Chapter 211 — Knocking at the Gate of the Firmament
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 2 of 4
" Shen Mu held his breath and steadied his spirit, once more rousing the Three Elixirs of the Mystic Body; his spirit transformed into the form of the Star Lord of Zhen, human head and serpent body, hands cradling the phantom of a scroll, and behind him a gateway slowly emerged.
Shen Mu turned around, his spirit-soul quivering, and uttered a strange sound, the very phrase of the Youdu tongue the Demon King of Dutian had taught him, which the Demon King called the Gate of Kunyuan. Whether its true meaning was indeed the Gate of Kunyuan he could not say, but the phrase he had not learned wrong.
He recited the words upon the gate, and all at once the Gate of Kunyuan slowly opened, revealing a boundless space of darkness.
Shen Mu was startled; he circled the gateway once and saw only his own courtyard. The gateway was incredibly thin, seeming to have no thickness at all; from where he stood he could see only an exquisitely slender sheet of darkness standing there.
Yet standing before the gate and looking in, he saw an endless space of darkness. "Is this a gateway that connects to another world?
" Dazed, Shen Mu reached out a hand and cautiously thrust it into the gate; nothing unusual happened.
"Is this the mystery of the Five Luminaries realm? Do others in the Five Luminaries realm have this gateway?
Has anyone opened it, gone in? " He hesitated.
What would he meet upon entering this gateway? Could this darkness be the legendary Youdu? Once inside, would he still be able to come back alive?
Just then Shen Mu saw a thread of light come from the dark world beyond the gate: a man and a boat, a dim lantern hung at the prow, its light faint and ghostly, and the little boat was drifting toward him.
Beneath the lantern at the prow sat an old man fashioning paper figures and paper horses; the lamplight flickered, and all was very still. He tried to poke his head through the gateway, but saw the old man raise a hand and take down the lantern, holding it up to shine toward him; the moment the light fell upon Shen Mu, he felt his soul fixed in place, unable to move.
The old man on the boat hung the lantern back at the prow; the light no longer fell on Shen Mu, and only then did he breathe easy.
Suddenly Shen Mu shuddered with cold; he looked down and saw that he was standing on the boat, at the old man's side!
The little boat drifted and turned about; Shen Mu looked back and saw in the distance a gateway with light shining from it, and before that gateway he himself stood, craning his head to peer this way!
Before the gateway his body seemed frozen, utterly motionless.
If he was still there before the gateway, then who was this here?
He looked all around; darkness on every side, with only the lantern's glow on the boat and the light from the Gate of Kunyuan.
His heart went cold. This old man on the boat, fashioning paper figures and paper horses, had shone his lantern and drawn his soul away, seized it onto the boat!
The him before the gateway was now an empty shell without a soul!
"I am not yet dead. Why seize my soul?
" Shen Mu asked the old man.
The old man turned a deaf ear and went on intently fashioning his paper figures and paper horses.
Shen Mu looked back; the Gate of Kunyuan was farther and farther away, and dread grew in his heart. The Demon King of Dutian had indeed concealed something; that gateway was likely not the Gate of Kunyuan at all, or this old man would not have taken his soul!
He sprang from the boat.
The gateway was not yet too far off; perhaps he could still return to it and get back into his own body!
But when he leaped from the boat he did not fall into water as he had imagined; beyond the boat was darkness, boundless darkness.
He was like a drowning man, arms and legs flailing, but there was nothing to take hold of; he could only watch himself sink on and on, falling into deeper and blacker darkness.