Chapter 317 — The Return of the Soul
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 2 of 4
These people walked with heads bowed, silent and soundless, through the scene of annihilation, like walking corpses; each step seemed to cost them immense effort, yet still they pressed forward, as though something ahead drew them with fatal attraction. And at the very front, many had already reached the crater at the summit, and leapt, uncomprehending, into the volcano, where they were swallowed in an instant by the magma surging skyward! Besides this great volcano, there were thousands of other volcanoes on this landmass, and besides this landmass there were thousands of continents.
How many people were trudging through annihilation and casting themselves into the volcanoes — surely the number could not be counted at all.
"These people are not people; they are ghosts! " Shen Mu was shaken to the core.
He saw that these were the souls of the dead, without bodies, and not all of them the souls of humans: there were souls of strange beasts, of the demon races, of dragons and phoenixes, even of heavenly demons. The treasure ship threaded on its side among volcano after volcano; countless souls walked among them. One volcano after another erupted, red magma soaring skyward, the sound deafening.
Ban Gongcuo's face was ashen; he murmured in a trembling voice, "The Yellow Springs.
. . the Yellow Springs.
. .
" Shen Mu was briefly baffled, not knowing what the fellow meant. "What Yellow Springs?
" "They are going down into the Yellow Springs! " Ban Gongcuo suddenly screamed himself hoarse: "This is the world we go to when we die!
We are on Tubo's horns!
" Shen Mu gave a sudden shudder, and at last understood Ban Gongcuo's words: the ship beneath them was sailing between Tubo's two horns, and these "continents" were no continents at all, but cross-sections of Tubo's two horns!
Tubo has nine coils, and "nine coils" means nine bends: Tubo's two horns are crooked as a river, twisting through nine turns. And Tubo's two horns are also called the Nine-Bend Yellow Springs — two Yellow Springs.
Shen Mu's scalp went numb.
"Yellow Springs" was indeed rather apt, for these volcanoes kept erupting, magma spanning the heavens, lighting up layer upon layer of land, so that from afar they must look like yellow or red rivers.
Only, these two horns were a little too vast!
Was this still a god?
"Heh heh, heh heh.
.
.
" Ban Gongcuo had clearly suffered some deep hurt in the past; a touch of frenzy showed on his face now as he muttered, "This is the truth I once saw. . .
I cannot die, I absolutely must not die; whoever loves death may have it, but I must live. .
.
" The treasure ship at last passed through the landmass and sailed clear of that place. Shen Mu looked back, and could finally take in the whole of those two horns: magma spewed from landmass after landmass, joining them one to another, each landmass forming the firmament of the one beneath it.
Countless landmasses joined in this fashion made nine warping turns, like the Nine-Bend Yellow Springs seen from afar.
Countless dead souls, drawn in from who knew how many worlds, came onto these lands and leapt into the Yellow Springs.
And yet this was only the two horns of the immeasurably vast Tubo!
He looked down. No one knew how long those horns were; they plunged deep into the darkness, their end beyond sight. Below the horns must lie Tubo's head — in legend he has a bull's head, and the horns are a bull's horns — yet for all Shen Mu's eyesight, he could not see where that head might be.
Shen Mu shrank his neck and inwardly resolved: he must never sign the Pact of Tubo at random. Sign the Pact of Tubo heedlessly, and should it take effect, he might never be able to turn the tables again. His heart darkened; and yet his father had signed the Pact of Tubo.
The Pact of Tubo, once signed, could hardly be undone.