Chapter 488 — The Gate of Beiluo

"His flesh and blood are gone, yet the treasuries remain intact, and the spirit fetus with them; the remnant divine essence is still so formidable that it can lightly sever a sect treasure."

Shen Mu mused. An ordinary god could never wield such power after death. He had once gone to pay his respects to the corpse of Jade Lord, the master of Xu Shenghua; Jade Lord had been blasted to fragments by the Sun-Shooting Divine Cannon he himself had built, dying a most wretched death. Though Jade Lord's remains still bore a heavy divine majesty, they could not compare with these divine bones. And Jade Lord's treasuries had collapsed and crumbled away after his death.

"This is a true god—a god in the truest sense!"

His face grave, he rummaged in his Taotie Pouch, took out the Black Tortoise Pearl, and murmured, "How could a true god die here?"

Shen Mu channeled the Black Tortoise Pearl, using its power to cast the spell, trying to summon a spirit—to awaken these remains.

Clatter—

The bones moved abruptly. The Dragon Qilin was so frightened its blood ran cold; every scale stood on end, and even its tail quivered straight.

Shen Mu channeled the Myriad Gods Natural Art—a method best cultivated by women; his mind was too cluttered ever to master it to the utmost, yet with the aid of the Black Tortoise Pearl he could just barely drive it.

A huge white bone hand rose slowly from the sand. The remains sat up with a slow, ponderous motion, the great skull drooping as if to observe Shen Mu and the Dragon Qilin, yellow sand pouring like a waterfall from its eye sockets and mouth.

"Fight!"

The remains stood, seized a tattered great banner from the thick dune, waved it, mouth working open and shut; the remnant magic power in the treasuries shook the air, and though he had neither flesh nor blood, he still uttered a heaven-shaking sound: "By the Supreme Sovereign's decree: behind us lies our ancestral land, and we have no road of retreat! Fight! Fight, and nothing else!"

Shen Mu's mouth fell open; he scratched his head. His spirit-summoning should have called a new soul out of the bones, yet it seemed these remains retained a portion of their will—a will that had never dispersed, only fallen silent, and been roused by his Myriad Gods Natural Art.

"The war ended I know not how many years ago, senior!"

Shen Mu called loudly: "Where is your homeland? Why did you die here? On whose command do you fight in this place? Who is your enemy?"

The withered bones lowered their head to look at him, the voice shaking the air: "Under the Supreme Sovereign, deputy chiliarch of the Gate of Beiluo, ordered to hold this ground. Boy, where do you come from? This is a battlefield—withdraw at once! Where are my brothers?"

The divine bones leaped up waving the banner, charged up the high dune, and abruptly froze, standing there.

"The era of the Supreme Sovereign? Was that not tens of thousands of years ago?"

Shen Mu was struck dumb. He hurried after with the chest, and when he reached the crest of the dune he stood frozen: on the other side lay boundless withered bones.

Corpse after corpse sprawled every which way, buried in the golden desert; the bones were too vast to be wholly covered, and most lay exposed. Divine weapons and treasures of every kind were thrust askew into the wasteland, along with battered war chariots, towering warships green with copper rust, metal discs a hundred zhang high…

Shen Mu stood stunned. This had once been a battlefield of gods and demons; thousands of gods and demons had died in battle here, and none had buried them.

"What year is it now?"

Beside him the divine bones bowed their head and asked, "And the Supreme Sovereign? Why are my brothers' bones left to bleach in the wild? Why not give these warriors the dignity of the dead…"

Shen Mu said sorrowfully, "Senior, the era of the Supreme Sovereign ended long ago—it has become legend. Not only the Supreme Sovereign; even the Kaihuang Era is over…"

"Did the Supreme Sovereign fall in battle too?"

The divine bones bowed their head as if weeping, yet no tears fell. He strode toward the battlefield and raised up a set of white bones: "My brothers, my comrades, the era of the Supreme Sovereign is no more, but I will not let you lie unburied… Little brother."

He turned his head to "look" at Shen Mu: "Can you awaken my brothers? We will bury ourselves, and be at peace in death."