Chapter 514 — Greed Befogs the Heart
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 1 of 4
Shen Mu was startled; he turned his head to look at Chi Xiu, whose neck had twisted a full turn and buried itself in its feathers, pretending to have seen nothing. "That Chi Xiu could become one of Yama's trusted intimates is no unearned reputation.
To resolutely see nothing of Yama's humiliation—that is the true art of preserving oneself. Anyone else would long ago have rushed into the ruins to rescue Yama. " Shen Mu sighed inwardly.
To rescue Yama was, to be sure, a show of loyalty, but it also meant witnessing Yama's shame and tarnishing the image of Yama as brilliant and invincible; it was merit and fault at once, and you never could tell whether, in Yama's heart, the merit outweighed the fault or the fault the merit. Better to pretend you had seen nothing at all. Besides, the collapse of the Shen King Hall could not possibly have hurt Yama; so a show of loyalty was worse than none at all. "Yama said I could enter the darkness of the Waste without being harmed by it.
Is that true or false?
" He hesitated. Entering the darkness was a matter of life and death; if the claim were false, he would go in and die on the spot, and he did not dare try.
From childhood the villagers of Yincan Village had taught him that in the darkness of the Waste dwelt a great terror, and that one must never enter it. And in the course of growing up Shen Mu had witnessed that great terror for himself, and so had never once imagined that he might enter the darkness unscathed. He had entered the darkness several times before, but always by relying on some treasure or some godlike power to shield him—Xing'an's box, the protection of the Headman, the protection of Lord Huanlong—and only so had he passed through unharmed. To truly go alone, with no protection at all, he still did not quite dare. "Let's go. " Chi Xiu urged him on.
"Once I have seen you off, I need to rest as well. " Shen Mu said, "God Chi Xiu, I still have to go to the Heavenly Sacred Cult and to the Human Emperors, to fetch back the Dragon Qilin and the box. " Chi Xiu had no choice but to bring him to the place where the Nether Demon Cult's patriarchs through the ages had dwelt.
Every door was bolted fast.
The Dragon Qilin was shut outside the young Patriarch's door, clattering its tail and sweet-talking the door to open.
The young Patriarch would not open it for dear life, and cried from within: "Life and death are different roads!
I am dead, you are alive—there can be no union between us. Go with the Cult Leader!
" The Dragon Qilin clawed at the door and wept bitterly. The young Patriarch could not help choking up as well; he wanted to open the door, yet feared the wretch would rush in and rub itself against him, so he hardened his heart and kept it shut. Shen Mu called the Dragon Qilin over and said with a laugh, "Fat Dragon, there is no need for grief.
The Patriarch lives well enough here, and we live well enough out there; in the future you may come and visit him whenever you like. " The Dragon Qilin came over. Bathed in the pure yang true fire pouring down from the sun, flesh and blood faintly surfaced upon its body; and that enormous sun in the sky had already climbed very high, growing vaster and more immense still, as though at any moment it might fall from the heavens.
Shen Mu looked up, and saw that the shrines and halls within the sun seemed cast of gold; the gods and demons before them were dimly visible, still madly beating their drums, using the pure yang true fire to refine Fengdu.
The sun hung so close to them that Shen Mu could not help wondering whether those gods and demons in the sun might attack at any moment. "They dare not attack.
" The god Chi Xiu preened its feathers at leisure. "This is Fengdu, and Fengdu is part of Youdu. It looks very near, but in truth it is very far, separated by the barriers of the world; no ordinary god or demon can cross over.