Chapter 1701 — The Divine Hall and the Overlord Saber

Shang Jun had indeed grown dull — not only his blade, but his Dao heart as well.

Yet when he heard Shen Mu speak of slaying the prehistoric visitors, his Dao heart sharpened once more!

Sensing the peerlessly sharp blade light and killing intent coiled within his own shadow, Shen Mu could not help but smile faintly.

Shang Jun was consumed by guilt and self-reproach for having crushed the Ultimate Void when he attained the Dao, sinking into self-denial; he loathed himself, and his loathing ran deep.

But he hated the prehistoric Dao-attainers far more!

When there was no enemy, his blade wounded himself, carving into his Dao heart cut by cut.

But when an enemy came, his blade turned outward; however cruelly he wounded himself, he would wound the enemy more cruelly still!

The Ultimate Void.

The Master of Lingguan Hall forcibly branded the Void with his own Great Dao; his Great Luo Heaven was taking shape.

The so-called Great Luo Heaven was in truth a heaven formed by using one's own Great Dao to comprehend the world, to shape the world, and thereby transform it into one's own heavens.

The Great Luo Heaven is the form of the Dao.

Every Great Dao is an interpretation of the universe; the more and the deeper one's comprehension of the Dao, the more complete and more true the heaven evolved from it becomes.

Take the Dao of the Sword, for instance. When Kaihuang's Dao of the Sword was cultivated to the thirty-sixth heaven realm, he used it to evolve the Great Luo Heaven of the Sword Dao, and within that Great Luo Heaven were mountains and waters, trees, birds and beasts, insects and fish, the sun, the moon, and the stars — just like a true world.

Yet when Kaihuang unleashed his Sword Dao Great Luo Heaven in the true world, it was merely a divine ability; once used, it would disperse.

But the Ultimate Void was different in nature: here one could brand one's own Great Dao and shape the Ultimate Void into the form of the Dao, never to disperse.

Such branding required no forcible exertion of the Great Dao to alter the structure of the Ultimate Void; one need only imprint one's Dao upon it, and the Ultimate Void would naturally transform, becoming a Great Luo Heaven. The Master of Lingguan Hall walked two paths to attaining the Dao.

One was attaining the Dao through the Dao-realm — the orthodox path of Miluo Palace — comprehending the Dao-realm to attain the Dao, yielding the most perfect Great Luo Heaven. That he could become one of the masters of the seventy-two halls was thanks to his attaining the Dao through the Dao-realm.

He had achieved attainment through the Dao-realm four times, cultivating three Dao fruits and one Dao flower, his cultivation profound and mighty.

He cultivated one Great Dao per cosmic era, and had now mastered four Great Daos and four Great Luo Heaven realms; only for the fourth, the time was too short — he had not yet cultivated a Dao fruit before the sixteenth cosmic era was destroyed.

The other path was attaining the Dao through power. The cultivation path of attaining the Dao through power was the Yujing City system.

One cultivated the seventy-two halls of Yujing City, comprehending the Dao-attainment methods of the seven young masters and of the master of Miluo Palace, borrowing the power of the ancestral Yujing City and Miluo Palace to elevate one's own cultivation and strength, and thereby branding the Ultimate Void.

Attaining the Dao through power was quick to achieve and easier to cultivate than the Dao-realm path, but it was not orthodox; it carried hidden dangers and made one easy to control by the seven young masters of Miluo Palace. But for the hall masters of Miluo Palace, such hidden dangers did not exist.

After all, they were all subordinates of the seven young masters, and when the master of Miluo Palace did not appear, they had to obey the seven young masters' commands.

— Of course, as one of the seven young masters, Shen Mu actually held little power in Miluo Palace; there was not a single hall master cultivating his Chaos Hall. The Master of Lingguan Hall employed both methods of attaining the Dao, and thus his achievements were extraordinarily high.

His Great Luo Heaven gradually took shape, swiftly; compared to methodically cultivating a new Great Dao, directly branding the Void with one's own Great Dao was simplest.

But the Master of Lingguan Hall was rather greedy and chose to brand four Great Daos at once.

The Great Luo Heaven forged from four Great Daos was exquisitely refined and indestructible; once the branding succeeded and he planted his Dao tree, he would have secured a firm foothold in this universe. If the branding was complete and the Dao tree planted, then even if he were killed, his body would die but his Dao would not perish; he could revive from his Dao fruit, though his physical body would be far weaker than before.

The only difficulty was that his Dao tree was one from a past universe; planting it in the Ultimate Void of this universe would bring some trouble, provoking the resistance of the Ultimate Void — but to him, it was no great matter. At last, his Great Luo Heaven was complete!

And behold, this Great Luo Heaven was of four colors — red, gold, blue, and black — red as raging fire, gold as yellow gold, blue as the sky, black as ink! These four colors represented his attainments in the four Great Daos of fire, metal, heaven, and the dark!

With a thought from the Master of Lingguan Hall, the Lingguan Treasure Hall flew out. This hall was a Dao attainment he had comprehended from the Hongmeng runes of the master of Miluo Palace; though it was not the equal of the seven young masters' treasure halls, it was by no means insignificant.

"To plant the Dao tree, and use my treasure hall to suppress the resistance of the Ultimate Void — that should be enough.

" He raised the treasure hall, suspending it above his Great Luo Heaven; then the Dao tree emerged, countless branches and roots dancing and swimming through the Void, descending toward the Great Luo Heaven!

Just then, the Void erupted; rays of Dao light burst forth from the Void, assailing his Dao tree and Great Luo Heaven!

The Master of Lingguan Hall activated his treasure hall to fend off the Great Daos invading from the Void, examined them one by one, and laughed: "So it is the Dao of Divine Consciousness. The Dao of Divine Consciousness split off from the Dao of Taichu; someone must have cultivated the Great Luo Heaven of Divine Consciousness and branded it into the Ultimate Void.

Because I forcibly planted my Dao tree, the Ultimate Void has erupted and drawn the Dao of Divine Consciousness to attack me!

" Suddenly, the radiance of another Great Dao tore through the air and shook his treasure hall, but the Lingguan Treasure Hall blocked it. The Master of Lingguan Hall looked and smiled slightly: "The Great Luo Heaven of Primordial Qi.

This is the Dao of Primordial Qi within the Dao of Taichu; it does not count as the true Dao of Taichu and poses no threat to me.

Two kinds of innate primordial qi — it means two beings in this universe attained the Dao through innate primordial qi, but their Dao resonance is not deep; they must have attained the Dao through power. Most likely it is Emperor Haotian and the Taichu of this universe. " Chi— A streak of sword light tore through the air, slashing toward his Dao tree.

The Master of Lingguan Hall stirred his thought slightly, and the treasure hall blazed with Dao light, blocking the strike.

He laughed: "This is the Dao of the Sword, a post-heaven Dao. Tsk tsk — I never expected that in a universe so primitive, living beings would already begin to create their own Great Daos and cultivate to the Great Luo Heaven realm! Rare, truly rare!

A pity that the one who branded the Great Luo Heaven of the Sword Dao has weak dharma power and failed to cultivate a Dao fruit.