Chapter 265 — Two Heroes of Jingping
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 3 of 4
Shen Mu asked: "Have you found word of the Imperial Preceptor of Jingping?"
"We have."
Duanmu Jing assented.
Shen Mu called Emperor Yanfeng and summoned the Dragon Qilin. "We leave the city."
Emperor Yanfeng said hurriedly: "I have not eaten my fill."
Shen Mu laughed. "I will take you to find the Imperial Preceptor of Jingping, and find you something to eat on the way."
Emperor Yanfeng hastily set down his steamed bun, his face grave, and followed silently behind him. After a moment he said: "I wish to ask him where he has been all these days!"
Shen Mu lifted him up and set him on the Dragon Qilin's back, then sprang up himself and stood upon the beast's brow.
The Dragon Qilin trod upon fiery clouds and raced away. Emperor Yanfeng, buffeted by several blasts of cold wind, sneezed again and again; then Shen Mu's whole body suddenly blazed with roaring flame, and only then did the emperor feel some relief.
The Dragon Qilin ran for two days. Shen Mu signaled the strange beast to descend, and they came to a stretch of mountains where the air was thick with heat. Radiance rose from the valley, steaming upward without cease and scattering into the air.
"Divine light!"
Emperor Yanfeng's face was grave. He sniffed the air. "The smell of blood. There is divine blood in this valley!"
Shen Mu led him into the valley, and indeed they saw a lake of blood. Beside the blood lake stood a wooden hut, and behind the hut ran a small river, its water warmed by the divine blood. A woman in a snow-white sable cloak, her belly slightly rounded, stood by the riverbank.
At her feet was a middle-aged man holding a wooden paddle, beating clothes upon a flat stone. Beside him sat a bamboo basket filled with washed garments.
Shen Mu leapt down from the Dragon Qilin's back. Emperor Yanfeng climbed down too, but his footing failed him and he fell flat with a splash, arms and legs spread wide upon the ground.
The man and woman heard the sound and turned to look. Shen Mu, smiling, walked toward them.
"You might have given me a hand!" Emperor Yanfeng scrambled up and hurried after him.
The middle-aged man set down his paddle, wiped his wet hands on his lapel, and rose to stand beside the woman. His face was somewhat pale. He smiled at Shen Mu and the emperor as they approached.
"Imperial Preceptor of Jingping!"
Emperor Yanfeng's steps quickened. He was about to rush forward and demand an accounting, when he suddenly noticed blood seeping from the Imperial Preceptor's chest and his exceedingly poor complexion. His heart was greatly shaken, and tears fell. "My Imperial Preceptor of Jingping, how have you come to such a pass?"
The Imperial Preceptor came forward to meet the emperor, and noticed too that his cultivation was wholly gone. Sorrow stirred in his heart. "Has Your Majesty not come to the same?"
The woman said hurriedly: "You are wounded yourself—do not let your heart be thrown into disorder."
Shen Mu was astonished. The two strongest men of Jingping had both been gravely wounded!
"The Cult Master of Heaven Sacred pays his respects to the wife of the Imperial Preceptor of Jingping," Shen Mu said, saluting the woman.
The Imperial Preceptor's wife, seeing the emperor's head bare and shaven, was puzzled, and said hurriedly: "Do not stand about—come inside and sit."
"After I left Little Jade Capital, I wished to investigate the source of the calamity, and then I encountered a god holding a gourd."
In the little wooden hut, the Imperial Preceptor of Jingping said calmly: "The calamity was released from his gourd. He was wounded; I was wounded more gravely still. And with my wife with child, we have lived here for a time."
He spoke lightly, but one could well imagine that battle must have been perilous beyond measure!
Emperor Yanfeng looked at the wounds upon him, then turned to Shen Mu with a questioning look.