Chapter 1801 — While the Palace Stands, the Dharma Stands; When the Palace Falls, the Dharma Falls
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 2 of 4
A peach branch was flung from her hand, falling into the Dao tree forest. The moment the peach branch touched ground, a peach grove grew forth, peach blossoms resplendent. Petal by petal the blossoms flew out in all directions, the petals shuttling through space, growing ever more numerous.
Jiang Baigui trod upon the peach blossoms, pushing ever deeper into the Dao tree forest. Within the Dao trees, all manner of Dao chains interwove like shuttles. He encountered attacks of every kind along the way, breaking through them one after another.
Heavenly Lord Yue coordinated with him, the two of them together breaking the Master of the Joyous Hall's divine abilities. Heavenly Lord Yue sent him deep into the Dao tree forest, drawing ever closer to the shattered Joyous Hall.
Atop the shattered treasure hall, the Master of the Joyous Hall gazed at the hall now divided in two, her expression bleak. She said softly, "My teacher once told me that in this world, those who can achieve a treasure hall through their own Dao are exceedingly few. The treasure hall is stronger than the Dao tree, its cultivation higher than the Dao fruit—it is a new path. The Dao tree and Dao fruit are merely imitations of the World Tree, but the treasure hall is the ravines within the chest of one who has attained the Dao, the heaven and earth within their breast. The hall is the final pure land of those who attain the Dao, and their supreme achievement."
Lord Shang raised his blade. Wounds large and small across his body bled without cease. The power of the Joyous Hall had nearly shattered every bone and sinew in his four limbs and hundred bones, but he was after all one who had attained the Dao, and with his own powerful dharma power he held his body together, keeping himself from falling apart.
In the history of the Sixteenth Epoch, he had suffered wounds more severe than this, and so he paid them no mind at all.
His gaze fell upon the Master of the Joyous Hall's lone leg.
Her other leg had already been severed by him, and the Dao wound made this woman bleed without end.
"My teacher transmitted to me the supreme dharma, but my aptitude was dull, and I could never comprehend it thoroughly. The hall he spoke of was in truth a treasure hall condensed from the Great Dao, like the Supreme Hall, the Limitless Hall, the Lingxiao Hall. He wanted us to discard the old and bring forth the new, to walk our own path—a path even he could not walk. To walk it to its utmost limit, to become a lord who stands alone, to become his Dao companion, to support one another and advance together. But I could not do it."
The Master of the Joyous Hall panted, adjusting her breath. Her voice hoarse, she said, "All I could do was take one step forward under his guidance. That one step was already my limit. And so I could only become one of the masters of the Seventy-Two Halls."
A smile appeared on her face. "My teacher once told me that my temper was too violent, that I should think thrice before acting. He said my smile was very beautiful, very innocent, and so he gave me a Dao name: Joyous. He hoped that in moments of impulse I would smile, and in smiling I would think, and so emerge from my impulsiveness. He hoped I could keep smiling forever, preserving the innocence of my Dao heart. Since I began cultivation, I have indeed, as he hoped, often smiled in the face of all things under heaven, and so I committed fewer foolish deeds."
Lord Shang said indifferently, "Your smile is indeed very beautiful."
Zither music drifted in from the Dao tree forest outside, faint and indistinct. Heavenly Lord Yue and Jiang Baigui were breaking through the forest and had gradually drawn near.
The peach grove spread, its canopy growing ever wider.