Chapter 1713 — Bringing Down the Empress
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 1 of 4
Shen Mu shook his head. "Rest easy, Your Majesty. The Ten Heavenly Venerables are all of one blood and one branch; I gave up hoping for any of you long ago. I waited here for you, Empress, for reasons of my own."
His gaze passed over the Empress and came to rest on Xie Wuqi and Crown Prince Mingya.
The Empress stepped in front of him and blocked his line of sight.
Shen Mu was among the very mightiest experts of the age, yet she showed him not the least fear, and met him edge against edge. "I have already attained the Dao in the Abyss of Return. I would not claim that this skill of mine is unmatched under heaven, but even if the man in your shadow joined hands with you, he could not hold me here. If you mean to strike at me and use the occasion to be rid of me, then you underestimate me far too much."
Astonishment showed on Shen Mu's face. "Your Majesty has already perfected the planting of the chaos lotus?"
The Empress was startled inwardly. "You understand the chaos lotus as well?"
Shen Mu smiled. "Then tell me: has your lotus come into bloom?"
A chill ran through the Empress, and she took a step back.
His words left her shaken. From a single utterance of the Dao by the Master of Miluo Palace she had comprehended the true method by which the Second Young Master of Miluo Palace had attained the Dao; she reckoned herself unmatched under heaven, with only prehistoric beings such as the Lord of the Lingguan Hall above her in power, yet if it truly came to blows, even the Lord of the Lingguan Hall could not take her down.
That was why she had crossed the battlefield alone and pressed deep into enemy territory to see her own son, Xie Wuqi.
Yet what she had never expected was that Shen Mu not only understood the chaos lotus, but asked whether her lotus had come into bloom. Why was Shen Mu so thoroughly versed in the attainment of the Dao in the Abyss of Return?
Empress though she was, she had grown only a single lotus leaf; she had not so much as glimpsed the shadow of a lotus, let alone its flowering.
"It would seem Your Majesty has not brought your lotus to bloom."
Shen Mu opened his divine treasury domain, and within his great abyss of the Abyss of Return, chaos spread like a sea, and upon that sea of chaos floated, utterly still, one lotus blossom and two lotus leaves.
The Empress's gaze fell upon his sea of chaos. She stared at the lotus, and her voice came out hoarse. "You have already cultivated to this point? When did you attain the Dao?"
"So this is what it means to attain the Dao in the Abyss of Return."
Shen Mu surveyed his own abyss and shook his head. "I attained the Dao without knowing it myself, and I must thank Your Majesty for pointing it out. As I see it, the planting of the chaos lotus is not complete with a lotus blossom alone. There must also be the lotus root, the seedpod, the seeds; only then does one's cultivation count as accomplished. Your Majesty, even if you have attained the Dao in the Abyss of Return, you are still very far short."
Her face cold, the Empress suddenly laughed. "Heavenly Venerable Mu, yours is no true attainment of the Dao in the Abyss of Return. You merely planted a lotus from the seed the Second Young Master gave you. Your lotus of the abyss, like your World Tree, borrows from things outside yourself; it is not the fruit of your own cultivation. You cannot frighten me."
Shen Mu laughed heartily and withdrew his divine treasury domain. "Whether my attainment is real is not for Your Majesty to guess. I came to see you to make a request, one I have no right to ask."
"Say it, then," she said indifferently. "I may not agree."
Shen Mu's expression turned grave. "My request is very simple, and greatly to Your Majesty's advantage as well. Since you have attained the Dao, you must know how the attainment of the Dao in the Abyss of Return is achieved, and Heavenly Venerable Hao will surely come to you for the method."