Chapter 1520 — When the Youth Was Down and Out
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 1 of 4
"And if it cannot be stopped—then what?"
Wei Suifeng shouted at Tai Yi's receding back, "Does following the map save you? I came here with you; outside the city lies the terrain map I left behind!"
Tai Yi did not turn his head. His voice came back to them: "If you cannot stop him, then you two had best pray for your own fortunes!"
Wei Suifeng and Shu Jun shivered again and again, and stood there as good as gold, waiting quietly for Tai Yi to return.
They watched Tai Yi come before the gates of the Miluo Palace. The doors creaked and grated open of their own accord; it seemed they had not been opened in so long that their hinges had gone stiff.
Within the gateway the Hongmeng surged, unfathomably deep. In the very instant the doors opened, thick primordial Hongmeng qi poured forth, and the substance of that qi gave the impression of brimming with vitality, so that the Great Dao the two had forged within their bodies thrilled with excitement and gave off pleasing dao-sounds.
Yet within that same qi there was also a heavy, sunken deathliness, a deathliness so intense that the Great Dao they had cultivated feared it beyond measure, as though a single touch would wither and blight their Dao!
The horror of that deathly qi was as if the accumulated rot and extinction-breath of sixteen universes at the hour of their ruin had come surging in. As it poured toward them, both men felt their allotted lifespans dwindling madly.
Tai Yi flicked his sleeve and scattered the Hongmeng qi that rushed at them, then strode into the Miluo Palace, his figure vanishing into the depths of the Hongmeng qi.
Wei Suifeng and Shu Jun peered into that gateway. The Hongmeng qi was exceedingly thick, and amid the dimness they seemed to glimpse a tall, towering figure within the palace, seated upon a throne, quietly awaiting Tai Yi's arrival.
They wished to look more closely, but the doors creaked and grated shut once more.
The two waited in silence. This Jade Capital City was utterly empty; even the dao-trees that could be seen everywhere along the road grew here in not a single one. The stillness was somewhat terrifying.
Shu Jun could not help looking about him. He saw that the buildings here bore wondrous brands—dao brands unlike those of the present age, exceedingly resplendent and beautiful, breathtaking to behold.
He wanted to draw closer and look, but Wei Suifeng pulled him back.
"Divine King, Tai Yi left this staff behind; he must have had a deep purpose in it. Let us not stray too far from the staff," said Wei Suifeng.
Shu Jun glanced at the staff and nodded. "As expected, the old sect master Wei has seen much and knows much," he said in praise.
The two waited a while, and Wei Suifeng too could not help studying the dao-patterns branded upon the surrounding buildings. Only upon looking did he realize that these dao-patterns contained boundless profundity.
The dao-patterns did not appear complex, yet when they fell into the eyes of each man, what each one comprehended turned out to be entirely different—a thing to make a man click his tongue in wonder.
"Shall we pull up the staff and look at them up close?" Wei Suifeng proposed.
Shu Jun nodded again and again. "A fine idea. Let us look at them up close."
Wei Suifeng pulled up the staff, and the two came to the side of the dao-patterns. Shu Jun took out a mirror and tried to capture the dao-pattern's reflection within it. This mirror was a treasure Shen Mu had invented, wrought by the arts of the Painting Sage Kui Sou. Within the mirror lay another heaven and earth; one need only point it at a thing, and a mirror image would be generated within that inner cosmos. It was exceedingly wondrous.
Shen Mu had once used this method to capture the various seals upon the Pixiang Hall, seeking a way into that hall, and had likewise used it to capture every one of the ancient gods' dao-runes in the Celestial Court's Repository Pavilion.