Chapter 550 — Smiling On, Unchanged
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 1 of 4
"I can fix it. I can fix it!"
Shen Mu kept reassuring himself, his face shifting from dark to bright and back again, never settling. "The elders in the village taught me that a man who can make a mess can also clean it up. This time I can surely clean it up... I only fear I cannot."
He had made far too great a mess.
Taihuang Heaven had once had no sun. It was the Sun-Forging God who, with the divine-ability practitioners of Taihuang Heaven, had labored to forge one and a half suns; and that sun and a half had become the pride of every practitioner in Taihuang Heaven. Now half of that pride had been blasted away by their own hands.
It was not that he had never thought of forging a sun to give back to Taihuang Heaven. Forging a perfect sphere was not so very hard for Shen Mu; the hard part was how to turn a sphere into a sun.
The Sun-Forging God had been a cook, a fire-tender of the Kaihuang Heavenly Court, and he commanded the power of divine fire. So even though his craft was poor and the sun he refined was a sight to shame the eyes, it could still give light, still provide Taihuang Heaven with light and warmth.
That divine fire was likely far higher in grade than even the Li Fire of Li City. Thus, in rebuilding the sun, divine fire became the greatest difficulty.
Just then, after that black pillar of light had destroyed half a sun, it pierced through the void. In the instant the black light passed through, the ripples in space were visible even to the naked eye, spreading outward in layer upon layer.
"The other sun!"
The Black Tiger God's heart clenched. He watched with bated breath as the ripples traveled to the other sun.
Below the altar, thousands of Taihuang Heaven's divine-ability practitioners, and the gods floating in the air—Pang Yu, Sang Ye, and the rest—felt their hearts clench in spite of themselves, their fists tightening until their nails nearly pierced their flesh.
The ripples came on, passing through that sun in the sky. The sun still hung there, but as the crest passed, it was squeezed into the shape of an oval egg yolk; as the trough passed, it was stretched out, lengthened more than tenfold.
The crowd watched the sky in panic. When the ripples had passed and the sun still hung there, everyone who had been so frantic breathed a sigh of relief.
Suddenly, with a great crack, a huge piece broke off the surface of that whole sun and fell.
The fallen piece was vast as a mountain. It trailed long flames and billowing smoke, sliding down at a slant, and no one knew where it struck.
The sun in the sky had never been round to begin with; now it looked as though a mouth with jagged teeth had taken a bite out of it.
"Junior Brother, shall we run for our lives?" the Black Tiger God quietly proposed.
"My friends, I have two pieces of good news to tell you all!"
Shen Mu stood on the altar, wiped the waterfall of cold sweat from his brow with a sweep of his sleeve, and did his best to look confident and justified. He swept his gaze around and declared in a ringing voice: "The first good news is this—the Bridge of Spiritual Power Exchange is open! This bridge connects Taihuang Heaven and Jingping. Every one of us in Taihuang Heaven now has a road of retreat. Even if we cannot defeat the Demon Race, we can withdraw to Jingping and preserve our race!"
Below the altar, the blank expressions still hung on the faces of thousands of divine-ability practitioners, who turned their heads with difficulty to look at him.
Having delivered the first piece of good news, Shen Mu waited quietly a moment, waiting for them to digest it.
This was to claim credit for himself.