Chapter 870 — An Elder of the Alliance

Shen Mu lured the Heavenly Dragon King's great head into another relic, a place strewn with bones, where blood seeped from the cliffs and from the ground, and an air of foreboding hung over all. Deeper and deeper they went, and more and more white figures emerged on every side.

At first there were but one or two, then more and more; some appeared abruptly atop the peaks, others abruptly upon the flat ground, staring dumbly at them, making no other movement.

Shen Mu looked at them, yet could not make out the faces of these white figures. "Young Master, there is a person in white riding on your neck," Yan'er whispered.

Shen Mu hurriedly turned his head, but could see nothing at all, and could not help feeling a chill of dread.

He hastily took out a mirror and looked into it; sure enough, a white figure rode upon his neck, a faceless face thrusting out from behind his neck, as though studying the mirror.

Shen Mu's scalp went numb.

He eyed the dragon qilin, and saw that several white figures had, at some unknown hour, draped themselves over it as well, hazy and indistinct. He looked to Yan'er, and upon her back too clung a white figure, making as if to draw breath from the back of her head. Shen Mu looked toward the Heavenly Dragon King's great head, and upon it clung even more white figures.

"This is no place to linger! " Shen Mu decided on the instant and opened the Heaven-Bearing Gate; the dragon qilin bore them in a single leap through the gate, escaping that relic, and they came to the Nether Capital.

In the very instant they stepped into the Nether Capital, Shen Mu faintly heard shrill and mournful cries, now audible, now not, rising from their backs. He hastily looked up, and saw the space beyond the Heaven-Bearing Gate crowded with white figures, all stretching out their hands to claw at the Nether Capital.

Shen Mu dissolved the Heaven-Bearing Gate, and saw severed arms drop one by one from where the gate had vanished, plunging into the darkness.

"The relics of the Primal Realm are truly strange.

. .

" Before Shen Mu's startled soul had settled, the dragon qilin and Yan'er went flailing into the darkness of the Nether Capital; Shen Mu reversed his divine treasury, transformed it into the demon-path treasury, and used the divine arts of the Nether Capital to seize them back. Shen Mu laughed. "Here your powers cannot be used, so I must still carry you both along.

Let us not be in haste to leave; we will wait for someone to come for us and catch a free boat.

" Yan'er was rather puzzled; she looked all around and asked curiously, "Where is this free boat?

" Shen Mu, quite certain, laughed. "It will be here soon!

" A moment later his face darkened despite himself, and he said sullenly, "Has the Nether Heavenly Sovereign been lazy today? He still has not appeared.

In the past, the moment I opened the Heaven-Bearing Gate, his little boat would come here to fetch me.

.

. " "In the past it was always the Sect Master standing on my head. This time, may I stand on the Sect Master's head?

" the dragon qilin said, both alarmed and delighted.

Shen Mu peeled back the willow leaf at the center of his brow and sent his spirit consciousness into the Shen Character Continent, where it landed and became his own image, and he asked, "Earth Lord, why has the Nether Heavenly Sovereign not come to fetch me today? " The Molten Earth Lord, in communion with his true body, said, "A heaven has been destroyed.

There are too many dead; the Nether Heavenly Sovereign has gone there to guide the souls of the departed. " "I see.

Could the Earth Lord send a master to escort me to the Lan River Academy?

" Shen Mu asked. The Molten Earth Lord stared at him; Shen Mu, his gaze sincere and his expression unchanging, said, "From the Nether Capital, I do not know the way to the Lan River Academy.

" The Molten Earth Lord was silent a moment, then said, "What if I escort you there myself?

" Shen Mu was overjoyed and said again and again, "How could that be permitted?

" He withdrew his spirit consciousness, not a little pleased with himself, and said modestly to the dragon qilin and Yan'er, "The Earth Lord says he will escort us to the Lan River Academy himself. " The dragon qilin was somewhat disappointed — but just then a wild wind came howling from deep within the Nether Capital, swept up Shen Mu together with the dragon qilin and Yan'er, and bore them along at a tearing speed, tumbling and rolling, until in an instant they had flown no one knew how far.

The three were dizzy and dazzled, space itself thrown into disorder; when the gale had passed, the dragon qilin was embedded face-first in a cliff outside the Lan River Academy, Yan'er had become a blue sparrow hanging belly-up from a treetop atop the cliff, and Shen Mu had plunged headlong into the Lan River. A while later, the three had tidied themselves up; Shen Mu's face was dark, and he said viciously, "Only we three know what happened today. Whoever dares speak of it, I will kill!

Understand? " The dragon qilin and the blue sparrow nodded again and again. Shen Mu stared at the dragon qilin and said amicably, "Fatty Dragon, do you know how the Great Sun Star Sovereign died?

" The dragon qilin said hurriedly, "Sect Master, my lips are the tightest of any. See — I have never once spoken of the Patriarch's embarrassing moments!

" Two months later, Shen Mu brought the Royal Heavenly Sovereign back and came to the source of the Surging River; the Surging River no longer flowed out from a broken cliff of the Desolate Ruins, but coursed through one heaven after another.

That Heavenly River poured down from the heavens suspended beyond the sky, rushing and tumbling, scattering jade and spilling pearls — a truly magnificent sight.

He waited half a day at the source of the Surging River, seated upon the river's surface, yet the mist upon the river never appeared.

"The Ling Heavenly Sovereign must have cut off the Heavenly River here, and at the same time used divine arts to replace the substance of the Heavenly River with himself, unleashing that breathtaking divine art. " Shen Mu rose and sought out the Tianyin Realm.

In the Tianyin Realm, barge after barge laden with Tianyin gold was sailing out, following the Heavenly River toward Jingping.

Shen Mu boarded one of the sand barges and made inquiry; the divine arts practitioner guarding it said, "The Imperial Preceptor of Jingping ordered us to come and transport Tianyin gold.

The Imperial Preceptor says that Jingping is now divided, and the cities and lands are hard to defend, so we are to gather Tianyin gold and forge Sun-Shooting Divine Cannons; every great city must have one. " "And how is the matter of medicine and minerals to be solved?

" Shen Mu asked.

"That, I do not know.

" Shen Mu asked again, "Is the journey safe? " The divine arts practitioner said, "Along the way, Lord Dragon-Raiser leads the River Dragon Kings in guarding the barges, so it is fairly peaceful, save that now and then monsters in the river make trouble and have destroyed a few boats. " Shen Mu nodded and let them go on their way. In the Tianyin Realm, before Lady Tianyin's sea-borne Tianyin Palace, Shen Mu gazed afar toward the seaside and saw many divine arts practitioners laboring diligently, dredging sand from the sea, hauling Tianyin gold up from the waters and carrying it out to the world beyond.

Along the shore there were towns as well, where the people of Jingping and the Desolate Ruins lived, keeping clear of the chaotic outer world, and no few divine arts practitioners taught there, so that the place was no longer desolate.

"That the Tianyin Realm could become like this — I never expected it.

" Behind Shen Mu, black sand rolled and gathered into the figure of a towering man, who spoke: "Jingping is indeed beyond the common.

Given time, to what heights might you grow? You make even me feel a thrill of dread.

" Shen Mu turned and laughed.