Chapter 882 — The Cowherd Drunk by the Riverbank
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 1 of 4
When Long Qilin heard these words, his heart gave a start—though there was something familiar in that voice. Even so, he dared not be remiss. In a flash he shook himself and transformed into a sturdy youth with a qilin's head and a man's body—only he had changed too quickly and forgotten that Shen Mu was still on his back. Shen Mu tumbled down, flailing hand and foot. Long Qilin hastily scooped him up, set him on his own shoulder, and peered cautiously past the moonlight.
Today was the seventh day of the month; when the moon array ran to the seventh, it was a great crescent, and the rest of the array was screened behind shadow. The array was vast, sweeping several hundred li across. The part hidden in shadow had not truly vanished—the array still turned, merely screened from sight. It was like a lunar palace: within the moon stood halls and gate-towers, and the scenery was fair, most pleasing to the eye.
"Whoever governs the moon in the celestial chart must surely be a beautiful woman."
Long Qilin poked his head out from the shadows and saw that the broken place let the moonlight spill down like running water. Upon the tip of the crescent sat a woman, gazing this way, blinking.
"It's her?"
Long Qilin was slightly startled. Shen Mu on his shoulder was like a puppet come apart at the joints; his limbs slid limply off Long Qilin's shoulder, his head lolling to one side. Long Qilin hastily caught hold of him. The woman on the crescent came over and said in surprise, "What is wrong with him?"
"The Sect Master is wounded." To the woman, Long Qilin said, "Badly wounded, but it should be nothing serious. Sect Master, wake up!"
He shook Shen Mu, whose head wobbled like a rattle drum. Then Shen Mu opened his eyes, gazing blearily at the woman, feeling as though a familiar face had entered his sight, though he could not recall who she was.
"What are you doing here?" he mumbled, and sank muddled back into dreamland.
"You see? Nothing serious!" Long Qilin declared with great confidence.
The woman, however, was very worried. She sent him into the lunar palace, saying, "I have just cleaned this place. Rest here and heal your wounds."
Long Qilin settled Shen Mu in place. After diagnosing his injuries, the woman mused for a moment, then refined pills and brewed medicine for him. Long Qilin drew near and said with a smile, "In those days you knew nothing at all, and now you can refine pills and brew medicine too?"
The woman smiled and said, "After you all left, everything had to be done by myself. I was very young then, and I had to learn everything. When one has learned much, one knows how."
Long Qilin thought for a moment, then said, "Those days were truly like a dream. The Sect Master, the Great Venerable, Xiangzi, and myself—somehow we stumbled into Bailong City, and when day broke, we left. Yet the night's experience was wonderfully strange, unforgettable for a lifetime."
The woman turned her head and looked at Shen Mu sleeping peacefully on the sickbed, and a gentle smile crossed her face: "Yes. In the tens of thousands of years after, I woke countless times from nightmares, and remembering that night, I suddenly found the courage to live on."