Chapter 914 — Old Grudges Revisited
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 3 of 4
The Yong River and the Heavenly River had once been one body, cut into two; now they were one again, and at once all manner of strange visions rose from the river, uncanny light bursting from the water and illuminating the sky.
Tower ships and great warships, tier upon tier of palaces, countless gods and demons, innumerable strange visions — all came surging forth, a chaos of voices, deafening!
These visions were the history of the Yong River — the people and buildings of the past, the events that had happened in history — now stirred by Heaven Venerable Ling's Unchanging divine ability and pouring out all at once!
The Heavenly River and the Yong River heaved violently; suddenly the whole Heavenly River rose into the air and flew up toward the heavens, a river surface thousands of li wide floating in the sky, strange visions bursting forth, those hovering palaces seeming about to emerge from the dust of history into this age!
Boom—
Buildings and gods and demons of every age collided, and countless fragments came drifting down from the sky, a terrifying sight.
The mist grew thicker and thicker, and through the fog a ghost ship came sailing, black vapor wreathing it, chains flying and coiling around the ship like dragons and great pythons, yet never touching it.
The hand with which Shen Mu gripped the peach-wood hairpin was shaking violently; he hastily seized it with both hands and steadied himself, but even so the hairpin seemed about to tear free of his grasp.
"Wei Suifeng—"
Shen Mu roared aloud, and arm after arm thrust out from beneath his armpits, desperately clutching the peach-wood hairpin. He shouted: "Eldest Senior Brother, are you not coming out?"
The ghost ship, dim and hazy, sailed on through the black fog, drawing near.
And at that moment space grew more and more unstable; the space around Shen Mu was collapsing, the ages seemed to be overlapping, palaces and gods and demons layered together, and even the ghost ship showed signs of shattering!
On the ghost ship a middle-aged man appeared at the prow, opening his mouth to say something to him; but the echoes of every age sounded at once, a clamor beyond measure, and it was impossible to hear what he was saying.
Shen Mu freed one hand and swiftly took out the core of the Yuan Wood, shouting: "Grow—"
Whoosh—
The core of the Yuan Wood swelled violently and stretched out to meet the ghost ship, growing longer and longer, trying to build a wooden bridge between the present and the past.
The core of the Yuan Wood had already grown beyond measure, yet the ghost ship in the mist and black vapor still seemed impossibly far away. On the ship Wei Suifeng leaped up, trying to meet the Yuan Wood; but scarcely had he risen when his body dissolved, and the next instant he was back at the prow, as though he had never left.
"...the map..."
His voice came faintly.
Shen Mu could no longer control the peach-wood hairpin and had no choice but to disperse his dharma power. The Heavenly River broke off at once, the other stretch of it vanished, and the Yong River fell from the sky into its channel; the ghost ship, the tower ships, the palaces, and the countless gods and demons retreated swiftly, vanishing into the history of the past.
The mist too shrank swiftly and soon left no trace.
A core of the Yuan Wood dropped into Shen Mu's hand.
Around Shen Mu the heaving space at once grew calm, wind and waves subsiding, as though the visions just now had been mere illusion.
"The peach-wood hairpin cannot pull the ghost ship out of Heaven Venerable Ling's divine ability. Must I follow the map to save him?"
Shen Mu was dazed; he put away the peach-wood hairpin and shouted: "Yan'er, carry us out of here, quickly!"
Yan'er at once flew up and transformed into a dragon sparrow, seized Dragon Qilin and tossed him onto her back; Shen Mu landed on her back as well, and Yan'er spread her wings and rose, bearing them away in flight.