Chapter 763 — The Soul Returns to the Mortal World
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 1 of 5
Heavenly Venerable Yu's coffin was well protected. On its surface, gleaming runes of Youdu revolved slowly around the casket in a quiet, secret dance — stillness steeped in mystery.
On reaching this place, Shen Mu found his heart no longer surging; with calm composure he studied each rune, pondering the arcana within it.
The runes were left by the Lord of Earth to protect Heavenly Venerable Yu's physical body.
In truth, even without the Lord of Earth's runes, that body would never have aged or died, for Heavenly Venerable Yu was the only being ever to receive the blessings of all the ancient gods!
All seven of the ancient Heavenly Venerables had been blessed by the ancient gods.
Heavenly Venerable Ling, who had opened the realm of the Five Luminaries, received the blessings of the Five Luminary Star Lords and the Lord of Heaven, so that his body never aged and the five blessings shone bright upon him.
Heavenly Venerable Hao, who opened the realm of the Six Harmonies, received the blessing of the Primordial Earth Mother, so that good fortune flowed upon him unceasingly and he knew neither old age nor death.
Heavenly Venerable Yue, who opened the realm of the Seven Stars, received the blessings of the Great Sun Star Lord, the Grand Yin Star Lord, and the Lord of Heaven; his body, too, never aged, never growing decrepit or dying of illness.
Heavenly Venerable Huo, who opened the realm of Heaven and Man, received the blessings of the Four Emperors, so that he lived long and saw far, and every misfortune turned to good fortune. Heavenly Venerable You, who opened the realm of Life and Death, received the blessing of the Lord of Earth, so that he never died, and his primordial spirit stood firm for all eternity.
And Heavenly Venerable Yun, who opened the realm of the Divine Bridge, received the blessing of the Lord of Heaven, so that he never grew old, his primordial spirit pure and luminous.
Though all six of these Heavenly Venerables had been blessed with immortality, each blessing was different in content.
For instance, the Lord of Earth's blessing gave Heavenly Venerable You immortality and an eternally firm primordial spirit, yet living forever was not the same as never growing old — You did indeed age, because the Lord of Earth did not govern the law of an unaging, undying body; he could grant You an inexhaustible span of life, but he could not keep You young.
The Lord of Heaven, in turn, blessed Heavenly Venerable Yun with agelessness, but he did not hold the secret of making the primordial spirit eternally firm, and could not bless Yun in that regard; he could only grant him a clear and lucid primordial spirit and the Heavenly Eye.
But Heavenly Venerable Yu had received the blessings of all the gods! The blessings of the ancient gods were blessings of the very laws — let alone the fact that among them were the blessings of the Heavenly Emperor and the Empress. With all this, his primordial spirit should have been eternally firm, his body eternally young, immortal and indestructible.
Yet it was in the veiled gallery of the little Jade Pool lodge that his body perished, his primordial spirit shattered; his spirit did not enter Youdu, the fragments did not enter the Tianyin Realm, and all his blessings failed entirely. The foul play concealed here could not help but provoke deep thought.
That Heavenly Venerable Hao and the Nether Emperor had assassinated him was only the outer appearance; behind it might lie a far deeper contest.
Whether the Heavenly Emperor and the Empress's own sister had a hand in it, no one could say.