Chapter 587 — The Demon Race's Tempered Body

Many divine ability users of Taihuang Heaven had already gathered at the Wuwang City watchtower, and among them were some from Jingping, including scholars of the Tiansheng Academy. Seeing Shen Mu, Grandmother Zhu, and the others come to the watchtower, they could not help but be both startled and delighted, and came forward one after another to greet them: "Libationer! Teacher Si, Teacher Blind! " There were also scholars of the Lanjiang Academy, who saluted Grand Libationer Bashan, and the place grew very noisy.

Bashan laughed with a heh-heh.

"You little brats run fast, all right - you got here before I did.

" He was the Grand Libationer of the Lanjiang Academy, and this time he had come not chiefly to look for Zai Fu, but intending to seek in Taihuang Heaven a way to break through; passing by the Tiansheng Academy, he had seen Zai Fu preparing to set out, and so had hurried after him. The affairs of the Lanjiang Academy he had handed over to the Grand Champion General Ma Dingshan, himself a great master whose strength was not far from his own. After the wars that pacified the realm, Emperor Yanfeng had kept the office of Grand Champion General and further appointed him Libationer of the Lanjiang Academy, to assist Bashan.

Here too were disciples of the Jiangling Academy and the Yongjiang Academy. The Grand Libationer of the Jiangling Academy was the Imperial Preceptor of Jingping, while the Grand Libationer of the Yongjiang Academy was the High Minister Su Yunzhi, aided by Yuyuan Chuyun and Yuyuan Chuyu. Su Yunzhi had once sent Yuyuan Chuyu to find Shen Mu, to borrow the Yongjiang Dragon Emperor's Lord Dragonkeeper and the Hundred-Year Mountain God Baixi to give lectures at the Yongjiang Academy.

Shen Mu had not been at the Tiansheng Academy at the time; it was Snow Fox and Si Yunxiang who received Yuyuan Chuyu, and who secured a lecture fee for Lord Dragonkeeper and the god Baixi, so that the scholars of the Yongjiang Academy might regularly go to the Yongjiang River and Hundred-Year Mountain to offer sacrifice. The god Baixi wept tears of gratitude. After the crowd had made its noise, Shen Mu asked Zai Fu, "Grandpa Tu, what did you mean just now by the Throne's cultivation art?

Do the divine abilities of the gods have ranks as well? " Zai Fu said, "I crossed the divine bridge and climbed to the Heavenly Palace, but I could only stand outside the Southern Heavenly Gate.

Yet through the Southern Heavenly Gate I could look far into the Heavenly Palace, and dimly make out several holy places, vast and majestic, sacred beyond compare. So I guessed that the gods are divided into several realms, and that these must be marked by those holy places. And the highest, the most sacred of them all is the Throne in the Lingxiao Hall of the Heavenly Palace!

" The crowd pressed in around him, and Zai Fu's head began to ache. "I don't understand the realms of the gods at all!

How exactly the realms are divided, I've no idea. Silent Craftsman, Silent Craftsman, come here - they're all gawking at me like a herd of dumb deer! You know more, you tell them! " Silent Craftsman set down his box, drew out his tobacco pipe, took two puffs, and said slowly, "Ah, ah, ah-ba. .

. " The scholars of the Imperial Academy clearly knew the rules, and at once looked to the Deaf Elder. The Deaf Elder stared at Silent Craftsman, and saw him breathe out a mouthful of smoke, which turned into a gateway. The Deaf Elder said, "The first realm of the gods is outside the Southern Heavenly Gate.

It is called the Venerable God - one has only just flown across the divine bridge, and has not yet entered the hall.

Walking in through the Southern Heavenly Gate is the second realm, the True God. But only when every aspect of the body has been cultivated to the divine realm can one withstand the crushing weight of the Southern Heavenly Gate and walk in through it.

" The Blind Elder praised him: "Silent Craftsman really does know more. And after that? " Silent Craftsman breathed out another ring of smoke, which became a Jade Pool. The Deaf Elder went on: "The third realm is called the Jade Pool, also the Heavenly Pool or the Jade Terrace.

It is the Heavenly God.

" Silent Craftsman's smoke became a terrace of slaughter, a holy place too, but heavy with the aura of killing, so that one glance at it made a man shiver. The Deaf Elder said, "The fourth realm is called the God-Slaying Terrace.

There is great peril there; fail to pass and you're dead as a doornail. " Silent Craftsman's smoke became a fifth image, and this image was a stretch of palaces.

The Deaf Elder continued: "This holy place is called the Jade Capital, the imperial city where the Heavenly Emperor dwells.

The Jade Capital should be the fifth realm of the gods.

" Silent Craftsman breathed out yet another ring of smoke, which became the Lingxiao Hall. The Deaf Elder said, "This is the Lingxiao Hall that Zai Fu saw.

The sixth realm is most likely called Lingxiao. " The crowd looked on as Silent Craftsman spat a mouthful of smoke into the Lingxiao Hall, where it became the Throne.

The Throne must be the seventh realm. Bashan looked at the Deaf Elder, then at Silent Craftsman, suspicion in his heart, and said in a low voice, "Junior Brother, what on earth did Uncle-Master Silent Craftsman say?

" Shen Mu said quietly, "The same as Grandpa Deaf said. " Bashan scratched his head, deeply puzzled.

"How does Uncle-Master Silent Craftsman know so much?

These divine ability users of Taihuang Heaven don't seem to know the later realms either. How is he so thoroughly acquainted with the realms of the gods? " Shen Mu said helplessly, "In our village, Grandpa Silent Craftsman knows the most - he just talks little, and has never liked to wag his tongue.

My guess is that he is most likely a descendant of the Heavenly Craftsman God Clan, and that the secrets he knows may come from the Other Shore Ark. . .

" Night fell, and the divine ability users of every faction in the watchtower settled down to rest. Shen Mu accompanied Grandmother Zhu, the Blind Elder, and the others out of the watchtower to inspect the ruins of Wuwang City.

The Battle of Wuwang City must have been exceedingly savage. Taihuang Heaven had sixty-four divine cities; though the Demon Race attacked them and the fighting was cruelly bitter, most of the divine cities survived, and few were utterly destroyed by war - Wuwang City was one of them. Though only ruins remained, broken walls and fallen pillars everywhere, one could still see from the ruins how extraordinary this divine city had once been.

Here there still lingered the residual waves of divine ability left by a great battle of gods and demons long ago. The residue had sunk into stillness, like drifting clouds of sunset glow, giving off a faint, eerie light in the darkness.

Some of the residue was dazzling, like lotuses glowing faintly in the dark, appearing among the rubble. One by one the quiet lotuses bloomed slowly in the rubble, drawing those who strayed here to come and admire and pick them - yet touch them, and the divine power of gods and demons would be triggered! If the might of that residual divine ability were to erupt, it would surely be terrifying beyond measure; to grind a strong man of the Heaven-Man realm or the Life-and-Death realm to powder would be no trouble at all! The residue in the ruins was not only lotuses but all manner of things: stands of forest, lush meadows, birds and beasts, white foxes and vermilion birds, and things that looked like the treasures of gods and demons - flying swords, pagodas, great cauldrons.

They looked like treasures, but touch them and you would find no place for your burial. Shen Mu looked around.