Chapter 792 — The Nine Ancient Emperors
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 1 of 4
Shen Mu pressed the teleportation rune and looked deep into the Sea of Blood. There an abyss split the blood sea apart, and a woman dressed in emerald green rose slowly from the waters, the sea closing again behind her. She wore a green dress embroidered with leaves of every kind; her hair was coiled up with withered branches like deer antlers, and behind her head hung a halo, and within that halo was a tender green sprout, like a seed just breaking through damp soil and putting out two young shoots.
"Elder Sister," said Shen Mu. The teleportation formation runes around him drifted slowly but did not kindle. He smiled. "How should I address you, Elder Sister?
What does the Earth Mother wish to see me about?
" The woman in green came to a halt before him. "My name is Gongsun Yan.
I am a maidservant of the Earth Mother Primordial Sovereign. She bade me invite the honored guest to come, but did not say why. This way, honored guest.
" Shen Mu jumped down from the dragon qilin's head, signaled to Yu Tianzun to stay on the water qilin's back and not dismount, and said with a smile, "Sister Yan, your dress is truly beautiful. " Gongsun Yan was delighted.
"Truly? I cut and sewed this dress myself, with great pains and much care.
" Shen Mu followed her forward. "I have long heard the Earth Mother's name, though I have never once met her.
Sister Yan, how did she come to know of me? " Gongsun Yan led them across the Sea of Blood. "That I do not know. Perhaps Lady Tianyin mentioned you when she came to visit the Earth Mother not long ago. Lady Tianyin was plotted against in the late Dragon Han era, and the Earth Mother, grieving for her own kind, was much troubled by it. Yet Lady Tianyin came back to life and sought out the Earth Mother of her own accord.
I was keeping watch outside the palace at the time, so I could not go in and hear what they spoke of.
" Shen Mu breathed a sigh of relief. After Lady Tianyin's resurrection she had indeed been absent from the Tianyin Realm for a time; Shen Mu had once gone there to seek her, and those of divine ability in that realm said she had gone out to visit an old friend, and that friend must surely have been the Earth Mother. "Lady Tianyin must have told the Earth Mother that I was the one who revived her.
That she sent Gongsun Yan to receive me this time means she must want something. " Thinking this, Shen Mu smiled.
"Sister Yan, along the way I saw many god clans and demon clans hurrying here, and a great many demigods as well, all surging toward this place. The road was perilous indeed. What is going on?
" Gongsun Yan brought them to the far shore of the Sea of Blood and up onto land, but instead of heading for Jade Capital City she led them around it. "The powers within the Earth Mother's Primordial Realm are tangled and many. Now that the Primordial Realm has reappeared, many factions are stirring, all hoping to fish in troubled waters. These god clans and demon clans were once the many heavens under the Earth Mother's command; they have slipped in with designs of their own. The Earth Mother is very angry. As for those demigods, it was not the Earth Mother who summoned them; someone used her name to call them here. " Shen Mu's heart lurched.
"Someone used the Earth Mother's name to summon the demigods here?
" The water qilin was startled too, and said hastily, "Impossible! When I woke, I felt with perfect clarity that it was the Earth Mother who called us here! She is the world lord of the Primordial Realm; when she calls us, that sense can never be mistaken! Brother dragon qilin, did you not feel the Earth Mother's call?
" The dragon qilin said, "I felt it.