Chapter 525 — The First Human Emperor
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 1 of 4
In the Hall of Human Emperors stood a figure, a most stalwart figure. Shen Mu ascended the steps of that shrine, and the Box went trotting along behind him, click-clack, click-clack, on its legs. Shen Mu raised a hand; the Box halted outside the hall, folded its limbs, and settled to the ground.
The Box creaked open a crack, and through that crack the Dragon Qilin rolled his eyes this way and that. Catching sight of the barren graves all around, he thought it over, then painfully crawled out, belly to the ground, following Shen Mu with great care, his tail held very low — though not daring to let it touch the earth, for fear of making a sound. Suddenly the Dragon Qilin felt something step upon his tail. He gave a shrill, piteous scream, and every hair and scale on his body bristled upright. Shen Mu turned and glared at him.
The Dragon Qilin hastily stuffed a paw into his own mouth, and so made no further noise. He looked back and saw the Box stealing along behind him on tiptoe; it was this creature that had trodden on his tail just now and frightened him half to death.
Shen Mu's head throbbed. He wanted to drive them out, yet felt that chasing these two wretches off in so sacred and solemn a place would be unseemly; so he could only grit his teeth and let them follow behind him, saying in a low voice, "If you two kick up any more of a fuss, then one of you will be chopping firewood and tending the stove, and the other will be served up on the table for meat!
" He came up behind that figure, and only then did he realize that he was not shorter than the other man. He was still at the age for growing, and stood a mere inch below him.
Yet that figure had always struck him as towering, and this impression was a shock to the spirit, wrought by bearing and by nature alike. The figure was the First Ancestor Human Emperor, whose stone statue Shen Mu had once seen in Little Yujing. "You are the thirty-sixth-generation Human Emperor, are you not? " The First Ancestor turned his head and glanced at him.
He was a man who appeared barely past thirty, with a full beard upon his cheeks, hard and sturdy, giving off a feeling of utter dependability. "The thirty-seventh.
" Shen Mu said, "Lizheng is my master; he brought me into the fold. This is my first time here.
" He looked ahead and started slightly, for only then did he see what the First Ancestor Human Emperor was looking at.
Row upon row of bookshelves, bearing books beyond counting.
The Hall of Human Emperors was vast within, but there was none of the gilded splendor Shen Mu had imagined, no towering statues of gods, no luxury whatsoever — only those rows of shelves. Shen Mu stepped forward and picked up a book at random. The handwriting was quite unfamiliar, yet between the lines he felt a familiar sword intent.
It was a book written by Lizheng.
This book was Lizheng's discourse upon the cultivation arts and divine abilities of Star Lord Qiao of the Heavens. He had crossed swords with Star Lord Qiao many times, and in the book he discussed the strengths and weaknesses of each of Qiao's arts and abilities, studying where they might be broken.
Shen Mu laid the book down and picked up another, which described the cultivation arts and divine abilities of Lord Yu, and their merits and flaws.
He flipped roughly through the other volumes as well; most of them too were records of experience gained against the arts and abilities of the gods of the Heavens. Shen Mu also found the sword diagrams — a great stack of scrolls, in which Lizheng had recorded how his sword diagrams were to be cultivated, the circulation and the inner conception of each sword technique. Plainly they had been prepared for those who came after. He went to the second shelf.