Chapter 1712 — The Empress and the Demon Sovereign

The Empress's aura changed utterly, as though a great abyss of Guixu had come to stand there; space itself tilted toward her, and it seemed even the void would come plunging into her body!

To Heavenly Emperor Hao and the Lingguan Hall Master she felt immeasurably perilous — as though even their Dao trees, even their Daluo Heavens, could find no footing; as though by drawing even slightly near, their very cultivation would be swallowed whole, not a scrap left behind!

This was Guixu Dao-attainment.

In sixteen cosmic epochs, only one being had ever achieved it: the Second Young Master of Miluo Palace, Wuji. Across those sixteen epochs there had been no few Guixu goddesses who cultivated the Guixu path — ancient gods born within Guixu itself — yet not one of them had attained the Dao through Guixu. They bloomed briefly like a flower of the night and then vanished without a trace.

The Empress was the second to attain the Dao through Guixu.

"The master of Miluo Palace is the strongest, the most terrifying being of all!"

Heavenly Emperor Hao was shaken to the core. That the Empress could attain the Dao through Guixu was owed entirely to a single utterance of the Dao left behind by the master of Miluo Palace!

"Lady Yuanmu" had received the illumination of those Dao words, and at last grasped the crux of Guixu Dao-attainment!

For such a being, a single sentence could bring another to the Dao — how dreadful must he be?

More dreadful still: the master of Miluo Palace had never himself attained the Dao through Guixu, yet from the Second Young Master of Miluo Palace he had discerned the very essence of Guixu Dao-attainment!

Heavenly Emperor Hao's heart grew fervent again. If he too could attain the Dao through Guixu, then he would possess at once the Yujing method's attainment through power and the attainment through Guixu — an accomplishment that would surely stand first in the world!

And if he further attained the Dao through the Dao-realm, his strength would press hard upon the Hall Masters of the Seventy-Two Halls!

By then, why would he need to beg favors of the young masters of Miluo Palace?

He would rule all under heaven himself, hold his own against the invasions of Yujing City and Miluo Palace; he would be the Heavenly Emperor revered by countless multitudes — the one and only Heavenly Emperor!

His fame would be without equal!

"Congratulations to the Empress Mother on at last attaining the Dao!"

Heavenly Emperor Hao laughed aloud. "Empress Mother, might this Guixu Dao-attainment be taught to Us?"

The Empress's gaze fell upon him. Heavenly Emperor Hao smiled faintly and glanced at the Lingguan Hall Master.

The Empress's gaze could not help but fall upon the Lingguan Hall Master as well. Though she had now attained the Dao — the Guixu Dao at that — and felt a natural suppression over those who attained the Dao by entrusting themselves to the void, she knew that facing Heavenly Emperor Hao and the Lingguan Hall Master at once, she had not the slightest chance of victory!

She longed to strike this very moment, to subdue Heavenly Emperor Hao, to subdue Taichu, to become the first woman Heavenly Emperor in all history — yet with the Lingguan Hall Master present, she dared not act recklessly.

For though the Lingguan was headless, and Shen Mu had ruined one of his Dao fruits, he still had two Dao fruits and a Dao flower remaining; his strength remained unfathomable.

"This Palace comprehended the Guixu Dao-attainment from the Dao words of our brother of the Lingguan. It is only right that I give all I have learned."

The Empress said, "The method I comprehended is called the Mirror of Guixu. It dissolves one's own cultivation wholly into Guixu, evolving into primal chaos. The Pool of Chaos lies without a ripple, like a bright mirror. Refine this mirror, and one may illumine the original heart, and turn that heart into a single lotus seed."

She intoned softly: "One marsh of the Pool of Chaos; plant it, and the golden lotus blooms. Attain that, and one has attained the Dao through Guixu."

Heavenly Emperor Hao was overjoyed. "I beg the Empress Mother to teach me the Mirror of Guixu!"

The Empress did not conceal the method of the Mirror of Guixu, and taught it to him.

The Lingguan Hall Master stood nearby, pondering the Mirror of Guixu closely as well, but he had never cultivated the Guixu path, and could not tell whether the art was genuine or false.

Heavenly Emperor Hao pondered it carefully and felt that the method of the Mirror of Guixu was indeed profound and vast, impossible to have been forged. Yet doubt stirred in his heart: "My mother, Lady Yuanmu, is one who delights in nothing so much as the world's disorder. Why would she be so kind as to teach me the Guixu Dao-attainment? And yet this Mirror of Guixu seems genuine enough..."

He dared not cultivate it rashly.

The Empress said, "Your Majesty may comprehend it step by step. This Palace has but just attained the Dao, and must also ponder it carefully."

Heavenly Emperor Hao nodded and continued to ponder the Mirror of Guixu, his doubts growing deeper all the while.

The Empress turned and walked away, thinking: "This Mirror of Guixu was taught to me and to that little wretch by the Second Young Master. Back then the little wretch and I each told Lord Mu of the Mirror of Guixu we had received; Lord Mu said that what the two of us had been given differed from each other, and that he could see hidden trickery in them. That Second Young Master meant to seize our bodies while we cultivated it!"

At the time Shen Mu had tested the Mirror of Guixu within a dream, and the Shen Mu in the dream had become a woman with a great bosom, becoming exactly like the Second Young Master Wuji — possessed by Wuji!

Only then had the Empress and Yuanmu known that Shen Mu had not spoken falsely, that the Second Young Master had indeed harbored treacherous designs.

"If Heavenly Emperor Hao cultivates the Mirror of Guixu, he will be possessed by the Second Young Master."

The Empress's eyes flickered. She thought: "But the Second Young Master cannot possess him completely, for Heavenly Emperor Hao is one body with two faces, and has cultivated attainment through power as well; the Second Young Master can possess only his Guixu face. They will be crowded together in one body, just as this Palace and that little wretch are."

She gave a low laugh, delight flickering in her eyes: "Little wretch, your son ruined my son — so this Palace will ruin your son!"

She was not Yuanmu but the Empress. When Lord Yun entered the great abyss of Guixu to rescue Lord Ling, he had used the Dao of Reincarnation to suppress Yuanmu and release the Empress, so that the Empress might lurk at Heavenly Emperor Hao's side under the guise of Lady Yuanmu, and throw his camp into disarray.

And now, at last, the fruit was showing.

Unwittingly the Empress had walked outward, into the battlefield between the Heavenly Court and Carefree Village. She stirred the Dao of Reincarnation and went deep into the field of battle, where both sides slaughtered with terrible ferocity; yet whether the Heavenly Court's hosts of gods and demons or the armies of Carefree Village, all seemed not to see her, letting her pass through the battlefield at will.

Though her Dao of Reincarnation was not the equal of Shen Mu's, nor of Lord Yun's, yet foe and friend alike, upon seeing her, were touched by that Dao, and took her for one of their own without realizing it.

Such was the subtlety of the Dao of Reincarnation.

Without disturbing a single soul, the Empress passed through Carefree Village and came to its rear.

She stood upon Taihuang Heaven and looked out. Across the eastern continent sun-boats were everywhere, artificial suns chained fast, bringing light to the people of Jingping.

Yet not far from Taihuang Heaven there was a place that even the sun-boats would not approach.