Chapter 1004 — The Mottled Sword, the Mottled Heart
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 1 of 4
Shen Mu was filled with a solemn reverence.
There were scarcely any true Daoists left in the Heavenly Court's Daoist sect; it had become a place where the sons of the Court's magnates and noble houses went to gild their reputations. In Jingping's Daoist sect, by contrast, many were true Daoists, hearts drunk on the Dao and drunk on the divination arts, and it was they who drove the divine abilities and Daoist methods of Jingping ever forward. This middle-aged Daoist, Su Maiqing, cast out by the Heavenly Court's Daoist sect, had gone on to found a sect of his own in the Origin World — a man worthy of respect.
And Shen Mu had heard a tale or two of this outcast besides: he came of the Heavenly Court's Daoist sect, and had descended to the lower realm in the last years of the Shanghuang era.
The advances in Daoist methods and divine abilities during the Kaihuang era were in part his doing. That age's mastery of the casting crafts stood exceedingly high; the forging of divine weapons and keen blades, of tower ships and divine cities, the reformation of formations — all of it demanded the divination arts.
In that age, the Daoist sect's divination arts lent immense force to the Kaihuang era.
One might even say that Di Shitian Li Youran's shaping of the Worry-Free Land owed something to his merits. This middle-aged Daoist was utterly unremarkable, nothing like the dazzling Four Great Heavenly Kings and Four Great Heavenly Masters of the Kaihuang era, and yet his merits and his role had been immense.
The skilled in war win no blazing renown — Su Maiqing was, in all likelihood, just such a man.
"To think I should run into Sect Master Su here — truly a stroke of good fortune," Shen Mu said with a laugh.
"In my time in Jingping I was on good terms with two generations of the Daoist sect's masters, and I never imagined I would meet Sect Master Su here of all places. Sect Master Su, the sect you left behind in the lower realm is the mainstay of Jingping's reforms today.
" Su Maiqing said hurriedly, "Heavenly Venerable, say no such thing.
I am no longer a sect master; I gave up the seat long ago.
I am only an idle Daoist now, teaching a few pupils and muddling through my days here. None of the Jingping Daoist sect's achievements are to my credit — they are their own doing. " Shen Mu could not help feeling a touch of fondness for him.
Su Maiqing was the founder of the Jingping Daoist sect, yet he claimed no credit for himself, unlike certain men who loved to gather every merit under their own name. "Has the Heavenly Venerable Mu come here to prepare for the battle with His Majesty two months hence? " The middle-aged Daoist blinked and smiled. "If you have come searching for His Majesty Kaihuang's divine abilities and Daoist methods, then you have come to the wrong place.
You ought to rise high and observe the lay of the land in Taihuang Heaven. " Shen Mu was startled, and blurted out, "You Daoist — why have you told me Kaihuang's sword Dao?
This is betrayal of Kaihuang!
" "So the Heavenly Venerable Mu has already perceived Kaihuang's thirty-three heavens sword Dao? " Su Maiqing laughed. "The Daoist has spoken out of turn, and underestimated the Heavenly Venerable Mu's wisdom.
I have betrayed the Heavenly Court before; betraying Kaihuang is no great matter. When the Worry-Free Land was first being made, I stood on Wen Tiange's side — I held that it should not be built at all.
I was merely not so resolute as Wen Tiange.
" He sighed, his brows creasing into a deep furrow. "When the Kaihuang Tribulation broke out, I still followed Kaihuang in the end. And so I came here, and for twenty thousand years I have been frustrated and unfulfilled, never able to summon any spirit, until at last I could do nothing but stay here teaching at the very bottom of the Worry-Free Land. Wen Tiange was more resolute than I: he swore he would never enter the Worry-Free Land.