Chapter 1184 — The Ebony's Rings of Years
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 2 of 3
"Truly a strange land, to have given birth to such gods and demons.
" He took out a Taiji godstone and poured his vital qi into it. At once the qi split in two and became yin and yang qi.
Shen Mu was startled: the yin and yang qi that his vital qi became in passing through the godstone was mightier than the qi he had poured in, and held far more transformations, as though it could evolve all things between heaven and earth.
"This Taiji godstone likewise holds a way of cultivation, much like the Taichu godstone and the Creators.
If the Taiji Egg were dug out, then those who master the eight primal Taiji stones would become eight Great Emperors, and the two ancient gods within that egg might well become another Heavenly Emperor Taichu.
" He put away the Taiji godstone, turned, and waved toward the Taiji Vein. Of the five egg-born ancient gods, two had already come into the world; when the ancient gods within the Taiji Egg would emerge, none could say.
If those two came into the world, what changes would they bring upon it? "I forgot to ask them: was the Void Beast created by someone? Created by that egg-born ancient god who has already come into the world?
And for what purpose was the Void Beast created?
" Shen Mu frowned slightly. After the Heavenly Emperor Taichu defeated the Creators and the Great Emperor, he had joined with nearly every powerful being of that age to seal the Ancestral Court, and the purpose was to seal the Void Beast here.
Moreover, the Divine King Gongyun, that is, Palace Heavenly Venerable, though a Creator herself, likewise held that the Void Beast should be sealed here and must never, ever be released. Plainly, even the Creators believed that the being who had created the Void Beast meant no good.
What story lay behind all this? When the Heavenly Emperor Taichu sealed the Ancestral Court, had he meant to seal away that egg-born ancient god who had come into the world along with it?
They traveled north for more than ten days, and at last came in sight of the black tree of which the two ancient gods of the Taiji Vein had spoken. Shen Mu looked up, and was shaken to the heart: had those two ancient gods not told him this was a black tree, he would never have made out its true face.
Ahead, countless black mountains stood, strange peaks jutting up, proud and jagged; from afar, a hundred thousand great mountains ranged one after another, scattered like stars, forming a circular course of ridges, ring locked within ring, and one could not tell at all that this was in truth the stump of a single tree!
This was indeed the stump left by an exceedingly ancient tree; the ring-shaped structure of the mountain bodies was in fact the growth rings of this black tree!
Yet though a hundred thousand great mountains were arrayed ring upon ring, the growth rings did not appear many.
Shen Mu flew up high and counted. The mountains here formed only sixteen circles; judged by the growth rings of a tree, this black tree should be only sixteen years old. "A sixteen-year-old tree, grown so large?
" He could not help but laugh, and shook his head. "That pair of ancient gods said this place is a treasure ground second only to the five ancient god veins; then my domain shall stand here! " Shen Mu drove the Void Beast over the dark, brooding mountains, straight for the heart of the black tree.
At the center of the hundred thousand great mountains stood a great black peak, sheer and towering, yet with a summit perfectly flat.
Shen Mu took out the Azure Heaven Canopy and drove it with a thud into the middle of that sheer peak, then cried in a low voice, "Rise!