Chapter 884 — Conquering Myriad Realms

When Shen Mu and Bai Qu'er flew back from beyond the heavens, the sun had already gone out.

The sun in the Heaven Diagram was punctual: though no one steered it, every six double-hours the formation would halt of its own accord. But when Shen Mu and Bai Qu'er returned, they found the moon extinguished as well; even the Milky Way, woven from the tens of thousands of stars in the Heaven Diagram, had gone dark, every last light of it.

For those stars and that moon followed the same law, one cycle of kindling and quenching each day. The two of them, in their heedless opening of the sun formation, had brought sun and moon out together and thrown the cycle into disorder; and now sun and moon lay black together.

Bai Qu'er led Shen Mu in swift flight through the Milky Way, her ribbons and sash streaming out behind her, trailing across the river of stars until it kindled alight.

The people of Jingping, and the gods, demons and demigods of Yuandu, now beheld a sight stranger than any they had seen. The sky hung black and heavy; by rights it should have been day, the hour when the sun climbs and blazes, yet the sun was gone, and not a single star remained.

But just then, out of that black sky, countless lights of the Milky Way burst forth from the south; as though worked by some strange magic, star after star kindled from south to north, a sight to dazzle the eye.

"The stars in the sky have gone mad.

" People shook their heads. "First a sun in the dead of night, and now blackness in broad day.

Nothing so contrary to nature comes without a demon at its back — most likely some spirit is making mischief up in the heavens. " Shen Mu and Bai Qu'er went on stirring the Milky Way of the Heaven Diagram, waking formation after formation; the two flew on, joyous and swift, lighting the whole of it from south to north.

In ordinary times the deities who watched over the Heaven Diagram would never light the entire river of stars; a few thousand starlight formations was the most they ever kindled.

Now Shen Mu and Bai Qu'er lit the whole of it in one reckless sweep, an extravagance beyond words. With the Milky Way wholly ablaze, that shining band became a luminous broad river running the length of the sky from south to north; false as the spectacle was, there was a magnificence in it beyond the common run.

Suddenly the moon in the sky was lit once more, its light pure and bright. It was the fifteenth day; the moon was full.

The people of Jingping and the demigods wore strange expressions. The god who governed the moon seemed to have lost his wits: no sooner had the moon kindled than someone up there seemed to tug at a curtain, slowly, slowly drawing it over half the moon.

Then the moon's god seemed to recall that it was the fifteenth, and slowly, slowly pulled the curtain back, and the full moon appeared once more before countless gaping eyes.

Some in Jingping were sitting in their courtyards, cooling off over a cup of wine; now the wine ran from the corners of their mouths, and the cakes dropped from the mouths of those who had been eating, each cake still bearing the print of teeth. "Waaah—" A child burst into loud wailing, and at once his mother clapped a hand over his mouth; the young mother stared warily at the strange moon that had suddenly appeared in the sky, muttering charms under her breath.

The Heaven Diagram.

The Moon Palace.

Shen Mu and Bai Qu'er sat before the palace, braced on their hands, swinging their bare feet, chatting in fits and starts. Behind them the Dragon Qilin rolled its eyes in silence, thinking their talk utterly meaningless; yet the man and the woman were delighted, finding every word of it heavy with meaning, enough to set the heart stirring.

"Just like the Patriarch in the Western Lands, back then. " The Dragon Qilin laid its great head on the ground, stretched out a claw and drew on the floor — two little stick figures holding hands — and thought, "The Patriarch went just as soft in the head for a spell; the driest words turned sweet as honey.

. .

" In truth, whether for Shen Mu or for Bai Qu'er, the fate that bound them was strange enough already; but their own hearts were stranger still.

In Bai Qu'er's heart, Shen Mu was the elder brother who, on the night the catastrophe fell, had shielded her and given her hope; even after forty thousand years of his absence she could not forget the solid strength of his arms, could not forget the ringing force of his voice, could not forget his every word and gesture. And in Shen Mu's heart, Bai Qu'er was the Supreme Emperor's Sword Goddess, matchless in grace — not only the sword-washing woman who had saved him at the source of the Yong River, but the one who had carried the creed that human life outweighs Heaven into the age of Kaihuang.

She was strong enough, and gifted with a wisdom beyond others.

The feeling that stirred between them had each taking the other for the one they could lean upon.

If forty thousand years of history could be seen as a single picture, then surely it was a picture of two people leaning on each other — only one stood forty thousand years before, and the other forty thousand years after. The Imperial Preceptor of Jingping arrived with the scholars of Jingping, meaning to take the Heaven Diagram in hand; many demigod leaders who dwelt in Jingping also flew up into the sky, and powers of various heavens flew here as well to seek the source of the anomaly, among them Daoists from the Azure Cloud Heaven. The Imperial Preceptor's face was dark.

This Imperial Preceptor held the arts of divination to exacting standards, and the sun and moon above had always been crooked and askew, so that he itched to shoot the sun out of the sky.

But the countless affairs of Jingping left him no room for any designs upon the Heaven Diagram. Now even day and night had fallen into disorder, and he could bear it no longer. The Heaven Diagram had been made by the Daoists of the Azure Cloud Heaven in the first place; with the skies in disorder, these Daoists too flew up into the heavens, meaning to repair it.

More and more people came into the Heaven Diagram. Yuchenzi was the first to run to the Moon Palace; Shen Mu and Bai Qu'er hurried to their feet.

Bai Qu'er still bore the name of the Supreme Emperor's Sword Goddess, standing for the Southern Supreme Emperor — even Kaihuang, the Woodcutter, Di Yiyue and the rest were her juniors. Too abashed to be seen, she quickly left Shen Mu and went inside the Moon Palace. Yuchenzi had not seen her clearly, only that she was a woman, so he craned his head and peered into the palace. Shen Mu stopped him and said with a smile, "Yuchenzi, how are they treating you over on the Imperial Preceptor's side?

Did you give him my letter of recommendation? " Before Yuchenzi could answer, the Imperial Preceptor of Jingping walked up. "What letter of recommendation?

" Shen Mu turned and said with a smile, "I judged Yuchenzi a man of surpassing wit and rare talent, so I wrote a letter in my own hand and had him bring it to you, recommending him to serve in Jingping and make something of himself.

" The Imperial Preceptor was astonished.

"Daoist friend Yuchenzi, if you had a letter from my senior brother, why did you not produce it? " Yuchenzi smiled.

"If I could win the Imperial Preceptor's esteem and be given weight on that account, what need had I of Sect Master Shen's letter? " The Imperial Preceptor said to Shen Mu, "He sought me out and debated the Way with me for several days. I judge him a man of great talent, and so I have put him in charge of Jingping's external affairs, to treat with the various powers within Jingping's borders.

" Shen Mu was glad for him at heart and said with a smile, "With Yuchenzi here, the Imperial Preceptor will find his burden much lighter. " Yuchenzi peered into the Moon Palace again; Shen Mu's eyes flickered, and he said, "Yuchenzi, has the Heavenly Court sent people again to make a new Heaven Diagram?