Chapter 883 — Gathering the Milky Way Before the Moon Palace
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 3 of 4
"Over there is the sun of the Heaven Diagram.
Within the Heaven Diagram, by day the stars dim and the river of stars gives no light; only the sun shines.
But at night, the sun in the star diagram is extinguished. " Shen Mu looked where she pointed. The sun's formation had now ceased to turn; it was a circular formation shaped like a portal, hollow within, and inside it stood a Palace of the Sun.
As he had guessed, this formation borrowed the light of the true sun, and so could give off light and heat. "The hole in the Heaven Diagram is here.
" Bai Qu'er came to the Palace of the Sun and led him inside.
"But this hole only appears when the sun formation is lit," she said with a smile. "Then we can fly out through it and see the real starry sky. " Shen Mu blinked.
"It is night now in Jingping. " Bai Qu'er murmured in assent.
"Once we light the sun, the moon and the sun will both appear in the night sky," Shen Mu went on.
Bai Qu'er murmured again, a look of regret on her face.
Shen Mu's face brightened into a smile. "Then let us do it! " Bai Qu'er cheered and flew swiftly to the very center of the palace, where there was a great crimson cloth, woven of some unknown material, embroidered with the pattern of a three-legged golden crow, something beneath propping it up.
Bai Qu'er pulled the cloth aside with force, revealing a stand, and upon the stand a palm print formed of exquisite rune patterns.
She pressed her palm to the pattern and looked at Shen Mu, hesitating.
"Are we really going to light the sun?
Won't it be too shocking to the world?
" Shen Mu laughed.
"The people of Jingping are long accustomed to it. As for shocking the world, a sun appearing at night cannot compare with the breaking of the Yuan Realm's seal. In these past years, the people of Jingping have seen heavenly calamities erupt, seen the Yong River turn into a river of heaven, countless gods and demons awaken, and the heavens appear in the sky.
Their endurance is stronger than we imagine. " Bai Qu'er set her heart at ease and stirred her vital essence.
A hum came from the stand, and then the humming flowed along the ground in all directions. Soon the formation runes outside the Palace of the Sun were lit, the runes turning crimson; the formation revolved and parted to all sides.
At this hour Jingping had not yet entered deep night; countless households still had their lamps lit, the lights of the cities shone all the brighter, and pedestrians still strolled the night markets. Yet suddenly, all at once, the sun rose abruptly in the sky, hanging in the vault of heaven, driving the night away in an instant! Not only that, but the moon was in the sky as well, and its light was in no way inferior to the sun's, dazzlingly bright. The people of Jingping were stunned, and the gods, demons, and demigods of Yuandu were stunned as well; who knew how many raised their heads and stared blankly at the sky.
In the Palace of the Sun, Bai Qu'er seized Shen Mu's hand and raced ahead, her laughter drifting back to him. "Hurry, let us slip out before the gods and demons come looking!
" Shen Mu's heart pounded wildly.
He followed her to the center of the sun formation, where there was a great sunspot, its dark blotch most unsightly. Bai Qu'er leaped with him into the dark blotch, her sleeves and skirts fluttering, brushing against Shen Mu's face.
Shen Mu raised his other hand to push aside the girl's skirts and sleeves, only to find that they had already leaped out of the sun formation, out of the Heaven Diagram, out of that false celestial realm. They were floating in the vast and boundless starry cosmos, the Heaven Diagram behind them of unknowable length and distance, and before them a great ball of fire drifting in the silent universe.
Immeasurably vast, beyond all imagining. Standing before this sun, they were as tiny as ants.