Chapter 1376 — Mourning the Great Dao
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 2 of 3
Wei Suifeng shook his head. "We have all tested it. These three realms do not exist. The realms of the Eastern Heavenly Gate, the Western Heavenly Gate and the Northern Heavenly Gate do exist. But these four great Heavenly Gate realms each have their own strengths, and the subtleties within them still require deep and ceaseless study."
"Mingde, Danfeng, Chengtian — these three realms exist."
Shen Mu said, "The cultivation system of the Heavenly Palace and the Heavenly Court was opened up by Venerable Yu. But Venerable Yu only made a beginning and gave it an outline; through the Longhan era it was gradually perfected, and the Heavenly Palace was little by little completed. Only in the present day has the Heavenly Court been gradually completed — yet to this day not one person has truly cultivated it to completion."
Wei Suifeng and Yun Jianli nodded in agreement. Wei Suifeng said, "Then on what grounds do you determine that these three realms exist?"
"On the grounds of the Dao Realm cultivation system."
The others were all startled; Yu Chudu felt somewhat dizzy, unable to keep pace with Shen Mu's thought.
"The Heavenly Palace system lays its emphasis on cultivation, on magic power and strength; it holds no realization of the Dao. That much you have all noticed, have you not?"
Shen Mu spoke without haste: "The Dao Realm system, by contrast, lays its emphasis on the realization of the Dao — one realm, one heaven. So then, does the Heavenly Palace truly hold no realization of the Dao? I believe the four great Heavenly Gates are the gates of entry into the Dao; to pass through the four great Heavenly Gates is to enter the Dao. That is the true marrow of the Heavenly Palace system. But because Venerable Yu died, no one ever uncovered that marrow, and so it took the deformed road of pure emphasis upon power."
Wei Suifeng frowned and mused, "When I tested my primordial spirit passing through the other three Heavenly Gates, I did indeed feel something unusual, a sensation of awakening to the Dao... But at the three gates of Mingde, Danfeng and Chengtian, I felt no such awakening."
"That is because those three gates of the Longhan Heavenly Court are false — they have the form but not the substance."
Shen Mu gathered himself and said, "Not only are those three gates false; even the four great Heavenly Gates, the Southern Heavenly Gate among them, do not contain the true great Dao principles of the four great Heavenly Gates. The true Heavenly Gates are in the Ancestral Court — and the true Jade Pool, the God-Slaying Terrace and the Jade Capital City are in the Ancestral Court as well!"
Yun Juanshu and Wei Suifeng fell into thought.
"If there were one who could fuse the Dao Realm and the Heavenly Palace systems perfectly into one — if such a being is not a Heavenly Venerable, then who is a Heavenly Venerable?"
Shen Mu flicked his sleeve and said coldly, "Of the so-called Ten Heavenly Venerables of the Heavenly Court, apart from Venerable Hao and Venerable Fire, the rest have nothing to their name but great power, and not the slightest achievement in perfecting or opening up a cultivation system!"
"The Heavenly Venerables I speak of are beings like the Seven Heavenly Venerables of Longhan; like Kaihuang, who opened up the Dao Realm; like Xu Shenghua, who created the Divine Treasury of the Heavenly River; like one who opens up the realm of the Ancestral Court — like myself!"
"And such a being exists in the Wendao Academy!"
His gaze fell upon Hua Xuanxiu.
The eyes of all the rest fell upon Hua Xuanxiu as well. She started with fright and stepped back, all but tripping over the thigh bone she had thrown down on the ground.
"Heaven be praised, her thinking, her way of thought, has not been wholly fettered by your ossified thinking."
Shen Mu said without haste, "Had I come a few years later, she would have been lost among the common crowd and become as you are."