Chapter 442 — The Heart Is Hell
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 2 of 4
Home and kingdom will not come again; the dead will not live again. So I hid myself away in the Desolate Ruins. " The Deaf Elder raised his head and looked at Shen Mu. He lifted a finger and tapped him on the heart. "Shen'er, harden your heart. Do not be like me, and only steel yourself after your kingdom is broken and your family dead—by then it is too late.
This is war. There is no right and wrong in it. On the battlefield, your heart is hell itself—it is Youdu! " Shen Mu's mind cleared in an instant. He bowed.
"I am taught.
" The Deaf Elder smiled. "Let this sin cling to us. When we are dead, let Tu Bo settle the accounts.
Our task is to send more enemies to meet Tu Bo first!
" Shen Mu laughed aloud.
"Send them to meet Tu Bo!
" Grey Immortal looked at the statues below. "What is wrong with these stone statues? " "I do not know.
They went still all at once. " Shen Mu was puzzled as well. "These statues are very powerful—their bodies turned to stone, hard beyond measure.
Their sacrifice failed this time; most likely they will try something else.
They will not give up so easily. " Suddenly the statues around the altar leapt up one after another and plunged into the abyss below. Shen Mu looked quickly: the statues were burrowing into the earth, and in a moment they were gone without a trace.
"This. . . " The three exchanged glances. Shen Mu looked at the blade lodged in the god statue's brow.
The divine blade shone with a brilliance beyond compare, as though a single stroke had been struck into the statue's forehead, very nearly cleaving it open. The blade's surface was impossibly smooth, without a trace of grain, brighter and more limpid than the brightest mirror in the world. The souls of Granny Zhu, the Imperial Preceptor of Jingping, the Silent Artisan, the Cook, and the others appeared flat as a plane within that mirror, battling the gods of Heaven, unable to see anything outside.
Suddenly grey mist came surging from no one knew where, filling the underground space. The three stood within it, and the mist only thickened, until mountains and rivers came pouring through it and drowned them. Not only them—even the god statue that had risen from the earth, and that gleaming long blade, were swallowed by the mist.
Only chains flickered in and out of sight. After a while the mist stopped moving. Around them now stood mountains of white bone adrift in a sea of fog, towering and immense; the underground space beneath the fog seemed filled with bone as well.
Countless bones crawled upon those peaks—a sight grim and dreadful.
"The Realm of the Living Dead!
" Shen Mu was shaken to the core. He looked deep into the fog sea.
At its farthest depth lay a dock—the only road into the Realm of the Living Dead! The Realm of the Living Dead and Fengdu had come to the depths of the Shenduan Mountains, overlapping this strange underground space!
"Who has Fengdu gold coins?
" Shen Mu asked quickly. Neither Grey Immortal nor the Deaf Elder had ever seen such a sight; both shook their heads. The Flood Dragon God was a deity of Heaven—naturally he could not possess Fengdu coins either.
Just then a battered, broken boat came sailing out of the fog sea. Shen Mu raised a hand and waved.
"Boatman, might you carry us a ways? " The oars creaked and groaned as the boat came on between the fog sea and the mountains of skulls. Shen Mu's blood raced; Grey Immortal and the Deaf Elder, by contrast, looked as though facing a great enemy, watching that broken boat in alarm.
After a moment the boat drew up before the palace, floating in front of the Flood Dragon God's enormous head, looking very small indeed. The boatman wore a straw rain cape and a bamboo hat that hid his face. The Flood Dragon God lowered his head.