Chapter 694 — A Reckless Spree
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 1 of 4
The closer one came to the truth, the greater the peril.
This Kaihuang Divine Man had perhaps already fathomed the truth of the darkness, yet he had failed to carry the news out of it; he had died before the boundary stele of the Tianyin Realm, and only Shen Mu's arrival had woken him. Shen Mu followed him onward. The lake beneath the bridge came more and more to resemble a vast sea, with no land anywhere in sight.
Shen Mu looked down over the bridge and dimly made out great fish in the water, dark and heavy, cruising the sea, tearing at one another in mutual savagery, devouring each other in a frenzy, yet seeming never to be filled. "These sea-beasts are corpse-ghosts too.
They eat without cease, and nothing they eat can ever sate them. " At last Shen Mu saw the end of the long bridge that lay upon the waves. The bridge ended, but the sea had no limit.
Above the gray-black ocean hung an enormous, transparent hourglass, as though wrought of slender glass.
Within it was black sand. The upper bulb was even then streaming black sand downward, most of it already run through; the black sand was nearly spent, and the black sand in the lower bulb nearly full. Gazing from afar, Shen Mu made out a small cluster of palaces beside the hourglass — small only in comparison with the hourglass itself.
Yet when he reckoned the distance and measured the scale, he found that the cluster of palatial halls must be ten li or more in length and breadth; by no means small, but like an island upon the sea. This palace cluster was joined to the long bridge.
Shen Mu looked to the rear of the cluster and found that another long bridge lay upon the waves there as well, leading he knew not where. The Kaihuang Divine Man halted and pointed toward the palaces. He was sealed by the Creation Heaven-Demon Art; he could not speak, nor could he employ any cultivation. Shen Mu thought for a moment, then produced paper and brush, saying, "If there is anything you have learned, senior, you may as well write it down.
" The Kaihuang Divine Man lifted the brush, moistened it with ink, and wrote swiftly upon the paper. Shen Mu looked: the characters were vigorous and erect as old pines, forceful indeed.
"That is the outpost of the Gloom Capital's disciples in the Tianyin Realm?
" Reading the words on the paper, Shen Mu said in surprise, "How many are there?
What cultivation do they have.
. .
Gloom Capital gods?
Then this will be troublesome. . .
Are they dead men or living? Living men. . . " Shen Mu narrowed his eyes and pondered a moment, then said, "Dead or living, they are not hard to deal with.
What is hard is this: from where do they come, and how do they enter the Tianyin Realm?
Even if I kill every Gloom Capital expert in those palaces, more will come surging in. The road from the Gloom Capital into the Tianyin Realm must be severed at the root. .
. " The Kaihuang Divine Man lifted the brush and wrote on. Shen Mu started and blurted out, "Lady Tianyin? Why do you write Lady Tianyin's name?
Was she not devoured by the starving corpse-ghosts?
Wait! I understand what you mean! " He raised his head and studied the palaces beneath the hourglass from afar, murmuring, "You are right.
To settle this matter, Lady Tianyin is essential. Senior, your plan is splendid — how is it I never thought of so brilliant an idea?
Senior, you must have been a man of the very first intelligence in the Kaihuang era! " The Kaihuang Divine Man looked utterly bewildered, brush in hand, motionless, having no notion what Shen Mu was talking about. "Though Lady Tianyin was eaten," Shen Mu said excitedly, "her husk should still exist somewhere, hidden who knows where. Only, I have never done such a thing before, and I do not know whether it can be done. . .
" The Kaihuang Divine Man remained bewildered.
Plainly what he meant to write had nothing to do with what Shen Mu was saying; Shen Mu had misread him. Shen Mu patted his shoulder and laughed. "Rest easy, senior.