Chapter 786 — He Whom the Martial Dao Crowns Emperor

Shen Mu walked with the old farmer into the village, the Dragon Qilin and the Water Qilin following behind. The Water Qilin kept turning its head to study the Dragon Qilin, and suddenly sneered: "So you are of qilin stock too, a demigod, and yet you are a coward who shames our qilin divine race! Groveling so meekly to serve as a mount, plowing fields, and even sniveling and weeping! " The Dragon Qilin shot it a glance and said in a deep, booming voice: "And what is that on your back? " Yutian Zun sat on the Water Qilin's back, looking about in curiosity.

The Water Qilin was choked half to death, and snorted: "I am different.

Your lord caught me.

Surrender or die. So I bent to circumstance and became Lord Lan's mount. You are another matter altogether, you snivel and weep. Do you know how mighty our qilin divine race was in high antiquity, in far antiquity? Dragons, phoenixes, when they saw us they called themselves our juniors.

.

. " The Dragon Qilin was utterly unruffled: "Have you ever eaten a spirit elixir?

" The Water Qilin said angrily: "What spirit elixir? Men, demigods, demons, dragons, phoenixes, anything alive, we can eat it! What do we want elixirs for? " The Dragon Qilin looked this way and that, saw that no one was paying it any heed, and only then took out a pouch and pinched out a single spirit elixir with great care: "The sect master refined this specially for me.

It is of the thunder-fire nature, and most likely unsuited to you.

I have not many left, but I will give you one to taste.

" The Water Qilin tasted a single mouthful and was instantly struck dumb.

"Nonsense! Just now your lord gave you a whole basin of them, heaped to a peak! " The Water Qilin's brows and eyes bloomed with delight, and it pressed him again and again: "Two more, just two more!

" The Dragon Qilin shook its head: "These are thunder-fire elixirs.

You are a water qilin, not a dragon qilin.

You cannot take them; too many will harm you. You have a lord of your own, so let your lord refine them for you. " The Water Qilin hesitated, torn by inner struggle: "The dignity of our qilin divine race.

. . " The Dragon Qilin paid it no mind and went to catch up with Shen Mu. Shen Mu spoke of the purpose of his visit: "The ruins have grown vast beyond measure, perilous in every corner. Your nephew has come in the hope of marshaling the strength of the Douniu Realm to protect the people of the ruins. " The wrinkles on the old farmer's bark-dry face deepened, his brows knotted into three deep furrows: "Every village and every hamlet has its stone statue to guard it, and the cities have their statues as well.

The King of Hell of Fengdu has already given the order that the stone statues of the ruins may revive at any moment.

The King of Hell sent the bird god Chixiu to ask me whether the gods of Kaihuang should come and guard the Douniu Realm.

I declined. This time, with the primordial world reappearing, the ruins are but a single drop in its boundless ocean; the true peril has not yet shown itself. " Shen Mu's heart stirred slightly: "Then where does my martial uncle believe the true peril comes from?

" "The true peril lies not in the ruins, but in Jingping.

" Hearing himself addressed as martial uncle, the old farmer was greatly pleased, and no longer picked and chose and glared coldly as he once had. He said with a smile: "Compared with the demigods, Jingping is still far too weak. Have you ever heard of the stratagem of driving the tiger to devour the wolf?

" Shen Mu was startled, and ventured: "What does my martial uncle mean? " "This time the primordial world has broken its seal and reappeared in the world. The primordial world sealed is the ruins; the ruins unsealed are the primordial world. No one foresaw this upheaval, not even the woodcutter, who was caught unawares. " The old farmer went on unhurriedly: "In the ruins remain the remnant hosts of Kaihuang. The people of the ruins are few, only tens of millions.

If the people of the ruins are gathered together and several god-cities built, with the protection of the gods of the Kaihuang remnant, their safety can be assured.

But what of Jingping? The people of Jingping number two or three billion, do they not? They are scattered across every city and every land, and the distances between those cities and lands are now a hundredfold what they once were! " Shen Mu's heart sank by slow degrees. The old farmer continued: "Between the cities the roads are cut, all coming and going has ceased. Between the cities lie nothing but the primordial forests of the primordial world, the haunts of demigods, and all manner of perilous relics and ancient battlefields. The emperor of Jingping's rule over the provinces has fallen to the freezing point; each region governs itself, and before long the reforms and the new laws of Jingping will be severed. With no people, there are no reforms, and the empire will break apart!

Even if the emperor had the boldness to move the people of every city to gather near the capital and reclaim the wilds anew, it would take decades, even centuries, to accomplish! " "But it will not take decades. In a mere few months, many places will declare themselves free of Jingping and crown their own emperors!

The forces that rebel will be beyond counting, and all Jingping can hold will be the land about the capital! " He gave a cold laugh: "And to win back these domains that have suddenly appeared, leaving aside whether Jingping has the strength for it, the marching alone would take a hundred years! Let alone the fact that Jingping has not the power to fight the demigods head-on!

" The old farmer let out a breath of turbid air: "When I spoke earlier of driving the tiger to devour the wolf, Jingping is that wolf, and the tiger is the demigods of the primordial world. And besides the demigods there are other hungry tigers. Look up.

" Shen Mu raised his head to the sky. There, heaven after heaven gleamed with hues of every color; clouds and mist coiled between the continents; the stars moved in their courses; those heavens were so varied, so magnificently wrought. "These heavens all have living beings dwelling in them.

" The old farmer said: "On the nights of the ruins, demon gods often prowl.

Those demon gods come from these heavens. When the primordial world was sealed, they had to go to some trouble to come in, needing blood sacrifices and the like. Now they may come in far more easily. Jingping must face the demigods, and must face these gods and demons of the heavens. By what power is she to survive?

" Shen Mu was awed.

He had indeed met demon gods of other worlds many times in the ruins. For instance, when he and Li Zheng searched for the Land of No Sorrow in the dark of night, they encountered on the Soul Boat a female demon god and a host of heavenly demons.

On his first visit to Xiquan to see Yan Jingjing, he met Yu Zhaoqing and others of the Tianyu clan, controlled by a demon god, attacking Xiquan.

And at the Soul Spring, he had seen the traces left by demon gods who attacked the spring and slaughtered every last Moon Shepherd.

Before, with the ruins as a natural barrier, Jingping was quite safe. But now the heavens have shaken off the seal, and the ruins have become the primordial world once more.

Will Jingping still be safe? "The fall of Jingping is a certainty. Jingping will first break apart, each region seceding to crown its own king; the remnant clans of Chiming will likely not stay quiet either; and added to them Vajra, and the northern frontier, the grasslands, the western lands, all will split away.