Chapter 868 — In the Shadows, the Sparrow Watches the Cicada
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 1 of 4
"Heavenly Venerable Yu" shook his head, and saw something white come flying out from between his brows.
He raised a hand and touched his forehead; on his fingers were white brain matter and red blood.
"That sword was truly fast — it caught a man wholly off guard..."
He poked a finger at the space between his brows, and the finger sank into his brain.
He felt the back of his head; it was the same there.
Shen Mu came down at a slant and took two steps forward. Behind him the Heavenly River surged vast and wide, slowly drawing itself back, drifting at his back, and above the Heavenly River a heavenly palace could be faintly made out.
Within the palace, divine voices clamored, as though countless gods and demons were chanting there; only as Shen Mu's aura subsided did that chanting slowly sink low and fade away one by one.
Shen Mu's primordial spirit returned with sword in hand, standing outside the Southern Heavenly Gate of the palace, upon the waters of the Heavenly River, watching "Heavenly Venerable Yu" without any further movement.
"Heavenly Venerable Yu" shook his head again; his mind grew ever more muddled. He laughed. "This body is indeed imperfect; there is much still to be supplied. And the divine arts of the lower realm have advanced faster than I imagined."
Shen Mu shook his head. "You are only using the innate strength of this body, not your own power. This body holds within it the great laws of the Great Way of nearly every ancient god — only nothing of your own. Do you mean to hide your true identity, or is your power unable to break through the world barrier? Either way, lacking anything of your own, you are doomed to die by my hand."
He was stating a fundamental principle.
To break through the world barrier, the stronger one's cultivation, the greater the resistance; and so those who descend from the Heavenly Court to the lower realm are usually divine arts practitioners, and rarely gods or demons.
Only one powerful enough to shatter the world barrier outright can pierce through both realms — and such cases tend to appear in times of large-scale wars between gods and demons.
When the Kaihuang Era and the Shanghuang Era were destroyed, for instance, the world barrier ceased to exist.
Beyond that, there are a few other circumstances in which the limits of the world barrier may be broken through.
For example, the spirit-energy translocation bridge that Shen Mu and the Black Tiger God had designed and built together; or the Phoenix Ship of the Red Emperor Qi Xiayu; or the Great Brahma Heavenly King Buddha's dharma gate of entering dreams — all of these can bypass the world barrier.
There may be other secret paths besides, but Shen Mu did not know of them.
By this rule, the powerful who come down from the Heavenly Court are usually divine arts practitioners — Qi Jiuyi, Prince Qiuming, for instance. They are still divine arts practitioners; after arriving in Yuandu they seek out the powerful ones the Heavenly Court left behind in Yuandu and make those powerful ones their followers.
Then there are the Heavenly Court's envoys in Qingyun Heaven — Xiao Chunfeng, Yu Hongxiu, and the disciples of the Orthodox Gods of the Heavens. All of them are divine arts practitioners, sent down to the lower realm to perfect the heavenly chart.
Because Qingyun Heaven is one of the heavens subordinate to the Dao Sect of the Heavenly Court, they had no need to seek the protection of gods and demons; Qingyun Heaven itself could provide them protection. They had not expected, however, that Shen Mu and Dao Master Lin Xuan would find their way into Qingyun Heaven; in the battle at the Dao Academy, they were cut down until scarcely any survived.