Chapter 857 — Strange Tales of the Southern Realm
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 1 of 4
Face black as a thundercloud, Shen Mu walked into the Daoist Academy of Learning still eating his peach. He looked back: the peach grove that spanned ten thousand li was there yet, and deep among the blossoms it still smiled in the spring wind.
The woman in the grove remained there still, hidden away from the world.
Yet Shen Mu knew the Moon Lord of Heaven would not stay in the peach grove forever; when the time was right she would surely come out again. The peach grove was a strange heaven, and that this heaven had appeared within the Yuan Realm meant the Moon Lord of Heaven was not resigned, that she harbored a mind to enter the world, that she had not wholly cut away her feelings for it.
Her teaching of Qi Xiayu was proof. Qi Xiayu was her disciple, going out in her place, walking the world in her stead, the very emblem of her intent to engage with it.
And stranger still, Qi Xiayu had been recommended to the Moon Lord of Heaven by the Southern Emperor, the Vermilion Sparrow, and was bound to her by a thousand and one threads; she might be called the Southern Emperor's disciple as well.
There was much here worth turning over in the mind. "Qi Xiayu is the disciple of both the Southern Emperor and the Moon Lord of Heaven; the two of them reared her and made her a powerhouse of the Emperor Throne.
And after several betrayals, Qi Xiayu rose from leader of the Phoenix Clan beneath the Earth Mother's banner all the way to Southern Heaven Crimson Emperor of the outer Heavenly Court. " Shen Mu gnawed the peach down to the pit, his eyes flickering, a smile of keen interest on his lips, thinking, "And the Heavenly Court has in the Archive Pavilion a rune-inscribed jade slip of the Southern Emperor, the Vermilion Sparrow — plain proof that they long ago set their hearts on replacing her. In the era of the Supreme Sovereign the Southern Emperor had already cultivated a replacement for herself: she removed the previous Crimson Emperor and raised that one into a Crimson Emperor of the new generation.
When the Heavenly Court wished to kill her, she could feign death and slip free, then let the Crimson Emperor Qi Xiayu inherit her power.
She loses nothing, and passes from light into shadow. " Shen Mu blinked. That Sister Vermilion Sparrow in her scarlet robes, standing at the prow of the tower ship on the Heaven River, was cunning after all — it was a little beyond what he had expected.
The blind old man had not come back to the Daoist Academy; no doubt he feared the girl Yan'er, and had fled. Shen Mu was not worried for his safety: for all his ravenous curiosity, the blind old man's Holy Pupils and Heart Holy Pupils were rare in all the world, and in the arts of formation he was second to none in Jingping. So long as he did not deliberately court death, no peril would find him. The Lord of Heaven Yu took little interest in the arts of divination, yet in these days he had learned the Daoist arts of number seven parts of eight, and the Dragon Qilin was even more accomplished; only the Water Qilin slept through every lecture. Shen Mu took his leave of Dao Master Lin Xuan. "Dao Master, you too must find a master of high attainment to shatter the Divine Bridge divine treasury and open the Heaven River divine treasury. If you cannot find such a one, then go to Yongjiang Academy and seek the First Ancestor, the Human Emperor; he has the strength for it.
" Dao Master Lin Xuan gave thanks. "Rest assured, Sect Master.
The Sect Master of Qingyun Heaven should command such strength as well.
Now that you leave the Dao Palace, where do you mean to go? " "I mean to go to Lanjiang Academy and Yujing Academy, then wander through Jiangling Academy, the Grand Academy, and other academies besides, to study the fruits of their reforms over these years. " Shen Mu glanced around and lowered his voice: "The Yuan Realm's seal is broken.