Chapter 809 — New Works in the Capital Foretell Rise and Fall
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 3 of 5
The Imperial Teacher of Jingping coughed repeatedly. "It is indeed from the hand of the Painting Sage of the Heavenly Chart, otherwise I would not have kept it back. The Emperor has asked me for it many times; I told him I had lost it and did not return it. This is the only copy; the Painting Sage of the Heavenly Chart painted only this one, and he painted it in the years when he was poor and destitute. Now that he is rich as a lord, if you ask him to paint another he will refuse. When you have finished, you must return it to me."
Shen Mu leafed through it, ears and face burning, heart pounding wildly, and hurriedly returned the Record to him.
The Imperial Teacher carefully smoothed each page flat, put it away, and said, "I forgot to ask. With which woman will you have this child?"
Shen Mu's mind went blank with a boom; he stood there dumb for a long while without speaking. After a moment he ventured, "I had not thought about that question. These past months I have been pondering the opening of the seventh divine treasury. I have conceived twenty-six kinds of seventh divine treasury, and in eight months I have also sorted out twenty-six methods, which I mean to test one by one. My original plan was that for each one that succeeded, I would have a child. Only now do I realize it is not as simple as I thought; I would need to find twenty-six women..."
"Get out!"
The Imperial Teacher of Jingping's face darkened; he raised a hand and pointed at the gate of his residence.
Shen Mu said, stammering, "I am your senior brother. How can you speak to me like that?"
"A-Fu, A-Fu, come quickly and throw this fellow out!"
The Imperial Teacher raged, "Lewd and shameless, and you call yourself Second Senior Brother!"
Shen Mu said hurriedly, "Let the matter of children be set aside for now. I have many affairs and truly no time to beget children, and it is troublesome besides. There is another thing I came to you about. Look at the halo behind my head: this is a blessing from the Earth Mother Yuanjun. The Earth Mother wishes me to revive her, and so she blessed me and gave me an Earth Origin Dao Fruit; otherwise I could not have cultivated to the Life-and-Death realm so quickly. The Earth Mother's revival is no small matter. She uses these two things to monitor my movements, and sooner or later she will find me again. Help me see how this Earth Mother's blessing may be broken."
The Imperial Teacher's expression eased. He studied the halo behind Shen Mu's head carefully, his face grave, examining it back and forth. After a long while he paced to and fro, deliberating and unable to decide.
Suddenly a sword-light filled the room, stabbing at Shen Mu.
Shen Mu stood motionless. A ceaseless clinking of collisions rang out; in an instant the Imperial Teacher of Jingping had thrust out who knew how many swords, each one exquisite to the utmost, each striking precisely within the halo behind Shen Mu's head, and the tip of every sword-light landed upon a rune within the halo!
In that moment sword-light crisscrossed, darting through the courtyard like startled swans, like roaming dragons.
Yet the halo behind Shen Mu's head burst forth with light of every color under his sword-light, dyeing the halo brilliant and motley; the halo spun without cease, blocking his sword-light.
The Imperial Teacher sheathed his sword, and the spinning halo behind Shen Mu's head slowly came to rest.
"The Earth Mother's blessing is exceedingly powerful, and is also a means of self-protection. If you could rouse the power of the blessing, blocking the attacks of a true god would be easy, and even a heavenly god might not be able to do anything to you."
The Imperial Teacher of Jingping examined his divine sword and saw a small nick in the tip. "This blessing is of great use. Do you truly mean to erase it?"