Chapter 403 — The Old Man's Sudden Change
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 1 of 4
On the road back from the Wilderness Ruins, Shen Mu returned to Yincan Village, only to find the place had become the domain of plume-crested fire pheasant dragons — a clamorous, murderous horde, all but ready to go to war with millions of Tianyu clansmen.
Shen Mu killed the one making the loudest racket. Once he had roasted it, the fire pheasant dragons quieted down and dared not run wild again.
There was no one else in the village, and the Pill Master had not come back either. Shen Mu had no choice but to leave a note telling whoever returned to go to Granny Zhu's estate for the New Year, and only then did he take to the road again.
Mishui Pass.
The army garrisoning that mighty pass stared dumbly as millions drew near. The defenders numbered only a few tens of thousands — when had they ever seen a sight like this?
Fortunately Ling Yuxiu stepped forward and explained what these people had come for, and only then did the commanding general order the gates opened and let them through.
Feeding so many was a problem. The Tianyu clansmen ate only vegetables and touched no meat or fish; along the way they had eaten nothing but fruit, honey, and the roots and stems of plants and flowers, and their appetites were small.
Even so, the food consumed by millions upon millions was a problem of no small size.
Shen Mu questioned Yu Zhaoqing and learned that in the Tianyu World these people ate the fruit of the pill tree. The fruit of that plant was itself a spirit pill, and yet it was heavy with water, translucent and crystalline as gemstone, and carried the virtues of a spirit pill besides: one fruit, and a man could go days without food or drink.
Ordinary fruit could fill their bellies too, but it did not taste good.
"The pill tree... a plant that bears spirit pills for fruit. The Wilderness Ruins have none, and neither does the Jingping Kingdom."
Shen Mu asked after the properties hidden within the pill tree's fruit, and Yu Zhaoqing described them at length. Shen Mu tried his hand at refining spirit pills several times, and Yu Zhaoqing tasted every one, shaking her head at them all.
At last Shen Mu refined a whole furnace of Azurite Pills, spirit pills the blue of the sky, holding water vapor within, and it had cost him a great deal of thought.
Yu Zhaoqing tasted them and praised him: "The flavor is already five or six parts of the way there."
Shen Mu breathed out in relief and passed the pill formula to Yu Zhaoqing, telling her to seek out the pill masters among the Tianyu clan and have them refine it themselves, so that they would no longer have to wander everywhere gathering wild fruit to eat.
"These Tianyu folk are fit only for the warm lands of the south. That is what suits them."
Shen Mu's head ached over how to settle the Tianyu clan, and in the end he decided that a headache of this kind was best handed to Emperor Yanfeng — let Emperor Yanfeng do the aching.
At Mishui Pass a tower ship rose slowly into the air and sped swiftly toward the capital, bearing Shen Mu's memorial.
Shen Mu, for his part, summoned Lord Dragonkeeper within the pass. Lord Dragonkeeper revealed his true form, and his vast, towering body carried millions of people in a grand swim down the Yongjiang River — a spectacle of immense magnificence.
Yan Jingjing clicked her tongue in wonder. In the Xi Spring she had never seen a water creature of Lord Dragonkeeper's monstrous size, and she could not help her curiosity.
When they came to the south of Shuzhou, Shen Mu had the Tianyu clansmen encamp in the hills and woods outside Shuzhou City, while he himself took the girls straight to Granny Zhu's estate. Yu Zhaoqing followed him there as well, to await Emperor Yanfeng's decree.