Chapter 1493 — Sins Committed in Life, Debts Collected After Death
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 1 of 3
The reborn Heavenly Duke flexed his limbs. The surging, boundless power that had once filled his body was gone; in its place was mortal flesh, and for a while he still found it somewhat unfamiliar. What is more, while Shen Mu and Lady Tianyin had been molding a soul for him, they had also, along the way, furnished him with a divine soul and added the seven po souls besides.
That divine soul was not Celestial Venerable Hong; it was a soul forged from the Dao of Tianyin, still a blank sheet of paper, without any consciousness at all. He had once been an ancient god, with only three hun souls and no po souls; now that seven po had been added, he was curious about them, not yet used to having them.
Once he had been an innate sacred one, the mightiest of all the ancient gods, dwelling high above all; even the avatars he split off drifted in the heavens and seldom touched the ground. Now his two feet rested upon the earth, treading the soil, and the feel of it rising from his soles and toes made him curious; he bent down, reached out a hand, picked at the dirt between his toes, and lifted it beneath his nose for a sniff.
Lady Tianyin's face showed disgust, and she did not bother to hide it. Not far away, Luo Wushuang kept his eyes on his nose and his mind on his heart, pretending to see nothing; Zhe Huali's eyeballs nearly bulged out of his head; Zaifu and Heavenly King Tianshu exchanged a glance and each allowed himself a smile.
The Heavenly Duke chuckled, raised a hand, and studied his five fingers closely, then examined the lines of his palm just as closely. "Fellow Daoist, Tu Bo is still waiting for you," Shen Mu urged.
Only then did the Heavenly Duke come back to himself. He bowed to the two of them in thanks, then bowed again to Zaifu and the others. "Heavenly Duke, you have passed from divinity into mortality—how does it feel? " Zaifu asked.
"Do you feel any sense of loss?
" "I do. " The Heavenly Duke made no attempt to hide it. "My power once was vast beyond measure; now only the strength of my heaven soul and earth soul remains, and this mortal body is no different from any ordinary man's, so naturally there is some sense of loss.
Tai Yi told me I would cast off the shackles of the Dao of Heaven. I thought I would transcend, attain the Dao as he did.
I never imagined that this, in the end, would be my transcendence.
" "You were lofty before, but never lofty enough to rise above the Dao of Heaven," said Zaifu. "Only now, having become mortal, do you stand a chance of transcending it.
" "Perhaps," the Heavenly Duke said with a smile.
Heavenly King Tianshu rose to his feet.
"Heavenly Duke, I will escort you to You Du to see Tu Bo. " The Heavenly Duke followed him, and the two walked out of the Tianyin Realm. Tianshu was about to open the Heaven-Bearing Gate when Shen Mu caught up. "Heavenly King, You Du wants me dead—I cannot set foot there. Please examine Celestial Venerable You's wounds for me.
I am going to the Ancestral Court to ask my lord to come to You Du and treat him, and I beg you to receive my lord when he arrives. " Tianshu assented, then said, "The Heavenly Duke is dead, and the Dao of Heaven now belongs to the Ten Celestial Venerables.
Their cultivation has advanced by leaps, and they are bound to bring tremendous pressure to bear upon the Land of No Worries.
I fear I cannot stay in You Du long; once I have fetched Pill Master Jingping, I must return to the Land of No Worries.
" Shen Mu hesitated a moment. "Dwelling in the Land of No Worries forever is no sound plan. That the Ten Celestial Venerables cannot breach it for now does not mean they never will. Breaking the Void Bridge is no hard task for the Ten Celestial Venerables as they are today. " "That is why Celestial Venerable Yue has gone to the Land of No Worries with Emperor Kaihuang, to hold the fort there.