Chapter 855 — The Youth Steals Peaches to Satisfy His Craving

"Young Master, the Palace Master requests your presence.

Please come with us. " The girls carried lanterns that cast a red glow; they swayed them once before Shen Mu, then dipped their bodies slightly, retreated half a step, placed their left hands in fists at their waists, pressed the lanterns over their left hands with their right, and sank down in a salute.

Shen Mu returned the salute. The lanterns swung half a circle, and the girls turned, graceful and willowy, leading the way ahead with lanterns in hand.

The red candlelight spilled over the path before them; the ground was spotless, not a single withered leaf to be seen. Shen Mu followed, studying his surroundings, trying to infer from the architectural style who the master of this place might be.

Yet the buildings bore no patterns, no carved ornaments—nothing by which he might tell their age.

Reading a building's age from its style was no difficult task for him; every era had its own architectural style, easy enough to distinguish. Even within the same era, different races built in vastly different ways. But the palace in this peach grove had no ornament whatsoever—white walls, red brick, green tiles, simple and unadorned—and yet it possessed a beauty all its own, seeming under the starlight and candle glow plain and yet otherworldly.

"Just now, the woman inside said an old acquaintance had come. When she speaks of an old acquaintance, does she mean me, or the Heaven Duke, the Earth Earl, and the others within my eyes?

Or perhaps someone the Red Sovereign knows?

" Shen Mu's divine sense rippled, transmitting a message into the Shen Continent: "Heaven Duke, I do not know who the woman in this peach grove is. Take a look for me from the heavens. " The Heaven Duke's avatar shook his head.

"I cannot see what is inside the palace. There is a strange barrier here—whenever I look, all I see is peach blossoms, swirling in a wild flurry. " Shen Mu was startled; the blind elder had once said the same, that when he looked upon the palace in the peach grove, he could see only peach blossoms.

"Heaven Duke, you said just now that you saw me in some bizarre world. What is that world like?

" The Heaven Duke's voice gradually faded: "The space of that world is twisted, forming countless folded spaces. One step you take may carry you a thousand or ten thousand li—may send you from one world into another. I have never seen such a world.

.

. " His voice vanished, as if sealed off by something.

Shen Mu tried to sense the Shen Continent, and found that it too had vanished. He tried to sense the Nether Capital, and then discovered that he could not sense it either! He steadied himself, thinking: "Since she is an old acquaintance, she should bear no ill intent. .

.

" Soon he followed the girls into the main hall.

The arrangement inside was equally simple, with few decorations—only a few luminous pearls hanging around the walls, their light spreading wide, making the hall warm as spring.

A screen stood before him, and behind it a woman could be faintly seen, seated there as though plucking a zither, though very slowly, occasionally plucking a single string.

There was no melody, yet the lingering note was long. The woman behind the screen was turned sideways to him; a luminous pearl behind her threw her graceful shadow upon the screen. The lantern-carrying girls saluted the woman behind the screen, turned, and hung their lanterns outside the door.

One girl fetched a cushion and invited Shen Mu to sit. Shen Mu sat, facing the woman behind the screen; his two eyes blinked, and the vertical eye between his brows blinked as well from time to time, but he said nothing. After a while, a zither string was plucked, its note curling faintly through the air.

"The Heaven Duke is meddlesome indeed, to have led you here without cause. " The voice of the woman behind the screen was very pleasant.

She turned her head slightly, and a lock of hair slipped down at her temple; he could vaguely see a pearl hanging from her earlobe, swaying gently. "It has been a long time since a guest has come to my home.

By right, I should not see you—but Young Master Shen has shown me kindness in the past, and since you have sought me out, I could not refuse. " The woman laughed: "It is rare to meet an old acquaintance.

As your hostess, I have been remiss in my reception.

I beg your forgiveness.

" Shen Mu's gaze flickered as he tried to see through the screen. Yet the screen was a treasure of unknown origin—even his Nine Heavens Far-Seeing Art could not penetrate it, nor could the vertical eye between his brows make out the woman's face behind it.

"Sister, since we are old acquaintances, why not come out and meet me? " Two girls carried a small jade table over and set it before Shen Mu, brewed fragrant tea, and withdrew.

Shen Mu took a sip; the fragrance lingered on his teeth and lips, even finer than the tea of the upper heavens.

He laughed: "The Origin Realm has reappeared. It was no easy task for me to find my way here from the Origin Realm. Since this meeting of ours is so rare, why should you still hide behind the screen, sister?

" "I am no longer what I once was.

" The woman behind the screen sighed softly and said: "My legs are broken, and I cannot rise. I ask Young Master Shen's forgiveness. " Shen Mu rose and walked toward the screen, laughing: "I have some skill in medicine and the arts of creation—any ailment is cured the moment I set my hand to it, and even fashioning you a new body would be no trouble at all. Since you cannot rise, I shall come to you. " He reached the screen and went around it—then stopped short.

Before him was still the screen.

He circled it again, and again the screen stood before him. No matter which angle he came from, he faced the front of the screen, and the woman's silhouette was still cast upon it, as though he had never moved at all.

Shen Mu turned to look at the hall's entrance and shifted his steps sideways, yet no matter how he moved, he always faced the entrance. This woman's divine art must be a spatial divine art, profoundly mysterious. "Young Master Shen, please sit down.

" The woman behind the screen plucked a string and laughed: "My face is hideous now, and my body is broken—I would not want to frighten you.

As for the injuries on my person, I fear Young Master Shen does not yet have the skill to heal them. My wounds were inflicted by a divine art, and the remnant of that art still lurks within them, ceaselessly gnawing at my flesh and primordial spirit. You do not yet have a way to erase such a divine art.

" Shen Mu could only return and sit back down on the cushion. "Sister.

.

.

" The woman chuckled: "Just how many sisters does Young Master Shen have? " Two more girls came bearing a plate of fruit and set it on the jade table before Shen Mu. The plate held peaches, washed clean, their fragrance piercing deep and whetting the appetite. Shen Mu's face reddened slightly. He laughed: "I have never counted.

Sister, have we met before?

" "Of course we have.

" The woman said: "It was only later that I learned. . .

" Suddenly, the faint sound of a zither came from outside.

The woman's expression shifted slightly.

"I have a guest.

Yan'er, take Young Master Shen to rest behind the hall, and move the jade table over as well. " She said apologetically: "Please, young master, go to the rear hall to drink your tea and eat some fruit. " Shen Mu had no choice but to rise.

The girl called Yan'er and the other girls carried the jade table away.

The zither music from outside drew nearer, and the woman behind the screen plucked a string as well—pure and ethereal.

Shen Mu sat in the rear hall, listening.