Chapter 753 — Expanding the Celestial Palace

Niu Sanduo said hastily, "How could anything go amiss? The spirit bridge connects to the heavenly palace. Junior Brother only needs to speak of the primordial spirit ascending to the heavenly palace, and he can bluff his way through. Hao Tianzun cannot expose him."

Kaihuang shook his head and said gravely in a low voice, "Hao Tianzun has ill intentions. Having him speak the first section is deliberately setting a trap to make him reveal himself. You know this as well as I do—when the primordial spirit ascends to the heavenly palace, one can be called a god, immortal and undying, equal to the ancient gods. But the people of this age have no heavenly palace!"

Old Ox was stunned, cold sweat beading on his forehead.

Kaihuang said solemnly, "The people of this age have not yet opened a heavenly palace within their bodies. Their spirit bridge is nothing but a flying bridge! The Heavenly Venerable Yu's great feat was to open a heavenly palace out of thin air! Now that the Heavenly Venerable Yu is dead, the only one who knows the art of opening the heavenly palace is Hao Tianzun! Mu Qing—does he know how to open the heavenly palace? If he knows, then he is another Heavenly Venerable Yu! If he does not, he will be exposed!"

Old Ox's heart gradually sank, and he muttered, "It would be more satisfying to just say Hao Tianzun killed him and beat Hao Tianzun to death. Why must he insist on this whole business of preaching the art..."

"His ascending the altar to preach the art serves another purpose. He must both restrain Hao Tianzun and force him to spread the art of becoming a god, lest future ages lose the path to godhood. That is why he cannot finish off Hao Tianzun at once."

Kaihuang lowered his voice further. "But Hao Tianzun is a peerless man of cunning. He has seen through his intent. This man's heart is vicious—he is the enemy of my life! This is the ancient heavenly court of the primeval gods, and all around are demigods and adepts. If Mu Qing cannot answer, Hao Tianzun won't even need to make a move; the demigods and adepts will beat Mu Qing to death! What's more..."

A worried look crossed his face, and he thought, "Yaochi is the empress's back garden. For Hao Tianzun to dare kill the Heavenly Venerable Yu on the empress's own ground—the undercurrents here run far too deep. Hao Tianzun is a demigod, a child of an ancient god and a human. Which ancient god? Mu Qing is too impulsive. We came to explore the mysteries of antiquity, yet he has thrown himself into the very eye of the storm, risking his life..."

At the altar, Shen Mu's primal energy soared, dazzling and resplendent. The energy transformed and condensed above the crowd's heads into the seven great divine treasuries: the Spirit Embryo, the Five Luminaries, the Six Harmonies, the Seven Stars, Heaven-Human, Life-Death, and the Spirit Bridge.

He manifested them with his primal energy, revealing the mysteries of the seven divine treasuries so that everyone could witness them.

"Such profound numerology! Monk, the Heavenly Venerable Yu's mastery of numerology is truly extraordinary!"

A Taoist holding a compass tilted his head back to gaze upward, praising without cease, and said to the monk beside him, "Worthy of the Heavenly Venerable Yu! He is nearly at the point of entering the Dao through numerology. Marvelous beyond words, marvelous beyond words! Can you tell that his divine treasuries are constructed from numerology?"

The monk beside him was occupied with begging alms. "Esteemed senior brother, the two of us have been starving for days now. Give a couple of spirit pills as alms, if fate allows... Numerology is of no use to me—I cultivate only the mind."

The divine treasuries Shen Mu built with his primal energy were precisely the numerological models of divine treasuries that he and Xu Shenghua and others had constructed in the later age, and thus they were remarkably lifelike.

His primal energy transformed into a phantom of the Heavenly Venerable Yu, which stepped onto the spirit bridge and was about to reach the end of the bridge.

Kaihuang's heart grew frantic. This was the most critical moment. If Shen Mu could not produce the art of opening the heavenly palace, Hao Tianzun would directly point out that he was a counterfeit Heavenly Venerable Yu and pin the Heavenly Venerable Yu's death directly on his head!

The phantom of the Heavenly Venerable Yu formed from Shen Mu's primal energy walked to the head of the bridge and halted.

Kaihuang's palms were slick with cold sweat.

People of later ages knew only that once one cultivated to the Spirit Bridge realm, one's 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 art of opening the heavenly palace had long been lost!

Later generations knew only the fact of the heavenly palace, not the reason behind it!

They were descendants of adepts who had opened the heavenly palace. From birth, both their divine treasuries and their heavenly palaces were already present; they needed only to cultivate to a certain realm to open their treasuries and ascend to the heavenly palace. They had no need to ponder the cause.

And this was precisely why the Heavenly Venerable Yu was great!

Naturally, Shen Mu also could not know how to open the heavenly palace. If he did not know, he would err at the very first step, and Hao Tianzun would directly slap the accusation of murdering the Heavenly Venerable Yu upon his head!

This was the crux of the matter, and its great peril!

"How can one open the heavenly palace from nothing?"

Kaihuang's mind spun like lightning, all manner of thoughts and schemes flooding in. "How did the Heavenly Venerable Yu open the heavenly palace? If he could do it, others could too. If he could create such an art, others could create it as well. What exactly did he do?"

Suddenly, a flash of inspiration struck him. "Why did the Heavenly Venerable Yu insist on holding a grand assembly at Yaochi to proclaim the art of becoming a god? There was more to it than borrowing the occasion's prestige—there was another reason! The heavenly palace! The heavenly palace! So that is it!"

He suddenly understood. "The heavenly palace that the Heavenly Venerable Yu opened—its arrangement is the same as the heavenly palace in the celestial court! The Heavenly Venerable Yu opened the heavenly palace by observing the construction of the celestial court, moved by what he saw, inspired to create!"

"The divine treasuries unlock the power of one's own body, while the heavenly palace is..."

He had just arrived at this thought when Shen Mu's voice suddenly came from the altar: "The divine treasuries unlock the power of the physical body; the heavenly palace unlocks the power of the gods of the physical body. I name this great realm the Heavenly Palace."

Kaihuang's body shook violently. He raised his head toward the violet-robed youth on the altar, and in a daze he seemed to see another Heavenly Venerable Yu.

Hao Tianzun's heart quaked, and an expression of utter disbelief spread across his face.

And at that moment, the Underworld Lord slowly regained consciousness and happened to hear these very words. Seized by panic and terror, he fainted dead away once more.