Chapter 313 — The Lord Who Guards the Stars

Shen Mu's thoughts were a tangled skein.

Qin Hanzhen.

Shen Fengqing? The genealogy he had obtained in the study recorded the figures of the Kaihuang line, and on its final page were written the words: "The hundred-and-seventh generation: the son of Hanzhen, Fengqing.

" Shen Fengqing was the son of Qin Hanzhen.

Then what, in the end, did that strange thing slithering down from the tree mean by its words?

Whom was it calling Qin Hanzhen?

And who was this Shen Fengqing it spoke of?

Shen Mu's body shook, and not a trace of blood remained in his face.

He was Shen Fengqing, and the one in the tree was Qin Hanzhen!

The last name in the genealogy of the Kaihuang Shen clan was him, and the one in the tree was his father!

Was this being, fused into one with the ancient tree, truly his father?

The kin he had longed for day and night?

His own flesh and blood! How had he come to this? Shen Mu told himself again and again to be calm.

Master Huo had once said to him that whatever he faced, he must not flinch even if the heavens fell; so long as reason remained, even in the face of world-ending calamity, even in a situation of certain death, one could still find within it a single thread of life. The Lame Old Man had also told him that he must keep smiling at all times, keep his spirits bright — not merely to numb his enemies, but to keep the light alive in his own heart. Even if a leg were hewn from him, he must still show his simplest, most artless smile; only then would he have a chance to flee.

Granny Zhu too had told him that even if darkness and devils dwelt in his heart, he must stand firm — once he lost himself, everything was finished. But the Shen Mu of this moment, though he knew full well that peril was close at hand, still could not steady himself.

His father — his own flesh and blood, a man he had never once laid eyes on — had been reduced to this, and he could not do as Master Huo, Granny Zhu, and the Lame Old Man had said.

Shen Mu strained to settle his mind, to stop thinking of the one in the tree, to stop caring about him, and forced down the trembling of his body. Suddenly he felt a stinging pain in his palms.

Unconsciously he had clenched his fists, and his nails had sunk deep into the flesh; blood was trickling down along the lines of his palms.

Shen Mu raised his head and looked toward that mysterious being slithering down from the tree. The thing descending from the tree was half serpent, half human, and vast of frame.

Its lower half was serpentine yet bore no scales; its upper half was the shape of a woman — a woman very beautiful, very bewitching — yet the voice it gave forth was a man's voice.

Wherever she slithered, slime dripped without cease, much like Shen Mu's own appearance when he was deified into the form of the Star Lord — except that her Star Lord form was more primitive. Behind her neck grew something like a membrane of flesh. When she spoke, the membrane spread open like two fans thrust into either side of her neck, rising above her head and quivering as it gave out sound.

She seemed unable to open her mouth to speak; instead she made sound by vibrating the membrane behind her neck, so that her voice came out strange and obscure. The membrane must be her vocal cords.

At its tips grew bony spines more than two feet long, like so many javelins. When it opened, two black eyeball-shaped patterns appeared upon the membrane, like two eerie eyes staring at you.

As far as Shen Mu knew, there were two kinds of Star Lord form. One was simply the Star Lord form, without the Gate of Heaven and without the scriptures in hand.

The other was his own kind: behind him the Gate of Heaven, in his hands the scriptures. But this strange creature before him — her form was more primitive still. It did not look like something attained through cultivation; it seemed as though she had been born that way.

This was a creature of the Netherworld — perhaps even a god! She was not the same being as the owner of those two eyes set two hundred and sixty-four zhang apart. "You and I had an agreement, Qin Hanzhen.

" She slithered to the foot of the tree and coiled about the ancient trunk. Her bewitching, lovely face pressed to the face of the man in the tree, cheek to cheek, temple to temple; the membrane behind her head quivered and gave voice as she laughed: "You and I made the Earth Lord's pact.

So long as you found that son of yours named Fengqing, you would set everything aside, come with me to the Netherworld, and tell me the location of the Land of No Sorrow.

Now you have found your son, your wish is fulfilled — it is time to keep your promise.

" The man in the tree did not stir.

His gaze still rested upon Shen Mu. His flesh had turned to wood, and his eyes could no longer see clearly the person before him. From those half-wooden eyes, tears fell. The strange creature's long body coiled more than a full turn around the ancient tree, then left the man and swam at her leisure, her voice drifting and wavering among the branches, fitful and unstill: "In those years you broke into the world of the Netherworld and shattered the seal-barrier. You were at death's door, and you fused with this divine tree to cling to a shred of life — all because you wished to see your son one last time, and so you did everything in your power to keep yourself alive.

I came here and have kept you company all this while. You promised me that once you saw your son, you would set everything aside — life itself, the Land of No Sorrow, all of it could be cast away.

You were willing to offer your soul to the Earth Lord, willing to tell me where the Land of No Sorrow lies. I agreed, and I did not take your life. " Her face suddenly dropped down from the divine tree and came to rest before Shen Mu. Her vast body turned slowly, coiling once around him, the membrane quivering as she gave a strange laugh: "Could it be that now, having seen your son, you mean to go back on your word? Do you wish to watch your son die before your eyes? Heh heh heh — what succulent flesh, what young life. He is only sixteen, is he not? He will surely taste tender and juicy… " Cold sweat broke out on Shen Mu's brow.

Abruptly he stirred the Mystic Body Three-Elixir Art, circulated the Star Lord's Earth-Marquise True Art, and transformed into the Star Lord form. His voice hoarse, he said: "Senior, I too am—" "You too are in the Star Lord form? " The strange creature of the Netherworld suddenly stretched out her serpent body and, with a swish, swam away from Zhong Yue's side and settled onto the ground, her long tail still coiled around the tree, not yet fully descended. Looking down from her height upon this tiny youth before her, she wore a playful smile: "Poor little thing. This little trick you play seems so laughable before me, so childish.

Do you not know? The Star Lord form is in truth an imitation of me.

I am—" "The Star Lord!

" She bent low and brought her face close to Shen Mu, seeking to read in the boy's face panic, unease, the despair left behind when every conviction crumbles. Shen Mu struggled to hold himself calm, yet still she saw through to the terror at the bottom of his heart.

The Star Lord raised her head in satisfaction and laughed: "What an amusing little creature — striving so hard to act the grown man, and only appearing ignorant and adorable for it. Did you not speak a phrase of Netherworld tongue when you boarded the ship? That one phrase is all the Netherworld tongue you know, am I right? The phrase means the Gate of Heaven.

Surely you did not truly believe that hearing it would make me withdraw and let you board?

" Shen Mu suppressed the trembling of his body. Before a deity such as the Star Lord, all his schemes were utterly useless!

It was true, as she said: all this time he had been striving to be a grown man, an adult who could shoulder everything.