Chapter 970 — Three Battles at the Heavenly Origin
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 2 of 5
Yue Tingge pondered. His vital essence turned into countless stars, forming a great circle a hundred zhang across, slowly revolving. "Ahead lies the core of the Supreme Domain of Divine Consciousness," he said. "Even Heavenly Venerable Fire was trapped there and could not free himself. I will use the stars as a clock: they revolve about the center, and one full circuit is one day. I shall leave the stars here. With this precious seal to protect us, we enter the Supreme Domain of Divine Consciousness. If you see the stars' motion quicken, that means we have been trapped by the domain and the seal can no longer break it; then we must turn back with all speed."
"A clever method," Shen Mu praised.
They set off at once. Shen Mu governed the Great Emperor's Seal with his divine consciousness, and it hung high above their heads as the three of them and one dragon crossed the abyssal void with utmost caution, drawing near the Lotus Continent.
Shen Mu looked back, and saw the ring of stars standing upright a hundred zhang tall upon the cliff wall, turning along its starry graduations.
Within the Supreme Domain of Divine Consciousness it was not that time flowed at a rate unlike the outside world, but that matter itself changed at a different rate. Here divine consciousness was so strong that it stilled the flow of matter; even a being such as Heavenly Venerable Fire was trapped in it.
Luckily, the protection of the Great Emperor's Seal let them pass through this motionless time and space.
They climbed onto the Lotus Continent, and saw the roots sprouting from the Great Emperor's feet — monstrous in their thickness, shocking to behold. The Great Emperor's mortal body could well rival the Primordial Tree in its vastness; those roots struck deep into the Lotus Continent, and where they swelled up from beneath the ground they formed mountain ranges.
The rivers of blood upon the earth were fearsome in their width and even more fearsome in their length, and within those blood rivers dwelt a multitude of grotesque creatures — dreadful species born, surely, of the Great Emperor's divine blood.
Luckily, this was the Supreme Domain of Divine Consciousness: these creatures were pinned fast by the domain, unable to stir.
Shen Mu and the others flew over the mountain peaks and looked about them. The divine powers of the Creators had wrought magnificent vistas here, dazzling and many-hued. Flying amid it all, they seemed to travel through a kingdom of giants, where every last thing appeared monstrously vast.
"Do not touch anything here."
Shen Mu spoke gravely. "Most things here are transformations of divine consciousness. Beware the Creators' divine consciousness invading you; if that happens, you may no longer be yourself."
Shu Jun gave a cold snort. This was the voice of experience from Shen Mu, learned from Shu Jun himself. He had once nearly seized Shen Mu's mortal body, only to be blocked by that strange eye of Shen Mu's.
The Creators here were dead, yet their divine consciousness remained. The powers of the Creators were uncanny; perhaps they truly could, by divine consciousness alone, rise again from death.
They pressed gradually deeper into the Lotus Continent, drawing ever nearer to the Great Emperor. Shen Mu, Yue Tingge, and the rest kept glancing back at the star ring upon the cliff, reckoning the speed of its turning.
The star ring's rate of rotation had not changed greatly all this while, which set their hearts somewhat at ease.
They drew closer to Heavenly Venerable Fire as well — when suddenly Shen Mu's heart clenched. The star ring's speed had abruptly surged!
Before, the star ring had turned at a rate of one circuit a day. Now, in a brief moment, it completed a full circuit!
They felt nothing amiss here, and thought their own pace normal; yet had one stood beside the star ring and watched them, their movements would have seemed inconceivably slow!