Chapter 753 Expanding the Immortal Palace

people of this age have not yet opened a Heavenly Palace within their bodies—their Divine Bridge is but a flying bridge! Yutianzun's great achievement was to establish a Heavenly Palace out of nothing! Yutianzun is dead, and the only one who grasped the method of opening a Heavenly Palace is Haotianzun! Mu Qing—does he know how to open a Heavenly Palace? If he does, he would be another Yutianzun! If he does not, he will be exposed!" The Old Ox's heart sank, and he muttered: "Wouldn't it be simpler to just say Haotianzun murdered him and beat Haotianzun to death? He insists on this whole teaching business..." "His going up to teach serves another purpose: to restrain Haotianzun while forcing him to spread the method of attaining godhood, lest future generations lack the path to godhood. That is why he cannot simply kill Haotianzun at once." Kaihuang lowered his voice: "But Haotianzun is a peerless schemer who has seen through his intent. That man's malice is profound—he is the enemy of my life! This is the ancient godly Heavenly Court, surrounded by demigods and cultivators. If Mu Qing cannot answer, Haotianzun need not lift a finger—the other demigods and cultivators will beat him to death! And moreover..." A worried look crossed his face, and he thought: "Yaochi is the Empress's private garden. Haotianzun dared to kill Yutianzun in the Empress's own domain—these waters run far too deep. Haotianzun is a demigod, child of an ancient god and a human. Who was that ancient god? Mu Qing acted too rashly. We came to probe the mysteries of antiquity, yet he has waded into its very heart, risking his life..." On the divine altar, Shen Mu's primordial qi soared, dazzling to behold. The qi shifted and transformed, condensing above everyone's heads the seven great divine treasuries: the Spirit Womb, Five Luminaries, Six Harmonies, Seven Stars, Heaven and Man, Life and Death, and the Divine Bridge. He manifested the divine qi to display the mysteries of the seven treasuries for all to see. "Profound numerology! Monk, Yutianzun's mastery of numerology is truly extraordinary!" A Daoist holding a compass looked up, exclaiming in admiration, and said to the monk beside him: "Worthy of Yutianzun—he is nearly at the point of entering the Dao through numerology. Marvelous beyond words, marvelous beyond words! Can you see that his divine treasuries are constructed from numerology?" The monk beside him was begging alms: "Good senior brother, we two have been hungry for days. Spare a couple of spirit pellets if fate wills it... This numerology is useless to me—I only cultivate the mind." Shen Mu constructed the divine treasuries with primordial qi—precisely the numerological model of the divine treasuries that he and Xu Shenghua and others had built in later ages. Hence it was utterly lifelike. His primordial qi transformed into a phantom of Yutianzun, who walked to the Divine Bridge and was about to reach its end. Kaihuang's heart grew frantic. This was the critical moment. If Shen Mu could not produce the method of opening the Heavenly Palace, then Haotianzun would directly brand him a false Yutianzun and pin Yutianzun's death squarely upon his head! The Yutianzun manifested by Shen Mu's primordial qi reached the head of the bridge and stopped. Kaihuang's palms were soaked with cold sweat. People of later ages only knew that upon reaching the Divine Bridge realm, the primordial spirit could cross the bridge and ascend to the Heavenly Palace—but they did not know how the Heavenly Palace had come to be! The method of opening the Heavenly Palace had long been lost! People of later ages understood the Heavenly Palace only in terms of what it was, not why it was! They were descendants of cultivators who had opened the Heavenly Palace; from birth, both their divine treasuries and the Heavenly Palace had always been there. They only needed to cultivate to a certain realm to open their treasuries and ascend to the Heavenly Palace—they never needed to ponder the reasons behind it. And that was precisely why Yutianzun was great! Naturally, Shen Mu could not know how to open a Heavenly Palace either. If he did not, then he would err at the very first step and be branded by Haotianzun as Yutianzun's murderer! This was the crux—and the peril! "How can one create a Heavenly Palace from nothing?" Kaihuang's mind raced, a torrent of thoughts and schemes flooding through him: "How did Yutianzun open the Heavenly Palace? If he could do it, others could too. If he could create such a method, others could create it as well. What exactly did he do?" Suddenly, a flash of inspiration struck him: "Why did Yutianzun insist on holding a grand gathering at Yaochi and announcing the method of godhood? There must be more to it than borrowing influence—there is another reason! The Heavenly Palace, the Heavenly Palace! So that's it!" He was jolted into realization: "The Heavenly Palace opened by Yutianzun—its layout is identical to the Heavenly Palace in the Heavenly Court that we know! Yutianzun created the Heavenly Palace by observing the construction of the Heavenly Court, moved to creation by what he saw!" "The divine treasuries unlock the power of one's own physical body, while the Heavenly Palace is..." He had just reached this thought when suddenly he heard Shen Mu's voice from the divine altar: "The divine treasuries unlock the power of the physical body; the Heavenly Palace unlocks the power of the gods within the body. I name this great realm the Heavenly Palace." Kaihuang's body shook violently. He looked up at the purple-robed youth on the divine altar, and in a daze, he seemed to see another Yutianzun. Haotianzun was shaken to the core, an expression of disbelief on his face. And at that moment, the King of Darkness stirred back to consciousness—and happened to hear these very words. In a panic, he fainted once more.