Chapter 810 — The Supreme One Comprehends the Great Dao
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 1 of 4
Shen Mu brought the others to a residence in the capital. It was a large estate, quiet and elegant, and many maidservants were bustling this way and that, seeing to the household's daily needs.
"Ling'er certainly handles money well."
Shen Mu was delighted. He made some inquiries, and one of the maidservants said, "Sister Ling'er comes here now and then to stay a while and entertain friends like the Tiger Venerable and the Princess, but she hasn't been by lately."
"Why is she like me, forever running about? And with the world in such chaos now, it's terribly dangerous."
Shen Mu shook his head, settled Heavenly Venerable Yu, Gongsun Yan and the rest into their rooms, and at once set about trying to open the Other Shore Divine Treasury.
The Other Shore Divine Treasury took the Life-and-Death Divine Treasury as its root. It was the simplest of all the divine treasuries; Shen Mu's early work consisted chiefly of designing the Other Shore Ark, for the Other Shore Ark was this very treasury.
He drew on the Other Shore Ark he had seen in the Desolate Ruins, and he also studied the old underworld courier's paper boat.
The Other Shore Ark was a treasure ship built to carry one to the Land of No Sorrow. The Woodcutter Sage had designed it and Emperor Shakra Heavenly King Buddha had forged it, and yet in the end it had been destroyed in the Desolate Ruins.
What Shen Mu prized was the ship's power to cross the void.
The old courier's paper boat, by contrast, could carry the living and the dead to and fro through the Nether Capital. The sixth divine treasury was the Life-and-Death Divine Treasury, which connected to the Nether Capital; so Shen Mu took the cleverest route of all. Borrowing the paper boat's power to pass through the Nether Capital, he made the Other Shore Divine Treasury rise out of the Life-and-Death Divine Treasury, cross the void, and fly up to the Southern Heavenly Gate of the Heavenly Palace.
This was by far the simplest way. The Other Shore Divine Treasury was forged inside the Life-and-Death Divine Treasury, where there was solid footing to work from; the primal qi would gather there, and opening it would be comparatively easy.
To open it in the void itself, however, would be much harder. Primal qi gathering in the void within one's own flesh was extremely difficult — the equivalent of hewing out heaven and earth in the void of a body — and Shen Mu did not yet have enough confidence for that.
"Of the seven divine treasuries opened by the Seven Heavenly Venerables, only Heavenly Venerable Yu's Primal Embryo Divine Treasury is a pure creation of the void. It draws power from the void to open the spirit terrace and forge the spirit embryo, and in doing so it gave all living beings a spirit and a soul."
"The other six Heavenly Venerables all borrowed the power of the ancient gods of heaven and earth."
"The Five Luminaries Divine Treasury borrows the power of the Lords of the Five Luminaries; the Six Realms Divine Treasury borrows the power of the Earth Mother; the Seven Stars Divine Treasury borrows the power of the sun, the moon and the Lords of the Five Luminaries; the Heaven-and-Man Divine Treasury borrows the power of the Lord of Heaven; the Life-and-Death Divine Treasury borrows the power of Lord Earth; and the Heavenly Bridge Divine Treasury borrows the power of the Dragon Han Heavenly Court. But the Heavenly Emperor of the Dragon Han Heavenly Court is no more, so there is no power left to borrow, and therefore the Heavenly Bridge Divine Treasury cannot be reopened."
"Then for the Other Shore Divine Treasury, whose power among the ancient gods am I to borrow?"
Shen Mu mused. To open the Other Shore Divine Treasury, the treasury's power had to flow back into the one who wielded the divine arts; only then was it truly a realm.
Among the Seven Heavenly Venerables, six had borrowed power. Only Heavenly Venerable Yu, whose talent was without peer, had borrowed nothing at all. That was supreme genius.