Chapter 1689 — The Chapter of Heaven's Capital Shaping the World

He closed his eyes and steadied his spirit, meditating in fine detail, his Dao resonance churning, his entry into the Dao growing ever deeper.

This observation of Tiandu's opening of heaven and splitting earth had elevated him immensely — not only raising his cognition of the Five Primes, but also increasing the power of his Dao-realm divine abilities.

Whether it was the Void-Form Guest of Tai Ji, or the Roaming in Harmony with the Primordial Single Qi, or Tai Ji Evolving into Yin and Yang, or the Five Primes United as One — all had been greatly strengthened in power!

Not only that, he now had a deeper comprehension of entering the Dao through his divine abilities, and was faintly on the verge of entering the thirty-third heaven of the Dao realm!

The Dao resonance emanating from within Shen Mu's body grew to its most intense. Suddenly there came a rumbling quake, and within his divine treasury the scene of opening heaven and splitting earth was unfolding as well — re-opening chaos, evolving the Five Primes, evolving heaven and earth and cosmos!

Within Shen Mu's divine treasury, heaven and earth and chaos evolved again and again, while he stood between those two footprints, took out the Kalpa Sword, and the Kalpa Sword mimicked the axe-technique Tiandu had used when opening the heavens, cutting out in empty arcs.

The sword in his hand grew heavier and more substantial, great skill appearing as clumsiness — plain and solid, yet that simple single sword strike contained supreme mystery!

He attempted to fuse the Primordial Runes, to fuse the Primordial Purple Qi, to perfect this move.

He practiced it again and again, and the move grew ever more perfected; all intricacy, all Dao mystery, was hidden entirely within one sword.

This sword seemed less a divine ability than the Dao of nature itself. He seemed to have entered a wholly new realm — one sword containing one Dao.

How long passed, he did not know. Shen Mu struck out once more with the sword, and the Dao resonance within it was dense to the extreme. One sword cut out, like the Great Dao striding forth; wherever it passed, the chaos around the altar was split open, opened by his single sword, and the extraordinary phenomenon of heaven opening and earth splitting appeared!

Shen Mu sheathed his sword and opened his eyes. The phenomenon of heaven and earth opening in Tiandu City slowly dispersed, and the path to the outside world emerged — no longer blocked by chaos qi.

Shen Mu exhaled a breath of turbid air and said in a low voice, "This sword can no longer be described as a technique. It is not a move, but the Dao. In those years, when Kaihuang's sword Dao entered the thirty-third heaven of the Dao realm, he named it with the Dao Sword of the Taiqing Realm. He knew that his sword Dao of the thirty-third heaven was no longer swordsmanship or sword moves, but the Dao. This sword of mine is even denser than Taiqing — hard even to describe by realm. Let it be called the Chapter of Tiandu Opening Heaven."

Having comprehended the Chapter of Tiandu Opening Heaven, the cosmos opened within his divine treasury domain, the thirty-three layers of Void appeared, his Dao realm grew more spirited, his cultivation gradually rose, and his primordial spirit gradually matured.

Not only that, Shen Mu's stature also gradually increased; his two legs were no longer so thin and small, but slowly growing.

"If the Lord of Tiandu is Tai Yi, then what did he mean when he said that seeing me abandon my own path, he shed a single tear?"

Shen Mu had no great joy after his enlightenment; instead, he sank into contemplation.

"Tai Yi said he grieved over my abandoning my own path. Then now — have I returned to the path I abandoned? Perhaps not... At that time, my path must also have been his path. That is why, seeing me abandon it, he turned into a single tear..."

Shen Mu gathered his thoughts, lifted his right foot, and prepared to leave the footprints. Suddenly Tiandu City changed again!

He hesitated a moment, then put his right foot back.

In his eyes, Tiandu City was no longer a ruin; it seemed as though newly created — resplendent in gold and jade, lined and threaded with Dao light, standing at the highest point of the universe.

And yet this Tiandu City was collapsing!

Shen Mu's vision again became that of the footprints' owner. The last scene he saw was the Primordial Purple Qi of the Master of Miluo Palace, the Dao Tree of Miluo Palace, and behind the Dao Tree, the collapsing Tiandu City — and his own falling figure!

The Chaos Divine Axe slipped from his hand.

Shen Mu fell along with him, his Dao heart ashen.

"Fellow Daoist, what you have done is not right." He heard the voice of the Master of Miluo Palace, growing ever more indistinct.

A long time passed. Shen Mu regained consciousness, his vision gradually returning. Only then did he realize he had fallen upon the altar. He scrambled to his feet and looked around — this was still the ruins of Tiandu, nothing had changed.

A look of bewilderment came over him. He descended the altar and walked out of the ruins in a daze, a single immense doubt churning endlessly in his mind.

"Why did the Master of Miluo Palace kill the Lord of Tiandu? Why..."