Chapter 1401 — Gathering the Scattered Dao Heart
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 1 of 3
Though Shen Mu heard his words, he could not condense his spiritual consciousness, still less gather his Dao Heart back together.
Just as Taishi had said, the Nine Prison Platform was no place his present self had any business reaching; this natural heavenly prison ought by rights to rank in the realm that came after the God-Slaying Platform. Yet in the early years of Longhan, when the gods built the Heavenly Court, they did not forge its heavenly prisons after the model of the Nine Prison Platform.
The Heavenly Court's prisons differed from the Nine Prison Platform: they held none of its Great Dao, and so all beings remained utterly ignorant of this realm.
For a full million years, not a single soul had ever studied the Nine Prison Platform. Shen Mu's present realm had not yet reached the Yaochi realm, and facing the trial of the Nine Prison Platform, he had not a scrap of anyone's experience to draw upon.
He could only stand against the Nine Prison Platform alone, and with his Dao Heart sealed, he was once again like an infant adrift in a basket on the Yong River.
Darkness lay all around him; within the basket, only the jade pendant at his chest still gave off a faint, ghostly glow. In the darkness about the Yong River swarmed starved ghosts and demon gods; the monsters raced across the water's surface, appearing and vanishing unpredictably, spying on him.
"The you of old had no Dao Heart at all! You forged it yourself, step by step!
" Taishi's voice came from within the egg, as if from an immeasurable distance: "You must overcome this with your own will, and rebuild your Dao Heart!
You can survive. .
.
" His voice grew ever more distant, ever fainter, until at last it could no longer be heard. Agony closed in around Shen Mu; terror engulfed him.
He was like an infant drifting all alone on the Yong River, with nothing in sight but darkness.
What if — what if Granny Zhu had never heard his cries from the basket, had never walked into the darkness, had never lifted him from it?
Would he still be the man he was now?
Would he still be Mu Tianzun? The Nine Prison Platform of the heavenly prison had shattered his Dao Heart, returned it to its most primal state, broken his fighting spirit, and reduced him to a frail infant.
Eventually the darkness would come for him and swallow him whole.
Shen Mu's eyes gradually dimmed, and at last everything was devoured by the dark.
The Taishi Egg, which had all this while struggled to call out to Shen Mu, fell silent too. It was over.
Shen Mu's Dao Heart was sealed, his fighting spirit extinguished; he could never awaken his Dao Heart again, never again become Mu Tianzun.
Within the Nine Prison Platform, all was utter silence.
In truth, there was no wailing of countless living beings as Shen Mu had heard, nor any seal upon the Great Dao, spiritual consciousness, vital essence, or primordial spirit.
From the very moment he had set foot here, what had been sealed was his Dao Heart. The sealing of the Great Dao, of the physical body, of vital essence, of spiritual consciousness — all of it was mere appearance.
It was precisely because the Dao Heart believed itself sealed that he saw his own body, vital essence, primordial spirit, the Great Dao, and spiritual consciousness all sealed.
The legend of the Lizheng's Overlord Body made people believe they could — that they were capable of anything! But the Nine Prison Platform's sealing of the Dao Heart made people believe they could not — that they were capable of nothing.
Shen Mu lay at the center of the Nine Prison Platform.
He had not moved in a long time, save for the occasional twitch and spasm.
"The being in this world with the strongest Dao Heart cannot withstand the Nine Prison Platform either. I suppose I shall be trapped within his body until the day he dies.
" Taishi murmured inwardly: "Perhaps only when his corpse rots will I be able to escape.