Chapter 708 — The Sacred Blade of the Imperial Court
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 3 of 4
After a long while, he slumped against the wall and sat down, defeated. After a spell of silence, he rose and silently opened a door, lugged out a jar of fine wine, and tipped his head back to drink deeply. Before long he was dead drunk.
Yet no matter how much he drank from the jar in his hand, the wine never diminished.
"Senior, there was once a man whose primordial spirit likewise strayed into the divine blade Dique—yet he escaped."
Shen Mu's eyes flickered. "Does Senior know of this?"
"You speak of a matter from two thousand years ago."
Tian Shu tipped his head back and drank deeply, wiped away the beads of wine clinging to his goatee, and said, "At that time I sensed that the divine blade Dique had somehow connected with the outside world. A pity I was drunk at the time—by the time I came to my senses and thought to escape, it was too late."
Shen Mu was startled. "Two thousand years ago? Granny Zhu and the others had their primordial spirits trapped in the divine blade only five years ago. So then—a single day outside is a year in here. Which means that Qi Jiuyi's and my primordial spirits were swallowed into the divine blade Dique only a little over two days ago. Our bodies have not yet died."
His spirit surged. He and Qi Jiuyi had run through the space within the blade for two and a half years. Even Shen Mu had thought his body must be dead—yet in truth only two and a half days had passed.
"So long as the body does not die, there is still hope!"
Shen Mu's eyes lit up. He said in a low voice, "Senior, you have controlled Dique for so long—surely you know how to activate the divine blade Dique? Then the internal formations and runic structures of the divine blade Dique must be equally clear to you. If we know the internal formations, we can try to unravel them..."
"No!"
Tian Shu shook his head. "You guess wrong. Though I can control this divine blade, I understand nothing of the runic structures and formations within it. The reason I could serve as blade-bearer is that my constitution is peculiar—I can enter Youdu. This divine blade was designed by Kaihuang himself, to sever the horn from Tubo's head. How vast and mighty is Tubo's horn? That Kaihuang himself designed it, specifically to cut off that horn—you may judge from this how profound the formations and runes within the blade must be."
Shen Mu frowned.
Tian Shu went on, "And the one who forged this blade was the most accomplished heavenly craftsman of Kaihuang's divine dynasty—the very man I mentioned to you, the one who had a dalliance with the Crimson Emperor Qi Xiayu, Li Youran. The fellow was handsome, loved by all..."
"You mean the one who forged the divine blade Dique was Emperor Shitian, the Heavenly King Buddha?" Shen Mu was startled and delighted, and pressed for an answer.
"It was Li Youran. Who is Emperor Shitian, the Heavenly King Buddha?" Tian Shu was puzzled.
Shen Mu was overjoyed. He paced back and forth in the corridor, laughing. "Emperor Shitian, the Heavenly King Buddha, is Li Youran! Li Youran was his secular name. He later took monastic vows to escape the debts of love! Since it was he who forged the divine blade Dique, then perhaps we still have hope. I have studied his arts..."
Tian Shu had worn an expression of expectation. Hearing this, he lapsed toward despair. "So that was your thought. I advise you to save yourself the trouble. In here, even if you possessed heaven-shaking powers, you could not use them. The runes here were designed by Kaihuang. No one can escape—otherwise how could this blade have severed Tubo's horn?"
He wore a look of elation. "Of course, I was the one who bore this blade into Youdu and cut a length off Tubo's horn with a single stroke! You did not see the look of shocked fury in Tubo's little eyes. Tsk tsk tsk... This old man's life has been worth it, truly worth it!"