Chapter 639 — The Head in the Jar
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 4 of 4
On his final leap, he was still a thousand zhang from the cave mouth. Shen Mu pointed a finger, and a thread of vital essence flew out a thousand zhang, coiling around the white-bone rope that hung at the cave mouth.
The many skeletons at the cave mouth hastily climbed upward, and with considerable effort at last hauled him out of that bottomless subterranean space.
Scarcely had Shen Mu crawled out of the cave mouth when a tremor suddenly came from the earth-core. His expression shifted slightly. Hastily he burst forth with vital essence, sweeping up all the skeleton monsters around him to form a Great Heaven Star Force-Field, and with these skeleton monsters in tow he ran for all he was worth.
Behind him, the earth collapsed. The divine city, long since ruined into a relic, suddenly plunged toward the earth-core, and the cave mouth grew larger and larger.
Shen Mu pushed his speed to the utmost and shot out of that ancient ruin like wind and lightning. The trembling gradually ceased. He looked back and saw that the ruins of the divine city had become a deep, dark abyss, burying history within it.
Shen Mu set the skeleton monsters down and sat upon a stone, gazing afar at that bottomless abyss, his eyes deep and sorrowful.
One skeleton monster patted his head, as though comforting him. Another came before him, wanting to wipe away the tears at the corners of his eyes.
Shen Mu's face broke into a smile. He rose and bowed in all directions to the skeleton monsters. "I am all right now. My thanks to you, fellow daoists, for your company all these days. Perhaps in the future, if I do not die, I will return, and gather your souls for you once more, and restore you to life. Let us meet again hereafter!"
He strode away. This time the skeleton monsters did not follow. Shen Mu looked back and saw those white bones raising their arms, waving farewell to him.
Shen Mu waved back and strode off.
"Though death come, the knight's bones are fragrant; no shame before the heroes of the world. Kaihuang, my ancestor — you who are far away in the Land of No Sorrow, do you still remember that there was a god named Ying Zhao who, for the sake of a single promise, cut off his own head and took death for righteousness? I fear you no longer remember. I have remembered for you. The sons of the Shen clan do not betray those who follow them, and do not forget the promises they or their forebears have made!"
He ran on foot across that desolate, barren land, heading straight for the place where the Kaihuang Heavenly Court had fallen. There, surely, was the entrance to Taihuang Heaven or the Wild Wastes, as in the memory of the god Ying Zhao.
"I will fulfill your promise for you, and let the dead heroic spirits rest in peace!"
He came to a shattered space, where dazzling auroral light surged. Vaguely he could see another world. The auroral light was the fragments of space, and passing through would be exceedingly perilous.
Shen Mu took a small box from his Taotie Pouch, sprang up, and leaped into the shattered space. Just as he was about to meet the auroral light, the youth suddenly opened the box. A bloodthirsty, heaven-overflowing ferocity transformed into two blade-lights, and with a ka-cha it sheared the auroral light apart!
Before the auroral light could close again, Shen Mu passed through the fragments of space. His body plunged sharply downward. Below, lush mountain forests, vast and dim mountains, and the Southern Heavenly Gate towering on high.
Shen Mu was slightly startled. Below was not Taihuang Heaven, but the Wild Wastes.