Chapter 245 — Quelling the King of the Vast Sea

Lord Huo sat upright as a Buddha; the Blind Elder sat in the corner leaning on his bamboo staff, his head bowed in sleep; Shen Mu used some dry grass to lay out two beds, and Granny Zhu slept at his side.

Deep night, all quiet.

Just then, of a sudden, from outside the Heavenly King Temple came the sound of gongs and drums. Everyone in the temple came instantly alert; Shen Mu sat up and looked around, but the black night was silent, only the candles in the temple still giving off a faint glow — yet the gongs and drums outside were so clear, and still drawing nearer.

The Blind Elder and Lord Huo hurried to Shen Mu's and Granny Zhu's side; Lord Huo made a gesture for silence.

The gong-and-drum sound came nearer and nearer, gradually arriving before the temple, and several heavy voices said: "Silence!"

"Make way!"

Several statues of god-men in tattered armor walked in from outside the temple; the stone beneath the armor was battered and broken, yet they seemed like living gods, and Shen Mu caught a pungent stench of rot.

These statues were most imposing, and behind them followed a hundred or so white-boned skeletons in the guise of soldiers, grasping battered remnant weapons, in neat ranks. A few of the skeleton soldiers held gongs and drums, and some shouldered placards reading "Silence" and "Make Way."

The several statues walked into the temple; the white-boned skeletons remained outside.

Shen Mu stared wide-eyed in shock at this absurd scene. The dragon-qilin woke too, and opened its great mouth in a yawn.

From the mouth of one of the god-man statues came a human voice, addressing the Heavenly King statue of the temple: "Reporting to the Sea-Quelling Heavenly King: Ao Zhen, Dragon King of the East Sea, has taken advantage of the heavenly calamity to rebel and make chaos. His Majesty has sent orders from the Land of No Sorrow, commanding us to come and aid the Sea-Quelling Heavenly King in striking him down!"

The dragon-qilin had been sprawled asleep beneath the Heavenly King statue; now it was muddled, not knowing what had happened.

Of a sudden, the tall, burly Heavenly King statue beside this qilin moved. The eight banners planted behind the statue swayed; the statue shook and rattled, then stood up, exceedingly tall and imposing, and bellowed: "More than twenty thousand years since the calamity, and this wretch still dares to rebel! Bring me my blade!"

From behind the Heavenly King Temple came the clang of a blade leaving its sheath; a Green Dragon Crescent Moon Blade more than ten zhang long burst from the earth behind the temple, came flying with a whistle, and with a zheng was caught in the hand of the Heavenly King statue, the blade humming and quivering.

"Where is my horse?" bellowed the Heavenly King statue.

The dragon-qilin finally came to its senses, and suddenly its body sank as the Heavenly King statue mounted its back; it rose into the air against its will and flew out of the temple.

The dragon-qilin was astonished beyond measure, and heard the Heavenly King statue on its back boom out: "You stay here on guard; I will go slay him and return!"

That said, the dragon-qilin was borne away willy-nilly, turning into a streak of firelight, carrying the Heavenly King statue into the vast darkness.

Rather than saying it carried the statue, one might say the Sea-Quelling Heavenly King statue was carrying it in flight; it could not have borne the statue at all.

In the temple, Shen Mu, Granny Zhu, the Blind Elder and the rest were struck dumb, speechless for a long while.

They looked at one another. After who knew how long, when dawn was nearly come, suddenly a dragon's roar sounded, and then with a thunderous boom a dragon's head dropped out of the dark, heavy night sky and rolled twice around the temple courtyard.

Shen Mu looked hastily: the dragon head was carved of stone, not a real dragon's head.

Then the dragon's roar went on without cease, and the Heavenly King statue came galloping back riding the dragon-qilin, vaulted down, and sat once more upon the lotus platform of the temple, planting the Green Dragon Crescent Moon Blade at his side, and said: "Go back and report to His Majesty: this officer has been fortunate enough not to fail his command; the rebel leader's head has been struck off."

The statues received the order, turned and walked into the darkness, and departed with all the white-boned skeletons; then they vanished into the dark, and the gongs and drums gradually faded beyond hearing.

Not long after, the crowing of cocks came from the Desolate Ruins; the darkness withdrew, the sun rose and shone into the Heavenly King Temple.

Shen Mu shook his head. The night's experience was like a dream, utterly strange beyond words.

"Fat Dragon, what is it?" Shen Mu saw that the dragon-qilin was still dazed, and asked quickly.

"I had a dream!"

The dragon-qilin was still somewhat muddled. "I dreamed I was carrying a Divine King, blazing with radiance, charging into a battlefield of surging waves, where countless divine dragons attacked me and were cut down by the blade of the Divine King on my back. I bore that Divine King into the great sea, into the midst of the dragon gods, and cut off the head of a Dragon King, and carried it away by the head. The dream was so real..."

Shen Mu looked at the Blind Elder and Lord Huo and the others, and said in a low voice, "Blind Grandpa, do you think what happened last night was real?"

The Blind Elder and Lord Huo both shook their heads.

"Who can say clearly about the affairs of the Desolate Ruins? Let us go on our way; the Great Thunderpeal Monastery is what matters."

Shen Mu looked blankly at the Heavenly King statue, some strange feeling in his heart. He stepped forward and reached out to touch it; the stone was ice-cold, no body of flesh and blood.

"His Majesty sent orders from the Land of No Sorrow — orders from the Land of No Sorrow..."

A complicated look came over Shen Mu's face, and he said in a low voice, "Where on earth is the Land of No Sorrow..."