Chapter 861 — The Broken Bridge in the Fallen God Valley
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 1 of 4
Only when Shen Mu gripped the Carefree Sword did the divine blade slowly cease its low humming.
"Kaihuang's sword art does bear a certain resemblance to mine. I learned part of the Carefree Land's legacy from my father, and I met Kaihuang at the Grand Gathering of the Jade Pool. I imagine we left some mark on each other."
He studied the scene a while. The round blob of light had not moved at all; it was the glow that drifted, creating the illusion that the light itself was on the move.
Ahead of them, bones lay everywhere. The enormous corpses of gods and demons were strewn across hill and plain, and the glow wandered all around. Some of the bones were covered in golden runes; when the divine glow swept past, those runes lit up with a crackling sound, then winked out into the radiance.
Shen Mu's heart went cold. This divine glow held a dreadful power, and it sealed the whole place shut.
"The light is the imprint a sword art left upon space, and the glow is likewise the imprint left by a divine ability."
Xing An carried his case and walked into the ruins. "Follow me carefully," he said. "These ruins are unlike any other. We must walk upon the divine abilities imprinted in space."
Shen Mu blinked. Walk upon divine abilities imprinted in space?
He had entered no few ruins in his time, and he had always avoided the imprints of divine abilities, for such imprints still held fearsome power. A single touch might set them off and grind an intruder to pieces.
To walk on them, then, was surely the most perilous path of all.
Just then a voice laughed, "Heavenly Venerable Mu! It has been a long time!"
Shen Mu's heart stirred. He looked toward the voice and broke into a broad smile, waving from afar. "Sister Yan Qiling! I have missed you greatly since we parted. How have you been these days, Sister?"
Xing An halted and looked that way. A painted barge came flying through the air, a throng of divine maidens gathered around a woman standing at its prow. Behind the girl's head drifted a halo, making her look utterly sacred; the halo was not a perfect circle but an ellipse, marked with many strange patterns.
Xing An did not recognize her, yet his eyes lit up. "That woman is worth collecting!"
"She is a disciple of the Ancient God Heavenly Emperor," Shen Mu said. "Her abilities are about equal to mine, so of course she is worth collecting. But the woman beside her is formidable. Her skills are exceedingly high, unfathomable."
Yan Qiling too arrived at the edge of the ruins and halted her barge, still a hundred zhang or so from Shen Mu.
She and the women disembarked, and from the boat stepped a youth of about her age, a halo also drifting behind his head.
"Could this youth be a disciple of the Heavenly Emperor as well?" Shen Mu wondered.
Xing An noticed him too. "This one is also worth collecting!" he said in praise.
Yan Qiling laughed. "Last time you wounded me, Heavenly Venerable, and it took me a long while to recover. His Majesty is very angry with you, you know. You made a fool of him. You gave his blessing to a black wild boar. His Majesty talked with that boar for a long time before he noticed anything amiss. He flew into a rage and cursed you for ages."
She burst out laughing, but the youth beside her looked grim. "Junior Sister," he said in a low voice, "this brute has insulted His Majesty. He deserves death ten thousand times over. And you still joke with him?"
Yan Qiling said softly, "Senior Brother Mu, His Majesty still needs him for something. His life must be spared."
Mu Qiubai's expression remained dark. "Insulting His Majesty is a crime he cannot escape," he said coldly.
Shen Mu looked smug. "His Majesty wants to control me, so naturally I must take precautions. By the way, how is that black boar doing?"