Chapter 490 — Years of Iron and Blood
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 1 of 4
"This..." Shen Mu hesitated. That he had awakened this divine bone by spirit-calling with the help of the Xuanwu Pearl was nothing but coincidence; only because a remnant of deathless will lingered in the bone could it speak once roused, and even recover the memories of its former life.
If he were to awaken the other corpses fallen there, those bones likely held no such deathless will; even roused by him, they would be no more than walking skeletons.
And besides, awakening divine bones drained mana enormously. Even with a spirit treasure like the Xuanwu Pearl, to wake so many divine bones at once was more than Shen Mu could bear.
By his grasp of the Myriad Gods Natural Art, the tallest sand-dune "giant" he could awaken stood less than a zhang high; anything taller was beyond his power.
With the Xuanwu Pearl he could magnify his insight that all things have spirit, that all things have gods, sharpening his own perception. Yet to awaken so many divine bones at once would cost him beyond reckoning, and might even bring peril.
The divine bone "looked" at him, faint flames flickering in its hollow sockets, as if brimming with expectation. That was an ancient warrior longing to meet his comrades-in-arms again, to be reunited with them once more, and it was hard for anyone to refuse.
Shen Mu's face broke into a smile. "We can give it a try," he said.
He took out the Xuanwu Pearl, roused the Myriad Gods Natural Art, and through the pearl released his insight into all things and all nature, casting the spirit-calling art.
After a moment, a massive skeleton lurched to its feet. The True God Chiliarch was wild with joy, throwing his arms around his comrade's skeleton, weeping and laughing at once.
"General." The skeleton was muddled, seeming to hold little consciousness, and could utter only that single word.
Yet even that one word moved the True God Chiliarch beyond measure, as though he had returned to the years of the Supreme Emperor.
Shen Mu awakened more and more bones of gods and demons. His face turned sallow, and countless voices seemed to clamor back and forth in his head, so that he could barely gather his thoughts.
The True God Chiliarch, together with the many awakened bones of gods and demons, whipped up a sky-wide cloud of yellow sand. He spent his final reserves of mana to rouse the fire of the true god and melt the sand.
In the air the yellow sand became seething lava, then hardened again into great boulders.
The True God Chiliarch was building their tomb. Countless bones of gods and demons used these boulders to raise their crypts, and one by one the graves took shape across the desert.
When Shen Mu awakened the last corpse, he finally collapsed, exhausted.
Across that desert, the many towering bones of gods and demons had finished the last of the tombs. They stood before their graves, awaiting their general's final words.
The True God Chiliarch, too, had burned up his last mana. Leaning on a battered banner, he looked at the comrades who had died with him.
The wind blew the banner.
The tattered flag streamed in the wind with a fierce, snapping sound, as though he had returned to those years of iron and blood.
"May there be a next life."
The True God Chiliarch did not open his mouth, yet a voice resounded, like the clash of metal and the beating of war drums.
"May there be a next life, when we are reunited, and make war upon heaven and earth once more!"
His voice rolled out across the desert as he cried to his soldiers, his comrades: "The Supreme Emperor will return, and he will lead us once more to slaughter our foes! Now, all of you soldiers, you may rest!"
"General, we shall meet again in the next life!" came the voice of one divine bone.
One after another, the bones of gods and demons walked into their tombs, laid their battered weapons at their sides, and lay themselves down, as though at a single blast of the horn they would leap up, seize their arms, and go on fighting.