Chapter 1006 — That Senior's Home

" Shen Mu laughed heartily. "If you cannot find a man who joins the Woodcutter Sage Master's wisdom and the Martial Heavenly Master's devotion in one body, then put on women's dress soon and pick one of them and marry him.

Neither has taken a wife to this day, and the two of them are most likely waiting on your decision.

You are not only delaying yourself, you are delaying them. " Yan Yunxi was both ashamed and furious.

"I have not been defeated by you.

Go, quickly. Do not stay here to humiliate me.

" "Shu Jun, we should be going.

" Shen Mu called out.

Shu Jun hurried to his feet, and Lu Zheng laughed, "Big Head, come and drink another day. I will treat you to a radish.

" The radish tethered to the fishing rod above his head struggled without cease, but could not break free, and had no choice but to accept its fate. Shu Jun answered and came to Shen Mu's side.

"Do not go to the heavens beyond these.

" Yan Yunxi saw him out of the city. "With me it has been false flattery; over there it is true fawning. Go there, and you will only be humiliated. " Shen Mu was slightly taken aback, and doubt showed on his face. Yan Yunxi sighed. "In the Worry-Free Land it is we old generals who chafe with unwillingness.

The gods and demons born here have no feeling at all for the outside world; they dread the rumored might of the Heavenly Court beyond measure and do not wish to leave. There are clever ones among them who know that you have come to remonstrate by force of arms, to compel Kaihuang to march to war.

They will certainly hinder you.

" Shen Mu smiled and nodded. "To them, this place truly is a worry-free land.

" Yan Yunxi snorted and said coolly, "Worry-free land?

No such thing as a worry-free land exists in this world.

Go on.

Every day earlier you meet Kaihuang, your odds of victory rise by one part. His comprehension in the sword dao and divine abilities is simply too high; delay a single day, and it is possible he will comprehend Sword Twenty, which will only make matters worse for you.

" Shen Mu took his leave and departed.

The two came to Yulong Heaven. This Yulong Heaven of the Worry-Free Land was indeed greatly different from the twenty-nine heavens before it: here were songs and dances of peace, gold and jade blazing in splendor, and young gods and demons had used their visualization divine abilities to conjure all manner of wondrous scenes and holy realms, a beauty beyond the eye's power to take in. People sang and danced in those strange, gorgeous places, pools of wine and forests of meat, luxury carried to the utmost extreme. As Shen Mu and Shu Jun walked there, Shu Jun suddenly wept. Shen Mu asked in surprise, "What troubles you, God King?

" "In the years before my Creator clan perished, it was the same.

Seeing these things stirs the feeling, and I could not help but think of those days. " Shu Jun said with emotion, "When the Creators reached their most flourishing height, no one ever imagined that the calamity of extinction was near. " Shen Mu fell into thought. Divine beings were patrolling here and there. They were likely the newborn gods of the younger generation, who had heard that Shen Mu had come to the Worry-Free Land and had come searching for their traces.

Shen Mu's divine sense rippled, forming a divine-sense illusion, and they passed right before the gods who were hunting them, unharmed the whole way.

They came to Longbian Heaven. The extravagance here surpassed even Yulong Heaven. In the heavens below, the garrison commanders still trained troops and arrayed formations out of fear of the Creators' attack; here there was no trace of that anxious air at all, only enjoyment, pleasure, and abandon in a sea of desire. Shen Mu and Shu Jun did not linger, but pressed on to the next heaven, Pingyu Heaven.

"Little Shen.

" Qin Hanzhen and his wife were waiting at the entrance to Pingyu Heaven, and must have waited a long while.

Consort Zhen smiled.

"So Little Shen has come after all. Your father knows you best; he said you would surely come to probe Kaihuang's sword art.

" Shen Mu gathered up his robe and bowed to the ground before them. "When I don the red robe I am the Sacred Infant, and so I have shown the two elders scant courtesy.

I have come now to beg forgiveness.

" Qin Hanzhen hastily raised him. "We gave you no grace of upbringing, fulfilled no duty of teaching, gave you no soul.

How dare we call ourselves your father and mother? " Consort Zhen wiped the corner of her eye and smiled.

"I truly wish I had borne two sons. " Qin Hanzhen said, "On the road you have traveled you must have suffered many trials. His Majesty's old subordinates are loyal to him to the death, and they would surely have obstructed you in a hundred ways. I know it has been hard on you.

" Shen Mu was struck dumb.

Consort Zhen said, "Your father is Prince Zhen; it would not do for him to go down and meet those old fellows directly.

Their tempers are strange, and their talk is all sneering and innuendo. I told your father to go and find you, but he said those elders know their measure: they would surely strike at you, but would not take your life, at worst they would wound you, and there was no need for him to go. And if those old men drove you back, so much the better.

" Shen Mu was struck even dumber. Shu Jun chuckled.

"Those old subordinates of Kaihuang, loyal indeed, and obstructive in a hundred ways. " Qin Hanzhen led him toward the Prince Zhen Manor.

"You have come back so rarely.

I will take you to see the ancestors of the Shen family. We will not speak of your duel with Kaihuang; first let us enter the family gate.

Half the territory of this Pingyu Heaven belongs to the old Shen family.

" Shen Mu assented. He followed Qin Hanzhen and Consort Zhen, and as they went he saw grave mounds one after another, stretching as far as the eye could see. "These are all forebears of the old Shen family. " Qin Hanzhen said, "The Shen family knew that Kaihuang was resolved to migrate to the Worry-Free Land, and that it would cost him the hearts of his officers and men; and so, from the fourth generation onward, the Shen family took it upon themselves to fight the Creators. They are all here, generation after generation, all here.

Kaihuang had thirty-four children.

In the course of founding Kaihuang's Heavenly Court, thirty-three of them died in battle.

The ancestor of our own branch died in the campaign of the migration to the Worry-Free Land. He took his six sons and blocked the Heavenly Court's pursuit; his body was never found, and no one went to look for it. " Qin Hanzhen said, "He did not enter the ancestral tombs. Kaihuang's descendants of the third generation died on the way into the Great Void.

They went in first to scout the path, and only one came back alive to tell Kaihuang that all was safe.

By our generation, I am of the hundred and sixth, you the hundred and seventh, the old Shen family's numbers have grown very few, and every generation must shoulder the burden of guarding the Worry-Free Land. When the Creators come, the Shen family is the first to charge out, to be at the very front.

Your mother did not want you to come back out of worry over exactly this.

" He pointed to a grave ahead. "That one is your eldest uncle, my elder brother. He treated me very well in the old days. When I left the Worry-Free Land he saw me off; when I returned, he had already been buried here.

. . " "For the old Shen family, the Worry-Free Land has never existed. " He stood before that grave and bowed his head.

"Because for those who bear the surname Shen, the things we carry are too many, too heavy. "