Chapter 722 — The Good Man and the World-Destroying Fiend
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 1 of 4
Shen Mu was turning over in his mind how to devise a precise Creation divine ability that could heal Di Yiyue's wounds without harming her brain, while the Woodcutter climbed the Heaven-Gazing Terrace of the Yong River Academy and made ready to work his arts and draw back the souls of the people of Li Zhou, saying, "If the people of Li Zhou are left too long with their souls parted from their bodies, their flesh will suffer for it; better that I draw their souls, or their primordial spirits, back. " The First Ancestor Human Emperor's face showed worry. "To snatch souls from Youdu and bring the dead back to the living costs one's allotted span. The Celestial Master is a god, it is true, and has life without end, but if you anger the Yin Couriers, the Yin Couriers will come for you and seize your soul.
If you cannot escape this tribulation, you will go down to Youdu and suffer, and if your sins are heavy enough, you may even be eaten by Tu Bo. And even if you slip past this calamity, when you die hereafter you will still go down to Youdu to suffer, and be eaten by Tu Bo. Li Zhou is so vast, and its people so many; the punishment will surely be the heavier! " The Woodcutter shook his head. "This time it was I who laid the plan, using the lives of the people of Li Zhou as bait to lure Lou Yunqu and the rest here, and then using Shen Mu to draw out the Yin Son of Heaven, so that the people of Li Zhou lost their lives. The root of this matter lies with me; how could I begrudge my own body?
Let everything wait until after I am dead. " He had also made a deep study of the Youdu tongue and of Youdu arts, so it was no great difficulty for him to perform the Soul-Pulling Art. Words of the Youdu tongue issued from his mouth, and by degrees a gate turned from illusion into substance and rose before him.
He had not, like Shen Mu, refined the Heaven-Bearing Gate, nor could he refine divine abilities such as the God-Slaying Mystic Gate or the Netherworld Heavenly Gate; instead he struck out on a path of his own, using magic runes to construct a gate that joined with Youdu.
This method was akin to the primitive Soul-Pulling Art, and was not the same as the Soul-Pulling Art Shen Mu had remade.
The Soul-Pulling Art Shen Mu had remade was exceedingly direct: once the ability was stirred, the Heaven-Bearing Gate appeared at once, and the souls of the dead could be summoned back from Youdu with little effort. The Woodcutter Sage's Soul-Pulling Art was more time-consuming and drained more dharma power, yet its effect was much the same. He stood upon the Heaven-Gazing Terrace, and behind him the demonic qi of Youdu rolled and churned, the darkness thickening by the moment.
It was daytime, and though the sun in the sky swayed and lurched, its light was fierce; yet invaded by the demonic qi of Youdu, the sunlight could not reach the ground at all. Within that dark demonic qi stood a gate, and souls flew out from it without cease, scattering in every direction; finding their own bodies, they burrowed in, and after a moment the owners of those bodies quietly woke. As the Woodcutter Sage worked his arts, the reach of the Youdu demonic qi spread wider and wider, stretching out from the Yong River Academy, covering the Yong River, creeping into Dijiang County, and from Dijiang County into several other county towns.
More and more souls flew out of that gate, and more and more people awoke; just then, in the darkness a lamp glimmered faintly, and a small boat drifted out of the dark, drifting toward that gate.
"The Yin Couriers have come. Most likely they have come to seize my soul. " The Woodcutter Sage was bleak at heart, yet his face was calm, and he thought: 'So long as I do not drag others down with me, it is well.