Chapter 620 — The Sagely Way Handed Down Twenty Thousand Years

Your nature is flighty; everything seems fresh to you and you want to study it all. You have depths, but not deep enough.

You have conviction, but not steady enough — your Dao heart has not yet grown firm to the point where mountains and rivers may change and the heart does not.

You are not the stuff of which sages are made.

At the very least, the you of now is not enough.

" Shen Mu cried out, "I can change, I can learn! " "I cannot wait. " The Woodcutter showed a warm smile, and his voice softened. "Good disciple, I truly cannot wait that long.

" Shen Mu was struck dumb.

The Woodcutter Sage finished refining that pillar and walked on. Shen Mu followed him in silence, watching him finish teleportation pillar after teleportation pillar. After a long while, the Woodcutter Sage completed his arrangements at last.

He glanced at the somewhat dejected Shen Mu and said with a smile, "No need to wear that funeral face.

If I did not know you through and through, I would truly think, like that fellow Black Tiger, that your Dao heart is as poor as this. Come, let us go up the mountain. " The dejection vanished from Shen Mu's face, and he followed him back up to the summit of the God-Slaying Platform.

The Woodcutter Sage activated the teleportation formation.

Pillar after pillar blazed with light, the runes branded in the stone shone, casting their rune imprints into midair, where they became strange and gorgeous characters, patterns, and symbols. These symbols linked together in midair, shrieking as they spun, turning faster and faster!

Even for a being like the Woodcutter, to shift this God-Slaying Platform he must first turn his teleportation divine power into a formation and borrow the formation's might before he could teleport the Platform! In a roar of bursting light, the God-Slaying Platform howled up and flew spinning along the light!

Shen Mu stood on the divine mountain and looked back. That alien star receded farther and farther, and soon vanished from his sight.

All around was the vast, boundless dark starry sky, desolate and barren, with now and then a tiny star to be seen. Shen Mu suddenly said, "Sage Master, I think there is one person whose aptitude and understanding are better than mine, and who meets your conditions.

I would like to recommend him to you.

" The Woodcutter Sage was briefly startled, then his face lit up. "Good.

But you need not call me Sage Master any longer. Call me teacher. " "Teacher.

" A torrent of light blazed down from the sky of Luofu Heaven, shining upon the ground before an altar in Luofu Heaven. Beneath the light the ground at once revealed countless intricate rune imprints, ever shifting, and then the light vanished and the vast, magnificent God-Slaying Platform abruptly appeared!

The Woodcutter stepped down from the Platform; the great axe on his back flew up and split open a doorway leading straight to Taihuang Heaven.

"Bring him to see me.

" Shen Mu bowed. "Yes, teacher. " Taihuang Heaven, Licheng.

The Imperial Preceptor of Jingping and a crowd of scholars from the various academies and halls of learning of Jingping were designing primal soldiers for siege warfare and large-scale battle.

Shen Mu walked over and said to the Imperial Preceptor of Jingping, "Imperial Preceptor of Jingping, the Woodcutter Sage wishes to see you. " The Imperial Preceptor of Jingping trembled from head to foot, raised his head to look at him, astonished and delighted.

The two came to Luofu Heaven. The Imperial Preceptor of Jingping raised his head and looked at the tall, towering altar, where a middle-aged man in woodcutter's garb stood. The Imperial Preceptor of Jingping's heart surged; he straightened his robes and was about to climb the altar and seek audience, when suddenly the Woodcutter Sage's voice came down from the altar, full and loud as a bell: "Imperial Preceptor of Jingping, I have three questions for you. Answer these three, and you may come up the altar to see me!

Climb! " The Imperial Preceptor of Jingping stepped up the stone stairs to one third of the way, and suddenly the Woodcutter Sage's voice came down: "First I ask after your first intent!

Answer! " The Imperial Preceptor of Jingping halted and said in a clear voice: "To establish a heart for Heaven and Earth, to establish a mission for the living people, to continue the lost learning of past sages, to open peace for ten thousand generations — that is my first intent!

" Atop the altar, the Woodcutter Sage was silent a moment, then said, "Climb.

" The Imperial Preceptor of Jingping climbed on. At two thirds of the way, the Woodcutter Sage's voice came down once more: "Second I ask after your Dao heart!

Answer! " The Imperial Preceptor of Jingping halted, refined and elegant in bearing, his spirit soaring: "First intent unchanged, Dao heart forever firm!

" "Come up!

" The Imperial Preceptor of Jingping climbed on, and as he neared the top the Woodcutter Sage asked, "Third question: do you know that for this you will die, that for this you will lose your name and your good repute, that those of later ages will forget you, hate you even? This undertaking, this road, may destroy not only your life but your name, and leave you nameless hereafter. " "I know. " The Imperial Preceptor of Jingping bowed. "I am willing to do it, with a clear conscience, without complaint and without regret.

" The Woodcutter Sage smiled.

"I have taught countless people, but taken only two disciples, and neither of those two disciples ever received my mantle or my true transmission.

The flower bloomed outside the door instead. Come up. " The Imperial Preceptor of Jingping ascended the last stair and came to the top of the altar, face to face with the Woodcutter Sage.

Clang— The great axe behind the Woodcutter Sage fell to the ground and stuck there.

The woodcutter sat upon the axe's back, legs planted wide and bold, both hands upon his knees: "You may take me as your master.

" The Imperial Preceptor of Jingping lifted his blue robe, knelt, and said in a deep voice, "A scholar of Jiangling pays his respects to his teacher! " Shen Mu looked up at the top of the altar, tears wetting his cheeks without his knowing it. He had witnessed this transmission of the Sage's Way, spanning the two ages of Kaihuang and Jingping.

The Sage's burden passed from the shoulders of one age to the shoulders of the next. There was no heart-stopping spectacle, no stirring declaration — yet it moved him to tears.