Chapter 246 — Truth Hidden in the Illusion

Shen Mu looked at the Green Dragon Crescent Blade in the hand of the Heavenly King's statue. The blade was real enough, not made of stone.

When they had first arrived at this Temple of the Heavenly King, Shen Mu had already surveyed the place carefully on every side, and he distinctly remembered that the statue's hand had held no blade at all, much less a Green Dragon Crescent Blade of such monstrous size. What was more astonishing still: there was blood on the blade. Shen Mu had just reached out to touch it and see whether the blood was truly fresh when the blind elder's bamboo cane came over, lifted his wrist, and flicked it aside.

"Shen'er," the old man said, smiling, "don't be so curious.

It will get you killed. " Shen Mu shuddered, suddenly recalling what had happened when the village head led him through the darkness: a single drop of demon blood had withered and stripped every plant and tree for a hundred zhang around. If the blood on the Green Dragon Crescent Blade was real blood, then the inconceivable strangeness of last night was real as well. Which meant this Heavenly King's statue had truly gone and beheaded a Dragon King of the East Sea, and the drop on the blade was that Dragon King's blood.

"A divine blade has a spirit of its own. Do not provoke it lightly. " The blind elder seemed to read his thoughts, and spoke softly.

Shen Mu laughed. "I'm not Grandpa Lame, to go around causing trouble and try to carry the Heavenly King's divine blade home on my shoulder. I only want to collect the Dragon King's blood from it. This is the blood of a Dragon King among divine dragons.

Who knows, it might be good for refining medicine. " The blind elder praised him: "Shen'er is a thrifty one, keeping house and finding a way to turn a profit.

" Shen Mu fetched a jade bottle and carefully gathered the drop of Dragon King's blood from the Green Dragon Crescent Blade into it, then screwed the stopper tight. In the courtyard of the Temple of the Heavenly King, an enormous stone dragon's head had smashed a great crater into the ground. Blood still stained the head, bright crimson. Shen Mu fetched a box, turned a thread of vital essence into sword energy, and with careful control scraped the blood off and put it in the box.

He came to the neck of the dragon's head and saw that the cut was perfectly clean, as though severed by an incomparably sharp blade.

From that cross-section alone he could imagine how domineering, how swift, how keen that one stroke had been. Though the dragon's head was only stone, at the cut of the wound he could still feel the vast, unmatched saber intent, the saber realm.

"If I sat here and studied the cut on this dragon's head, I could probably comprehend an extremely domineering saber art, one no inferior to Grandpa Tu's Butcher's Saber Art. A pity there's no time.

We have to be on our way. " Shen Mu felt the regret keenly.

If he could comprehend the saber art within it, for the saber intent and saber realm concealed a divine realm, its aura alone would be enough to frighten a great many people to death. Lord Huo urged him on: "Shen'er, let's go! " Shen Mu hurried after him and called the dragon qilin over, meaning to mount it. But the dragon qilin had been ridden all night long like a horse by that Heavenly King's statue, through battle and slaughter, and its whole body ached and felt weak.

The moment Shen Mu climbed on, the beast began squealing like a stuck pig. Shen Mu hastily jumped down, and the dragon qilin said, "I must have run into some evil spirit.

Last night a stone statue rode me the whole night through. Blind Elder, you can tell fortunes. Can you drive out evil?

" The blind elder shook his head. "That isn't my trade. I only tell fortunes and drive out evil now and then.

The evil you've caught, I can't drive out.

But there's no need to worry. One night's rest and you'll be fine. " The dragon qilin was doubtful. They traveled several thousand li north, and the terrain suddenly dropped low.

The farther north they went, the lower the land became. Shen Mu looked back and saw that they had come down from several mountain ranges, and he was puzzled. Granny Zhu said, "This looks like a basin.

Great mountains ring the basin, and above the basin lies a plain. We've walked down from the plain into the basin. It's no small basin, either.

" They all looked.

Within the basin, peaks rose towering, forests grew dense, and ravines and natural chasms crisscrossed the land. The geography was very different from the rest of the Wasteland. The basin was exceedingly vast.

Sometimes, as Shen Mu and the others crossed the foot of a mountain, they would see branching red coral, lovely as rubies. Granny Zhu picked a branch of coral, meaning to make a hairpin of it, when suddenly a strange beast leaped out of a mountain hollow. It looked like a giant lobster, but it was more than a zhang long, with seven or eight legs, and it waved a claw at them.

"Lunch is settled! " the blind elder said, delighted.

At noon Shen Mu roasted the beast. The fragrance filled the air, and the lobster roe ran golden with oil, setting everyone's appetite ablaze. Lord Huo had long since broken his vegetarian vows, and he ate his fill as well.

Only a heap of shells was left on the ground. Shen Mu wondered aloud, "How can there be a beast like this here? There's no water anywhere around. " Even as he spoke, a lowing like cattle came from the distance, and the mountain forest shook.

Several fish monsters, drawn by the smell, came out of the woods.

These strange fish-beasts had the bodies of fish, six or seven zhang long, but beneath their bodies grew six thick legs and feet. Their cries were like cattle, and very loud. Shen Mu peered at them from afar. The fish monsters ran swift as the wind, charging toward them.

Their legs seemed to have been transformed from fins, and were covered in enormous scales, hard beyond measure. As they walked, the scales were like mirrors; caught in the sunlight, hundreds upon hundreds of them flashed reflections in every direction.

"We've eaten our fill, so there's no need for pointless slaughter. " Lord Huo released his aura and frightened the fish monsters away. His aura was terrifying. It drove off the fish monsters and startled the "birds" of the mountain forest into flight as well. Shen Mu looked up and saw a school of winged fish flying across the sky, fleeing into the distance.

He opened his Azure Empyrean Eye and looked. On a distant peak, dark shapes stirred: several great eight-armed octopuses, their huge heads held high, were withdrawing into their own territory, not daring to provoke them. One of the octopuses, startled, let out a puff of black smoke that shrouded a hundred mu or more, and the air turned dark and heavy. They went on their way, and came upon several fish-folk, fish-headed and human-bodied, hunting with steel tridents in hand. "A strange Wasteland," the blind elder muttered.

Shen Mu had lived here since childhood, and from youth to manhood all the creatures he had seen were odd like these. He had always assumed fish and shrimp were meant to be this way, running wild over the land, so he was only briefly surprised and gave it no further thought.

But the blind elder, Granny Zhu, and the others had not always lived here. They knew the habits of fish and shrimp in the outside world, and that was why they found it strange. Granny Zhu looked around and murmured, "This place must once have been a great sea.

The workings of creation are wondrous. The sea vanished, and the creatures that lived in it had no choice but to climb onto land and change their ways. Only, the change is so very great.

. .

" The blind elder too found it hard to fathom, when suddenly the dragon qilin said in surprise, "I think I've been here before. .

.

" Shen Mu was puzzled, and laughed. "You and the Patriarch have been to this place? " The dragon qilin shook its head. "No.