Chapter 1704 — A Personal Visit to the Thatched Cottage

"Such a small Great Luotian Heaven?

" Shen Mu was somewhat startled; this Great Luotian Heaven was unlike any he had seen before.

Whether it was the Great Emperor's Great Luotian Heaven, or the One Primordial Qi Great Luotian Heaven of Taichu and Emperor Haotian, all had strained the limits of vastness, with heavens and earths, with suns and moons and stars, some carved as though from fine jade, others worlds of gold. The essence of a Great Luotian Heaven is the Dao's own reading of the cosmos; hence every Great Luotian Heaven is a complete world of all heavens.

But this one before his eyes was pitifully small.

Small as a sparrow, yet complete in every organ—this Great Luotian Heaven was small, yet behind the thatched hut hung a little sun, and before it sank a little moon, dainty and exquisite, wheeling in their cycles around this tiny Great Luotian Heaven.

Shen Mu stepped forward; the sun rose from behind the hut and came round to the front, while the moon had already sunk to the far side of the Great Luotian Heaven. The sunlight struck the shadow at his back, and Lord Shang's figure appeared.

Lord Shang was long used to lurking in his shadow; suddenly revealed and exposed to the sun, he was somewhat at a loss, standing there dumbly.

"Lord Shang, you were not like this back in the village.

" Shen Mu said with a gentle smile, "Back then, when you slaughtered pigs at the village gate, blade rising and falling, you showed no trace of unease even upon seeing me. If the heart is open and upright, what does it matter if a thousand men point and ten thousand eyes stare?

" Lord Shang said nothing.

Shen Mu came to the thatched hut and looked it up and down; on the plaque above its door were written two words: "Taishang. " "The Taishang Hall?

" Shen Mu was slightly taken aback, his expression turning somewhat grave.

Within the Miluo Palace of the Ancestral Jade Capital City there stood a Taishang Hall, forged from the Eldest Young Master's Great Dao, a symbol of his attainments.

Yet that Taishang Hall was towering, ancient and solemn—utterly unlike the thatched cottage before him!

Could this Taishang thatched hut be the Taishang Hall of the Miluo Palace's Eldest Young Master? If it was wrought from his Great Dao, then whence had come that Taishang Hall in the Miluo Palace?

Which of them was the true Taishang Hall?

Where there is a true one, there is naturally a false one.

Shen Mu could not help but wear a strange expression; if this Taishang thatched hut was the true Taishang Hall, did that not mean the Taishang Hall in the Miluo Palace was false?

"The Eldest Young Master is a man of strong character too.

I had thought him stern and unsmiling, a man after the Miluo Palace Master's own heart. " Filled with interest, Shen Mu circled the thatched hut several times, examining the structure of every stalk of grass, then suddenly burst out laughing.

"This thatched hut is the true Taishang Hall—and the one in the Miluo Palace really is a fake!

" Lord Shang could make no sense of it, and asked, "How does the Heavenly Venerable see this? " "Every stalk of grass in this hut is condensed from Primal Chaos runes; each stalk is a complete Great Dao, and every one of them different.

" Shen Mu explained patiently, "I counted them just now; there are six thousand four hundred stalks of grass here—six thousand four hundred Great Daos, not one of them repeated.

To evolve these Great Daos from Primal Chaos runes—that is the supreme attainment, hence the name Taishang. The Eldest Young Master's Taishang Hall in the Miluo Palace can only be this thatched hut.

" Lord Shang was greatly shaken, and looking at the Dao Tree behind the hut, said, "Then how many Great Daos does Taishang's Dao Tree encompass? " "Six thousand four hundred as well, most likely. " Shen Mu's gaze fell upon the Dao Tree.

"His Dao Tree is not a true Dao Tree, merely a projection.

His true body and his Dao Tree must lie in the age of his birth.

" Lord Shang was silent for a moment, then said, "It is impossible for anyone to cultivate six thousand four hundred Great Daos all to the Great Luotian Heaven realm. The Eldest Young Master Taishang cannot be that strong.

" "It is possible. " Shen Mu walked toward the hut's door.

"The greatest trait of the Primal Chaos runes is that they can evolve different Great Daos.

Whether the Five Tai—Taiyi and Taichu and the rest—or the various Innate Great Daos, or the Acquired Great Daos, all can be evolved by Primal Chaos runes. Different Great Daos have different foundational runes, and the foundation of these foundational runes is the Primal Chaos rune. I rather think the grass of the Taishang hut is still a little too few. " He reached out to push the door. "If it were the Miluo Palace Master evolving Great Daos with Primal Chaos runes, I fear it would not be one thatched hut, but a whole expanse of Miluo Palaces.

" The door of the hut swayed slightly, but he could not push it open. Shen Mu frowned and tried to break it, but the Primal Chaos runes upon the door shifted without cease, evolving into different Great Daos, so that he could not unravel them.

Before long the moon rose, and the door still had not been opened.

Lord Shang tried to force it with his Dao of Killing, but when his blade struck the door, a terrifying power erupted and flung him far away. Shen Mu hurried to save him, and only thus kept him safe; otherwise the power bursting from that door would have been enough to grievously wound him!

Shen Mu knocked on the door and laughed.

"Is anyone there? A guest has come!

" There was no sound from behind the door.

Helpless, Shen Mu sat before the hut in thought.

After a moment the moon and the sun appeared together in the sky of the tiny Great Luotian Heaven; struck by inspiration, Shen Mu took out the Taiyi Cane and tried knocking on the door.

"Taiyi, are you inside the hut? I have followed the map to save you! " The Taiyi Cane rapped the door with thudding sounds, yet still there was no movement within.

Shen Mu was wholly out of ideas; he planted the Taiyi Cane before the door and frowned in deep thought.

Suddenly, with a soft pop, the Taiyi Cane actually put forth a tender leaf!

Shen Mu stared at that tender leaf; it slowly grew, and after a moment its veins changed, and the veins actually arranged themselves into the shape of an axe.

Shen Mu's heart stirred, and he carefully pondered the changes in the veins, his gaze flickering. "Taiyi is using the World Tree leaf grown from the cane to teach me the axe technique with which he split open the World Tree?

He wants me to use this method to cleave open this door! That being so, Taiyi truly is inside this Taishang thatched hut! " The vertical eye at his brow opened, observing the minute structure of the World Tree leaf's veins.

Those veins were in constant change, exceedingly complex, yet they encompassed Taiyi's Daoist arts and divine powers. Shen Mu already had a profound mastery of Taiyi's Dao, and unconsciously sank into the shifting of the veins.

The Taiyi Cane was forged from a branch of the World Tree and refined by Taiyi into a treasure; plainly Taiyi was suppressed within the Taishang thatched hut, unable to make the slightest sound, yet through the cane's World Tree nature he was conveying his message.

Without realizing it, Shen Mu drew his Tribulation Sword and, using it as an axe, slowly performed the Dao and divine powers of Taiyi displayed upon the leaf. Lord Shang was healing his wounds to one side, and saw that the strokes of the Tribulation Sword in Shen Mu's hand were simple and archaic, yet their might grew ever stronger.