Chapter 856 — 丹青裡的佳人
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 2 of 4
" Shen Mu's brow was indeed sweating. Yet no sooner had Yan'er and the girls gone than he recovered, no longer constrained, and smiled. "I never thought the Red Emperor would prove to be your disciple, Sister. The Red Emperor once hunted me down; I am relieved to have laid that quarrel to rest this time. " A vein stood out on Qi Xiayu's forehead where she sat not far off.
"Master, I was not hunting him. I was hunting a heartless wretch.
Besides, this man is as unreliable as that wretch, all honeyed talk on his lips — do not believe him, Master!
He and that wretch made havoc of the twenty heavens of the Buddhist realm; Brahma, the Great Heavenly King Buddha, used their hands to kill the powers the Heavenly Court had planted in the Buddhist realm, and the Heavenly Court has long wished them dead. Even now the Heavenly Court has sent other mighty ones to seize that wretch. " The woman behind the screen said, "Young Master Shen, Xiayu truly means no ill will; do not blame her. Her own road has been bitter indeed. She was never given any weight among the Phoenix Clan, and was held fast in the Earth Mother's grip; then the Earth Mother's son became the Heavenly Emperor of the Northern Supreme Heavenly Court and named her to enter the palace and serve in his bedchamber. She had no choice but to defect and flee to the Southern Supreme Heavenly Court.
" Shen Mu's eyes flickered. "And then the Southern Supreme Heavenly Court fell, and she went over to the Heavenly Court Beyond the Realm. " Qi Xiayu raised an eyebrow, and said nothing. The woman behind the screen smiled. "When Xiayu was small, it was the Southern Emperor who recommended her to me as a disciple. In truth she may be counted the disciple of both the Southern Emperor and myself.
I have never cared for the affairs of the world, but the Southern Emperor and I are the closest of friends, and when she asked it of me I could hardly refuse, and so I took the girl in. You need not be suspicious of Xiayu, Young Master Shen; in fact most of what she has done was done at my bidding. " Shen Mu said, "You live here in seclusion, Sister, but your heart is not secluded. You still have your designs, and you mean to use the Red Emperor to change the world outside.
Yet the Red Emperor has betrayed one patron after another — from the Earth Mother to the Northern Supreme, from the Northern Supreme to the Southern Supreme, then to the Heavenly Court Beyond the Realm, and in Kaihuang's day she betrayed Indra, the Heavenly King Buddha.
I cannot well say such things to her face, but in my heart I hold it rather contemptible.
" Qi Xiayu said coolly, "What you think of me, what the world thinks of me, I do not care a whit. But that fellow Li Youran is a fickle, heartless wretch. To say that I betrayed him is to call black white!
He betrayed not only me, but Kaihuang as well, and ran off to become a monk! " Shen Mu frowned slightly. Of Indra, the Heavenly King Buddha, he truly could not say much. The woman behind the screen smiled. "Xiayu is indeed a little too suspicious, but she has her reasons.
Whether seen from her side or from Li Youran's, neither of them has done anything wrong.
You should not judge them so harshly, Young Master Shen. " Shen Mu sighed, and said bleakly, "I only pity the people of the Heavenly Artisan divine race, penned to their deaths by the Heavenly Court in the Ark of the Other Shore, with only a single child escaping.
I pity that sole survivor, who in the end became an old blacksmith, who dared not reveal his origins, who had to cut out his own tongue and chose to live as a silent craftsman.
" His face fell. Thinking of that wicked old man in the village who could only say "ah-ba, ah-ba," his eyes stung.