Chapter 320 — A Family Matter
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 2 of 4
So that last road could only be, in the last extremity, to urge the emperor to send his armies against the steppe and raze the Golden Palace of Loulan; the Heaven Sacred Cult alone had no such power.
The Dragon Qilin walked on. Shen Mu called the two white bats to him and healed their wounds; when their injuries had mended, and under the two white bats' guard, Shen Mu soared into the high air to survey the lie of the land.
After a moment he descended, frowning slightly: he had not seen the Yong River. Had he seen the Yong River, he could have fixed his position; without it, the marks on the Wasteland's geographical chart alone made it very hard to determine exactly where they stood.
They traveled a hundred-odd li eastward, and Shen Mu flew up again, continuing to study the terrain and compare it with the Wasteland chart in his memory.
So it went, again and again, until at last, by the run of the mountains and rivers, he made out their position. "We are near the Western Heaven Palace, and indeed not far from the Western Land.
" Having determined their direction, Shen Mu breathed a sigh of relief, descended, and told the Dragon Qilin the route. They went another hundred-odd li east; Shen Mu judged they were near the Western Heaven Palace marked on the Wasteland chart, and was looking about when he suddenly saw the road grow steep.
A vast expanse of land thrust slantwise into the Wasteland like an enormous disc, rising far higher than the peaks beside it, as though this land had flown in from beyond the heavens and plunged into the Wasteland!
The Dragon Qilin halted.
Shen Mu looked toward that vast land: the jungle there was dense, yet through the green shade he could still make out the ruins of grand buildings. And where the ground was cracked, a metallic gleam showed through: deep beneath this land were buried things made of metal, though what they were he could not tell. There were also towering statues of gods, some standing, some fallen.
It took them some time to skirt this land, and then they were struck dumb: before them lay a basin strewn everywhere with slabs of land, some thrust into the ground, some overturned to reveal mountain-shaped undersides, some split into several pieces; on some slabs whole ruins were preserved, the ruins of cities, with strange beasts moving among them, and from time to time a powerful beast lord let out a heart-stopping roar, threatening any creature that dared approach its domain. Where these slabs of land had broken apart, long metal structures were exposed, uneven in height like the pipes of a sheng.
When wind passed through the basin, these metal structures gave off a humming, like music, and it was unexpectedly pleasant to hear. "How could so great a civilization have fallen to such a state?
" Shen Mu gazed into the distance, then drew back his eyes. This must be a stable region, hard for the darkness to invade, and so the number of strange beasts was enormous; one must walk in such a place with the greatest care.
To go around would likely cost them an extra day, so they could only press on.