Chapter 1000 — Putting Yourself in Another's Place

In the thirty-three heavens of Wuyou Township, everyone felt the consciousness of the Divine King Langwan surging toward them, and the voice into which her consciousness had condensed burst in their minds. That the Creators should come attacking in so vast and blatant a display, only to declare that they had come in the name of peace and meant to hold peace talks with Kaihuang, was altogether too uncanny.

These Creators advanced with overwhelming momentum; by every appearance they occupied an absolute advantage, and to crush Wuyou Township was for them the mere lifting of a hand. Under such circumstances, why would they sue for peace?

"It must be a trap—luring Kaihuang out so as to do away with him! " many conjectured. And indeed, the scene before them looked like a trap in every particular.

But from the Creators' ranks there flew out a goddess of matchless beauty.

She drew a single gentle line through the void that lay between Wuyou Township and the Creators' army, and behold, a platform took shape in the empty air, so that both the people of Wuyou and the Creators could see plainly everything that happened upon it.

The divine king's figure grew smaller and smaller, until at last she took on the stature of an ordinary mortal, and together with a man in a great scarlet robe who wore the face of a youth, she flew up onto the platform. A huge head hovered at their side, waiting in silence. At the Celestial Court of Kaihuang in Wuyou Township, Kaihuang mused for a moment, then said to Qin Hanzhen and Yan Yunxi, "You will come with me. Remember, you are not to call him by name; 'Venerable Mu' or 'the Holy Infant' will do.

" Qin Hanzhen and Yan Yunxi assented. Yan Yunxi smiled and said, "King Zhen is his natural father; he should not be too harsh. " Qin Hanzhen said nothing.

The three flew out of the Celestial Court of Kaihuang, came to that platform, and stood facing Shen Mu, the Divine King Langwan, and the Divine King Shujun. Shen Mu waved his hand, and a long table appeared, with six chairs placed two against two. Raising his hand, he smiled and said, "Venerable Shen, please take a seat.

" "Mu—" Qin Hanzhen opened his mouth to speak, but changed tack.

"Venerable Mu, after you.

" One by one they sat.

The platform stood in the central ground between the two forces, and beneath the eyes of the multitude everything upon it was observed with perfect clarity on both sides. Shen Mu and the Divine King Langwan sat down; the Divine King Shujun wedged himself into a chair as well, his great eyes rolling round and round as he sized up the three opposite.

The Divine King Langwan said, "Shen Ye, this is the Holy Infant of our Creator race. " Kaihuang inclined his head in acknowledgment.

"I have long heard of your great name.

" Shen Mu smiled and returned the greeting.

The Divine King Langwan continued, "And this is Shujun, a former Divine King of our Creator race. " Kaihuang said, "I have long heard of your great name. " The Divine King Shujun laughed.

"You have never heard my name. I have been dead for I know not how many tens of thousands of years.

" Kaihuang smiled faintly.

At his side Yan Yunxi laughed and said, "So the Holy Infant of the Creators is none other than the august Venerable Mu—how amusing.

Is Venerable Mu not of the human race?

" Shen Mu smiled without speaking. The Divine King Langwan swept her gaze about, incomparably lovely, and said, "The Holy Infant possesses the power of creation.

What does it matter whether he is human or Creator?

To make too much of the divisions of race, to let prejudice run too deep—it cannot help but reveal a narrow spirit and a petty heart. " Yan Yunxi smiled.

"That is not what the Divine King Langwan said back then. When we first came to the Other Shore and founded Wuyou Township, the Divine King Langwan and the Creator race regarded us as alien invaders and were determined to wipe us out to the last. " The Divine King Langwan shot her a glance; the pendant pearls of her phoenix crown swayed gently as she said, unhurried, "Every inch of land on the Other Shore, every zone of its starry sky, was wrought by the consciousness of our Creator race, cast in the blood of our clansmen.

The Creators suffered the disaster of extinction and fled to this place; it is our last soil for abiding and multiplying. Fellow Daoist Shen Ye came from far away, and my race treated him with courtesy and honor, and never deceived him—was that not so? " Kaihuang nodded. "In those days I followed the chart to this place and received the Divine King's generous hospitality; I am grateful beyond words.

" The Divine King Langwan said, "Fellow Daoist Shen Ye said his people were in distress and asked to borrow a place to shelter. The Creators, pitying that you shared our affliction, allowed you to borrow land in which to live. Fellow Daoist Shen Ye asked to borrow the land of a single sword-stroke, and we granted it—was that not so? " Kaihuang nodded in silence.

The Divine King Langwan said coldly, "We treated you with utter sincerity, and in return Fellow Daoist Shen Ye, with one stroke of his sword, severed half the territory of our Other Shore. Broad-minded my race may be, but not broad-minded to such a degree. We dealt with you in good faith, and Fellow Daoist Shen Ye played us for fools with his schemes. Put yourselves in our place—if someone came to sever half your Wuyou Township, would you consent? " Yan Yunxi said, "Even though His Majesty was cunning about that land of one sword-stroke, the Creator race for its part did not keep its promise; instead you led your people to attack, until both sides were plunged into the misery of war, and our Wuyou Township suffered the far heavier toll of death and wounds. . .

" The Divine King Langwan sneered. "Heavenly Master Zixi, do you hold no verdict in your heart as to right and wrong, straight and crooked?

" Yan Yunxi said, "The number of our people and gods and demons slain by your Creators is a hundred times, a thousand times the number of your own dead. Where are those victims to seek redress? Where is there still a straight and crooked, a right and wrong, to be spoken of? Divine King, our Wuyou Township has never wished to make an enemy of the Creators.

We came only to ask for a place to dwell.

His Majesty said so himself that year—we came to borrow land and live; he was waiting for a single person, and once that person arrived he would leave this place and return Wuyou Township to you. Why then must you be so set upon eradicating us? " Shujun said angrily, "You invaded my race, and you won't even permit us to resist? And you claim that to be right? " Yan Yunxi was on the point of answering, but Kaihuang raised his hand to stop her.

"Heavenly Master, the fault was ours in the first place; we cannot blame the Divine King. " He looked at Shen Mu. "Does the Holy Infant have words to say? " Shen Mu said, "We are all fallen souls adrift at the far ends of the earth, and to oppress a fellow fallen soul is the one thing that ought not to be.

" Qin Hanzhen coughed once and said, "Venerable Mu is of the human race; he ought to think for the human race and put himself in the place of the Celestial Court of Kaihuang as its circumstances stood then.

" Shen Mu said evenly, "I, too, should like to put myself in your place. I simply cannot recall a single occasion when you put yourselves in anyone else's. When the Celestial Court of Kaihuang was destroyed, its people were scattered and driven from home; they died, they fled, and of every hundred but one survived. Those survivors fled to Jingping. Did Kaihuang ever give those people a thought? No, I wager he never did. Were those people not human? Were their descendants not human?

Ah, yes—they were the castoffs of the gods. " He laughed coldly.

"I used to believe that Huangxu were the castoffs of the gods. Only later did I learn that Huangxu were not; Jingping were the castoffs.