Chapter 705 — The Blazing Thoroughfare
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 1 of 4
Shen Mu watched Xu Shenghua depart. Ning Jin had been taken by Yama to Fengdu, where perhaps he might find a place suited to his survival.
"Each of them has his own brilliance. And now the trouble with the Lady Tianyin has been settled as well. With three hundred and twenty-four kinds of runes of the Tianyin Realm, that realm will no longer be a dead and lifeless world—it will become a thriving, flourishing heaven among the heavens!
" Shen Mu sighed inwardly. In the days to come, many wielders of divine abilities would enter the Tianyin Realm, making it flourish more and more, and the divine arts would contend like a hundred schools of thought and bloom like a hundred flowers.
The Jingping Reforms were no empty talk either. With the Lady Tianyin as an ally, the force of the reforms would only grow stronger.
But all of this would take time.
As things stood, Jingping had not yet grown strong, nor had the Tianyin Realm.
"Right now is in fact the most perilous hour.
The flame of reform could be snuffed out at any moment. " Shen Mu's brows knit slightly, then smoothed as he put such vexations from his mind. Together with Yan Jingjing he sought out Long Qilin, and found him doing hard labor alongside He Yiyi, ordered this way and that by the women of the Western Lands.
Long Qilin was on the verge of tears yet had no tears to shed, and what was worse, he could not refuse. These women divine-ability practitioners of the Western Lands cultivated the divine art that all things have spirit and all things have gods, and at the slightest whim they would use a strange divine art to seize control of his body and set him to work. "Fat Dragon is actually this diligent?
" Shen Mu was deeply gratified.
He laughed and said, "Fat Dragon, come carry my sword elixir. It is time we returned to Jingping.
" The sword elixir stood over thirty zhang tall, solid and terrifying. Long Qilin had meant to refuse, but a thought struck him: "I have done so much work for the girls of the Western Lands. If I do not help the Sect Master, I fear I will not get so much as half a spirit elixir from now on!
" He steeled himself and hoisted the sword elixir onto his back.
Shen Mu was delighted. "Fat Dragon really has become diligent.
" Ever since Yan Jingjing received that wisp of pure yin qi from Shen Mu, she felt her foundation gradually steadying and her body growing better and better, and she was glad at heart.
The two walked and talked, laughter unceasing. Shen Mu escorted Yan Jingjing to Xiquan and said, "The Emperor will issue a decree summoning you forth, to use the sun upon the Dawn Boat to shine upon Taihuang Heaven and Luofu Heaven, restoring life to those two heavens. But you need not worry. Once you find a pure yang spirit body and a pure yin spirit body, you will no longer need to pilot the Dawn Boat hither and thither. Your cultivation realm is high, it is true, but your foundation is unsteady. You must leave Xiquan and go to Jingping to study, to learn some fundamentals.
I will be waiting for you in Jingping.
" The two parted with reluctance.
Shen Mu watched her walk into Xiquan, then continued eastward. Seated on Long Qilin's back, he took out the Xuandu Heavenfire and examined it closely.
Since obtaining this heavenfire prism, he had not yet had the chance to scrutinize it.
He had used it only once; at all other times it had been given over to Yan Jingjing. "If it is fire, why does it have substance? Why has it become a flame crystal?
" He could not help but wonder. This heavenfire prism was the heavenfire of the Lord of Heaven. Its power was great, but unfortunately he could not control its intensity; his attainments in this regard were far inferior to the refinement of Yan Jingjing's fire-element divine arts. Then he suddenly noticed that the crystal structure of the heavenfire prism was constantly changing.
Startled, he looked more closely, and saw that within the prism there were also many flames of crystalline structure.