Chapter 568 — No Guarding Against It
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 1 of 4
Shen Mu's eyes went wide with disbelief, and a shock beyond all words seized his heart: his jade pendant had been forged by Tubo!
The pendant ought to be the jade of the Shen family, worn against his skin since he was a small child — how could it have been forged by Tubo? What was Tubo to him? Or was it truly that he had done so much evil that Tubo had sealed him inside the jade? Yet at that time he must have been nothing but a newborn babe — how could a babe do evil? And he had no such memory at all; besides, in Jingping and in Taihuang Heaven alike, who did not know that Sect Master Shen was as pure as the clear breeze and the bright moon, broad of heart? When had he ever done evil?
"The seal must have loosened."
Molten Tubo went on leafing through the book. "There were once gods and demons who tried to break the seal. They did not succeed, but the seal was loosened somewhat, and nearly let you out. It does not matter. I will reinforce it in a moment."
He read with extraordinary speed, racing through the accounts of Shen Mu's evildoing recorded in the book. Reaching the final page, he said, "The ill-omened land of Taihuang Heaven: Fengqing, son of the Shen, used the Soul-Pulling Charm to throw the Dark Capital into disorder, seizing forty-eight thousand souls of the dead by force, and wounding the ghost officers..."
Shen Mu said honestly, "It was I who used the Soul-Pulling Charm to draw forty-eight thousand souls out of the Dark Capital. But I did not wound the ghost officers — that was the Seven Killings Star Lord, Wei Liao. If you want him, go and find him."
Molten Tubo turned his head toward the old ghost officer and asked, "Was it the Seven Killings Star Lord, Wei Liao, who wounded the ghost officers?"
The old ghost officer was a clone of the Heaven-Equal Benevolent Sage King. He answered, "The name of the Seven Killings Star Lord, Wei Liao, is written in the Book of Life and Death, but the Seven Killings Star Lord, Wei Liao, had his soul scattered twenty thousand years ago and was struck from the Book of Life and Death; he is no longer under our jurisdiction. In this escape of forty-eight thousand souls and the wounding of the ghost officers, the root cause is still Shen Fengqing's returning of the Seven Killings Star Lord to life, reassembling his scattered soul. Therefore the debt for the wounding of the ghost officers must be charged against Shen Fengqing — after all, he is still alive, and his name is still in the Book of Life and Death."
Molten Tubo looked at Shen Mu. "The debt is written against you. Do you accept it?"
Shen Mu said, "I do not!"
"Write it against him," Molten Tubo said to the old ghost officer. "We will settle it another day."
Shen Mu's face went black at once. "If it is all to be written against me anyway, why bother asking me?" Yet Molten Tubo's words, settle it another day, gave birth to hope in him again: settled another day, not settled now — which meant that this summons had indeed been only to inquire into cause and effect.
Molten Tubo closed the thick book and looked down at the tiny Shen Mu below. "Why did you throw the Dark Capital's order into chaos and summon away the dead? Have you remembered something? Have images of the Dark Capital flashed through your mind?"
Shen Mu, bewildered, shook his head. "When I was sent out — exiled from the Dark Capital, I must have been only a month or two old, no? How could images of the Dark Capital flash through my mind? As for summoning the dead in the ill-omened land, I did it because I had no other choice."
He recounted the whole cause and consequence of his use of the Soul-Pulling Charm, then stood there obediently, waiting quietly for his sentence.
Molten Tubo's eyes had been fixed upon him all the while. Suddenly he spoke: "Truly, no images have flashed through your mind? You have recalled nothing?"
Shen Mu shook his head and smiled. "What is there for me to recall?"