Chapter 1321 — Demonic Miasma at the Mine's Depths

The white cat was the very one Consort Yan was forever cradling in her arms. On light, soundless feet, tail held high, it walked straight out before Shen Mu and, without so much as turning its head, said, "Heavenly Venerable Mu, I shall lead the way for you. This way, please.

" Shen Mu smiled and fell into step behind him.

The white cat, Little Seven, padded on unhurried, and said mildly, "This mining district is monstrously dangerous. Even one who has entered the Imperial Throne realm cannot hold out here for long. The men who come to this place to mine are all mighty among the gods, yet because they enter and linger too long, they are assimilated by the mineral veins. " Shen Mu heard the sound of quarrying and peered into the murk, and there was a divine being hewing divine stone from the cliff face.

All around the stone, strange runes were packed in close; on either side of the cliff stood mirrors, their light fixed on the divine stone, as though in fear the stone might flee.

The god gripped a pick and struck, blow after blow, ringing out clang, clang. Shen Mu watched a while, and saw that with every stroke the divine being's body grew a shade fainter, while he himself seemed to feel nothing whatever, still trying without pause to pry the stone loose.

The white cat Little Seven looked back; Shen Mu followed after, and saw yet more divine miners.

They too were like walking corpses, quarrying the divine ore for no one's sake but their own. Before each of them the rock face was daubed all over with uncanny runes, and beside him stood two mirrors, pinning the divine stone in their light.

They worked with their heads down, swinging their iron picks in dull tedium, clang, clang.

All at once one of them wept with joy, clutching a divine stone and shouting through his tears, choking out, "I've got one! I've got a divine stone! This is my third — I can finally go home!

" Whuff — an iron pick rose up behind him and drove into his skull, piercing clean through the crown of his head.

The god was dead where he stood! The one who had struck him down was himself a divine miner. Having finished the man off, he snatched up the Taishi divine stone that had fallen to the ground and said with a chuckling laugh, "The one going home is me!

I've had my fill of this place!

" Mad with joy, he raced for the edge of the mining district, crying, "Overseer! Overseer!

I've dug up a divine stone—" The other divine miners took no notice at all, still numbly hammering the rock wall. Shen Mu frowned. "Her Highness the Consort does after all have a good and merciful heart.

These miners are all condemned felons from the Great Prison of the Heavenly Court," said the white cat Little Seven. "They committed capital crimes, but Her Highness granted them this: mine three divine stones, and their guilt is pardoned, and they go home in silks and glory!

" Shen Mu studied the divine miners in the haze of the district.

"Their cultivation," he said, "will hardly sustain three divine stones.

" Little Seven glanced at the miners, contempt on his face. "Three stones?

To quarry a single stone without being assimilated already makes you an expert of the God-Slaying Platform realm. To quarry three and not die takes at least the Jade Capital realm.

Even a mighty one of the Skyreach realm, after three stones, will be half-phantom. He walks out of here a broken god.

" Shen Mu smiled a half-smile. "Can they truly leave? " Little Seven laughed coldly. "Her Highness keeps her word — would she cheat them? And yet, to this day, no one has ever left this mining district alive.

That fellow just now may be the first.

" They went deeper, and in the depths too there was the sound of digging; the gods down there had come to mine raw stone. Shen Mu saw that these miners wore fetters on their ankles, chained together.

They dragged their long chains through the district, raising mirror after mirror; the light in the mirrors scattered the mist and fell upon the rock walls. If some divine stone was caught in that light, these ragged miners, shackles clanking, would rush over in a fluster, bite their tongues till they bled, and paint runes on the rock around the stone with their own blood, to bind it in place, lest the stone take flight.

The Taichu divine stone has the wonder of having form but no substance; unlike other divine stones, having no material composition, it can slip through anywhere. Without runes to bind it and mirrors to pin it, such a stone cannot be dug out at all.

These men were the ones whose sole duty was to search for stones. "These are not the condemned of the Great Prison, but of the Heaven Prison; they have erred more, and their sins are heavier," said the white cat Little Seven. "Their cultivation and strength are greater too, and they must find a hundred divine stones before they may leave.

" Shen Mu watched the searchers running to and fro. "Has anyone ever left this place alive?

" The white cat shook his head.

"That is the strangeness of this vein.

To search for divine ore, to quarry divine stone — it seems the vein lays a curse on you: the more you find, the more you dig out, the faster you are assimilated. Look at that one over there.

" Shen Mu looked. An old, bent divine being was nearly all phantom now, and still he dragged his chains and held up his mirror, searching everywhere.

"He is a mighty one of the Skyreach realm, sovereign of the Batu Heavens.

For defying the Heavenly Court he was condemned to death and thrown into the Heaven Prison to suffer. He has found only sixty-two divine stones, and binding those alone has all but killed him. " The white cat showed an uncanny smile.

"And the best of it is — he does not know he is about to die. That is the beauty of the mining district: it keeps these wretches working themselves to death for Her Highness!

" He laughed. "And these are only divine stones. If a man finds a raw stone — merely finds it, and cannot bind it — that alone is enough to make him phantom in an instant!

Do you know why Xiu Hongsu does not dare come here? " Shen Mu shook his head. "She has seen a raw stone three times!

" the white cat said, laughing. "The first time, one glance nearly killed her; she fled this place in a panic, not daring to try to fix that raw stone in place. The second time, she prepared thoroughly and ventured deep into the district again — but it was the same as the first: she saw the raw stone, and knew all her preparations were useless, and fled for her life once more.

The third time, she begged a treasure from Her Highness, and only then dared to enter.

" Shen Mu asked, curious, "And then?

" A giggling rose from the white cat's throat, very uncanny indeed: "Heavenly Venerable Mu, do you not know? You have always had one very great weakness: you are too curious! That weakness will bring you many strange adventures — and sometimes it will bring you a death of utter misery! " Shen Mu nodded. "Someone once told me my curiosity would be the death of me.

But a man who has no curiosity will never advance.

A race with no curiosity will never advance either. So whether it profits me or harms me, I make my own choice. " The white cat said, "On her third entry she found that raw stone, and she used the body-guarding treasure Her Highness had given her, trying to fix the stone in place — only to find that Her Highness's treasure was itself phasing away at furious speed. Before she could pin down that strange raw stone, the treasure would have become nothing.

So Xiu Hongsu had no choice but to withdraw. Look there — that is the treasure Her Highness refined. " Shen Mu looked, and indeed he could make out the shape of a treasure: a flying shuttle, already phantom, a thing of form without substance. Even a treasure forged by a Heavenly Venerable could not withstand the strangeness of this place!