Chapter 421 — The Cauldron Shakes the Mountains and Rivers
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 2 of 4
Tuxing Feng jumped up, overjoyed, crying, "You're still alive? I thought you'd died! Little Qing, you were close with the last Human Sovereign — did that bastard finally croak?"
Qingyou Shanren looked awkward, and hastily pointed at the village chief. "Isn't the old Human Sovereign standing right there?"
The village chief wished the ground would swallow him. But Tuxing Feng and the others burst out laughing and crowded forward: "We recognized you long ago — we just wanted to play with you a bit."
"You always summoned us here, but we've missed those years we spent at your side!"
"To have fought shoulder to shoulder with you in our lifetimes is our greatest honor!"
...
The village chief's face suddenly streamed with tears. He choked and could not speak.
Emperor Jingping's Preceptor felt a deep swell of emotion. The Sword God of the previous generation had so many true friends — that was something he could never attain.
Old Tathagata and the Old Dao Master arrived, and everyone made merry again.
"The human race still flourishes — no wonder they dominate the land." The Kun King saw that the human masters were the most numerous; all the other races combined could only just match them, and perhaps even fell short. He could not help but sigh inwardly.
The Snake Immortal looked at Shen Mu. "Human Sovereign, you've brought out the Human Sovereign Seal this time. What is your command?"
The Snake Immortal was a woman. Her name made her sound like a willow that had grown sentient, but in truth she was a green serpent with the bloodline of the Azure Dragon. No one knew how long this Snake Immortal had lived. Though she called herself old, she looked young. Humans at most lived some eight hundred years, while the lifespans of other races exceeded that limit. How long the Snake Immortal had truly lived, Shen Mu could not tell — but most of the masters who had come at his invitation had once fought alongside the village chief, so none of them could be young.
Of the other four Immortals, the Hedgehog, Weasel, and Rat Immortals were men, and the Fox Immortal a woman.
"To intercept the High Heavens."
Shen Mu looked around the room. "Senior brothers, senior sisters, you must have seen the stone statues and treasures scattered across Jingping by now. The gods of the High Heavens will come to release the calamities sealed within those treasures — stirring up the heavens, earthquakes, landslides, tsunamis, volcanic eruptions, thunderstoms, tempests, all of it. I fear even your own peoples will struggle to survive."
Frowns tightened on every face. On their way here they had indeed noticed many stone statues, and if the calamity truly erupted as Shen Mu said, none of their races would escape destruction.
Emperor Jingping's Preceptor said, "Before I came, I brought along one of the treasures that emerged from underground. Honored guests, look."
He produced a Taotie pouch, opened it with the greatest care, circulated his mana, and lifted out a round cauldron of crimson red, setting it down upon the ground with extreme caution.
Everyone crowded around to examine it. The great cauldron was vermilion, flames spilling from its mouth, blossoms of fire bursting forth from time to time to float around it. Within a radius of some hundred paces, the air shimmered. The cauldron had a seal — a massive lid clamped tight over its mouth, and around the lid ran line after line of sealing runes.
Within the cauldron seemed to lie limitless, terrifying energy, ceaselessly quaking. The great hall shook with it, the glazed tiles on the roof rattling with a regular clatter. The whole estate trembled, and the trees swayed gently.
Emperor Jingping's Preceptor was exceedingly careful, as though he feared to rouse the feral energy inside.
"This is the Earthquake Cauldron."