Chapter 236 — The Land Without Sorrow

Daoist Lingjing's face changed drastically, and he retreated again and again; the Demon King Dutian and the Dragon Qilin, driven back by Shen Mu's aura, kept falling away — a thousand zhang distant from Shen Mu and still unable to steady themselves. And beneath Shen Mu's feet, the Moon Guardian's face had been trampled by his soles until it sank utterly into the Soul Boat.

He had been clinging to a last breath; now he was stamped down until he fused wholly with the Soul Boat, becoming part of it — body dead, Dao extinguished.

The old Moon Guardian was dead.

Daoist Lingjing was shaken, though the old Moon Guardian's fate weighed nothing on his mind — the man had always been a madman.

What held his attention was this: flesh and blood were growing over Shen Mu's body, breaking through the fetters of the Realm of the Dead!

Once one entered the Realm of the Dead, even a being such as himself was left with nothing but bare bones, not a scrap of flesh remaining.

When Shen Mu had entered the Realm of the Dead with him, he too had been reduced to a skeleton, and so had the Dragon Qilin; only the Demon King Dutian, no creature of flesh and blood, had remained unchanged.

And now Shen Mu had not only regained his flesh — his form was growing larger and larger, like a living god of heaven, divine light wreathing his body, his aura beyond compare! He had now replaced that last of the Moon Shepherds, the Moon Guardian, and become the new Moon Guardian.

The power he commanded was too great; it broke through the limits of the Realm of the Dead, so that even the laws of that realm could not constrain him!

This was all but impossible.

Daoist Lingjing had come to this Soul Boat many times, had examined everything here over and over, had touched these giant pillars more times than he could count — and never had any change so terrifying as Shen Mu's occurred.

He believed that only certain extraordinary Moon Shepherds possessed such an ability, and only those among them of a rather special constitution.

The human body is a great crucible; an ordinary Moon Shepherd could never contain the Soul Boat's dreadful energy. Only a special constitution among the Moon Shepherds could possibly receive energy so vast.

The Moon Shepherds ought to have been extinct, leaving only the one old man aboard this ship — and he too had sunk into the Soul Boat, his survival uncertain from one moment to the next.

Shen Mu commanded the Soul Boat and the power within it. Could it be that he was a Moon Shepherd — and one of that special constitution?

And yet Shen Mu was no Moon Shepherd.

To grip the giant pillar was a perilous act for anyone else, Moon Shepherds included; yet he did it with perfect ease, as though his body could naturally bear this power, naturally yield to it and let it remake his flesh and his soul.

"What tremendous power!

" Shen Mu was astonished and delighted. The power within him had reached an inconceivable height; the strength he had once possessed was, before this power, a single drop in a vast ocean — utterly insignificant! It was as though he could remake heaven and earth with a lift of his hand — alter the laws of heaven and earth, command the laws of heaven and earth!

Shen Mu was draped in halos of moonlight; ring upon ring of lunar radiance flowed down from the crown of his head like water, down to the soles of his feet, and there vanished into the Soul Boat.

The tops of his feet had already begun to sink into the Soul Boat; his soles had fused with it. This was the Soul Boat's backlash.

Shen Mu had once seen such a backlash upon the Sun Guardian of the Dawn Boat.

The Sun Guardian was Yan Jingjing, a Sun Shepherd. When the sun of the Dawn Boat was extinguished and Yan Jingjing took command of the Dawn Boat, gaining its vast power, she also had to bear its backlash, burning up her own life — the longer she steered the Dawn Boat, the faster she died.

Now the broken moon above the Soul Boat had likewise gone dark, giving no light at all.

Shen Mu commanded the Soul Boat and borrowed its power, and the price was his own life!

He had to act quickly — use the Soul Boat's power and speed to press deep into the darkness, find Worryfree Village, find the Headman and the others.

Otherwise he would sink deeper and deeper, and the price of extricating himself would grow beyond anything he could accept! "Senior Brother Lingjing, my thanks for your aid along the way.

" Looking down from his height at Daoist Lingjing, Shen Mu's voice rolled and shook like thunder: "And now I must go by night to seek the Headman and the others. Here we part!

" Daoist Lingjing suppressed the shock in his heart, sprang up from the Soul Boat, and floated in midair. The Daoist was now in the form of a skeleton, his Daoist robe in tatters.

He bowed deeply, hands folded: "Sect Master, go!

" Boom — The enormous Soul Boat took a step. Beneath its hull was the form of a three-legged toad wrought from towering mountains; a single stride carried it more than ten li.

In a few strides the Soul Boat passed through the gate of Fengdu, chains dragging that black broken moon through the air behind it, and headed out beyond the Realm of the Dead.

And within Fengdu, mighty beings came flying one after another, only to see the Soul Boat's receding shadow.

These powers of Fengdu gazed after it from afar but did not give chase.

When the Soul Boat had first entered Fengdu, King Yama of Fengdu had refused to receive the Moon Guardian aboard it, allowing the boat to remain only on the wasteland outside the city.

Now that the Soul Boat was leaving, King Yama of Fengdu plainly had no intention of concerning himself either.

A strange figure with a bird's head and a man's body flew over on beating wings and called to Daoist Lingjing: "Daoist Lingjing, King Yama requests your presence.

" Daoist Lingjing hurried after him into Fengdu, toward the Hall of Yama. Meanwhile Shen Mu blazed with light ten thousand zhang strong, like a god of heaven forged from the bright moon, steering the ship out of the Realm of the Dead.

The colossal Soul Boat crossed the sea of mist and entered the dark wastes.

He felt boundless power flooding his body; one after another the divine storehouses within him opened, and whether Spirit Fetus or Five Luminaries, Six Harmonies, Seven Stars, Heaven-Man, Life-Death, God Bridge — all were filled with terrible energy, while still vaster power poured in from the Soul Boat.

Within the Soul Boat were array formations of inconceivable complexity; when his palm touched the giant pillar, the formations activated, and boundless energy surged into his body, remaking his flesh, remaking his soul, remaking his Spirit Fetus, carrying his cultivation straight past the God Bridge to an inconceivable realm.

The realm of the gods of heaven. It was hard to imagine what heights this power would reach were the Soul Boat whole!

"Worryfree Village, Headman — I am coming! " The enormous Soul Boat pressed on through the darkness, gliding like a fleeting gleam; the mountains on either side flashed past. The jade pendant at Shen Mu's neck had also grown enormous, drifting in the night, pointing toward the far distance in the dark.

Suddenly the pendant came loose from his neck with a ringing note and flew off into the distance. Shen Mu drove the Soul Boat faster, keeping pace with the pendant as it sped through the dark. As the hull moved it crushed the space around it; thunder crashed on every side of the Soul Boat, ceaselessly tearing the darkness, earth-shaking.

And above the Soul Boat, boulders kept breaking loose from the collapsing moon, streaking through the air and falling in trails of fire into the dark wastes.

Wherever the Soul Boat went, fiery meteors fell, striking up rolling smoke and flame around it — a glaring sight.

On the Soul Boat's deck stood thousands upon thousands of palaces and halls — the dwelling place of the Moon Shepherds.