Chapter 1450 — The Heavenly Palace Descends
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 1 of 4
Shen Mu's face was grave. If the Heavenly Court moved to the Ancestral Court, then the next thing the Heavenly Court would throw its full strength against was the Heaven Lord!
The Heaven Lord sought death not for death's sake, but for release. Yet from all Shen Mu knew of Heavenly Venerate Hong, though Hong was the Heaven Lord's reincarnated body, he was the Heaven Lord no longer.
He was filled with a hunger for power, a craving for strength. Once he had shaken off the bonds of the heavenly dao, Heavenly Venerate Hong would become a Ten Heavenly Venerate possessed of boundless might!
If Shen Mu wished to take part in this, to save the Heaven Lord, then he must first possess a greater power.
And the swiftest road before him was to endure the tempering of the Ancestral Court's God-Slaying Platform, and master the great Dao of that platform!
By then Shen Mu would stand firm in the realm of the Nine Hells Platform, and only then, facing the Ten Heavenly Venerates, would he have some small measure of strength to resist!
The Heavenly River rose higher and higher, which meant the Heavenly Court was on the move. The situation was critical; there was not a moment to lose.
Zaifu, Tian Shu, and the others rose to their feet, their eyes upon him. Zaifu said, "You mean to go to the Ancestral Court now, and face that most ferocious blade under heaven?"
Shen Mu nodded.
For two years and six months, the five of them had raised the Dao of the blade to its utmost limit. First they had dueled with the blade Dao, deepening Shen Mu's understanding and comprehension of it; then each of them had unleashed his own spirit.
The blade nourishes the spirit. With their own spirits they contended against Shen Mu, tempering spirit with spirit, tempering Shen Mu's will with the will of the blade, elevating his blade Dao and letting his spirit turn to blade light.
In that time Shen Mu's insight into the blade Dao had been raised to its very peak, their spirits serving as the whetstone on which he sharpened himself.
One might say he had spent every last scrap of his wit and talent, melting all he had once learned and comprehended into the blade Dao.
In two and a half years his blade Dao had reached straight to the sixteenth heaven, surpassing Zaifu, and soon after he caught up with Luo Wushuang, arriving at the eighteenth heaven, where the blade itself becomes the Dao.
He had entered the Dao through divine powers and, by analogy, blazed his own blade Dao, heaven by heaven; and afterward Zaifu, Tian Shu, Zhe Huali, and Luo Wushuang too were raised without cease under the tempering of his spirit.
In the end their essence, energy, and spirit tempered one another, branding layer upon layer of the void, deducing together, until they had deduced the blade Dao to the twenty-fifth layer of the void!
In two and a half years, five grandmasters of the blade Dao had not merely raised their blade Dao to the twenty-fifth heaven, but to the point of branding the twenty-fifth layer of the void. This was beyond doubt a tremendous breakthrough in the Dao of the blade, a feat that would shape the blade arts and divine powers of ages to come!
Yet at this point their accumulated reserves were all but spent; even to advance one more heaven would take far longer than before.
Zaifu said in a low voice, "We will go with you to the Ancestral Court, and see this most ferocious blade under heaven!"
Shen Mu hesitated, and looked at Tian Shu, Zhe Huali, and Luo Wushuang. The Ancestral Court's God-Slaying Platform, the most ferocious blade under heaven — slaying Emperor Throne experts there would be no harder than slicing melons and vegetables. He did not want to watch these dear friends risk their lives for his sake.
Yet with his present understanding of the blade Dao, he would still find it hard to force his way onto the God-Slaying Platform and live.
He had no confidence in passing that platform — not the least confidence.