Chapter 985 — The Holy Infant's Unspoken Sorrow
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 1 of 4
Qin Hanzhen's heart was heavy. "Yes. Shen'er has suffered too much. When he learned that he was only the second consciousness of Shen Fengqing, I truly do not know how he held on without breaking apart."
Princess Zhen's eyes swam with tears. "When I learned that he had cut away his soul and dug out his eye to preserve Fengqing, my tears would not stop. This child — I do not know how he lived through it. Fengqing has a mother; he is an orphan, and on top of that he must bear such torment..."
Shen Mu was the second consciousness within Shen Fengqing's body. Shen Fengqing, that Divine Son of the Nether Capital, had done too much evil, and was sealed by Tu Bo and exiled to the mortal world.
At the very moment he passed from the Nether Capital to the ruins of the mortal realm, Shen Mu's consciousness was born. Thus he was an orphan from the instant of his birth — laid in a basket, with Aunt Ping'er carrying him as she fled all the way, dodging the gods and demons of the Heavenly Court who hunted them.
He drifted as far as the Yong River. Aunt Ping'er died too, and Yincan Village took him in.
From childhood to youth to young manhood, Shen Mu had always believed himself a life unique in all the world — until he learned that he was nothing more than the second consciousness born within this body, that the body did not belong to him either, and that he did not even have a soul of his own.
And later still, when the Jingping Calamity came and he fell into the thick of encircling enemies, crushed beneath a boundless despair, he resolved — so that Shen Fengqing, the Divine Son of the Nether Capital, would never fall into the Heavenly Court's hands — to resolutely dig out his own third eye, cut away his soul, and send Shen Fengqing back to the Nether Capital.
He kept only this body that was not his own, so that his consciousness might still survive, and became what others called a cripple — a waste of a Tyrant Body.
Princess Zhen and Qin Hanzhen could scarcely imagine how Shen Mu had lived through such hardships, or why he could still keep so fierce a fighting spirit — rushing about from place to place, journeying even here.
Their love for Shen Mu was not only the tender love of parents, but also a feeling of guilt and debt.
"This must be told to Emperor Kai. Emperor Kai will not let harm come to him, no matter what."
As Qin Hanzhen steered the tower-ship into the distance, he consoled her: "Emperor Kai has long wished to see him. His strength is unfathomable — he is sure to find a way."
Princess Zhen nodded in silence. But at the thought that Shen Mu was about to suffer every torment at the hands of the Creators, she could not help but grieve and weep.
"This is nothing but torment!"
In the territory of the Xiu people, Shen Mu had been dressed by the Creators in a crimson robe and seated in the highest place, and he felt rather ill at ease.
Just now, when the Creators were changing his clothes, they had even put a crimson bellyband on him; at the thought of it, Shen Mu felt an indescribable discomfort.
Still, it was only natural for a mischievous child not yet two to wear a crimson bellyband — after all, children that age all ran about bare-bottomed in their bellybands. Shen Mu had worn one too at two or three, and Blind Grandpa and Lame Grandpa would often pinch his little bird and flick it a couple of times, not letting him be until he wailed.
That is a thing of the past; best not to speak of it.
He sat in the highest place, and this high platform was shaped like an altar. Compared with an adult Creator it was not so large, but compared with him it seemed extraordinarily magnificent.
Shen Mu sat at the very top of the altar and felt as though he were an offering laid upon it; his heart was truly somewhat panicked.