Both men's scalps went numb. The knowledge held in a single Miluo Palace dao-pattern was so vast that it truly exceeded their expectations!

"If the Painting Sage's skill were cultivated to its peak, I fear it would be even more formidable than Divine King Gong Yun's illusion realms!" Shu Jun said in a low voice.

At last, the mirrors within mirrors no longer revealed more detail. At the very bottom of one of the mirrors, a rune-seal appeared.

This rune-seal was the core of the Miluo Palace dao-pattern!

Shu Jun and Wei Suifeng exchanged looks. There were too many mirror images; at this moment they could not make out that rune-seal clearly.

"The Painting Sage must be asked to act in person before the details of that rune-seal can be seen clearly."

Wei Suifeng studied the scenes in the two mirrors closely, and the corner of his lower eye twitched. He could not count how many layers of mirror images lay within the mirrors!

Shu Jun could not count them either, and beads of cold sweat broke out on his forehead.

As for the steps by which divine abilities and dao arts are cultivated, they knew them well.

Divine abilities and dao arts first require an understanding of the dao-runes; dao-runes compose divine abilities, compose dao arts. And once one's accumulated store of knowledge reaches a certain level, one may gather dao-runes and cultivate a dao-pattern.

A dao-pattern is the grain and vein of the Great Dao, holding within it the mysteries of the Great Dao.

To compose divine abilities and dao arts from dao-patterns lends them greater power.

By and large, divine abilities of the dao realm are composed of dao-patterns.

But dao-patterns are not the summit. Only after cultivating a dao-pattern may one attempt to compose the rules of the Great Dao from dao-patterns, forming a domain.

To form a domain is to grasp the rules; and at this stage one has still not grasped the Great Dao.

The reason they are called the rules of the Great Dao is that the Great Dao lies above the rules!

That is to say, a domain may be a constituent part of the Great Dao.

Kai Huang's sword-dao domain had already reached as many as thirty-five layers. When a single sword flies out, thirty-five layers of sword domain overlap, each layer unlike the others, each expounding a different principle.

Only when he cultivated the sword dao to the thirty-sixth layer of sword domain would he be reckoned to have attained the Dao!

And now, a single dao-pattern on the wall of the Miluo Palace revealed a construction of such complexity, well-nigh infinite—and upon those walls there were countless different dao-patterns besides!

To what height the master of the Miluo Palace had attained, Wei Suifeng and Shu Jun simply could not imagine!

Wei Suifeng said, his voice hoarse, "A master of the Miluo Palace so powerful—can Tai Yi contend with him? Such a divinity must surely lie beyond the scope of those who have attained the Dao, must he not?"

At that very moment, a terrifying tremor suddenly came from within the Miluo Palace!

Both men's scalps went numb. Plainly Tai Yi and the master of the Miluo Palace had broken off their talks and come to blows!

Wei Suifeng turned his hand and put away the two mirrors, hiding them in his divine treasury. The two fixed their eyes upon the Miluo Palace. Within it, it seemed a world-cleaving giant was splitting chaos apart with a giant chaos axe, severing the primordial, hewing open with one axe a bright and limpid heaven and earth!

Yet another terrible tremor seemed all the more unfathomable. The tremor borne of Tai Yi's strikes still gave them a sense of something they could grasp, but the other tremor was beyond all grasping!

Boom—

The gates of the Miluo Palace suddenly opened. The giant Tai Yi had his back to them, drenched in blood, holding the Chaos Axe, the great axe whirling up and down to fend off the attacks surging from within the palace. As the giant swung the axe, a single stroke seemed to bring a world into being on either side of the axe blade—heaven opening, earth splitting—a power to astonish the world!

Yet more and more wounds appeared upon his body.

Wei Suifeng and Shu Jun hastily fell back at flying speed, racing toward the Chaos River. Behind them, Tai Yi retreated step by step, and with every step he yielded, his blood filled the footprint, leaving behind lake after lake formed of dao-blood!

Wei Suifeng and Shu Jun ran at top speed, not daring to look back at all. They were about to reach the riverbank, and ahead there was no road, when suddenly Tai Yi kicked backward with a great foot and struck squarely the staff in Wei Suifeng's hand.

The staff howled and swelled, transforming into a long boat with an upturned prow, which bore Wei Suifeng and Shu Jun speeding across the surface of the river!

Tai Yi swung his last axe and leaped, landing upon the river's surface and chasing after the two.

The long boat and Tai Yi, one before, one behind, passed through one great Chaos River after another. When they came to the fourth Chaos River, a resonant dao-sound suddenly rang out, speaking a sentence of unknowable meaning.

The two aboard the boat hastily looked back, and saw a great hand strike Tai Yi down from the Chaos River, driving him bodily into the waters.

The giant Tai Yi struggled, trying to burst out of the river, when suddenly from the waters countless skeletal hands reached out, seizing hold of every part of his body.

The giant Tai Yi struggled once, lifted his head, and smiled at the two upon the long boat—then was dragged down into the Chaos River.

"Follow the map—save me—"

Upon the long boat, Wei Suifeng and Shu Jun heard Tai Yi's voice come up from within the Chaos River.

"Dao brother, what map?" Wei Suifeng asked, his voice ragged.

But the long boat was incredibly swift, passing through one Chaos River after another. The sixteen Chaos Rivers flashed by in an instant, and neither of them heard Tai Yi's answer again.

Whoosh—

The long boat the staff had become flashed through the Ancestral Court's Jade Capital City, breaking through the strange and sinister things of that place. The two upon the boat were dazed and muddled, and in passing caught sight of the figures of Heavenly Venerable Hao, the Ancestral Divine King, and others.

These people watched the long boat recede with looks of inexplicable astonishment.

Before long, they encountered Heavenly Venerable Xiao, Heavenly Consort Yan, and their company; the Ancient God Taiji too looked toward them with a face of surprise, plainly greatly shaken.

Thud!

The long boat pitched into the ground outside the city, and the two aboard were flung clear. By the time they steadied themselves, the long boat had once more become a wooden staff, planted beside the great cauldron Wei Suifeng had left outside the city.

"Is it the map inside the cauldron?" Shu Jun rushed to the cauldron in a fluster and asked anxiously.

"Absolutely not!"

Wei Suifeng shook his head, his face grim. He pulled up Tai Yi's staff, stowed the great cauldron, and said in a low voice, "We go back at once to the Hundred Thousand Sacred Mountains, to see my junior brother!"