Chapter 1518 — That One Crossed the River and Was Gone

Shen Mu was still frail now, but much improved from before. This ordeal had been truly terrifying — even he himself had feared the World Tree would devour him completely. Yet he had never expected that at the most critical moment, after the World Tree consumed his spirit embryo and soul, the tree would finally bear his brand! In the past, no matter what he tried, he could never refine the World Tree, nor imprint his own mark upon it. But as the World Tree devoured his spirit embryo and soul, the brand had been seared into it just like that! This experience could well be counted among the most perilous and horrifying he had ever endured, yet in the end he had turned danger into safety — a blessing born of misfortune. His heavenly palaces were still being rebuilt and reorganized, and his mana continued to rise steadily. Shen Mu rose to his feet and spread out his God Treasury domain. A precious tree stood towering within the Ancestral Court, ringed by the five great mineral veins, and he felt as though his root tendrils could extend to every corner of the domain. For the first time, he experienced the wondrous sensation of complete mastery over everything that was his. He stood at the feet of his primordial spirit; his primordial spirit stood beneath the tree; the tree was hidden within the God Treasury domain. His primordial spirit was many times taller than his physical body, and the World Tree many times taller still than his primordial spirit. Above was the blue sky, clear and boundless for ten thousand li; below was the earth, deep and immeasurable. This vista filled one with a sense of profound depth and vast openness. "If I never take risks, never make attempts, never explore the unknown, then I will never be able to merge with the World Tree. It seems that daring to venture and try may yield tremendous rewards!" Shen Mu quietly contemplated. Though his God Treasury domain had now taken shape and his heavenly palaces were constantly being restructured and rebuilt, he keenly sensed that the former Mystic Body Three Elixirs Art no longer suited his current cultivation path. Most people cultivated a single art from childhood to old age, but he was different — his arts needed to constantly evolve and transform, to better suit who he was. The self of each era possessed different depths of knowledge, different understandings and insights, and therefore the arts, too, required continual refinement and improvement. Now the knowledge he had comprehended was simply too vast. After obtaining the World Tree and planting it within his God Treasury, his understanding of Tai Chu, Tai Shi, Tai Su, and Tai Ji had reached new heights — and more crucially still, he had begun to touch upon the Dao of Tai Yi! The former Mystic Body Three Elixirs Art could no longer contain such knowledge. Now he needed to expand his cultivation art. His original heavenly palaces had already numbered nineteen, and this art had grown exceedingly complex. But now, with the World Tree, coordinating them all had become much easier. Different heavenly palaces represented different Great Daos. If one cultivated according to the methods of the Ten Heavenly Sovereigns, it would be difficult to fuse twenty or thirty Imperial Throne arts into a single Heavenly Court art within a short time. Shen Mu had long since fused nineteen Imperial Throne arts — at his age, to have achieved this much was already an extraordinary accomplishment. But the further one walked this path of cultivation, the harder it became. Existence like the Ten Heavenly Sovereigns had fused over thirty arts, spending time measured in tens of thousands of years. Among the Ten Heavenly Sovereigns, several had already cultivated thirty-five heavenly palaces, yet all were trapped at the thirty-sixth. For this reason, they each had to display their own divine powers and seek their own unique paths. Sovereign Hao, for instance, chose to rely on Tai Su; the Empress and her sister chose to devour each other; Divine Emperor Langxuan attempted to break through by refining the Dao fruits of others. As for the Ancestral God King, he simply murdered his own father, the Heavenly Lord, in an attempt to force his own breakthrough. Shen Mu did not have such a vast span of time to grope and ponder step by step — in the later stages of cultivation, progress would surely slow. But now, he needed only to take the World Tree as his foundation, unifying the various Great Daos and arts, and it would no longer be so difficult. More important still were the five Primordial Daos! He stood there in quiet contemplation, and before long, his twentieth heavenly palace gradually took form. This was the Tai Shi Heavenly Palace. The Dao of Tai Shi he understood most thoroughly through the World Tree. Originally, the Tai Shi within the egg had resided in his God Treasury mineral veins, constantly refining divine stones and raw stones, comprehending the Dao of Tai Shi. The Tai Shi within the egg did not conceal from him the Dao of Tai Shi it had comprehended — whatever Tai Shi comprehended, Shen Mu gained. Though he was not as uniquely favored as that ancient god, Shen Mu's harvest was still immense. And this time, the World Tree had directly devoured the mineral veins and the Tai Shi divine stones and raw stones, making the Dao of Tai Shi the most thoroughly understood. Gradually the sky grew late. As Shen Mu contemplated and shaped the Tai Shi Heavenly Palace, he also rose into the air, arriving at the crown of the newly grown World Tree. Beyond the Hundred Thousand Holy Mountains, terrifying tremors still emanated — an apocalyptic scene. Yet at the crown of this new World Tree, all was serene. The sky suddenly began to brighten gradually, illuminating layer upon layer of the void, and dimly he saw a Dao Tree standing in the ultimate void. That Dao Tree was hazy and indistinct, its branches and leaves vaguely resembling those of the World Tree. However, whether it was the World Tree in Shen Mu's God Treasury or the new World Tree in the Hundred Thousand Holy Mountains, both were still in their infancy — while the Dao Tree in the ultimate void was lush and verdant, its canopy shrouding an immense expanse! That must be the Dao Tree of Tai Yi. On Tai Yi's Dao Tree there was only a single Dao fruit, no Dao flower, yet its branches were thick and its leaves abundant. Suddenly, a drop of Dao dew, radiating Dao light, dripped from one of the leaves. The iron bucket Tai Yi had given Shen Mu had also been dissolved away, so he took out the iron bucket he had refined himself and strolled leisurely among the leaves, catching the Dao dew dripping down from the ultimate void. The ultimate void was silent and enchanting, appearing before him just like that, as though within reach. Tai Yi's Dao Tree was there too, seemingly close enough to touch with a raised hand. Yet Shen Mu knew that place was immeasurably distant — not somewhere he could reach. He was still a seeker on the path of the Dao realm, and had not yet touched that state. This night was busy and fulfilling. By the time of sunrise, the last drop of Dao dew fell, and the ultimate void and Tai Yi's Dao Tree vanished from sight. The iron bucket in Shen Mu's hand had caught a full bucket of Dao dew. And his Tai Shi Heavenly Palace had been refined to completion at precisely this moment. Shen Mu descended from the World Tree and, carrying the iron bucket, headed into the Hundred Thousand Great Mountains to search for the black mountains that had been shattered by the tremors the night before. When people in the mountains saw him, they could not help but exclaim in astonishment: "Tai Yi has come out in the form of Emperor Shi Jingping's Imperial Preceptor!" Shen Mu offered no explanation, and simply sought out the cracked black mountains on his own, repairing them with the Dao dew. When the Dao dew was used up, he had just finished mending those shattered peaks. "Tai Yi is still unfathomable," he said, setting down