Chapter 1514 — Transmitting the Dao in the Tree's Shade

The moment these words left his mouth, both Consort Yan and Heavenly Lord Langxuan were overcome by a tangle of emotions, and for a time neither could speak.

Only Shi Qiluo was jubilant, clapping her hands in delight, so moved that tears seemed to glisten in her eyes: "That's right, we are one family! A family should stand together, whole and complete, and face the hardships of the age as one!

" Lady Yuanmu had been the Ancient God of Destruction to begin with, so it did not surprise Heavenly Lord Xiao that Shi Qiluo, the reincarnation of Lady Yuanmu, should say such a thing. "Was our Daoist brother not exiled by Heavenly Lord Yue?

" Empress Taiyin asked.

"You vanished for six years.

In those six years, you have missed many great events. " Heavenly Lord Xiao could not help but sigh with deep feeling. In merely six years, he had missed several great events that had shaped the world's order.

The world changed too quickly. In former times, a single casual seclusion of his would last more than six years, and when he awoke the world would still be as it had been. Yet now, in these brief six years, so many great events had come to pass: the confrontation among the Heavenly Lords of the Yuan Realm, the Ancestral Court thrown fully open, the Heavenly Alliance Council, the opening of the Ancestral Court's reverse side, the founding of the Beast Realm, Long Xiao becoming its lord, the emergence of the Ancient God of Taiji, the death of the Heavenly Duke, the dissolution of Heavenly Lord Hong's Dao, the carving up of Xuandu among the great powers, and the emergence of the Jade Capital of the Ancestral Court! In ages past, not one of these great events might have occurred in ten thousand years; now they had all happened within a mere six years, too many for the eye to take in.

So swift was the tempo of this age that a few years of seclusion might leave one far behind the times! "I encountered many inconceivable things in the Chaotic Space, and had strange experiences of my own.

Thus my cultivation advanced greatly, and my cultivation of the Dao heart advanced greatly as well.

" Recalling the experiences of these past years, Heavenly Lord Xiao could not help but sigh. "If someone were to write a book and compose a biography of my experiences these past few years, would it not make a monumental work?

So mysterious and bizarre have my experiences been that even now, when I recall them, I find them unbelievable. " He was protected by the Primeval Wood, and so was able to preserve himself within the Chaotic Space and explore its secrets. There he saw the ruins of past universes, ruin after ruin, fragment after fragment of Great Luo Heavens, and magnificent, wondrous Dao trees, and different rules of the great Dao.

More crucially, he encountered a wondrous phenomenon there: within that Chaotic Space, one tiny universe after another was born, grew, waxed strong, and then withered and perished.

The speed of this birth and destruction was beyond the imagination of those outside. When Heavenly Lord Xiao witnessed this scene, the shock in his heart was beyond compare.

He saw that those tiny universes even contained life, ancient gods, beings like himself, with their grudges and passions, their loves and hates and entanglements—only their lifespans were far too brief. In the span of a moment's inattention from Heavenly Lord Xiao, they had lived out their short lives.

Even more terrifying, Heavenly Lord Xiao saw that within these tiny universes there were beings who had attained the Dao; yet when their universes perished, even those who had attained the Dao were of no avail, and could only die in the destruction of these tiny universes.

All was like a dream, an illusion, a bubble, a shadow—when it burst, it ceased to exist.

At that moment a terrible thought suddenly came to him. As Heavenly Lord Xiao looked around and saw universes great and small being born from that Chaotic Space like bubbles, growing, and bursting, that terrible thought in his heart grew ever stronger, beyond restraint.

"This is the testing ground of a terrifying being!

Through the tiny universes here, he seeks a way to remain undestroyed even when a universe perishes! " He searched everywhere, trying to find this terrifying being, yet though he wandered for six years, he still could not find the end of the Chaotic Space. He saw only bizarre and kaleidoscopic sights along the way, sights no language could describe, which made him all the more certain that this was the testing ground of an incomparably terrifying being!

He passed through many perils, escaping death by a hair's breadth again and again.

He did not know whether that being was already dead, but his thirst for the unknown drove him to keep exploring.

It was not until the Heavenly Duke died and the desolation of the Heavenly Dao reached that Chaotic Space that he suddenly came to his senses and found a way out. After he left, he realized that six years had passed, and that it was just then that the Jade Capital of the Ancestral Court had broken its seal and emerged, its towering radiance bursting through the Ancestral Court's barriers.

In his heart, the Jade Capital of the Ancestral Court was a place comparable to the Chaotic Space—the two great mysteries of this universe, drawing him hither. For Heavenly Lord Xiao, who had been through all this, the elevation of his Dao heart was immeasurable, and the benefits he had gained did not end there.

Consort Yan, Heavenly Lord Langxuan, Shi Qiluo, and the Ancient God of Taiji looked at him and all sensed that his bearing was now different from before, but just where the difference lay was beyond their reckoning. That Heavenly Lord Xiao had become their leader was tacitly accepted by them.

By now the World Tree's sapling had grown ever more robust, trembling once and growing once each day. Of the people in the Holy Land, some observed the World Tree's Dao patterns, some studied the veins of its leaves, while Xu Shenghua and Lan Yutian sat beneath the tree comprehending the Dao, seeking to fathom the great principles the World Tree contained.

The revival of this World Tree kept everyone busy and fulfilled, though now and then someone would remember and remark, "Wei Suifeng and Shujun still have not returned. " Yet afterward they would forget the matter and go on busying themselves with their own affairs.

From time to time Xu Shenghua and Lan Yutian would wake from their comprehension of the Dao and exchange what they had gained. Lan Yutian said, "The great Dao contained in this World Tree is truly profound and mysterious; it cannot be grasped and understood in a short time.

If one could fully fathom it, I fear one would attain the Dao! " Xu Shenghua said, "I have sensed that some of these great Daos do not seem to be principles of our own age.

Such rules of the great Dao do not exist in our era—could they be the great Dao of the previous cosmic epoch? " Both of them had many doubts they could not resolve.

Why would the World Tree bear the imprint of the great Dao of a former universe?

What connection was there between the World Tree and the Dao trees of those who had attained the Dao? After attaining the Dao, were there still distinctions of realm?

Was the Dao realm the only path to attaining the Dao?

Though the two were the most gifted and talented people of the past million years, at this moment they were utterly at a loss. "Where has Cult Master Shen gone? " Xu Shenghua thought of Shen Mu and asked hastily, "With his help, perhaps we could go faster.

" Lan Yutian pursed her lips and said, "My brother is over there. " Xu Shenghua looked quickly and saw that Shen Mu was at the other end of the World Tree sapling, unfolding his Divine Treasury domain and spreading it out.

The Ancestral Court within his domain was now spread beneath the roots and stems of the World Tree sapling.