Chapter 1541 — Asking Heaven for the Dao
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 2 of 4
. . " Fire Venerable sneered, "Shen Mu, you speak up for Consort Qiang—have you too colluded with Dao-attainers from a past universe? I always knew you were the sort to bite the hand that feeds you and forget kindness.
My only regret is that I didn't see through your true face sooner and do away with you!
" Shen Mu smiled slightly, and the little boat under his feet was about to drift backward. Suddenly Venerable Hao said mildly, "Brother Fire, there's no need to say that. Venerable Mu is, after all, the Alliance Lord of the Heavenly Alliance. How could he betray the Heavenly Alliance?
How could he betray the people of the world?
If he did, would he not be betraying himself?
Betraying the very Heavenly Alliance he founded? " Shen Mu was taken aback. He had not expected Venerable Hao to speak for him. Fire Venerable had not expected it either; he bowed slightly. "The elder brother is right.
" Venerable Hao continued warmly, "Venerable Mu, the fact that you could get here shows your strength has advanced by leaps and bounds.
We ten Heavenly Venerables joined forces to break into the Jade Capital of the Ancestral Court, and it cost us a great deal of time.
One more person means one more share of strength. Since you are our Alliance Lord, please lead us all in exploring this Jade Capital.
" Shen Mu hesitated. Venerable Hao suddenly demanded in Dao speech: "Venerable Mu, do you intend to betray yourself and the Heavenly Alliance?
" The question came without warning; the Dao speech blasted straight into Shen Mu's Dao-heart and formed a Great Dao interrogation there!
In that instant, the Great Dao thundered and quaked inside his Dao-heart as if every Dao he had tempered in his body were challenging him at once, pointing straight at his heart.
Shocked, Shen Mu raised his head and looked at Venerable Hao as if seeing him for the first time. Few could speak in Dao speech; it required a profound understanding of the Dao! The Five Primordial Tais communicated in Dao speech, but that was an inborn gift for Taiyi, Taichu, and the others.
Kaihuang had cultivated the Sword Dao to the thirty-fifth layer of heaven and could now use Dao speech. Shen Mu could speak in Dao speech only because his own cultivation in the Dao realm was extremely lofty and he had studied the Great Dao of the Five Primordial Tais.
Venerable Hao's sudden challenge in Dao speech had formed a Great Dao interrogation in Shen Mu's Dao-heart, aimed directly at it, making refusal impossible. If Shen Mu refused, he would be acting against his own Dao-heart, and the damage would be enormous; it might even create self-doubt in him.
Self-doubt and self-questioning were terrifying to a cultivator, especially one who had achieved something in the Dao realm. On the path of cultivation, self-doubt meant losing ground instead of advancing.
If Shen Mu refused to travel with them, he might only keep regressing from then on; the various Great Daos he had mastered would gradually peel away from his body, and his power would be destroyed! This was the divine art of the Dao-Inquiry!
The Dao-Inquiry divine art had the same exquisite effect as the Nine-Prison Terrace, though it lacked the uncanny weirdness of Shen Mu's Nine-Prison Heart-Sealing Everlasting Dao. Had Shen Mu been on guard, Hao's Dao-Inquiry could never have blasted straight into his Dao-heart. But the crucial point was that he had not been on guard!
"Is there really some mighty existence from a past universe behind Venerable Hao, guiding him?
Or did he understand this much on his own? " Shen Mu took his eyes from Venerable Hao's face, smiled faintly, and stepped ashore. "If it is the latter, then I have underestimated him.
His talent, natural endowments, and comprehension are absolutely not inferior to Kaihuang's!