Chapter 557 — The Perilous Domain
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 1 of 4
"A council of primal spirits?" The Black Tiger God was rather baffled; he had never heard the term. Si Yunxiang took out a great stack of diagrams and spread them open in the gate tower; drawn on them were runes and sigils of every kind.
"This is an art the Sect Master and the adepts of Jingping created together," she said. "His Majesty named it the Three Primal Spirits Assembly Art."
Si Yunxiang searched until she found Shen Mu's primal spirit imprint, then took out cinnabar and a brush, dissolved the cinnabar, and painted on a pillar of the gate tower, drawing out Shen Mu's primal spirit imprint. "The Sect Master once burned the primal spirit imprints of us all into the Taixue Hall of the Taixue Academy," she said. "His own among them. A council of primal spirits works through the imprint: you draw your own primal spirit toward it and gather everyone's spirits to deliberate."
Ling Yuxiu took out a stick of incense, planted it below the painted imprint, and lit it. "This incense was refined by the Cowherd with his Soul-Leading Art," she said. "It is used to draw the primal spirit. We mean to use the soul-guiding incense and the imprint to resonate with his primal spirit, lure it here, and ask him where he is."
The two women exchanged a glance. Si Yunxiang's vitality bloomed outward and lit Shen Mu's primal spirit imprint, while Ling Yuxiu wrapped the incense smoke in her vitality and poured it into the imprint.
Everyone in the tower waited in silence, watching the burning incense. It curled up faint and slender; the fragrance was not heavy at all, but exceedingly light.
The span of one stick of incense is not long. As it burned down bit by bit, unease crept into every heart. The imprint and the incense would resonate with Shen Mu's primal spirit, and by invoking the Three Primal Spirits Assembly Art he could come here and meet them. But if Shen Mu had met with disaster, he would not come.
When more than half the incense had burned and still nothing stirred, and they were secretly fretting, a rushing wind suddenly blew into the gate tower.
Their hearts leaped. In the tower Shen Mu's primal spirit flickered in and out, faint and unstable.
"Sect Master, where are you?"
Long Qilin, wild with joy, cried out in a fluster, "The elixirs you prepared are all eaten up! Hurry back!"
Shen Mu said in surprise, "I prepared three or four months' worth for you. Why is it gone already?"
"That..." Long Qilin had no answer.
Xue Hu'er quickly said, "Young Master, we are searching for you. Where are you now?"
Shen Mu shook his head. "I do not know either. In the demon race's territory there is no sun in the sky, no moon or stars. I cannot tell direction, and I do not know where I am. The Sun-Binder carried me off, and I barely escaped. Right now the demon race's elite are hunting me. My primal spirit cannot linger here long."
Everyone frowned deeply.
Sang Hua suddenly said, "Brother Daguzi, look at the lie of the mountains around you and commit it to memory, and see whether there are any cities nearby. Our Taihuang Heaven has sixty-four god-cities; each bears a different name, and the mountains near each lie in different shapes. Whether we know the lay of the mountains or the name of the god-city, we can fix your position."
Shen Mu's primal spirit picked up the cinnabar brush and drew on the ground, swiftly sketching out the mountains around his location. "I have seen no god-city," he said.
Sang Hua, Yu He, and the other adepts of Taihuang Heaven crowded forward to look, and one and all they shook their heads. They were young, and none had ever gone to the demon race's territory.
"I will go fetch my father!" Sang Hua hurried off.
Suddenly Shen Mu's primal spirit dimmed. "The enemy is here. I must go back!"