Chapter 165 — The Threefold Establishment
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 2 of 4
What could be greater than a Cult Master's enthronement?
There was only one possible reason why Heavenly King Han had not come to the ceremony of the Cult Master's ascension.
"Young Sect Master, from now on you must treat Heavenly King Han's descendants well," the Young Patriarch said in a low voice.
Shen Mu's heart quivered. He was about to ask, when the Young Patriarch said gravely, "Three hundred sixty halls — unfurl the banners! Assemble at Sacred Advent Mountain!"
With a whoosh.
Banner after banner unfurled, blotting out the entire City Lord's manor. The great flags spread and gathered, and the City Lord's manor of Yongzhou City vanished into thin air, leaving no trace behind; where the manor had stood, there was now only bare ground.
When the banners that had covered them overhead disappeared, Shen Mu looked around, and his heart was shaken. They had left the bustling city of Yongzhou and come to a place that did not seem to belong to the mortal world.
Here the dome of heaven was round above and the earth square beneath; a mountain range towered in a realm of mist and void, touching neither the sky above nor the ground below.
The peaks were verdant green, yet overhead there was no sun, and beneath no earth. This mountain seemed not to exist in the human world at all.
"So this is Sacred Advent Mountain?"
Shen Mu gazed about him. Range upon range of peaks rose in tiers; palaces were hidden deep in the mountain forests, no doubt the halls built by the Sacred Cult. Yet the Young Patriarch did not lead them toward those halls; instead he brought them to a pine and cypress.
The pine and cypress were dense and green, and had stood in the world for who knew how many years. Beneath them was a thatched hut, very clean, showing no sign of rot despite the passage of time.
The Young Patriarch motioned Shen Mu forward. "This mountain was once in the mortal world. In those years, when the Founding Patriarch of our Heavenly Sacred Cult came here, he saw a woodcutter cutting firewood — and what he was chopping was this very pine and cypress. The woodcutter swung his axe at the pine and cypress with an orderly method that seemed to hold infinite subtle principle; and when the pine and cypress took a blow, another piece grew out and it was restored as before. The Founding Patriarch knew he had met a sage, and so he sought instruction from the woodcutter. The woodcutter preached the Way to him beneath this pine and cypress, and that lecture lasted several decades. The Founding Patriarch gained boundless insight, yet was still not satisfied, and so he asked the woodcutter: how does one become a sage?"
Shen Mu listened closely. The Young Patriarch paused, then went on: "The woodcutter said that to become a sage one must establish virtue, establish merit, and establish words — the three establishments, the three immortalities. The Founding Patriarch asked again: how does one achieve the three immortalities? The woodcutter said: illumine principle, illumine wisdom, illumine teaching — the three illuminations that make one the teacher of ten thousand. At this the Founding Patriarch was greatly enlightened."
The Young Patriarch raised his head and looked at the pine and cypress that had weathered the ages. "The Founding Patriarch knew that to become a sage, he must first be one who illumines principle, wisdom, and teaching, and is teacher to ten thousand. So he compiled the Sage's Instructions, arranged them into chapters, and made them into a record — what the outside world calls the Great Nurturing Dark Demon Scripture."
"The Founding Patriarch wrote the Great Nurturing Dark Demon Scripture; thus he illumined principle."