Chapter 1406 — The Four Heavenly Gates
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 2 of 3
" He came to the Ancestral Court's South Heavenly Gate, where Xu Shenghua, Lan Yutian, Wei Suifeng, Granny Zhu, Crown Prince Youming, the First Ancestor and the others were all surveying and measuring, intending to make a detailed chart of the South Heavenly Gate and the Dao fire within it. Xu Shenghua and the rest had entered the Dao fire of the South Heavenly Gate to chart the Dao patterns of the fire; the Dao fire acts upon the primal spirit, the vital qi, the consciousness and the Dao runes, and so long as one does not let one's primal spirit blossom forth, there is no danger.
Yet Shen Mu saw Shu Jun, Wei Suifeng, Granny Zhu, Crown Prince Youming, the First Ancestor and the others send their primal spirits out of their bodies all the same, tempering themselves in the Dao fire. When their primal spirits could bear no more, they at once returned to their bodies, evading the scorching of the Dao fire.
Shen Mu clicked his tongue in wonder; he had not expected them to escape the Dao fire's power by so simple a method.
Even so, the move was exceedingly dangerous, for the pressure of the South Heavenly Gate came not only from the Dao fire; the gate's own pressure was immense as well, and if the body had not been cultivated to the level of a true god, it would surely be crushed.
Of course, the bodies of these few were all exceedingly strong; Shu Jun's in particular had reached the level of the Emperor's Throne.
Shen Mu stepped forward. Seeing him come, Wei Suifeng at once sent his primal spirit out of his body and walked in the Dao fire, looking very pleased with himself.
Shen Mu smiled faintly and thought nothing of it.
If Wei Suifeng and the others could likewise pass safely through the South Heavenly Gate, he would be glad for them.
"But it will be hard," Shen Mu thought, smiling.
Shu Jun told him the positions of the other three Heavenly Gates.
Shen Mu asked Wei Suifeng for the Moon Heavenly Venerable's lantern, and carrying the lantern, he departed.
Of the other three Heavenly Gates, the North Heavenly Gate stood upon the back of the Ancestral Court, facing the South Heavenly Gate from afar.
The East Heavenly Gate and the West Heavenly Gate, meanwhile, stood upon the front of the Ancestral Court.
Two days later he came to the North Heavenly Gate, and saw all around him ice and snow, a bitter keening wind, dark clouds massed in the heavens, and thunder falling like rain, ceaselessly striking down into the North Heavenly Gate!
That gate was covered in bloodstains, and thunder rolled to and fro within it; in the primordial era a great battle must have been fought here, and many had died. Shen Mu entered the gate, set his own body down at its center, and only then sent his primal spirit out of his body to comprehend the principles hidden within the gate.
More than ten days later, he had comprehended the principles concealed in the North Heavenly Gate once through. The Great Dao hidden in the North Heavenly Gate was one he had seldom come into contact with before, and most profound.
Shen Mu spent several more days making his comprehension of its principles thorough, and only then left, returning to the front of the Ancestral Court.
He sought out the East Heavenly Gate.
The East Heavenly Gate was purple qi and a proud sun; the gate was exceedingly strange, for a purple sun revolved about the crown of the gate, and a strand of purple qi shot out from that sun and poured into the gate. At the center of the two great mountains that formed the gate, the purple qi took shape as a purple eye; when Shen Mu walked into the gate, chains of purple qi shot from that purple eye and pierced into his primal spirit.
Shen Mu lingered at this gate too for more than twenty days, and felt that his comprehension of the Dao realm had deepened, yet still he could not advance his Dao realm another step. He departed with the lantern, and came to the West Heavenly Gate.