Chapter 1005 — The Noble Spirit of Heroes, Awe-Inspiring Through All Ages
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 3 of 4
" Shen Mu said hastily: "How does one get to Yuanming Heaven? " Gao Baixun raised a hand and pointed, brimming with decorum and righteous dignity: "I will die before I tell you. I will never tell you that the road to Yuanming Heaven lies over there!
" "My thanks.
" Shen Mu bowed in thanks, and set off that way with Shu Jun. Shu Jun limped after him, one foot high and one foot low, and glanced back.
Kaihuang's Junior Assistant Gao Baixun had called the monkeys out of the woods again; with the greatest reluctance they put on their robes and tall caps and listened to his impassioned lecture. "What a strange man," Shu Jun said, shaking his head. "They cannot help but be strange.
Their aspirations cannot be realized, their Dao cannot go forward, benevolence and righteousness are not practiced, and so their Dao hearts scatter. " Shen Mu said: "Investigate things to extend knowledge, know and then act, unite knowledge and action. Yet now they cannot unite the two; they know but cannot act.
You can imagine what that does to a Dao heart. " They came to Yuanming Heaven, and there met its Grand Tutor, Zhou Jingmeng.
As promised, Zhou Jingmeng was waiting for them, brimming with killing intent, vowing to avenge the Junior Assistant Gao Baixun and swearing that the Mu Heavenly Venerable should not set half a step into Yuanming Heaven. "Unless you walk over my corpse!
" cried the Grand Tutor Zhou Jingmeng, white-haired and full of righteous wrath.
After he performed the Yuanming Civil-Exaltation Sword, he fell stiffly to the ground. Shu Jun stepped over his "corpse," and the old man cursed: "You really stepped on me?
" Shen Mu bowed in thanks and went around him.
Zhou Jingmeng's spirit emerged from the "corpse" and cried: "My elder brother Zhou Xunfang will avenge me in Qiyao Heaven — just you wait!
" Shu Jun did not know whether to laugh or cry.
He turned back and asked: "How does one get to Qiyao Heaven? " "There! " Zhou Jingmeng's spirit raised a hand and pointed, crying: "Go there, if you dare! " Shen Mu and Shu Jun came to Qiyao Heaven and paid their respects to Zhou Xunfang, who meant to die a martyr for Kaihuang.
Zhou Xunfang declared his resolve by "dying," and his "death" was even more "tragic" than Zhou Jingmeng's; before expiring he told them that the Three Dukes of Kaihuang's Heavenly Court would be waiting for them in the heavens beyond. So the road went, and the two months passed quickly. Before they knew it, Shen Mu and Shu Jun had passed through Xuwu Heaven, Taiji Heaven, Chiming Heaven, Xuanming Heaven, Yaoming Heaven and others, drawing ever nearer to the summit of the Thirty-Three Heavens.
That day they came to Wushang Heaven. No sooner had they entered than Shen Mu heard a hee-hawing laugh. A donkey came trotting briskly toward them, a fishing rod tied atop its head with a radish dangling from it. It galloped up to Shen Mu and stopped short, braying with laughter: "Ee-haw, isn't this the Mu Heavenly Venerable? How come you don't recognize me?
" The donkey stood up on its hind legs, laid one thick forelimb over Shen Mu's shoulder and the other over Shu Jun's, tucked the two of them under its arms, and as slabs of muscle rippled out all over its body it brayed: "It's me, Lu Zheng! We went through hard times together! Let me tell you a secret — this Wushang Heaven is the domain of my old lady, the Heavenly Master Xi. She has been waiting for you a long while! " The donkey carried the two of them forward under its arms, chattering all the while: "The old lady says the Worry-Free Land and the Creator are at peace now, no more fighting, and that this is a great joy that must be celebrated.