Chapter 873 — The Secret Treasure of the Star Sea
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 2 of 4
On the river's face many sand barges were also sailing east along the channel, and beneath those great vessels the Dragon-Rearing Lord and a number of Dragon Kings revealed their true forms, swimming in the heavenly river and using their magic to borrow the water's momentum, speeding the barges on their way. Tianyin metal was not rare in the Tianyin Realm, but in the outer world it was a precious thing, and there were many robbers on the road; even the heavenly river connected a number of heavens, and gods and demons from certain heavens came to waylay them, only to be driven off by the Dragon-Rearing Lord and his Dragon Kings.
Shen Mu did not let Dragon Qilin travel at full speed, so he was scarcely faster than the sand barges below, and the journey passed pleasantly enough on a diet of spirit pills. Now and then a Dragon King would fly up from the water; learning that this was Shen Mu's mount, he would present delicacies of the sea. Dragon Qilin seldom ate meat, and accepted only treasures such as Black Water Dragon Pearls, while Yan'er and the Water Qilin were bound by no such scruples, meat or vegetable.
Some of the sand barges, upon reaching the Yong River Academy, began to unload, carrying the Tianyin metal there to be smelted; others continued east, all the way to the sea.
The sea was broader now than in former days. Dragon Qilin looked east and saw that the heavenly chart could no longer cover the sea's surface; the sun rose, incredibly, from midair, and not from beneath the horizon. Stranger still, great planets hung above the sea; some had plunged into the ocean and showed half their round bodies, others hung upon the vault of heaven, immense beyond measure. These planets had torn the heavenly chart apart, leaving the sky seamed with shocking cracks.
The deities who guarded the heavenly chart had long since given up all pretense; they paid the damaged chart no heed at all, and did not trouble themselves to mend it. Suddenly Shen Mu thrust his head out of the mirror and looked all around. He too was arrested by the sight before him.
"This is the mouth of the Yong River? The gods who guard the heavenly chart grow more slack by the day.
It is a sight too ugly to bear. " "We have reached the river mouth," said Dragon Qilin. On the other side of the mirror, Yu Tianzun poked his head out and gazed about in curiosity.
"In ancient times the heavenly river flowed on without cease, emptying into the Returning Void; but now the heavenly river enters the sea, and is shorter by a great stretch. To find the Returning Void will be terribly difficult. " Shen Mu abruptly turned the mirror and set it upright, so that his body lay parallel with the sea and he could look down.
He saw the sand barges formed into fleets, sailing north along the coastline, and said, "Without the Dragon Kings to protect them, won't the sand barges be in danger? " Even as he spoke, great blue backs surfaced on the sea, like islands, as one huge fish after another swam up to guard the barges on every side. Then Xuanwu beasts came swimming from the deep, accompanying the barges as they moved forward.
At that moment a tower ship came sailing from a dock on the coast, and from that ship a strange phenomenon rose into the air, taking shape as a long river and a dam built of earth, wood, and water. The dam and the river crossed at right angles: the dam eight hundred zhang long, the river several hundred li, a spectacle beyond compare.
Several of the great blue-backed fish swam toward the phenomenon, suddenly leaped from the water, transformed into men and women, and boarded the tower ship.
Several giant Xuanwu swam up as well and, taking human form, climbed aboard. "Such a phenomenon of waterworks and earthworks; that is Wei Pingbo, the Grand Minister of Works of Jingping.