Chapter 915 — The Spirit Wood's Core Radiance Bursts Forth
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 1 of 4
The Yuan Wood stood dense and verdant, mantling the vast expanse of the Yuan Realm. In the heavens above, all the heavens revolved around this one tree. Seen from afar, it seemed nothing remarkable; but the nearer one drew to it, the more magnificent it became.
Though the Earth Mother was long dead, the Yuan Wood still brimmed with a terrifying vitality.
The divine beings of the Heavenly Court gathered divine gold from all the heavens and built within the Yuan Wood's crown their most vast and splendid palaces, fashioned after the pattern of the Heavenly Palace itself, with its Jade Pool and Jade Capital, a thousand palaces and ten thousand halls, and it was named the Yuan Realm Heavenly Palace. The true body of the Ancient God Heaven Emperor dwelt within the Heavenly Court, while Celestial Venerable Yu, being the weapon that held the Yuan Realm in subjugation, stayed behind in the Yuan Realm, living in the Lingxiao Hall of the Yuan Realm Heavenly Palace. The Heavenly Palace was luxury beyond compare; but at the root of the Yuan Wood lay the darkest of places, where the armies of the Heavenly Court heaped the corpses of untold gods and demons of the Yuan Realm, to serve as nourishment for the Yuan Wood.
Amid mountains of corpses and seas of blood stood the Great Prison of the Yuan Realm. The Great Prison was built in the darkest, filthiest place in all the Yuan Realm.
The divine beings of the Heavenly Court raised its walls from white bone and forged its cages, holding there the gravest criminals of the Yuan Realm. No sunlight ever pierced it; chill winds blew unceasing; it was bitterly cold and damp beyond bearing.
And because the bones of gods and demons lay so thick, the ground was covered with divine blood and demon blood that never dried, mingled together, and from that filth monsters were often born, prowling at large through the prison.
Rarely did any god of the Heavenly Court come to this place; only its jailers, wardens, and judges made their dwelling here. These jailers, wardens, and judges were all demon-gods of the Youdu lineage; the filth of this place, unbearable to others, was to them quite comfortable. Just then the Great Prison had received no small number of guests. A woman dressed in a finely made court-lady's gown frowned as she watched a warden hold up a newborn monster and wash it in a pool of blood, until the creature was drenched all over. The warden washed it awhile; the monster was still squeaking, divine blood and demon blood splashing everywhere, and the warden lifted it up, opened his vast mouth, and popped it in.
The woman hurriedly turned her face away, not daring to look closely.
"Senior Sister Yun Huayan, the wardens here are demon-gods born in Youdu. Monsters born of filth and darkness are their rations; to you such creatures are utterly revolting, but to them they are incomparably delicious food.
" Beside the woman, a youth smiled gently: 'Newborn monsters especially are the greatest delicacy. ' Yun Huayan covered her nose and mouth and said with a frown: 'This Great Prison is too savage a place — no place for a human to stay. Why has that Jingping Hegemon not come yet?
Deal with him quickly, and we can go back and report. ' At that the warden's eyes lit up.
He fished a monster from the blood pool, dangled it in his hand, and chuckled to the youth: 'Young Master Taoyu, this one's fresh.
Will you eat? ' Young Taoyu frowned hard and hastily waved his hand. The warden sighed that it was a pity and went back to washing in the blood pool, when suddenly a burly man in a black round-collared robe strode over and laughed: 'Such a delicacy — why won't you eat it?
Lord Warden, wash it well and give it to me; I like it.