Chapter 379 — Punishing on Heaven's Behalf
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 2 of 4
More than a year ago, when that snow disaster stopped so abruptly, it was because the Imperial Preceptor of Jingping had found the god who loosed the snow disaster and fought a great battle with him.
He was gravely wounded by that god, and that god too was wounded and bled. I treated the Imperial Preceptor's wounds, and I saw that god's blood; the energy in it is very like this drop.
" At the time, Shen Mu had used a sword pellet given him by the Silent Artisan as a bridge, linking the remnant divine ability and divine blood within the Imperial Preceptor's body, rousing the power of both so that they annihilated each other and eased the Imperial Preceptor's injuries; only then could he treat him. But that sword pellet had been worn down by this energy and shrunk greatly.
The sword pellet was what the Silent Artisan had given him to deal with the village headman, and also to let him comprehend loftier arts of refining treasures; Shen Mu had mourned its loss for a while. That time was deeply impressed on Shen Mu's memory, for Emperor Yanfeng had also been besieged by the old Daoist Master and the old Tathagata and nearly died, and he too had stepped in to heal him. At that time both the Imperial Preceptor of Jingping and Emperor Yanfeng had been reduced to cripples, utterly wretched; the Imperial Preceptor had taken his wife into hiding in a small valley, and his wife was with child. "The god slain by the Sun-Shooting Divine Cannon, that is the very god who brought the snow disaster!
" Shen Mu's eyes flickered bright and dim, and he said softly: "That too is retribution; he died as he deserved. In the snow disaster, those who suffered were all poor folk. Jingping's population fell by twenty or thirty percent at once; more died than in any of the wars.
" The three from Little Yujing said nothing. When the snow disaster broke out, the Imperial Preceptor of Jingping had gone to Little Yujing; the Qingyou Hermit had urged him and his wife to stay, wanting to keep them in Little Yujing and halt the reforms.
The immortals of Little Yujing believed that the reforms of the Imperial Preceptor and Emperor Yanfeng were the root cause of the snow disaster, and that the only way to avert it was to stop the reforms. Wang Muran and the others had heard something of this.
The Imperial Preceptor of Jingping had been despondent for some days, but in the end he left Little Yujing. Not long after, the snow disaster stopped, and the Qingyou Hermit, frowning, told them that the Imperial Preceptor was resolved on reform after all.
At the time, neither the Imperial Preceptor nor the immortals of Little Yujing had foreseen that matters would come to this pass; no one had foreseen that a god would fall, and that it would be the very god who had loosed the disaster.
What changes the slaying of this god by the Sun-Shooting Divine Cannon would bring to Jingping, no one could say, no one could foresee. Shen Mu washed the Heavenly Emperor's jade tablet with clear water a dozen times over, and still did not dare hold it in his bare hand; he mixed several kinds of medicine and washed and boiled it again, and only then put it away, still hanging it at his neck. Outside, the blood rain gradually stopped, the dark clouds in the sky dispersed, and the day brightened.
Shen Mu and the others walked out of the great hall, their bodies floating, avoiding the bloody water on the ground.
Outside, the sky was clear, cloudless for ten thousand li; the divine battle above Jingping seemed a dream, as though it had never happened. Sunlight spilled down from the west; the azure sky was washed clean, wonderfully transparent, and the air seemed fresher too. They stood in the air, looking around, when suddenly Shen Mu gazed north; there, a colossal thing floated in the sky, sailing toward them. That was the platform of the Sun-Shooting Divine Cannon, and it was actually afloat in the air, hurrying this way.