Chapter 1154 — The Heavenly Venerable Tries to Cleave the Ancient God's Egg

In the potted world, Shen Mu entered dream after dream, suffering countless failures, and little by little he groped his way into Heavenly Venerable Ling's divine ability of the Immutability of Matter. The ability grew more and more complete. To learn it at all was already exceedingly difficult; one could well imagine what monstrous talent it had taken for Heavenly Venerable Ling to comprehend it in the first place. No wonder Heavenly Venerable Yu had said back then that in aptitude and comprehension, Heavenly Venerable Ling was the foremost of them all, and that he himself was no match for her. Yet Shen Mu discovered a graver truth: once he fully unleashed the Immutability of Matter, he himself would turn into Immutable Matter. That is to say, this divine ability led to a dreadful end — the self was assimilated by the ability, became Immutable Matter, and could not escape that state. Again and again he entered dreams, again and again he tried, yet every time the outcome was the same: the Shen Mu in the dream turned into Immutable Matter, became a mass of mist. The mist upon the Surging River was Heavenly Venerable Ling herself; after unleashing this divine ability she had been assimilated into Immutable Matter, and she too was trapped within the Immutability of Matter, with no way to free herself. Of course, when she turned into Immutable Matter, she dragged down with her the Grand Emperor's reincarnated body of that time — the eleventh Heavenly Venerable, Ming Fangyu. What Heavenly Venerable Ming Fangyu had wielded was the true flesh of the Heaven Emperor, and so the Ten Heavenly Venerables had no choice but to use the Creation Divine Artifact to remake a Heaven Emperor and hold on to their rule. The most terrifying thing was not how many people this ability had trapped, but that after unleashing it, one could not free oneself from the Immutability of Matter. Even Ming Fangyu, joined with the flesh of the Ancient God Heaven Emperor, could not break through the Immutability of Matter, could not escape cycle after cycle of rebirth. So it was with Shen Mu in his dreams: again and again he unleashed the ability, again and again he was assimilated. The dainty little Shen Mus in the dream turned into mist, forever lost within the mist. He wanted to find a way out for Heavenly Venerable Ling, yet every time it was the same, without exception. This meant that if Shen Mu fully unleashed the Immutability of Matter, he too would turn into Immutable Matter and meet the same fate as Heavenly Venerable Ling. Still, he had made a discovery: employing fragments of the Immutability of Matter did not cause him to be assimilated. This was also why Heavenly Venerable Ling, before she perfected the ability, had used the Ghost Ship to exile the Yulin Army. At last Shen Mu stopped entering dreams, and instead took out the five runes he had comprehended from the Egg of the Great Beginning. "The only way to save our eldest senior brother and Heavenly Venerable Ling is to use the Egg of the Great Beginning to break Heavenly Venerable Ling's divine ability. Whether it can be broken still comes down to verifying whether these five runes are correct." Shen Mu steadied himself. In his sleep he seemed to have lived through hundreds of thousands of years of vicissitude — an illusion wrought by the transformations of matter within the dream. These five runes were the runes of the Great Dao of the Great Beginning that he had comprehended from the Egg of the Great Beginning. When Wei Suifeng had cleaved the Egg with all his strength, the Egg had burst forth with endless light of the Dao, briefly breaking open the Ghost Ship and freeing it for a moment from the Immutability of Matter — only for it to sink back into that Immutability once more. Even then Shen Mu had known that the Dao of the Great Beginning was absolutely the bane of the Immutability of Matter. Whether the five runes he had comprehended from the Egg were truly correct could only be verified by means of Heavenly Venerable Ling's divine ability. Meticulously he laid out the runes required by Heavenly Venerable Ling's ability; all around him were strange symbols transmuted from his own vital essence, flickering in and out of being, pregnant with a power beyond the fathoming of gods and ghosts. Shen Mu was exceedingly careful; he could not combine these runes into the Immutability of Matter, or he himself would be dragged in and turned into Immutable Matter. Cautiously he combined the runes of the Immutability of Matter into fragment after fragment of the ability, brought them into contact with the five runes, and tested the reaction between them. "This rune is wrong." "This rune is wrong too!" "This one is wrong as well..." When he had tested all five runes, he could not help frowning. These five runes were the runes of the Great Beginning he had deduced from the Egg by exhausting every ounce of his wisdom — and yet every one of them was wrong! Restless at heart, he paced to and fro, when of a sudden inspiration struck. He took out the Egg of the Great Beginning and placed it in the midst of the runes of Immutability. "These five runes were deduced from the sound of the Dao. The Dao of the Great Beginning hidden within that sound may not be complete. Back then, when our eldest senior brother cleaved the Ancient God's Egg with all his strength, three of his fingers snapped. At that moment the Egg struck back, and besides the sound of the Dao there were also patterns formed of the light of the Dao!" Shen Mu's eyes flickered; once more he roused a fragment of the Immutability of Matter and hurled it at the Ancient God's Egg! He attacked the Egg of his own accord, intending to make it burst forth in retaliation once more, so that the gorgeous Dao patterns he had seen aboard the Ghost Ship would surge out again, and from those patterns he might comprehend the principle missing from the five runes. The Immutability of Matter was roused, and the instant it fell upon the Egg of the Great Beginning, that Egg — perfectly round, flawless beyond any finding — blazed with light, the sound of the Dao burst forth, as though the voices of countless living beings and a host of ancient gods were praying and chanting all at once! A humming filled Shen Mu's ears; the third sacred pupil at the center of his brow opened and fixed itself upon the Dao patterns radiating from the Ancient God's Egg. Outside, Yan'er hurried toward the fields with a basket in hand. The Dragon Qilin was plowing, having already turned over a hundred mu or so, meaning to plant vegetables and spirit herbs. Yan'er took down a towel and carefully wiped the sweat from the Dragon Qilin's brow, then lifted the basket's lid and said with a smile, "Pilang, look — I've warmed a plate of spirit pills for you." The qilin-headed youth that the Dragon Qilin had transformed into sat on the ridge of the field, eating the steaming spirit pills, while Yan'er fed him water and said softly, "Eat slowly, don't choke..." Outside, the mountain forest shook, whole swaths of trees toppling, as Little Tubo came out of the woods dragging a winged elephant. The elephant was a demigod of the Southern Heaven; while flying through the sky it had been struck down by him and hauled here to be eaten. Little Tubo dragged the elephant to the edge of the field and was about to step in, when the Dragon Qilin hastily shooed him out, saying, "The herbs were just planted — don't ruin them!" Little Tubo set the elephant aside and looked at Yan'er with pleading eyes. "Moo!" Yan'er was just about to help him roast the elephant when she suddenly turned her head toward the cluster of houses Shen Mu had visualized. The houses had abruptly flared bright, and the next instant a terrifying light burst them apart! Whoosh — a violent gale ground the houses to powder; the sonorous sound of the Dao reverberated, light exploded, the earth cracked, the ground shook and the mountains swayed! Yan'er hastily spread her win