Chapter 237 — The Land That Must Not Be Entered
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 1 of 4
Atop the towering Soul Boat, amid the giant pillars, Shen Mu spread his six arms and gripped the pillars, like a giant undergoing punishment, gazing at the other world that had appeared before him. Behind him a waning moon drifted high in the sky, and now and then blazing meteors fell, striking all around the Soul Boat and lighting up the fathomless dark.
Behind that light seethed a chaos of monsters, jostling and clamorous.
But before him lay a pure land the darkness had never invaded — cut off from the world, silent, mysterious, brimming with the unknown.
It was hard to imagine that such a tranquil place could exist in the Wasteland.
Ahead lay a vast forest and unbroken ranges of mountains; farther still the earth broke off abruptly, as though it had been scooped hollow, and beyond a sea of cloud-wreathed peaks stood a city suspended in midair, like the dwelling place of immortals.
All around was a golden radiance of cloud; a sun blazed in the sky, palaces rose towering into the heavens, and at the cloud's edge floated peak after peak, their summits gleaming gold. Deep within the clouds stood towering god statues, like emperors guarding their own domain.
Colossal machines floated in the air, a thousand zhang above the ground, turning in utter silence; countless formations were branded into dark iron and dark gold, assembled into mechanisms of immense complexity, their power made substance, become streams of light that linked to the city, linked to the sky. But.
.
. all of it had been destroyed. Shen Mu was stunned.
Before him lay a shattered Wuyou Township: the resplendent sky city had collapsed and split apart, the cloud-piercing palaces were riddled with holes, the floating mountains were broken to pieces, rubble great and small drifting in the air and colliding in the sea of clouds; the towering statues too had been struck by some immense force, missing arms and legs, leaning askew.
At the center of that sun in the sky was a great black spot that had swallowed more than half of it, leaving only a golden halo around its rim, like a ring of gold.
The city above the clouds had become ruins; the giant machines standing in the clouds were damaged as well, their shattered components drifting quietly around them. A few of the colossal machines still turned, sustaining the barrier of Wuyou Township. Not far ahead of the Soul Boat, a plaque of enormous size stood slanting in the forest like a toppled monument, bearing the two characters Xiaobao. The plaque was broken.
A thread of grief suddenly rose in Shen Mu's heart; it grew with mad speed, and in an instant filled him entirely. In this world there was no more Wuyou Township.
No more place free of care. The giant standing on the Soul Boat, gripping pillar after pillar, as though helplessly enduring the punishment of Heaven, bowed his head.
He knelt, tears striking the hard ground drop by drop.
The homeland that had haunted his dreams was shattered, was gone. All this long searching, the homeland he had pictured in dreams, the kin at home, the neighbors, the friends — all at once, with the appearance of the world before him, they shattered and were extinguished, like a picture drawn in sand, scattered to dust and smoke at a breath of wind.
He had no home now; no mother in his imaginings waiting for her son's return, no stern father in his imaginings.
.
.
The dream had ended; he was still an orphan raised by the old, the weak, the sick, and the maimed.
His homeland had been destroyed.
The Dutian Demon King raised his head and gazed through the lattice window at the giant kneeling among the pillars.
The giant seemed wrapped in a hazy moonlight, his head bowed deep; only the heaving of his shoulders could be seen.