Chapter 726 — The Sovereign and the Minister Share One Heart
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 1 of 4
Shen Mu and the others arrived at the Imperial Preceptor of Jingping's residence, but the Imperial Preceptor was not there. His wife was teaching the child to read; flustered, she took the boy by the hand and came out to greet them. "My husband has gone to see the emperor and has not returned for quite some days now. Yunjian, quick, call him godfather!"
The child at her side was only three or four years old, and in a soft, milky voice he called Shen Mu "godfather."
Shen Mu's face flushed red. He stammered, "Sister-in-law, I am not yet married. How could I be a godfather?"
The Imperial Preceptor's wife laughed. "When Yunjian was born, he already acknowledged a godfather. Surely the Sect Master cannot disown him?"
Shen Mu thought for a moment, then drew a great wing from his Taotie Pouch and plucked a single fire feather from it. "This is a feather of the Vermilion Bird. It belongs, at the very least, to a mighty one of the God-Slaying Platform. Let Yunjian play with it for now. The wing itself I cannot give—it is too heavy, and far too dangerous—but the feather is very light. Wait a moment; I will suppress the Vermilion Bird's Sacred Fire within it."
He sealed the Vermilion Bird's Sacred Fire with the runes of the Great Way of Heavenly Fire, and only then handed the three-foot-long feather to Jiang Yunjian. The child carried the feather off to hack at the stone lion by the gate, and with a single flash of firelight the stone lion was sliced clean in two.
The Imperial Preceptor's wife was startled half to death and hastily snatched the feather away. "You can play with it when you are grown!"
Shen Mu brought the Woodcutter, Di Yiyue, and the Primordial Human Sovereign to the imperial palace. The Empress said, "His Majesty was carried off by the Imperial Preceptor of Jingping. He said they were going to the Imperial Academy, but many days have passed and he still has not sent His Majesty back. As it stands, the Crown Prince is overseeing the realm and handling court affairs."
They went on to the Imperial Academy, where Pei Wujiu shook his head and said, "His Majesty and the Imperial Preceptor of Jingping are not here either. They came for a time and gathered the scholars, saying they meant to forge a Xizhou and a Pozhou, and then they took many of the scholars to the shipyards of Jiangling. His Majesty went along as well."
Di Yiyue laughed. "This emperor of yours actually refuses to sit upon the Dragon Throne, and instead runs about all day long."
They came next to Jiangling. This was the Imperial Preceptor of Jingping's native place, and it had the greatest concentration of shipyards—over a hundred of them.
Before they had even caught sight of Emperor Yanfeng and the Imperial Preceptor of Jingping, they saw great ships coming and going across the water, transporting enormous, exquisitely precise components to the largest shipyard in Jiangling.
Those components, surely, were the parts of a Xizhou and a Pozhou.
In the Kaihuang era, Xizhou and Pozhou had been forged from stone; here, they were forged from metal, and the cost in wealth was enormous.
Shen Mu also saw many women of the Western Lands' True Heavenly Palace lending their aid here, and the little girl at their head was an old acquaintance of his—Xiong Qier, the daughter of Xiong Xiyu.
After several years apart, Xiong Qier had grown to eight or nine years old. She was casting spells in the Jiangling shipyard, activating component after component, causing those colossal things to float up and assemble themselves automatically.
"Brother Sect Master!"
Xiong Qier was overjoyed to see him, and even more overjoyed to see the Dragon Qilin. She came running over at once, tossed Shen Mu aside, and clung to the Dragon Qilin's whiskers in delight.