Chapter 827 — Hard to Tell Flowers from Mist

"I survived, and I lived a long while aboard this ship — and in the end I still died?"

Shen Mu was beside himself, gripped by an overpowering sense of fate.

He had not believed the words of the little man in the lantern at first, but ever since he set foot on this ship, a whole chain of uncanny, unfathomable events had left him no room for disbelief.

Did this not mean that no matter how he strove, he could never escape the fate of dying at last aboard this ship?

That no matter how he struggled, he could not leap free of this ship; that no matter how he deduced and reasoned, he could not, until the day he died, unravel Ling Heavenly Venerable's divine power?

Lord Dragon-Raiser's heart of the Dao collapsed. He slumped to the ground, tears brimming in his dragon eyes, and mumbled, "How do we leave this cursed place? Heaven and earth may change, but the unchanging constant does not; the unchanging constant is thirty-six — what does that mean?" He could not help but be terrified, and fell into a vast panic: "Are these not the words of that raving old dragon? Why am I repeating his words? Can it be that I truly am him?"

Shen Mu glanced sidelong at him, frowned, and forced his face into a smile. "Then how many times have we boarded this ship? Why do we have no memory of the earlier boardings?"

Li Zheng said abruptly, "Then why is it that you hold the memories of the Great Reincarnation?"

The little man in the lantern said, "I am not very clear on that myself."

Shen Mu's heart stirred. "That wailing old dragon seems to hold memories of the Great Reincarnation as well — only he has gone mad. What is his story? Who is he, really?"

The little man in the lantern said, "He is Long Bo. Like me, he did not turn to Void when the Mist erupted."

Hearing this, Lord Dragon-Raiser could not help but breathe a sigh of relief. "So it was not me after all..."

Li Zheng suddenly struck upon the crux. "Aboard this ship, besides you and Long Bo, who else has not been turned to Void?"

The little man in the lantern was slightly taken aback, and gave no answer.

Li Zheng narrowed his eyes and glanced at Shen Mu.

Shen Mu narrowed his eyes as well. The sword pellet in the Taotie Pouch quietly rose, and from the pellet the Carefree Sword flew out, its hilt pointed toward Li Zheng.

Vital essence flew from Li Zheng's fingertips and coiled about the Carefree Sword's hilt. He laughed and said, "Heaven and earth may change, but the unchanging constant does not; the unchanging constant is thirty-six. The unchanging constant is that which does not alter with the resetting of time and space. This ship undergoes one Great Reincarnation every thirty-six resets of time and space. This unchanging constant may not be a number at all, but the people aboard. That is to say, thirty-six people will not be reset, and will not turn to Void."

Shen Mu said, "By this reasoning, each time the ghost ship crosses over, one person survives. The first reset was the time of the Mist's eruption, and Long Bo survived it. Long Bo is the first observer; he could not bear it, and so he raves, and every time he meets another person he says the unchanging constant is thirty-six. The unchanging constant is not a number; the unchanging constant is the thirty-six people who are not altered by the reset. Since Long Bo survived the first reset, how did you survive?"

Li Zheng held the sword in his hand and said in a low, quiet voice, "The ghost ship docks in thirty-six different eras. Each era has its own boarders, and each time only one survives. Lin Xiao, at which boarding did you come aboard this ship?"

Shen Mu said, "When we boarded, the moment you saw me take out the command tally, you came to us of your own accord. You sat in your lantern and won our trust with the greatest of ease, so that we would not suspect you. Because we knew nothing of this ship and needed you to guide us, we would never think to suspect you. We would therefore trust you without reserve. It is the simplest and most effective of stratagems, commonly called the dark beneath the lamp. The dark beneath the lamp can fool the vast majority of people, but it cannot fool old hands."

Li Zheng held the Carefree Sword with the blade behind his back, while his other hand formed the sword seal and rested at his chest.

By the conventions of swordsmanship, the sword should be held before the body and the sword seal behind, so that the seal is hidden from sight and the sword art seems the more godlike and unfathomable — yet he did the very opposite.

Countless sword-lights flowed around him; a sword diagram took shape and shrouded all his surroundings, the lantern and the little man within it enveloped in the diagram as well.

Shen Mu had never seen this sword art before.

Li Zheng had once taught him the Nine Forms of the Sword Diagram, and this present art must be a new sword diagram that Li Zheng had created after attaining godhood.

His way of the sword had reached an entirely new height.

"And we are old hands."

Shen Mu laughed. "We of Yincan Village have never wished anyone harm, but in our dealings with others we have always kept an extra eye open! So then, Lin Xiao, are you the one who brought Jue Wuchen aboard this ship?"

The little man in the lantern rose from the threshold, watched the flowing sword-light outside, then drew back his gaze and fixed it upon Li Zheng's hand, held upright at his chest in the sword seal.

"Why does the Command Lord say so?" he asked softly.

"After the Heavenly Emperor died, if the Empress was to keep her deeds from being exposed, she had to deal with Jue Wuchen. Yet Jue Wuchen and her fleshly body were both still of use to her, and had to be preserved against a time of need. To dispose of Jue Wuchen and her own fleshly body while at the same time preserving them, the best place was this ghost ship."

Shen Mu said with a smile, "She must be a great personage now, and it would not do for her to come in person. So she needed a trusted confidant, someone reliable, to do it for her. That person brought Jue Wuchen's fleshly body onto the ghost ship, opened the Empress's coffin, and laid Jue Wuchen within it. But that person could not leave the ghost ship either; he must still be aboard. To guard this secret, he must ensure that no one who boards can ever leave."

Li Zheng said, "He must be the liveliest one aboard. When new people board, he must be the first to spring out, to send them to their deaths one by one, or to keep them from ever leaving this ship, so that they may keep him company."

"The one who sprang out first and came to me because of the command tally — that was you," said Shen Mu.

The little man in the lantern sighed. "Such a clever man — how did he ever come by such a stupid mount? It was precisely because I saw that foolish dragon that I underestimated you. And you were fools too."

He said coldly, "When you began to suspect, you should have struck at me. You should not have spoken of it. Had you attacked me by surprise, you might still have had a chance to live. Now there is only one road left to you: death."

At that instant light erupted once more, and before Shen Mu and the others all was blinding white; they could see nothing at all!

The ghost ship had reset time and space once again!

"You are right: it was I who brought Jue Wuchen onto this ship and buried her together with the Empress. The Empress's coffin, too, was opened by me. But you do not know that those who come aboard undergo reset after reset of time and space, until body and primal spirit gradually turn to Void, and become Void."

In the radiance Li Zheng's sword diagram erupted. This was the sword way he had comprehended after attaining godhood. As the old Sword God of Jingping, he had traveled farther on the sword path than any other; he was also the first true god of the sword way in Jingping.