloud.

"The Shepherd Heavenly Venerable is brisk about his business! Bring him in at once! " The melancholy in his heart vanished without a trace.

"With this Heavenly Venerable Xing An," he laughed, "I can take another step forward! " The Heavenly Palace above the Yong River, where Shen Mu lived in seclusion, lay utterly still. These days Shen Mu herded cattle, raised chickens and fed fish, picked worms off the carrots, drank tea with the Alchemist and the Village Head, matched knife work with the Butcher, contested sacred pupils with the Blind Elder, helped the Silent Craftsman at his forge, and now and then went to the Deaf Elder's place to paint and write.

It was, all told, a comfortable life. Ling Yuxiu ran off to Granny's to learn sewing from her, and as Granny Zhu stitched baby clothes she kept casting glances at the girl's belly.

Ling Yuxiu's face reddened faintly. "Ten months of carrying a child.

In a few more days it ought to show, no? " Granny Zhu rubbed her silver needle against her hair and asked, as if idly, though perhaps not. "Not at all! " Ling Yuxiu said hurriedly, "My husband says the Heavenly Court may descend upon us at any moment, so he doesn't want a child. " "Nonsense!

" Granny Zhu cursed, then suddenly burst out laughing. "So long as the Heavenly Court doesn't attack, you two won't have a child? If everyone under heaven thought like you, the human race would have died out long ago.

Have one soon. " Ling Yuxiu murmured an assent and hastily changed the subject.

"Granny, don't you think the Plumed Fire Pheasant Dragons have been strange lately?

These past days they've been sneaking about as if plotting some great matter. .

.

" "They're a flock of chickens, nothing more. " Granny Zhu waved it off. "When you're with child, have the Blind Elder kill one a day to build you up. The chickens raised outside the Heavenly Palace aren't enough, but luckily there are flocks of them down in Yincan Village.

That ginseng can be sliced thin and stewed with them in the pot. What has the boy been doing these days? " "Cultivating," Ling Yuxiu said.

"He seems to have run into some difficulty, though he hasn't spoken of it to me.

But I can guess. He has cultivated to the Jade Capital realm, yet he has only fifty-eight treasure halls and not seventy-two, and it troubles him endlessly. He feels he cannot enter the next realm. " Granny Zhu set down her needle and thread and sank into thought. "Fifty-eight treasure halls?

Seventy-two treasure halls. . . couldn't he simply ask Imperial Teacher Jingping? Doesn't Imperial Teacher Jingping possess the complete seventy-two treasure halls?

" The Imperial Teacher Jingping she spoke of was Jiang Baigui, who had already cultivated the thirty-six heavenly palaces and seventy-two treasure halls. Ling Yuxiu knew this as well. "My husband says the seventy-two treasure halls Imperial Teacher Jingping cultivated belong to the innate Dao, and his thirty-six heavenly palaces to the acquired Dao; they are not the same as the seventy-two treasure halls of Jade Capital City.

The seventy-two treasure halls of Jade Capital City are in truth transformations of the great Daos of seventy-two prehistoric Dao-achievers, embodying the attainments of those seventy-two in the great Dao. " Granny Zhu was unimpressed.

"The boy likes to split hairs. There's a path ready to hand, yet he insists on seeking one that looks finer. The seventy-two treasure halls of Jade Capital City are borrowed power; cultivate them as well as you please, and they remain flowers in a mirror and the moon on water. Didn't Sage Woodcutter give him three hundred and sixty kinds of acquired Dao? Let him pick out seventy-two and forge them into treasure halls, that's all. " Ling Yuxiu smiled.

"Granny speaks good sense. It is only that my husband is proud, and cannot bring himself to cultivate the arts of his teacher, the Woodcutter. " Granny Zhu spat. "He has gnawed his way through the whole world, hasn't he? Who has not been gnawed by him? Even the dragon qilin had its Human-Rearing Scripture gnawed by him!

What is so wrong with gnawing on his own teacher? It is only natural and right!

" "I'll go and speak with him. " As Ling Yuxiu rose to go find Shen Mu, Granny Zhu hastily stuffed several baby garments into her arms. "You're a good girl.

I used to worry you'd still carry imperial airs about you and wouldn't be able to adjust, but it seems I fretted for nothing.

Show these clothes to the cowherd! Hang them at the head of his bed every day! " Ling Yuxiu took the clothes and hurried off. She found Shen Mu and repeated Granny Zhu's words. "Granny makes a great deal of sense.

Why not consider it, husband?

" Shen Mu smiled. "My lady, what worries me is not only that.

The acquired Dao is time-consuming and laborious to study; it is creation from nothing. How hard it is to raise it to a profound realm! The war between Jingping and the Heavenly Court cannot be dragged out many more years. To cultivate the acquired Dao now would cost far too much time. " Ling Yuxiu thought a moment, then smiled.

"Imperial Teacher Jiang Jingping's realm is already very high. Could his thirty-six heavenly palaces be converted into treasure halls? Since you have already gnawed on Xing An and Emperor Haotian, why not gnaw on him too?

" She produced a branch that Jiang Baigui had sent as a wedding gift and smiled. "Husband, you ought to be able to infer from this just what realm Imperial Teacher Jiang Jingping has cultivated to, surely? " Shen Mu took the branch and flicked it with a finger.