Chapter 798 — Unceasing Dissection and Study
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 1 of 4
For Shen Mu, that night's experience lay only a few years behind him; for that girl, forty thousand years of time had already passed.
What baffled Shen Mu was that, forty thousand years gone, Bai Qu'er's features were still as they had been at their first meeting, scarcely changed at all.
She had not grown up. She was still the lively, lovely girl he had seen that night in Shanghuang's Bailong City, a pair of tiny dragon horns hidden in the fine hair at her brow.
What had changed was her bearing.
He did not know what she had lived through; the timidity and frailty of before had been swept clean away, and she was filled with keenness, with enterprise, with fearlessness.
What Shen Mu did not know was that, before the dawn appeared, he had been the force that sustained her and those Shanghuang remnants and kept them alive; and that once the light of the rising sun appeared, he was the force that encouraged her to live, and to keep those frail remnants living.
Two people separated by forty thousand years, meeting as though for the first time, neither of them much changed in looks; Shen Mu had grown up, Bai Qu'er's bearing had altered, and that was all.
Shen Mu smiled, and the girl amid the gods across from him smiled as well.
They let their gazes slip apart, like a boy and a girl who had never set eyes on each other, who would blush with shyness if they looked one moment longer.
Shen Mu's spirits soared, and his mood suddenly and for no reason at all grew far brighter. He laughed: "A disciple of the Earth Mother, and I must still prove to you whether I am true or false. A fine joke, and a pitiful one. I have the Earth Mother's blessing."
The halo behind his head turned slowly, holding within it the power of the Earth Mother Venerable God.
"And the Earth Origin Dao Fruit grown upon the Origin Wood."
Shen Mu swept his gaze slowly around the hall and said, unhurried, "Who the attendant maiden at my side is, I imagine many of the seniors here have seen for themselves. And these treasures of mine were every one of them refined by the Earth Mother's own hand. I have these. What do you have?"
The girl's expression did not change. She laughed softly: "Feng Qiuyun? Feng Qiuyun betrayed the Earth Mother long ago. Of course, had Feng Qiuyun and the Feng clan not betrayed her, the Earth Mother would not have been defeated so miserably. Senior Sister Feng, am I right?"
Feng Qiuyun flared into fury: "Slander! You little wench, I will tear you to shreds!"
Shen Mu raised a hand and said in a low voice, "Sister Qiuyun, calm yourself. There are many demigods here; make a reckless move and you will easily become the target of every eye, and she will make use of you."
Feng Qiuyun's heart went cold. She turned quickly to look, and indeed many of the demigods wore looks of doubt.
The girl laughed: "Feng Qiuyun betrayed the Earth Mother, yet there were still many loyal ministers and righteous men faithful to the Earth Mother Venerable God, and that is how the Earth Mother kept her life. As for traitors and villains, there were no few of those either. How will you prove that the treasures in your hands are the Earth Mother's?"
Shen Mu looked at the girl before the Emperor's Throne and said, half smiling, "Sword, come!"
He lifted his palm. Feng Qiuyun started, then understood in a flash, and laid the hilt of the Venerable God's Kunyuan Sword into his hand, murmuring, "Be careful. It is very heavy."
Shen Mu smiled faintly. Primeval force poured into the Venerable God's Kunyuan Sword, and at once the divine sword's might was roused; the geomagnetic primeval power ran wild, turning into godlight visible to the naked eye!
Stifled grunt followed stifled grunt, and everyone within the whole Lingxiao Treasure Hall felt an immense pressure!
The might issuing from that wooden sword was not the mere power of a divine art, but a divine power!