Chapter 729 — Proving the Dao with a Fist
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 1 of 5
"Douniu Palace must be one of the thirty-six heavenly palaces of the Kaihuang Heavenly Court. Anyone who could sit in a heavenly palace was a figure of extraordinary power in the Kaihuang era.
" Following the villagers, Shen Mu walked into Douniu Palace. Compared with the others, this heavenly palace was remarkably whole; it seemed never to have known war.
Yuming Palace of the Hall of the Human Sovereign, and Pisha Palace of Fengdu, had both been battered into ruin by the wars that attended the fall of the Kaihuang era. As for the other heavenly palaces, Shen Mu had not yet seen them, but he supposed many must have been destroyed in those fires. "Why has Douniu Palace been preserved intact?
" He could not help but wonder.
"Could the Martial Heavenly Master have turned deserter back then? Did he lead Douniu Palace away entire, and so keep his strength whole?
" Douniu Palace was unlike any heavenly palace Shen Mu had seen before. Yuming Palace of the Hall of the Human Sovereign breathed of books and learning; it was the place where the heavenly palaces taught and nurtured, where the disciples of the gods carried on esoteric learning.
Though Shen Mu was the Human Sovereign of the Hall of the Human Sovereign, he had not lingered there long; he had gone only once, following the First Ancestor Human Sovereign, and had never taken in the whole of it. Pisha Palace he had never entered; King Yama had hidden it deep in Fengdu, and he had only glimpsed from afar those divine cities, one after another, decrepit and worn.
Now they had come into the heavens of Douniu Palace, and as Douniu Palace drew near, it grew gradually distinct, until the whole of it could be gathered in one glance. Nearest them stood a towering gate; looking past it, through layer upon layer of palaces and halls and pavilions, lay a Jade Pool, and beyond the Jade Pool two bloody auras of slaughter wove through the air like twin dragons, spinning without cease.
Behind the God-Slaying Terrace stood a square, upright divine city; that would be the Jade Capital, and the most magnificent palace within the Jade Capital was the Lingxiao Treasure Hall. Shen Mu was struck still.
The arrangement of Douniu Palace's buildings somewhat resembled the heavenly palace of the gods and demons. He drew his gaze near and looked before that gate, and saw a rainbow bridge linking the continents of these heavens. The bridge was very long, floating alone in the air, the only road that joined Douniu Palace.
He looked again at those continental heavens, and his heart quivered slightly. The continent of these heavens was perfectly square, with five mountain ranges running crosswise north and south, each range crowned with towering peaks, and upon the land six great rivers ran swift, some east to west, some north to south, yet none of them flowed into the sea.
There was no sea here.
The six great rivers flowed down into the earth, vanishing into abysses beneath the ground. At the center of these heavens lay an abyss, unfathomable. Shen Mu lifted his head to gaze again, and saw sun, moon, and stars beneath Douniu Palace; the moon rose and the sun set, day and night in alternation.
He blinked.
If the continent were the Spirit Terrace, then the five mountain ranges were the Five Elements, the stars in the sky the Five Luminaries, the six great rivers must be the transformations of the Six Harmonies, the sun, moon, and stars the Seven Stars, and beneath the abyss lay Youdu, the sacred treasuries of life and death; and that bridge was the spirit bridge leading to the heavenly palace. Which would mean. .
.
"This heaven-continent was formed from the body of an Imperial Throne powerhouse?
" His gaze searched everywhere.