Chapter 864 — The Supreme Falls

Shen Mu looked at the characters on the stone stele, and his head grew heavy and dim.

The Tomb of Heavenly Venerable Ling.

Heavenly Venerable Ling was dead?

His gaze was dazed, bewildered. To his mind, though Heavenly Emperors might die one after another, Heavenly Venerable Ling would never die—and yet here stood the Tomb of Heavenly Venerable Ling.

He hurried to the stele, and was about to examine it when he suddenly froze.

Behind the stele lay a plain stone coffin, set there flat and even. Yet behind this simple grave stood another stele, and behind that stele, another stone coffin.

His gaze traveled slowly farther out, and he saw more steles and more stone coffins—vast in number, densely packed, blanketing the Jade Capital City of this ancient Heavenly Court!

Shen Mu looked out across it all: the Jade Capital City filled to its very edges, countless stone coffins and grave steles, and no other buildings at all!

Every stele bore the same words: "The Tomb of Heavenly Venerable Ling!"

Behind him, Yan Qiling, Mu Qiubai, the Heavenly Dragon King, and the Heavenly Court's "Heavenly Venerable Yu" came striding up, staring blankly at the sight.

There were far too many tombs of Heavenly Venerable Ling here—so many it was appalling. With so many coffins, could every one of them hold a Heavenly Venerable Ling?

"Most of these coffins must be fakes. The real Heavenly Venerable Ling ought to be buried in Lingxiao Hall!"

Mu Qiubai said abruptly. "As one of the Nine Heavenly Venerables, she has every right to be buried within Lingxiao Hall!"

The Heavenly Dragon King took the lead, heading straight for that place, and Yan Qiling and Mu Qiubai hurried after him, while Xing An and that "Heavenly Venerable Yu" darted off as well.

Only Shen Mu remained, with Long Qilin at his side and, on his shoulder, the blue sparrow that Yan'er had become.

Shen Mu steadied himself, took out a stick of incense and lit it, then silently planted it before the grave stele.

After a moment he walked around behind the stele, seized the lid of the stone coffin with both hands, and opened it.

There was no corpse inside—only a shallow layer of clear water. Shen Mu was stunned for a moment, then closed the coffin.

He came to another stone coffin, opened it, and looked inside: this coffin too held a pool of clear water.

Coffin after coffin was opened, and all he saw was clear water—no Heavenly Venerable Ling.

Stubbornly, Shen Mu opened one coffin after another, and always it was clear water.

A violent tremor came from Lingxiao Palace, and the Heavenly Dragon King's voice rang out, loud and fierce: "No one lays a hand on Heavenly Venerable Ling's treasure! That treasure belongs to the Earth Mother Primordial Lady!"

Long Qilin gazed into the distance. The Heavenly Dragon King had transformed into an old dragon, his vast body coiling around Lingxiao Palace and enclosing it whole, while the demigods under his command stood upon his body and fought with the maidservants at Yan Qiling's side.

The cultivation of those maidservants was astonishingly formidable—they held the Heavenly Dragon King at bay.

And within the hall, several figures could be glimpsed darting to and fro like lightning: "Heavenly Venerable Yu," Yan Qiling, Xing An, and Mu Qiubai, locked in savage combat over Heavenly Venerable Ling's treasure.

"Sect Master."

Long Qilin said in a low voice, "Aren't we going over? They seem to have found something."

Shen Mu slid aside yet another stone slab. The coffin still held a pool of clear water—very shallow, very clear.

He stared blankly, his mind wandering. In the Jade Capital City there were still countless stone coffins of Heavenly Venerable Ling, far too many of them; to check them one by one, who knew how many years it would take.

Xing An, Yan Qiling and the others had chosen to go straight to Lingxiao Palace, and that was indeed the best choice. As a Heavenly Venerable, Heavenly Venerable Ling held an exceedingly lofty station; it was only natural that she should be buried there.

And most of the coffins in the Jade Capital City were surely decoy tombs.

"Perhaps we should go take a look at Lingxiao Hall as well. She may truly be buried there."

Shen Mu straightened up, and then he heard a clanging, chiseling sound.

Shen Mu was startled. The sound was no divine ability; it was like the noise of stone being split and carved.

In Lingxiao Hall the fighting still raged on, but Shen Mu followed the sound. After a moment he came to the outskirts of the Jade Capital City, and there he saw a white-haired old man tearing down the palaces of this Heavenly Court, taking down the stone, and hewing it with axe and chisel to make stone coffins one after another.

Shen Mu came up behind the old man and watched in silence. The old man worked swiftly; before long he had fashioned a stone coffin, and then he set to carving a stele, cutting into the stone the words "The Tomb of Heavenly Venerable Ling."

The old man seemed not to notice his arrival, silently going about his work. Already there were many coffins and steles around him.

After a long while, the old man stopped to rest, raised his head, and looked at him. "Is that you, Heavenly Venerable Mu?"

Shen Mu saw that his eyes were wholly white, without pupils. He was a blind old man.

"How did you know it was me, Elder?" Shen Mu asked.

"Heavenly Venerable Shen has been here before—some thirty thousand years ago, I think. It was too long ago; I cannot recall clearly."

The old man set down his axe and chisel. "Heavenly Venerable Shen came to pay his respects, and then he left. Heavenly Venerable Ling had me arrange this tomb. Only two people may enter, and they are Heavenly Venerable Shen and Heavenly Venerable Mu. Those two may enter this place by virtue of their Heavenly Venerable tokens. Heavenly Venerable Shen has already come, so you can only be Heavenly Venerable Mu. Though you have brought some uninvited guests."

Shen Mu steadied himself. "Elder, is Heavenly Venerable Ling truly dead?"

The blind old man said, "Dead—and yet still alive. She died while completing the divine art of the Immutability of Matter, but she also gained eternal life."

Shen Mu was dumbstruck.

The blind old man rose. "Heavenly Venerable Shen came here to bury her and to mourn her. Since Heavenly Venerable Mu has also come, then come along."

Dragging one stone coffin after another behind him on a chain, he walked on ahead. Shen Mu followed, and saw that the old man was heading toward the Heavenly River.

Before long they came to the bank of the Heavenly River.

The blind old man set down the coffin. "She will be here soon."

Shen Mu stood at the river's edge. The Heavenly River shimmered with shifting light, and after a while a woman came drifting down it.

Suddenly Shen Mu's heart clenched for no reason at all, and a great ache seized him.

The woman drifting over the water wore a leopard-skin skirt and straw sandals, a peach-wood hairpin thrust in her hair. It was Heavenly Venerable Ling—and she no longer breathed.

"Master, let your soul return—your disciple has come to bury you!"

The blind old man waded into the water and stopped the body of Heavenly Venerable Ling, and Shen Mu leapt into the Heavenly River as well, and together they brought her body reverently ashore.

They laid Heavenly Venerable Ling's body in a stone coffin, and after a moment she turned into a pool of clear water.

Shen Mu was stunned.

The blind old man seemed unable to see any of it. He closed the coffin and sat back down by the Heavenly River to wait.

Who knew how long after, another Heavenly Venerable Ling came drifting down the river, in leopard-skin skirt and straw sandals.

Shen Mu was stunned, but the blind old man had already gone down into the river again. "Master, let your soul return—your disciple has come to bury you!"

Shen Mu hurried into the river too. This body of Heavenly Venerable Ling was laid in a coffin and once more turned to clear water.

"What is going on?" He was somewhat at a loss.