Chapter 919 — Illusory Blossom of the Western Realm
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 2 of 4
Those girls told him: "As for Qi Jiuyi, he is even more remarkable still. He thinks nothing of the sect master of the High Heaven Divine Sect. These days he dwells in the Red Emperor's travel palace and is the Young Lord of the Western Lands, commanding the gods and demons of half the Western Lands. Dreadfully imposing!"
The Dragon Qilin said excitedly: "Qi Jiuyi is my sworn brother!"
"Xu Shenghua truly is clever, turning High Heaven Academy into the High Heaven Divine Sect, into a sect."
Shen Mu sighed in admiration: "A man like him: put his mind to cultivation, and he advances with fierce courage; put his mind to love, and he is the most devoted of sages; put his mind to the ways of the world, and he is smooth on every side. He is no worse than I am—"
He asked clear the whereabouts of the High Heaven Divine Sect and the Red Emperor's travel palace, took his leave of the girls, and set off for the High Heaven Divine Sect.
The High Heaven Divine Sect was the old High Heaven Academy, beside the Red Emperor's travel palace. The Red Emperor's travel palace was built in the heavens, while the High Heaven Divine Sect was built near the True Heaven Palace.
Before many days had passed, the Dragon Qilin arrived at the High Heaven Divine Sect, and promptly abandoned Shen Mu and galloped off toward the Red Emperor's travel palace in the heavens, crying: "Sect Master, I am going to visit my sworn brother!"
"Mind you do not anger Qi Jiuyi and get yourself roasted and eaten!" Shen Mu called after him.
The Dragon Qilin cried: "Don't worry. He and I swore the oath of Tubo: we do not ask to be born the same day, only to die the same day. Sister Yan'er, are you coming?"
Yan'er flew over at once, saying: "Young Master, I will go keep an eye on Fat Dragon, lest he truly be eaten!"
Shen Mu shook his head, and entered the High Heaven Divine Sect. Xu Shenghua came out to welcome him the moment word arrived, and said with a laugh: "Sect Master, it has been some years. You have grown much thinner! Is Jingping well?"
Shen Mu said: "It is a long tale. I came to see whether you and the Western Lands have pulled through. Seeing the people of the Western Lands still reasonably settled, and you unharmed, I am relieved."
"This time we owe it to Qi Jiuyi. Without that connection of his, the Western Lands would surely have met with great calamity."
Xu Shenghua said: "Though the Western Lands have the connection of High Heaven and the True Heaven Palace, if the Heavenly Court wished to destroy the Western Lands, it would not care a whit for such a connection. Qi Jiuyi is the Red Emperor's disciple, and it was his stepping forward that preserved the Western Lands."
At the words "Red Emperor Qi Xiayu," Shen Mu could not help falling silent.
When the Heavenly Court had besieged him, Qi Xiayu had been among them; the Four Emperors had struck together and driven him to a dead end, forcing him to part from his elder brother.
The pain he had endured in severing his own soul he had never spoken of to anyone, but that taste was a hundred times worse than a knife scraping bone!
Yet what hurt him most was that, having severed his soul, he was parted from his brother Shen Fengqing; they were no longer even brothers, and he was no longer a son of Qin Hanzhen and Consort Zhen.
He was nothing but a walking corpse.
In this, the Red Emperor Qi Xiayu had had a hand.
Xu Shenghua knew nothing of what he had endured, nor how heavy and terrible the ordeal he had borne.
Nor did the people of the Western Lands know what great agony Jingping had suffered. In that catastrophe, Jingping's population had fallen from billions to a few hundred million: some had died upon the road of flight, some had been seized by the heavenly gods as rations, some had been ravaged by demons and monsters, and more still had been taken away as slaves.
Not one in ten survived; such was the state of the people of Jingping.
A nation incomparably prosperous had come to the brink of extinction.