Chapter 698 — Grandmaster of Law and Dao
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 1 of 4
"Shen the Monstrous Infant?"
The infant Shen Fengqing, hunched cat-like behind a great mountain, was stealing glances at that quarter and waiting for the Old Buddha to come down, fuming inwardly: "That three-headed creature dares to speak ill of me—in a little while I'll pull his arms and legs off, one by one."
He was like a cat about to pounce, rubbing hands and feet together in restless eagerness, meaning to seize the Old Buddha the moment he descended.
But the Great Brahma Heaven King Buddha did not come down. "I thank Your Majesty the Crimson Emperor for the warning," he said. "This old monk begs pardon—he will not be coming down. Might I ask, Brother Lord Heaven, and Your Majesty the Crimson Emperor, what brings you here?"
Lord Heaven's incarnation sighed. "It is a long tale, and one not worth telling. Let it lie."
The Old Buddha looked at them, understood without another word being spoken, and pressed the matter no further. "And the subtle shifts in the Great Dao of Heaven and Earth—what of them? They seem to have risen from some upheaval here."
"The work of the Shen boy," the Crimson Emperor said. "He is resurrecting Lady Tianyin."
"Was it Shen Mu who stirred up this commotion, or his elder brother?" the Old Buddha asked.
"The bad little brother did it!"
Hidden behind the mountain, Shen Fengqing could not hold his tongue. "Well?" he called. "Are you coming down or not?"
"No."
The Old Buddha spoke with perfect justification. "If I come down, I shall be shut up in here as well. Shen Fengqing, there is nothing you can do to me. Have you forgotten that it was because you tried to eat me last time that I suppressed you?"
"He will not eat us anymore," said Lord Heaven's incarnation. "But he will pull off our arms and legs to play with. If you come down, you will suffer the same."
The Old Buddha laughed. "Innocence without wickedness—that is a great evil indeed."
Lord Heaven's incarnation sighed. "But not so terrible as Evil. The Crimson Emperor and I once helped his younger brother Shen Mu strip away his cultivation, and the result was that Shen Mu became Evil. That was true horror, true lawlessness and heavenlessness! Had I not been a step cleverer, and thought of a countermeasure in advance, by now I fear..."
The Old Buddha shivered. "You truly dare to meddle, and you truly know how. Turn Shen Mu into Evil—what would come of that? It seems his younger brother has stirred up heaven-shaking commotions more than once. These last few hundred years, the shifts in the Great Dao of Heaven and Earth have grown ever more frequent—the Jingping Reform, from reforming the law to reforming the Dao. In a few centuries there have been more self-changes in the Great Dao than in the twenty thousand years before. No wonder the Celestial Court is so alarmed about Jingping, fearing that it will evolve into another Celestial Court."
"The shifts were not great a few years ago," Lord Heaven said. "But in recent years, ever since the Shen boy came down from the mountains, their frequency has grown and grown. To us ancient gods, every shift is a weakening; it is not necessarily a good thing. Once an ancient god emerges into the world, he can no longer flow with the Great Dao. The Dao changes and we do not—and so every reform of law and Dao weakens us."
"Lady Tianyin's soul was shattered into the finest black sand," said the Old Buddha. "How can he resurrect her?"
"His divine powers cross too many systems," Lord Heaven said. "The Gloom Capital's system, the Mystic Capital's arts, the Profound Capital's divine powers, the power of Creation, the Way of the Gods, the Way of Demons, the Way of Buddha, the Daoist order—he has them all, and he has blended a great many things together; it is hard to put into words. His crooked ideas are endless, but whether he can truly resurrect Lady Tianyin is still an open question."