Chapter 1143 — Lesser Heavenly Court, Greater Heavenly Court

Yu Chudu stumbled along after Shen Mu and the others, one foot high and one foot low, his mind still filled with the scene of Shen Mu slaying the White Earth Ancient God. That scene just now, all blade-light and sword-shadows, had shaken him beyond measure. Years ago, when Cloud Luo Emperor Wei Suifeng had crushed the twelve Ancient Gods with his own strength, it had shaken him too, yet it could not compare with what he had witnessed today. Shen Mu's slaying of Jing Baichuan had shaken him greatly as well, but beside the killing of the White Earth Ancient God it paled into insignificance. Yu Chudu felt the hot blood in his body seething, and he wished for nothing more than to seize a blade and a sword that very instant and hack and slaughter without end, to sweep away every injustice under Heaven! There seemed to be some wondrous spirit about this martial uncle of his, a spirit of immense contagion, which infected him and set his blood boiling! "Martial Uncle, who exactly are you?" he murmured. Long Qilin laughed. "Heavenly Venerable Mu, of course. An elder of the Heavenly Saint Sect. You have asked that question once already." Yu Chudu was still not quite satisfied with the answer, and muttered, "Heavenly Venerable Mu, Heavenly Venerable Mu..." Yet he was, after all, the disciple Cloud Luo Emperor Wei Suifeng valued most, and his experiences and fortunes had made him steady and cautious. "Martial Uncle," he said, "by killing the White Earth Ancient God, I fear you have exposed your trail! The Heavenly Court and the White Emperor need only question the White Earth Ancient God's soul to trace out who killed him!" "They will not be able to trace it." Shen Mu said indifferently, "His soul has already scattered to the winds. Apart from me, who could reassemble it? In all this world there is only one person who can discover the cause of his death, and that person is me!" Yu Chudu's eyes went wide, and he unwittingly stopped in his tracks. Long Qilin looked back and laughed. "Elder Yu, hurry and catch up." Yu Chudu hastily hurried after them and said honestly, "Martial Uncle, could you teach me?" Shen Mu glanced back at him, a look of suspicion on his face. Yu Chudu hurriedly explained, "It is not that I think my master's skills are lacking, but that Martial Uncle's skills are simply too strong, and so I grew greedy and wished to learn a little more..." Shen Mu laughed heartily. "I am still only a True God. Your master could beat a hundred of me with one hand. His skills are naturally exceedingly strong; it is only that he has never come into contact with the Jingping Reform, and so he has fallen behind the times. But once I rescue him, and he absorbs the fruits of the Jingping Reform, his achievements will only rise higher. There is no need for you to follow me. You need only go to Jingping, and you will be able to learn everything I know." Yu Chudu's face lit with longing. "If I go to Jingping and learn these skills, can I also become as strong as Martial Uncle?" Shen Mu thought for a moment, then shook his head. "No. Though you have learned your master's skills very well, you lack originality. I have observed your divine abilities: whatever you use, it is always your master's skills, without a single innovation, without a single adaptation. When you reach Jingping, even if you learn the fruits of the Jingping Reform, you will only rank second- or third-rate within Jingping." Yu Chudu's face turned black as iron. Shen Mu consoled him, "But once you have learned the fruits of the Jingping Reform and then go to the Heavenly Court, you will be more than qualified to be a first-rate expert; few in the Jade Capital realm will be your match. And if you can fuse several different Emperor Throne arts and cultivate a Lesser Heavenly Court art, then in battles of the same realm, even among the disciples of the Heavenly Venerables, there will be very few who can stand shoulder to shoulder with you." "A Lesser Heavenly Court art?" Yu Chudu was lost in yearning, and said excitedly, "I have heard my master speak of it. A Lesser Heavenly Court art is the fusion of several Emperor Throne arts; but if one can fuse all eighteen Emperor Throne arts into one, that is a Greater Heavenly Court art. What if I could cultivate a Greater Heavenly Court art?" "Then you would be a Heavenly Venerable." Shen Mu said indifferently, "Anyone who can comprehend a Greater Heavenly Court art has the makings of a Heavenly Venerable. In the Jade Capital realm you would sweep all before you, unmatched; and a Heavenly Venerable of the same realm would find it no easy thing to defeat you." Yu Chudu was stirred beyond measure and clenched his fists. Shen Mu shot him a glance and warned him, "From Emperor Throne arts to a Lesser Heavenly Court art, each additional fusion doubles the difficulty. Fusing two or three is already extremely hard; fusing more than ten is as hard as ascending to Heaven. Among the disciples of the Ten Heavenly Venerables in the Heavenly Court, experts that appear once in ten thousand years can fuse only six or seven. As for fusing eighteen arts and taking the first step into the Greater Heavenly Court, such a figure may exist in the Heavenly Court, but I have not yet seen one." Yu Chudu felt as though a basin of cold water had been poured over him, chilling him to the bone. He said hastily, "What about you, Martial Uncle? How many Emperor Throne arts have you fused?" "Fourteen. Add my Great Unification art, and that makes fifteen." Shen Mu was full of emotion. "I seem very close to a Greater Heavenly Court art, but in truth I am extremely far from it, and I have never been able to cross over. The Ten Heavenly Venerables are still formidable; if they fought me at the same realm, I could at most be a hair stronger than them." He sighed endlessly. Yu Chudu was aghast. Those who have never come into contact with the Jingping Reform do not know the power of the Jingping Reform. The Jingping Reform was driven forward by the combined efforts of Shen Mu, Xu Shenghua, Jiang Baigui, Emperor Yanfeng, Emperor Yanxiu, Lin Xuan, Wang Muran, and others. Each man's contribution was great or small, but they shared their knowledge freely with one another, hoarding nothing. The most fundamental part of the Jingping Reform was the reform aimed at the divine treasuries. Today, when practitioners of Jingping cultivate, they differ from the Heavenly Court from the Spirit Embryo onward. At the Spirit Embryo realm they study the arts of calculation in depth and plant Jianmu within the Primal Embryo divine treasury. When they cultivate to the Five Luminaries divine treasury, Jianmu also runs through the Five Luminaries, linking the Five Luminaries and the Spirit Embryo into a single whole, still equivalent to one divine treasury, yet with a vital qi far more vast and profound than the traditional method of cultivation. When they cultivate to the Six Universes divine treasury, the spirit platform transforms into the Six Harmonies, and Jianmu runs through the Six Harmonies. As their realm rises, from beginning to end, the divine ability practitioners of Jingping possess only one unified divine treasury. Whether in the mobilization of vital qi, the power of their divine abilities, the strength of their primordial spirit, or the depth of their cultivation, they surpass the divine ability practitioners of the Heavenly Court at the same realm by a great margin, even several times over! And when they reach the Spirit Bridge divine treasury, the practitioners of Jingping abolish the Spirit Bridge divine treasury and cultivate the Heavenly River divine treasury instead. At this step, no matter how many Emperor Throne arts the Heavenly Court's practitioners cultivate, they cannot make up that terrifying gap! The most brilliant moment of the Jingping Reform was the reform aimed at the divine treasuries. But once it came to the Heavenly Palace realm, Jingping's achievements grew far fewer, giving the gods o