Chapter 420 — A Great Terror

In Jingping's Hezhou, morning, and the sea fog lay vast and blind.

The soldiers manning Hezhou's defenses would find it hard to forget that sight even many years later: over the grey, mist-shrouded sea, a colossal narwhal leaped from the harbor, its immense body arcing above their heads like a dark cloud settling over the shipyards of Hezhou.

Then the whale shrank smaller and smaller, and fell into the city.

Before the soldiers in the city had gathered their wits, another vast shadow came sailing out of the sea fog — a turtle-shell ship, its hull crusted with every manner of shell, a Xuanwu banner streaming in the sea wind.

The great ship made straight for the harbor's shipyards, and looked about to smash into them, when suddenly the turtle-shell vessel rose several dozen zhang off the ground, grew four legs, and strode over the decks of the tower ships one after another, rumbling into the city.

The soldiers stared dumbly at the great ship striding past them. Upon it, serpents coiled — huge Tengshe snakes rattling their wings as they wound about the masts. And the soldiers aboard were strange of form: turtle-backed, man-bodied, with Tengshe coiled around them, a bizarre symbiosis.

Tanzhou, too, met with strange happenings. Tanzhou was famed for its thousand pools; within and without the city walls lay more than a thousand deep pools, bottomless in their depth.

On this day, all at once the thousand pools ran dry; the water and the fish in them vanished utterly. Many who peered down into the pools saw, at the bottom of each, a gate wrought of bronze.

The prefect of Tanzhou ordered men down to inspect the pool bottoms, and they reported back: "The bronze gates at the bottom are sealed with a binding seal. They cannot be opened."

The prefect was startled and uncertain, when suddenly one of the bronze gates swung open and out stepped a man whose whole body was covered in scales. He turned and locked the gate behind him, then bellowed down into it: "I know, I know, you tiresome woman! The Human Emperor has summoned me, and I go to help him in keeping the oath of our ancestors... I am not one for brawling and bloodshed — I am the mildest-tempered man of all our Earthwalking clan! What are you staring at? Stare again and I will smash your kneecaps with one punch... Not you, I mean these mud-turtle giants up above... I know to lock the gate, more nagging than my own mother!"

The prefect and his men stood at the pool's edge and watched a dwarf some five chi tall, his face covered in bristling whiskers, carefully lock the bronze gate and then climb up onto the bank.

The prefect stepped forward, curious: "Brother..."

The scale-covered dwarf eyed him warily. "Mud-turtle giant, do not think to set your schemes on our Earthwalking clan. It was settled between us long ago: the world above belongs to you mud-turtle giants, and the world below to us."

The prefect was struck dumb, but the dwarf raised his voice toward the pool: "Wife! Let the water out, lest these giants come and steal our underground world!"

At once the waters surged and churned in pool after pool, and soon every pool was filled again, green waves rippling like scales, teeming with fish.

The prefect was about to ask a question when the dwarf suddenly burrowed into the ground and vanished.

The prefect and his men were left gaping: "There are people living underground? How do they survive down there?"

And in Liuzhou in the south, where the Willow Immortal is much worshipped, it came to pass that a willow tree took on spirit and transformed into an azure dragon, and flew away.

Strange happenings occurred again and again throughout the realm, and for a time the villages and townships buzzed with talk.

"Shen'er, these are the formations I saw in the heavens that day. I had no time to examine them closely, and this is all I can recall."

In the mountain estate, the Butcher handed Shen Mu the sun, moon, and stars he had drawn over the past two days, and Shen Mu's scalp prickled. The great hall was filled with drawings of every kind.

He picked up one star chart. The star the Butcher had drawn was a star on the outside, but within lay an exceedingly complex structure, intricate beyond measure.

This star was Kui, and its formation pattern faintly took the shape of a demon god with a black face and tusks, a brush in one hand and a golden seal in the other, with an altar of fish and dragons beneath its feet.

He picked up another: this was the Greedy Wolf Star, its formation showing the pattern of a dragon-turtle, with an altar beneath its feet as well.

Shen Mu frowned and went through the charts one by one. Most of these star patterns had an altar formed by a formation, and within the stars the formations shaped the images of gods and demons.

"What are these god-and-demon formations and altars for? To keep the heavens turning, or for some other purpose?"

A vague unease stirred in him. If their only purpose was to keep the false heavens above in motion, there was no need for such complexity — the formations need only give off light.

If it could be done so simply, why make it so complex?

"These altars resemble the white-bone altar I used to summon the Dutian Demon King, though the formation structures differ."

A chill ran through Shen Mu. Countless stars floated in the heavens, and within them were hidden countless altars, and the altars were for summoning gods and demons.

Imagine it: if one day a blood sacrifice were made, and these gods and demons descended — tens of thousands of gods and demons come down into the world — how terrible would that be?

Never mind Jingping; even the Kaihuang era of old would surely be destroyed.

"The kingdom of Jingping is not worth such effort to guard and watch over. So what, then, is this false heaven arrayed against?"

He could not puzzle it out, try as he might.

The star charts and formations the Butcher had drawn were all incomplete; he had had no time to study the false heavens thoroughly before he encountered the deity who guarded the Heavenly Chart, but he had still sketched out their rough shape.

Shen Mu suppressed his shock and went on examining the formation structures, his brow knotting tighter and tighter, until he said suddenly: "Grandfather Tu, how deep is your mastery of formations?"

The Butcher answered honestly: "Passable at best. Not the equal of the Blind Old Man."

"I will go fetch Grandpa Blind to take a look!"

Shen Mu brought the Blind Old Man and asked him to look them over. "These formations are very strange. I have never seen their like before. Grandpa Blind, have you ever seen a formation structure such as this?"

The Blind Old Man looked through the drawings one by one, his expression growing graver and graver. He shook his head. "I have never seen such formation structures. Strange, truly strange. The formations in these star charts are meant to construct the bodies of gods and demons, yet they can shine like the sun, moon, and stars. Such formation structures are no simple matter. A pity that not one of these formations is correct..."

The Butcher said: "I had too little time. This is all I could remember."

The Blind Old Man examined them closely and calculated. "These formations construct the bodies of gods and demons — and in truth they also deconstruct them. Pig-butcher, do you understand what that means?"

The Butcher pondered. "You mean that if those who wield divine powers were arrayed according to these formation structures, they could bear the might of gods and demons?"

Shen Mu's heart stirred. Array Qi Refiners according to these formation structures, activate the formation — and it would be as though a god or demon walked the earth?

Then how terrifying would the power of such a formation be when roused?

"A pity they are not complete formations."

The Blind Old Man shook his head. "You have drawn so many, and not one is complete. Beyond that, there is another possibility."