Chapter 1193 — Filling the Mountains, Patching the Chasm
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 2 of 3
The old man explained patiently: "Some dreadful beings set their eyes on it, and followed its roots from the past into the present. It does not matter if you do not understand; think of the Heavenly Venerable Shepherd who created you. He took you aboard a ghost ship and traveled back to the past — then you will understand."
Long Qilin and Yan'er finished sprinkling the water with the willow branch and returned to the summit, only to find the old man still talking with Little Tubo, about what topic neither could tell.
Long Qilin put the willow branch back into the little bucket and returned it to the old man. The old man stood up, braced his hands on his waist, worked the ache from his limbs, and sighed: "This too is the sin I made, and so I can only stay here patching and mending. I cannot really blame your Heavenly Venerable Shepherd. The water is nearly gone; I must go fetch some more. Thank you, young friends. We shall meet again another day."
Long Qilin was about to speak, but the old man had already picked up the little bucket and left, and in no time had vanished from sight.
"Another eerie affair!" Yan'er cried in alarm.
She had not seen how the old man disappeared.
Just then, with a thunderous rumble, the cracks of the Great Black Mountain closed, and the mountain returned to its former state; even the five claw marks upon it faded away.
That night, Long Qilin and Yan'er stayed on the black mountain with Little Tubo, and the strangeness came again. Visions of every kind arrived one upon another, as though some colossal thing inside the mountain were trying to break the peak open, dashing madly outward, shaking the mountain violently.
Yet the mountain did not split. The turmoil only began to subside in the small hours of the night.
At dawn, Long Qilin looked all around and saw that two more peaks among the Hundred Thousand Mountains had split open, and on the inner wall of one of them, hollows in the shape of a face had even surfaced!
He and Yan'er were arguing over whether someone was growing inside the body of the mountain when a comely young woman came over carrying a little iron bucket, waved to them and said: "We meet again."
The two were startled and uncertain.
The woman set down the little bucket and said with a giggle: "Yesterday's body was too old to do the work, so today I changed to a young one. Today I brought more water, and an extra willow branch too. With two mountains split open, the mending may take a while."
Long Qilin's mouth fell open. He stammered: "Madam, are you that old gentleman of yesterday?"
The woman smiled. "He, and not he. Lend me a hand, the three of you, and let us mend it quickly, lest they run out when night falls."
Long Qilin and Yan'er stepped up at once to help. Long Qilin took the willow branch and sprinkled the water, and asked cautiously: "May I ask, madam, what your origins are?"
The woman smiled. "I am as you are, an ordinary soul, born of heaven and reared by earth. Only our ways of living differ. Mine is rather more tiring. Wherever the sky springs a leak, I go and patch it; wherever the earth breaks open, I go and mend it. It is all hard labor."
Long Qilin and Yan'er helped her repair the two great mountains, and the water in the bucket was used up. The woman sighed: "The spring I draw from does not yield much water. If a few more mountains split, there will be no water left to mend them."
She carried the little bucket off into the distance, and the two black mountains closed of themselves, restored as they had been.
Watching her vanish like that, Long Qilin grew all the more astonished, and thought to himself: "This Great Black Tree is hardly a good place. Every night it frightens a man out of his sleep. Should I tell the Sect Master to choose another, better place?"