Chapter 448 — Night Raid
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 4 of 4
He looked about him: the buildings of the Western Lands were very different from those of Jingping, the customs and manners all their own, and strangest of all were the houses, timber-framed round buildings, many of them bearing inscribed plaques, and on the plaques hung idols. Shen Mu asked around, and only then learned that these idols served to keep the houses from being summoned to life by others' sorcery. For the arts of the Western Lands followed the same road of all things having spirits and all things having gods; if a man of divine powers worked his art and the house suddenly stood up and ran off, would the whole family, old and young, not be left to drink the northwest wind?
So long as an idol was enshrined on a house, it could not be summoned away by a man of divine powers.
Shen Mu blinked: a great host of houses standing up and going to war with one another, now that would be a spectacle indeed. But could an idol truly guarantee that a house would not be carried off by a man of divine powers?
An old man told him, "There are many shrines on the mountains too, to hold down the mountain spirits.
And there is a shrine altar in every river, lest those men of divine powers carry them off. But these mountains and waters all have owners.
" Shen Mu looked all around, clicking his tongue in wonder; the mountains rolled away one after another.
He had thought the mountains of the Western Lands must long ago have been leveled by men of divine powers, yet the Western Lands were still green hills and clear waters, a pleasant country. "Why do the mountains and waters here all have owners?
" Shen Mu asked.
"And who are their owners? " "The Lady of the True Heaven Palace, of course, and certain men of divine powers from these parts, and other sects besides," the old man said.
"Not only the mountains and waters have owners; even the flowers and grasses, the trees, all have owners, and you must not touch them lightly.
Otherwise you could sell yourself and still not pay for the damage.
" Even as he spoke, the ground trembled faintly; the crowd around them fell into a fluster and hastily made way.
Shen Mu looked toward the sound and saw a tree-man, transformed from a towering tree, striding along on his feet, and on the tree stood a woman holding a scroll, which she suddenly unrolled, crying in a loud voice, "A fugitive from the Wilderness Ruins has fled into the Western Lands! By order of the True Heaven Palace, this villain is to be hunted down!
Somebody, hang up the portrait! "