Chapter 588 — The Creator of Darkness
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 1 of 4
In the Barren Ruins, the hours had never been the same as those of Taihuang Heaven. The divine and demonic arts of Taihuang Heaven were woefully crude; the sun did not rise and die by the twelve double-hours, and so in ages past the days and nights of Taihuang Heaven had never kept proper time. But after Shen Mu shattered the sun, the Imperial Preceptor of Jingping remade it, and the twelve double-hours of Jingping were what he used.
The Imperial Preceptor was a man of some compulsion, striving always for perfection: the instant the new sun kindled was the instant of sunrise in Jingping, and the instant it guttered out was the instant darkness fell upon the Barren Ruins, without the slightest deviation. Which is to say that the Barren Ruins, too, now lay in night.
To walk abroad in the darkness of the Barren Ruins, there were only two possibilities; otherwise one would die a death of unspeakable misery, devoured by curses or by the monsters of the dark. The first possibility was to possess the strength of a god. The second was to have been born in Youdu, as Shen Mu had been. The first path: a powerful being repels the darkness with his own divine or demonic majesty, so that it cannot draw near.
The second: one of special birth like Shen Mu enters the darkness, and the curses and the monsters of the dark cannot harm him.
By the former means, the powerful one who enters the darkness of the Barren Ruins cannot see Taihuang Heaven, nor can the people of Taihuang Heaven see him. By the latter means, it is as though one walks within Taihuang Heaven itself; the people there can see a shadow like black sand, and it was by this means that Shen Mu had first come to know Sang Hua.
Yet the latter means, though it allowed one to see the people of Taihuang Heaven, permitted no exchange—no useful message could be conveyed.
And now Shen Mu had seen another who could likewise walk into the darkness of the Barren Ruins, and his heart could not but be shaken.
"Both Yama and Earth Earl have said that I was the first living being born of the womb in Youdu. Could it be that after me, another was also born there? Why did Earth Earl never speak of this?
" He was perplexed, and he studied the black shadow in the darkness; the black shadow was studying him in turn, as though pondering something. The two of them began to move, circling one another slowly, each trying to discern something from the other.
Shen Mu halted, and the black shadow halted as well, turning its head to speak to someone beside it—but the words could not be heard clearly. "There must be someone beside him! " Shen Mu's heart gave a small jolt.
"But that one does not walk in the darkness; he repels it. That is why I cannot see him.
" The black shadow suddenly spun around, leaped like a flying thing, and vanished. Shen Mu did not pursue.
The other must be somewhere in the Barren Ruins; if he wished to hide, there were a hundred ways—he need only slip into any ruin and vanish from sight. "A Tyrant Body of the demon race. .
. how did he come to be in the Barren Ruins?
Could he have crossed by the Spirit-Energy Transfer Bridge?
Impossible. There must be a being of demon-god level at his side, and if a demon-god crossed the Spirit-Energy Transfer Bridge, it would surely be detected.
" He could make no sense of it, and murmured, "Could it be that there are other passages into the Barren Ruins?
" The Barren Ruins held countless secrets. Shen Mu himself had once passed through the Barren Ruins into the Era of the Supreme Emperor, and had gone from the Nether Valley to Youdu, and had visited Fengdu two or three times as well—proof enough that the Barren Ruins might well connect to other worlds.
"Reverent God Sang Ye and the others called the Barren Ruins the Celestial Court of Kaihuang.
There are still countless hidden things there awaiting discovery. . .