Chapter 1233 — The Bond Between True Men
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 2 of 3
In a matter of days, Shen Mu and Xu Shenghua had devised many new divine abilities and worked out many new Dao arts. Together, each man's genius found its full play, and they advanced many times faster than either could have studying and pondering alone.
In this while Xu Shenghua also entered the Dao once more, carrying his divine abilities a step further into it, and Shen Mu envied him without end. From Xu Shenghua he learned his great divine ability, the Dao Domain, and his grasp of divine abilities deepened, until even the divine arts of the Five Innate Tai seemed on the verge of opening to him, each illuminating the rest.
Yet what Xu Shenghua learned from him was greater still.
For all his brilliance was the wonder of the age, his elegance without peer, Xu Shenghua, unlike Shen Mu, had no taste for peril.
Shen Mu held that danger and opportunity were one and the same; his opportunities looked plentiful, but every one of them had been won by staking his life against mortal risk.
He fought with his very life, while Xu Shenghua stayed in the Western Lands cherishing his wife and teaching his daughter—naturally he could not match him.
This time, with Shen Mu come to the Western Lands to trade insights, Xu Shenghua's harvest had been the richest, and so it was only fitting that he should enter a state of enlightenment. Shen Mu told him how he had evolved the five great mineral veins and meant to make Taiji, Taisu, Taishi, Taichu, and Taiyi the five realms to come.
"It seems to me," he said, "that the realm of the Celestial Heavens is not the summit.
There are realms above it—the Five Innate Tai, the five great Tai realms.
" "The present system of cultivation does indeed want mending. " The notion had fired Xu Shenghua's inspiration; faintly exultant, he paced to and fro, saying thoughtfully, "The present system of cultivation takes none of this into account.
It seems the Reforms of Jingping have a great deal of life in them yet!
" Shen Mu coaxed him gently on: "The Ancestral Court stands right there, and I hold a territory of my own now.
If you ever tire of the Western Lands, you might go and see it. " Xu Shenghua was sorely tempted, but wife and child were in the Western Lands, and so was the Shangcang Divine Sect; to leave home so lightly—he truly could not bring himself to it. Family had tethered him.
Shen Mu went on baiting the hook: "There is the Taichu vein, the Taiji vein, the Taisu vein, the Taishi vein, and the Chaos vein besides.
Of course, I destroyed the Chaos vein through my own carelessness, but the qi of Chaos there has gathered into a sea of Chaos, a thing of rare enchantment. I am a dull-witted fellow, nowhere near as clever as you; whatever I could comprehend, you could comprehend as well, and more besides.
" Xu Shenghua's heart was tempted yet further. Shen Mu pressed him no more.
"If you wish to go, go to Jingping. The Emperor and I left a spirit-energy teleportation bridge there that runs straight to the outskirts of the Ancestral Court.
I set my own seal upon the fissure of the Ancestral Court—it should not stump you.
" He rose to take his leave, and Xu Shenghua saw him off with warm solicitude. Shen Mu journeyed far with a lantern in his hand; glancing back on a sudden, he saw Xu Shenghua still standing before the mountain gate of the Shangcang Divine Sect, gazing after him across the distance. Shen Mu stood transfixed. The days of pondering Dao arts and divine abilities at Xu Shenghua's side came back to him; he thought of Xu Shenghua's great divine ability, the Dao Domain, and insight upon insight came flooding in, until it seemed a door had swung open in his mind—and before he knew it he had sunk into a state of enlightenment.
It was early morning, the mist heavy and damp.