Chapter 888 — One Petal, One World
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 1 of 4
Shen Mu had no idea how he had managed to unleash the Boundless Kalpa Sutra of the Great Brahma Heaven King Buddha; he simply felt that the technique existed somewhere in his mind, and at that moment all he had wanted was to sleep. When he entered the dream, the Boundless Kalpa Sutra had unfolded of its own accord.
In the dream he saw a bubble world, a world opened up within the dream; the bubble kept growing, and little by little it merged with the ruins of Longbo.
Within this bubble world, countless versions of himself sprouted like weeds and ran wild in every direction. It was a strange dream.
Each of the selves within it seemed an independent being, and yet all of them were linked to his own vision; even the mutterings he made in his sleep became the language of these tiny Shen Mus.
The words spoken in that sleep-talk carried no discernible meaning; even the little Shen Mus found it hard to understand one another. In the end he decided to give these tiny selves the simplest possible language to communicate with, and so the maha of the flood dragons became the tongue they shared. It was a revel within a dream.
Across that great dream, Shen Mu searched all of Longbo and at last found the clues the founding patriarch had left behind; only then did he wake, yawning and stretching. The bubble world collapsed and perished with his waking, as though a world had been destroyed; the dainty little selves within it vanished without a trace. The Boundless Kalpa Sutra of the Great Brahma Heaven King Buddha possessed powers beyond all comprehension.
This dream world was but one of its wondrous uses; there were other marvelous methods of cultivation besides. Yet Shen Mu had no understanding at all of how the technique was cultivated or how it was unleashed; everything seemed to come as naturally as breathing.
He set aside his doubts about the Boundless Kalpa Sutra and went to the ruins he had found. Dragon Qilin and Yan'er followed him there, and found Shen Mu standing atop an astrological platform of Longbo.
The armillary spheres and other divine instruments on the platform lay shattered, the whole place in disarray. Shen Mu bowed his head to examine the star marks on the ground, then drew out his calculating primal weapon and began to reckon with a clatter of clicks. Yan'er was no master of the art of calculation; she watched for a long while without understanding, then asked curiously, "Young Master, what are you calculating?
" Dragon Qilin said, "It is a riddle left by the founding patriarch of the Heavenly Saint Cult.
Every time, this senior brother would leave a problem in the art of calculation for the Cult Leader to solve, and once it was solved, clues to his whereabouts could be obtained. The senior and junior brothers often conversed in this language of calculation.
" Yan'er said in astonishment, "The art of calculation is a language too?
" "To a master of calculation, it is indeed a language.
" Dragon Qilin went on, "Everyone says the Daoist school is the foremost sect in the art of calculation, but they all overlook my Heavenly Saint Cult. In those years I followed the patriarch in the deep study of calculation and gained no small skill in it. The Heavenly Saint Cult's teleportation divine abilities, teleportation formations, star and constellation formations, and arts of creation are all studies in calculation.
Moreover, the founding patriarch was a great master of calculation; the Woodcutter Sage was a grandmaster of it; even his mount, Senior Brother Tiger Venerable, was an adept of calculation, and set among the Daoist school he would have ranked among the foremost.
" Yan'er rewarded him with a spirit pill and praised him, "Fat Dragon knows so much!