Chapter 831 — Joining Hands for a Fight
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 1 of 4
Zhe Huali watched Shen Mu approach. He struggled to steady himself and raised a hand. "Cult Master Shen, after you!"
Shen Mu was baffled. "What for?"
Zhe Huali's face was solemn. "To die by the Cult Master's sword is a hundred times better than dying at the hands of Prince Qiuming. If I die by your hand, I will have no complaints."
Shen Mu did not know whether to laugh or cry. He shook his head. "Zhe Huali, you've misunderstood."
Zhe Huali was at a loss.
"I'm not here to kill you. If you die here, it will be a great inconvenience to me."
Shen Mu stepped forward, hauled him out of the broken bricks and rubble, and explained, "There is a poem on this pillar. It is the key to breaking the ghost ship's divine ability. You were standing beside it. When the ghost ship reincarnates and reassembles, you will merge with the pillar. If I cut you down, your blood will smear the writing. Would I have to wait for another cycle? If you want to die, then die somewhere farther away."
Zhe Huali gave a muffled snort and stared at Shen Mu's hand. In it was a bottle of dragon saliva, which Shen Mu was applying to his wounds.
"Cult Master Shen, you are healing my wounds," Zhe Huali reminded him.
Only then did Shen Mu realize what he was doing. He tossed Zhe Huali to the ground and said sheepishly, "A healer's heart is that of a parent. It was force of habit."
The fall made Zhe Huali's wounds ache, and only then did he notice that Shen Mu had already treated every injury on his body. The wounds were healing and no longer bleeding.
"You still saved me."
His feelings were complicated. "Cult Master Shen, you should know that we are enemies. You and I both come from humble origins. We clawed our way to our current positions through our own efforts. Therefore, to die by the Cult Master's hand, I have not a single complaint. Let us have a duel of the Dao. Let me truly be defeated by your hand and die by your hand!"
Shen Mu shook his head. "Zhe Huali, you've really misunderstood. How are we of humble origins? Compared to Prince Qiuming, you and I might be considered of humble origins, but compared to ordinary people, we were born with golden spoons in our mouths. You are a descendant of gods, extraordinarily talented. You had Luo Wushuang as your teacher, and a demon god like Fu Riluo to instruct you. Among mortals, who has conditions like yours?"
Zhe Huali was slightly taken aback.
Shen Mu said, "Though I was an abandoned infant in the wasteland, I had the Nine Elders of Yincan Village to teach me, nine of the finest teachers. And I am the Divine Son of Youdu, a descendant of Kaihuang. It may not have helped much, being mere background, but the status is there. And I also possess the Overlord Body."
He shook his head. "How can we be considered of humble origins? The truly humble are those ordinary people whose parents toil from dawn to dusk yet still go hungry and lack clothes to cover themselves. Born into such families, even three meals a day are a problem, survival itself is a problem. In some places, tigers and wolves roam everywhere. Parents go out early to find food and may not return alive at night. Those born in such places still struggle amid suffering, striving to climb upward, to ascend. That is what it means to be of humble origins."
He spoke neither hurriedly nor slowly. "Such people do not have our conditions, nor our fortunes and backgrounds. They will encounter many obstacles, many traps, and struggle desperately, and ultimately achieve something. We are not heroes of humble origins. They are."
Zhe Huali stood up, lowered his head in thought, and nodded. "What the Cult Master says is absolutely right. Compared to them, we are the detestable Prince Qiuming."
"The Jingping Reform seeks to change exactly this state of affairs."