Chapter 635 — The Soul-Reaving Strings
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 1 of 4
Shen Mu saw that his smile was slightly forced, tinged with bitterness, and so he did not press him further. Every man has his own secrets; there is no need to lay oneself bare before another's eyes.
Whatever surname King Buddha Sakra had borne in the mortal world, he was at heart not a bad man. Even bearing the name of a Buddha Patriarch, he remained warm-blooded and true to the old ways; to keep the Buddha Realm intact he was willing to shoulder infamy, willing to take the chamber pot and set it on his own head.
A man like that, even unwilling to speak of his past, still left one with a sense of solid ground underfoot.
The two of them worked without pause, and after the better part of a day they at last finished the Spiritual Energy Transfer Bridge. Shen Mu examined it minutely and found no flaw.
"There is still a great deal of divine gold left unused here. Young friend Shen, there is something off about that list you gave me."
King Buddha Sakra looked at the divine gold heaped like a mountain beside the altar. This divine gold was called Buddha-Origin Crimson Chromium, and there were besides timbers wrought from the Plume Buddha-Mother Tree. Following the list Shen Mu had given him, he had ordered each Buddha-kingdom of the Sakra Heaven Realm to offer up materials; the altar was finished, and no small amount of material remained.
On the list Shen Mu had given him, the Buddha-Origin Crimson Chromium and the Plume Buddha-Mother Tree had scarcely been used at all.
King Buddha Sakra, suspicion kindling, looked at Shen Mu and probed: "How are these materials to be disposed of?"
Shen Mu hastily opened his Taotie Bag. "We are fugitives; who knows when we may have need of them! Put them in my bag first."
Sakra stared at him. Shen Mu, not a blush on his face nor a flutter in his heart, stowed the Buddha-Origin Crimson Chromium and the Plume Buddha-Mother Tree away in his Taotie Bag. Soon one Taotie Bag was full; Shen Mu produced another, packed the remaining materials into it, then carefully tied the bags at his waist.
Both bags bulged; plainly both were full.
King Buddha Sakra laughed coldly. "Young friend Shen, the leftover materials filled precisely your two bags — as though it had all been reckoned out in advance."
"Is that so?"
Shen Mu, astonished, blurted out: "Had you not said so, I would never have noticed — they truly filled exactly two Taotie Bags! A monstrous strange business, a monstrous strange business! The twenty heavens of the Buddha Realm are truly no small matter. Most likely the Buddha Realm has a spirit, and knowing that I took the blame for it, has manifested and made me a gift! Excellent, excellent — I am half minded to take up the faith myself..."
King Buddha Sakra watched him the whole while, until he could speak no further, and then said with a grin: "Any clear-eyed man sees it at a glance; there is no need for young friend Shen to explain further. I will first plant my divine power, then activate the Spiritual Energy Transfer Bridge. You calibrate it and link it to Taihuang Heaven."
Shen Mu's face reddened slightly. He answered, went up to the top of the altar, and pressed his palm to the flat surface at its center. With a hum, the surface broke into countless tiny squares; the squares kept reassembling, becoming a sphere, runes flowing and leaping across its face.
He drew both hands outward; the sphere swelled, the little squares separating one from another, streams of light wrought from runes linking block to block.
He took out his reckoning instrument and calculated furiously for a while, calibrating the position of Taihuang Heaven. Little by little light gathered at the center of the sphere, until it became a tiny point at its heart.
Having fixed the position of Taihuang Heaven, Shen Mu brought his hands together; the sphere shrank, became a flat plane once more, and he pressed it back into the altar.