Chapter 240 — A Brand-New Dawn

The Lame Elder's eyes lit up, his breath quickening. Pointing at the sun more than half devoured by darkness, he said, "That sun must be this ship's source of power! It is a great pill furnace! An unimaginable great pill furnace..."

Granny Zhu gave him a flat look. "You cannot carry it home."

The Dutian Demon King was somewhat shaken as well. He said in a low voice, "A pill furnace so immense — what is this ship for? Why was it sealed here by someone? Could it be... ha, I am overthinking."

He gave two dry laughs and said no more.

Elder Huo said, "A ship is for carrying people. A ship carries people in order to reach a destination. This ship has a destination of its own."

The Deaf Elder had been silent all along. Suddenly he spoke: "Is it not Wuyou Township? Wuyou Township is free of care and free of worry — why would it need a destination? With a destination, it would not be Wuyou Township. And if it is not Wuyou Township, then what place is its destination?"

The others exchanged glances, and said with one voice, "The true Wuyou Township!"

Shen Mu was dazed; the guesses of the village elders left him all the more at a loss. Wuyou Township — was this not Wuyou Township?

Yet what Elder Huo and the others said made good sense. Since so vast a ship had been built, it must have had a destination. The destination of this ship might well be the true Wuyou Township.

But the ship had been discovered by its enemies, smashed and sealed; the survivors aboard had tried to escape the seal, and in the end suffered grievous losses, spending untold years hacking out a road.

The monsters in the dark were searching for Wuyou Township too, and even believed this place to be Wuyou Township — when in truth it was only the ship bound for Wuyou Township.

"This is not Wuyou Township. Then where is the true Wuyou Township?"

Shen Mu was at a loss. "Where on earth is my homeland? Do any of my clanspeople still live?"

His heart was in utter confusion. Just then, a silver light flashed in the sky; a silver boat flew out from that expanse of city, and on the silver boat stood the Mute Craftsman, a wooden box in his hand, and aboard were two white-haired, white-headed elders, a faceless man, and a youth.

The Mute Craftsman steered the silver boat, darting nimbly to and fro in the air, avoiding the divine prohibitions.

The Dutian Demon King stared, tongue-tied. The course the silver boat now traced was precisely that living path which, by his reckoning, would take decades to compute!

The silver boat carried those few people, threading with swift grace among the divine prohibitions like a clever fish slipping through water, evading every peril.

After a moment, the silver boat descended from the air and landed before them. The Pill Master lifted the Village Head in his arms and stepped down from the boat, and the young Patriarch shook his head, saying, "Why carry him? He could perfectly well fly down himself."

The Pill Master was startled; he set the Village Head upright on the ground and laughed. "I have grown used to it."

Shen Mu and the others hurried forward. The Mute Craftsman opened the wooden box; the silver boat melted, turning into silver pellets that fell with a jingling clatter into the wooden box.

The Mute Craftsman deftly closed the box and carried it in his hand. Seeing the others come over, he broke into a smile and waved his hand: "Ah, ah!"

The others came up and gathered around them, full of questions they wanted to ask, especially the Mute Craftsman.

Even a being of such wide experience as the Dutian Demon King had needed decades to compute a living path — how had he known it?

And what had they seen, after all, in that city in the sky?

Was that place Wuyou Township? Were there still survivors?

Just as everyone was about to speak, the Village Head floated up and said to Shen Mu with a smile, "Shen-er, let me tell you good news. We have finally learned your surname. Pill Master, give him the things."

The Pill Master poured many objects out of the bag at his waist — a waist tablet, a bronze mirror, a plaque, a seal, a jade pendant, clothes, and the like. On every one of them was the same character.

Shen.

"Your surname is Shen."

The Pill Master said with a smile, "There were many such things in that city. The Village Head had me gather some of them. Look at the writing on them — is it the same as the writing on your jade pendant?"

Shen Mu's mind roared; he turned and looked back at the little village on the road by which they had come.

A thread of hope was born in his heart.

The Village Head seemed to read his thoughts. "That place may not be where you were born, and that household may not be your father and mother. Your father and mother — it is possible they are still alive."