Chapter 1083 — Darkness Is About to Descend
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 4 of 4
Laughter erupted on every side. "Everyone else has already reached the Lingxiao realm — Yun Tianzun has even attained the Imperial Throne realm! And you are still a Heavenly God!"
Shen Mu closed his eyes again. "I am not like them."
More laughter burst out around him.
The dragon chariot drove on.
Suddenly Jing the Wood-Jackal reached out to seize the chariot, laughing, "Mu Tianzun, come down and play a while!"
Shen Mu sat unmoving in the carriage. The great hand was on the verge of closing on the chariot's canopy when a doorway suddenly appeared before his palm.
The Gate of Heaven and Earth.
Jing's hand passed through the doorway, and on the far side it had become bare bone.
Jing cried out in terror and tried to pull his hand back, but the force within the gate dragged him — with a whoosh — through the door.
On the far side he had become a skeleton. It swayed, toppled into the Heavenly River, and was swept away by the current.
A dead silence fell all around.
"My Heavenly God realm is not like theirs," came Shen Mu's calm voice from the carriage.
The dragon chariot drove on, out of the ring of tower ships.
The remaining twenty-seven Mansions watched in dread as the chariot drew farther and farther away.
"A divine art more fearsome than Tubo's..." someone said hoarsely.
On the chariot, Yan'er's eyes flickered. She said softly, "Young Master, they always say your cultivation realm is low. Could we not stay in the past and cultivate a thousand years?"
Shen Mu gazed out the window, toward the distant Heavenly Court. "A tree without roots, water without a source — cultivate for however long, and it is useless."
Yan'er was puzzled by his meaning.
"Without soil fit for reform, even a thousand years in the past, ten thousand, a hundred thousand, one would only attain an ordinary Imperial Throne."
Shen Mu withdrew his gaze and said unhurriedly, "By then I would sink into the common run, fit only to contend with the likes of Hao Tianzun and Huo Tianzun, unable to tower over the age, unable to overcome the Ten Tianzuns. Only by drawing on what the Jingping Reforms have wrought can I surpass them. Every achievement of mine comes from the Jingping Reforms — not from the past."