Chapter 977 — The Far Side of Nothingness

The golden desert was vast beyond measure; Shen Mu and Luo Wushuang journeyed on and on, and after more than ten days they still had not come to its end.

Many uncanny things happened in that desert. At night the sky was black and moonless: the moon of the Great Void Land had been knocked beyond the heavens by Shen Mu with the core of the Primordial Wood.

In the deep of the night, a woman's weeping drifted through the sands, circling them, now near, now far.

Luo Wushuang sent his primordial spirit out of his body and became a god-man a thousand zhang tall, his divine radiance streaming ten thousand zhang, and walked on with his blade in hand; only then did the sound come no closer.

"That must be the weeping of lonely ghosts and wild spirits.

" Shen Mu, somewhat doubtful, said, "Lonely ghosts and wild spirits in the desert, and they have not turned into Great Void monsters?

" In the darkness there were also shrill, desolate howls, and songs sweet and lilting.

There were no stars in the sky, nor any moon, and no way to tell direction. When the two meant to rest, ghost fires glimmered in the dark, drifting on ahead.

They followed the ghost fires; when they halted, the ghost fires halted; when they pressed forward, the ghost fires pressed forward.

When day came the ghost fires vanished. But Shen Mu took out the map drawn by Yue Tingge, and found that the path they had taken matched it exactly, without the smallest deviation, and he could not help clicking his tongue in wonder.

On the second night the ghost fires appeared again, leading them on their way.

On the third night, under the ghost fires' guidance, they came upon a city of extraordinary splendor in the desert. The city blazed with light in the darkness; even at the dead of night it was clamorous, the streets lined with stalls, the crowds thronging back and forth, and every one of them a giant ten zhang tall, some a hundred zhang and more. The ghost fire drifted into the city, touched ground, and became a giant, who respectfully invited them inside. The giants of the city were most hospitable and entertained them with great warmth.

Shen Mu opened the third eye in the center of his brow and looked about, seeing through the true forms of these Creators, and said nothing.

Whenever the giants toasted him, he refused nothing; Luo Wushuang had at first been wary, guarding against treachery, but seeing Shen Mu eat and drink and laugh and sport, he too let himself go.

Since coming to the Great Void he had met with nothing but trouble: driven to rebel against the Heavenly Court, and then defeated at Shen Mu's hands.

With so much weighing on his mind, he drank himself dead drunk. Shen Mu, sated with wine and food, bowed to the giants and said, "For your kind hospitality, gentlemen, if I one day achieve something, I will establish a Nether Capital in the Great Void, so that you may all pass on to your next lives.

" Hearing this, the giants beamed with delight. Their city lord was a giant a thousand zhang tall, who bade them all come into the palm of his hand to sing and dance.

They reveled long that night, and Luo Wushuang, drunk, fell asleep. When dawn came Shen Mu woke him.

Luo Wushuang rose, and only then discovered that he had been lying in the palm of a giant a thousand zhang tall, and that all around were dry bones. Startled and uncertain, he looked down from that height: within the city bones lay strewn across the open ground, not a living soul among them, and horror seized his heart.

"What was it we ate and drank last night?

" Shen Mu bowed to the giant's corpse and said, "Rest easy, gentlemen. What I promised yesterday, Shen Mu will surely fulfill one day.

Brother Luo, let us go, and continue on our way. " Luo Wushuang followed him out of this city of Creators, and looking back saw the wind rise and the sand rise with it, and soon the strange city was buried beneath the golden dunes.

Luo Wushuang remembered that when they had come upon the city the night before, sand had likewise been swirling up in the desert, and then the city had appeared. He was truly frightened, not knowing what it was he had wolfed down the night before.

On the seventh night they met an old woman blocking the road, a child in one hand, a basket on her other arm; she knelt and bowed to the ground, pushed the basket to Shen Mu's feet, and kowtowed to them both like one pounding garlic. Shen Mu said, "Rest easy, madam.

I accept what is in the basket. One day I will open a Nether Capital here, and give you all a place to go.

" The old woman raised her head, grinned wide, and then, leading the child, dissolved into cold wind and vanished into the darkness.

Luo Wushuang could not help but doubt, and asked, "Tyrant Body Shen, what is the meaning of these Creators appearing along the road? And why did you tell them you would establish a Nether Capital here?

" "Those are Creators who died in the desert. " Shen Mu picked up the basket, lifted the cloth that covered it, and said, "They died here with nowhere for their souls to go.

By day they must endure the scorching sun; only at night can they come out.

To build a Nether Capital is to give them a place to belong. " Luo Wushuang was still puzzled.

"The heavenly laws of the Great Void are incomplete.

When Creators here die, they all turn into Great Void monsters. Why have the ghosts of these Creators not become monsters?

" "Probably because their strength was too great. The city lord of the ghost city back there, and the old woman who blocked our path: when they died, their heroic spirits did not scatter, their divine consciousness did not disperse, and they could guard themselves, even their clansmen, from being transmuted by the Great Void.

The reason I said I would open a Nether Capital here is also that they are too strong. " Shen Mu lifted out what was in the basket. It was a tiny bottle, at whose mouth divine consciousness, nearly condensed into substance, flowed and sealed what lay inside. He laughed.

"Had I not agreed to them, I fear we would not have walked out of this desert alive. " Luo Wushuang felt a chill in his heart; he had not considered so much. "Then will Tyrant Body Shen help them build a Nether Capital?

" he asked.

"Your promise to build a Nether Capital was merely a stopgap.

To build a Nether Capital in the Great Void is as hard as climbing to heaven.

" Shen Mu examined the bottle.

"The reason they stopped us is precisely that I can build a Nether Capital.

" Luo Wushuang was baffled. Shen Mu did not explain. Hidden in the third eye of his brow was the Shen-Character Continent, forged from fragments of Tubo's horns; for others, building a Nether Capital was an impossible thing, but for him it was not impossible.

After all, both Mingdu and Fengdu were forged from Tubo's horns, and like the Shen-Character Continent, they were fragments of Tubo's horns.

Only, Shen Mu did not yet have the strength to turn Tubo's horn into a world, and he was not a divine son of the Nether Capital; if Shen Fengqing were here, it would be simple enough. He studied the divine-consciousness seal at the bottle's mouth.

The seal was peculiar, composed of divine consciousness; through it one could see that the bottle seemed to hold a vast ocean, and at the slightest shake the waters within surged, towering waves and furious swells, a fearsome sight. Shen Mu tried to send his vital essence into the bottle, but the divine-consciousness seal at its mouth repelled it. "Of course.

They are Creators; divine consciousness is what should be used.

" He stirred his divine consciousness, and it passed through the seal at the bottle's mouth.