Chapter 346 — So What?

It was the first time Shen Mu had ever seen Li Zheng so helpless, so utterly in despair. Held in his arms, the old man clutched at him like a drowning man at a straw, begging to be taken home — back to Yincan Village, back into that small, self-enclosed world of his.

He could not bring himself to imagine that this terrified, despairing old man was the very master who had taught him and raised him; nor had he ever thought that a being as powerful as Li Zheng could be struck down so easily.

Li Zheng had often said that he was too strong. Yet the old man who had spoken those words now saw every belief he held crumble and collapse into dust.

Li Zheng had been struck down once before. After that first defeat he had gone to Yincan Village and become a crippled old man, broken in heart and will. Had Grandpa Huo, Master Dan, the Silent Craftsman and the others not come to Yincan Village one after another, it was hard to imagine what he would have become.

Shen Mu still remembered how it had been when Master Dan and the rest all left the village, leaving Li Zheng alone there.

Dejected and listless, Li Zheng would sit at the village gate without moving, letting wind and rain beat on him, letting the darkness creep over him, letting his beard grow wild — too lazy even to shift his seat.

Unkempt, neither eating nor drinking, he seemed content to let himself rot away where he sat.

And the Li Zheng of the moment he was first struck down must have been even more dejected, even more listless than that. Back then he had been a failure through and through, every hope dead, all joy gone — nothing but a walking corpse!

And now, what had struck Li Zheng down was not his own failure, but the failure of the Human Sovereigns of every generation — indeed, of the founder of the Hall of Human Sovereigns, the first Human Sovereign himself!

The despair of that first Human Sovereign he felt as his own. Like a frightened child, he wanted only to flee back into his own world and curl up there, to lick his own wounds, or simply to rot and die.

Without having known such a defeat, one could scarcely comprehend what Li Zheng felt now.

Qingyou the Mountain Hermit watched from the side, pity on his face, and sighed. He had not meant to crush this old Human Sovereign so; it was Shen Mu, the new Human Sovereign, he had meant to strike — to give this green boy who did not know the height of the heavens or the depth of the earth a heavy, solid lesson, to make him understand that all his pursuits, all his duties, amounted in the end to nothing but a trifling joke, an emptiness, a dream!

He had not struck Shen Mu at all; instead he had struck his old friend down until his heart was ashes.

He and Li Zheng were old acquaintances; their paths had crossed in earlier years.

When Li Zheng had invited him to come down from the mountain in those days, he had agreed, and he had come down. But what of it? In the end he had dragged his battered body back to Little Jade Capital — his body covered in wounds, his heart scarred just as badly.

From then on his heart had gone cold, and all his hot blood had drained away.

In recent years he had read through the various records of Little Jade Capital. The more he learned of history, the deeper his understanding grew, the more every notion of his youth dissolved into smoke.

When Shen Mu came to see him, bringing the cultivation method that could repair the Divine Bridge and let him ascend to godhood, for one fleeting instant he had truly been moved; his stilled blood seemed to run hot again.

But it cooled again at once.

What of it?

Even if he repaired the Divine Bridge, could he be stronger than the immortal who had opened up this place in ages past?

Even if the old Human Sovereign repaired the Divine Bridge, what of it? Could he be stronger than the Human Sovereign who had founded the Hall of Human Sovereigns?

Even if Shen Mu became a god, what of it? Could Shen Mu be stronger than the Woodcutter Sage of their Tiansheng Sect?

"So what?"

Qingyou the Mountain Hermit started slightly at the sound of Shen Mu's voice. Shen Mu repeated himself, smiling at Li Zheng, whose every hope was dead and gone: "So what? Grandpa Li Zheng, so what if they failed?"

"A child."

Qingyou the Mountain Hermit laughed despite himself, shook his head, and felt a pang of melancholy. "The Human Sovereign of this age is still only a child who likes to play in the water. I too had years when my blood ran hot like his — and back then I was only a child..."

Shen Mu smiled. "They lost. The Human Sovereigns of every generation lost. Grandpa Li Zheng, you lost too. But so what? The first Human Sovereign lost — was there not a second? The second lost — was there not a third? Li Zheng, you lost — is there not still me?"

Li Zheng's face was blank; his white hair trembled as he shook his head again and again.

"I don't want you to end up like me..." he said, his voice thick with tears.

Now he was only an ordinary old man — not the Human Sovereign who had once commanded the winds and clouds, not the Sword God who had sought the Dao through the sword, but merely a crippled elder who did not want his own child to follow in his footsteps.

"I am an Overlord Body. Have you forgotten?"

Shen Mu smiled. "The only Overlord Body. You all raised me — is that not enough?"

"Overlord Body?"

Li Zheng laughed bitterly. "Overlord Body! Heh heh, I brought this on myself... Shen'er, let's go home. I beg you!"

Vital essence surged from Shen Mu; he lifted the old man in his arms upright, smiling as brilliantly as the sun of early spring, a smile that seemed able to scatter the gloom from another's heart and bring warmth and hope.

"The Overlord Body never admits defeat, never concedes!"

Shen Mu's voice carried an indefinable power to move; he straightened his back, filled with unprecedented confidence and conviction. "I will surpass you all. I will not be second in the world forever! In swordsmanship I will surpass you and become the Sword God, the sovereign of the sword dao! In medicine I will surpass Grandpa Dan; in speed, Grandpa Lame; in artifact forging, Grandpa Mo the Craftsman; in painting, Grandpa Deaf; in boxing, Grandpa Huo; in blade work, Grandpa Tu; in the Sacred Pupil, Grandpa Blind; in divine powers, Grandma Zhu! I will be first under heaven!"

Qingyou the Mountain Hermit laughed heartily. "The Human Sovereign's ambition is admirable. But can you surpass these stone statues? Can you surpass those statues in the Wasteland Ruins? And even if you could, can you surpass Kaihuang?"

His voice grew stern, as though he were scolding a small child. "You are only a child with ambition but no experience of setbacks and hardship. Go play in the water! Would it not be better to be an ordinary man and live a plain, ordinary life? The world of adults is something you simply do not understand!"

Shen Mu raised his head and looked at the stone statues, his face calm. "If I do not strive, if I do not fight, then of course I can never surpass the first Human Sovereign. But if I strive and struggle, there is still a chance, still hope. If I do not strive, do not struggle, and think only of failure, then I will have nothing at all!"

He glanced at Qingyou the Mountain Hermit. "Immortal Qingyou, since you are an immortal, will you die?"

Qingyou the Mountain Hermit shook his head. "There is no immortal who does not die."

"What can you leave behind?" Shen Mu asked.

"We bring nothing when we are born and take nothing when we die," said Qingyou the Mountain Hermit.