Chapter 1711 — A Treacherous Minister Lurks at the Emperor's Side

The Hall Master of Lingguan shook his head: "If Your Majesty truly made a move, I fear you would not last ten moves in his. Your Majesty, in mending the flaws of your method you have only made your own method flawless — but why should the Seventh Young Master go seeking your flaws? He has already fathomed our master's supreme art, and there is one move more, the supreme art of our master's mortal foe. Between those two moves, Your Majesty must lose. Within ten moves, Your Majesty's very life is in peril. The Third Young Master and the Fourth Young Master cultivated you, but not so that you might die at the Seventh Young Master's hands; your role is not to perish in a death-grapple with the Seventh Young Master."

The Heavenly Emperor frowned.

The Hall Master of Lingguan said: "If Your Majesty wishes to defeat him, it is in fact simple. You need only cultivate the third method of attaining the Dao, and you may break his divine power."

The Heavenly Emperor was about to ask further when Shen Mu's voice suddenly came: "That headless prehistoric Dao-attainer — last time he cut off your head, ruined your Dao tree and destroyed one of your dao fruits, and I forgot to ask your name. May I ask, which hall master of the Miluo Palace's seventy-two halls are you?"

The Hall Master of Lingguan did not continue, but turned and bowed deeply: "Of the seventy-two halls, the Lingguan Treasure Hall — known as the Ling Sage of Miluo Palace, and called the Hall Master of Lingguan. I greet the Seventh Young Master."

Shen Mu turned his head and said joyfully to his own shadow: "Lord Shang, this time at last we know whom we killed."

Lord Shang's voice came from his shadow: "Young Master, for a man about to die, what need to ask his name?"

"A matter of courtesy."

Shen Mu turned back and smiled faintly: "Lingguan, do you dare fight me before the lines?"

The pair of ox-horns on the Hall Master of Lingguan's shoulders twitched, and he laughed aloud: "Seventh Young Master, you have an assassin lurking in your shadow, waiting to strike at me by stealth — do you think I do not know? Today I will not contend with you; you and I shall have our day of decision!"

The Heavenly Emperor invited him into the palace, saying with great courtesy: "Brother of the Dao, this third method of attaining the Dao — you must explain it in full. Please!"

Shen Mu frowned; the Golden Ship of Salvation sailed toward Carefree Village and moored in the Taiqing Realm, and he said: "Prepare for battle!"

His gaze fell upon the Heavenly Court's great encampment opposite, and a faint anxiety stirred in him.

"The third method of attaining the Dao was created by the Second Young Master of Miluo Palace. The Second Young Master, Wuji, is a goddess of Guixu; her Dao is the Boundless, vast and dim, traceless and limitless, its roots unfindable. When she attained the Dao, she found that the method of attaining the Dao through the Dao-realm that our master passed down, and the method of attaining the Dao of Jade Capital City, were both of no use to her. Her Guixu Dao could never be imprinted upon the void."

The Hall Master of Lingguan and the Heavenly Emperor Hao entered the palace and sat down, and he said: "At that time she created the Guixu method of attaining the Dao and at last attained the Dao, with a power so great that even our master praised it unceasingly. I observe that you carry the blood of the Guixu goddess and have cultivated the Guixu Dao — only, the Guixu Dao cannot attain the Dao, and so I thought of the Second Young Master's method."

The Heavenly Emperor Hao bowed low to the ground and said: "I beg you, Brother of the Dao, to teach me!"

The Hall Master of Lingguan shook his head: "The Guixu method of attaining the Dao is of no use to me, and I know little of how one attains the Dao. I heard our master speak of it only once — it seems one must plant a lotus in primal chaos. Our master said: 'In a pool of primal chaos, a golden lotus is planted and blooms.' As to how to plant and how to make it bloom, that is beyond my knowing."

When he spoke the words "In a pool of primal chaos, a golden lotus is planted and blooms," he used the language of the Dao, its imagery profoundly deep and its tone exceedingly ancient — plainly not a saying the Hall Master of Lingguan could have fathomed himself, but one that came from the mouth of the master of Miluo Palace.

The Hall Master of Lingguan was merely repeating the words of the master of Miluo Palace.

The Heavenly Emperor Hao pondered that sentence in silence, feeling it held deep meaning, yet how one was to plant a lotus in a chaos pool and make it bloom he could not fathom at all.

"Planting a lotus in chaos — only Yuanmu can explain it!"

The Heavenly Emperor hesitated. Though he was Yuanmu's son, Yuanmu had little familial feeling; if Yuanmu attained the Dao, he feared she would usurp the throne!

"Dare I ask, Brother of the Dao, how then does the fourth method of attaining the Dao attain the Dao?" asked the Heavenly Emperor.

"Your Majesty, you are somewhat greedy."

The Hall Master of Lingguan said: "Of the first three methods of attaining the Dao, you have already cultivated one. Do you mean to cultivate all four? The first three you might all attain; only the fourth can you never master."

The Heavenly Emperor asked again.

The Hall Master of Lingguan, helpless, had to say: "This fourth method of attaining the Dao was created by the sworn enemy of my Miluo Palace. I do not know how one attains the Dao by it either. I know only that this method cultivates no Dao tree, borrows no force, imprints no void, and plants no lotus in chaos. It is mysterious beyond fathoming."

The Heavenly Emperor Hao let out a breath of turbid air, abandoning the thought, and said in a low voice: "Summon the Empress!"

The Empress came. The Heavenly Emperor Hao said: "Brother of the Dao, please say that sentence again."

The Hall Master of Lingguan repeated the sentence in the language of the Dao. The Empress was shaken to the core of her spirit; hearing that tongue of the Dao, the scene at the very depths of the great abyss of Guixu rose unbidden in her mind.

Suddenly her own great Dao of Guixu contracted sharply; all her heavenly palaces collapsed, and then even her divine treasuries collapsed of themselves!

All her cultivation settled in that moment, like a stone dropped into still lake-water with a soft thud, and the primordial-fetus divine treasury likewise shattered and dissolved!

Within her body, only a pool of primal chaos remained!

Looking up from that chaos pool, one could see only a single strip of sky — that was the great abyss of Guixu!

"So that is how it is."

The Empress was suddenly enlightened. In the chaos pool, a single lotus leaf first showed its tip, and she had at last attained the Dao through Guixu!