Chapter 793 — The Earth Mother Venerable God
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 2 of 4
A qilin demigod said, "If you cultivate two arts at once, it is hard to master either. Let us help you modify them."
Before the palace gates, the Water Qilin watched the giants among those demigods crowd around the Dragon Qilin, teaching him hand over hand how to cultivate, and could not help but envy him bitterly. "We are both mounts — why has he slipped straight into the upper ranks of the demigods, while I must stay out here being stared at by this phoenix..."
The phoenix was still staring at him. Suddenly it spoke in a thin, soft voice: "Have you any spirit pills?"
The Water Qilin answered honestly, "No."
The phoenix paid him no more attention, and went on staring at him.
The Water Qilin's spirits sank. "When will Old Master Lan ever learn to refine spirit pills?"
The underground palace was vast; even walking through its gates took a long while, so that Shen Mu felt for a moment as though he had returned to the wild, savage age of Longhan.
Yu Tianzun looked at the palace, somewhat bewildered, and murmured, "I feel as though I have been here before... this place is familiar..."
Shen Mu slowed his steps, hope in his voice. "Can you recall anything, brother?"
Yu Tianzun grew more bewildered still. He knocked on his own head and shook it. "I cannot remember a thing... Brother, I think I am not your real younger brother!"
His face was utterly serious.
Shen Mu laughed despite himself. "What are you saying? Your surname is Lan, mine is Shen. Of course we are not true brothers."
He quickened his pace to catch up with Gongsun Yan and studied the arrangement of the great hall. It was simply furnished, with no murals on the walls; only on the smooth floor were there some pictures.
Behind Shen Mu his primordial spirit rose, looking down from on high, and only then did he make out the pictures on the floor.
The pictures were enormous. One showed the first opening of heaven and earth: a great tree rooted in the ancient land, holding fast the surging earth, water, wind, and fire between heaven and earth.
Beneath the great tree lay a woman, waking from a dream, while beside her a man reached out his hand as if to raise her up.
In the sky stood a giant formed of light; below the earth stood a strange being with ox horns and a tiger's head.
Yu Tianzun's face fell further. He said in a low voice, "I knew it — I was picked up. Where are my true parents?"
Shen Mu, gazing at the picture on the floor beneath his feet, nearly stumbled at these words, and could only shake his head. "What sort of jumble is packed into Yu Tianzun's little head?"
He looked at the second picture. In it the woman and the great tree towered to the heavens, and the leaves turned into heavens great and small, in which many demigods and ancient gods lived in joy; beneath the tree the roots spread through the continent, becoming all manner of mountains and rivers, forming dragon veins of every kind.
Some of those dragon veins, in the course of ages, took spirit and became divine dragons, in the midst of transformation.
"True parents?"
Just then the divine consciousness of the Earth Mother Yuanjun rippled over, perplexed. "Yu Tianzun, your parents died long ago. Do you not remember?"
Yu Tianzun was stunned. He turned his head aside and quietly wiped away tears.
Shen Mu had no time for the pictures on the floor. He looked toward the voice, and saw that what had spoken was a patch of radiance — radiance unlike that given off by the palace, which was too dazzling; this light was gentle, as though it held the power of life within it.
Within the light an ancient divine consciousness stirred faintly like ripples on water, and in those ripples a woman swam to and fro.
Behind the woman was a heart formed of light condensed into substance, and through that heart was thrust an iron sword, thick with rust.
Shen Mu looked closely and made out the woman's face. She looked the same as the idol in the temple, with a full forehead and a square jaw.