Chapter 703 — The Supreme Sage
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 2 of 4
Ning Jin smiled, and then wept openly.
The Woodcutter Sage patted his shoulder, his gaze complex, and said no more.
Shen Mu watched them. What kind of emperor could command such soldiers? Kaihuang?
Yet Kaihuang had hidden himself away in the Land of No Sorrow, and had hidden there for twenty thousand years. He had likely long forgotten that he still had such followers, loyal unto death.
"The gods of Kaihuang have never owed the Shen family anything, nor owed me anything. It is the Shen family that owes these loyal and righteous men a great debt," he thought to himself.
Xu Shenghua asked curiously, "Sect Master Shen, what matter have you summoned us here for?"
Shen Mu gave a rough account of his experiences in the Tianyin Realm, and said, "All of you possess wisdom and talent surpassing my own. I have been unable to solve the problem of Empress Tianyin. Perhaps you can devise a solution."
Everyone stared, somewhat in disbelief. The Woodcutter Sage knew that Shen Mu had followed the Old Angler to fish for the sun and fish for the moon, but he had not expected that the Old Angler would vanish without a trace, and that this young man would somehow end up in the Tianyin Realm!
"I once dispatched fifty-eight gods of the Heaven Division to probe the Tianyin Realm, and not one returned alive. Yet he simply charged right in."
The Woodcutter Sage shook his head inwardly. He thought, "This boy is just like my eldest disciple—both of them fear nothing in heaven or earth. My eldest disciple sought to become a Sage. But what does this one seek? Surely not merely to satisfy his own curiosity?"
He truly had no way to deal with Shen Mu. The perils of the Tianyin Realm were imaginable, yet Shen Mu had somehow survived and returned alive—and had even resurrected Empress Tianyin, who had been dead for countless tens of thousands of years.
Such experiences and fortunes, and such means of solving problems—even he found them inconceivable.
"Sect Master Shen just said that we possess wisdom and talent surpassing his own?"
Xu Shenghua rarely smiled, but now he did, saying, "Could the Sect Master repeat that?"
Imperial Preceptor Jingping coughed and said, "I would also like to hear Second Senior Brother say it again."
The Primordial Ancestor Human Emperor laughed. "And I as well. Shen'er need only repeat what he just said."
Yama's voice was distant, as though carried from Fengdu itself. "To hear such praise from so proud a man—one who considers himself less clever than we are—this one is content for a lifetime."
All of them had been thoroughly humbled by Shen Mu at one time or another. The Primordial Ancestor needed no elaboration. Xu Shenghua too had been won over by Shen Mu. Imperial Preceptor Jingping had been astonished by the Spirit-Summoning Art and the Three Primordial Spirit Convergence that Shen Mu had pioneered, and even more astonished by the Eighteen Sword Forms he had created.
As for Yama, it need not be mentioned—the thrashing he had received in the Hall of the King of Shen was the shadow of his entire life.
Shen Mu's face was black as ink. He sneered, "Among you, only four are cleverer than I am. Figure out for yourselves which one is not."
At these words, everyone fell into contemplation.
The Primordial Ancestor sighed, his face melancholy. He thought, "He refuses to learn my Heaven-Earth Seal Art—it must be because he thinks my seal art is inferior to his own..."
Yama felt that he too was perhaps not as quick-witted as this boy. He sighed inwardly, and his body melted into the darkness. Imperial Preceptor Jingping's eye twitched, and he said no more.
Xu Shenghua also thought carefully. He felt that while he surpassed Shen Mu in certain respects, he still had no confidence of defeating him now. This left him somewhat dispirited as well.
"In ancient times there was a tale of one peach slaying three warriors. Today, Shen Mu has felled four people of extraordinary intellect with a single sentence."