Chapter 490 — Years of Iron and Blood

"This..." Shen Mu hesitated. That he had awakened this divine bone by spirit-calling with the help of the Xuanwu Pearl was nothing but coincidence; only because a remnant of deathless will lingered in the bone could it speak once roused, and even recover the memories of its former life.

If he were to awaken the other corpses fallen there, those bones likely held no such deathless will; even roused by him, they would be no more than walking skeletons.

And besides, awakening divine bones drained mana enormously. Even with a spirit treasure like the Xuanwu Pearl, to wake so many divine bones at once was more than Shen Mu could bear.

By his grasp of the Myriad Gods Natural Art, the tallest sand-dune "giant" he could awaken stood less than a zhang high; anything taller was beyond his power.

With the Xuanwu Pearl he could magnify his insight that all things have spirit, that all things have gods, sharpening his own perception. Yet to awaken so many divine bones at once would cost him beyond reckoning, and might even bring peril.

The divine bone "looked" at him, faint flames flickering in its hollow sockets, as if brimming with expectation. That was an ancient warrior longing to meet his comrades-in-arms again, to be reunited with them once more, and it was hard for anyone to refuse.

Shen Mu's face broke into a smile. "We can give it a try," he said.

He took out the Xuanwu Pearl, roused the Myriad Gods Natural Art, and through the pearl released his insight into all things and all nature, casting the spirit-calling art.

After a moment, a massive skeleton lurched to its feet. The True God Chiliarch was wild with joy, throwing his arms around his comrade's skeleton, weeping and laughing at once.

"General." The skeleton was muddled, seeming to hold little consciousness, and could utter only that single word.

Yet even that one word moved the True God Chiliarch beyond measure, as though he had returned to the years of the Supreme Emperor.

Shen Mu awakened more and more bones of gods and demons. His face turned sallow, and countless voices seemed to clamor back and forth in his head, so that he could barely gather his thoughts.

The True God Chiliarch, together with the many awakened bones of gods and demons, whipped up a sky-wide cloud of yellow sand. He spent his final reserves of mana to rouse the fire of the true god and melt the sand.

In the air the yellow sand became seething lava, then hardened again into great boulders.

The True God Chiliarch was building their tomb. Countless bones of gods and demons used these boulders to raise their crypts, and one by one the graves took shape across the desert.

When Shen Mu awakened the last corpse, he finally collapsed, exhausted.

Across that desert, the many towering bones of gods and demons had finished the last of the tombs. They stood before their graves, awaiting their general's final words.

The True God Chiliarch, too, had burned up his last mana. Leaning on a battered banner, he looked at the comrades who had died with him.

The wind blew the banner.

The tattered flag streamed in the wind with a fierce, snapping sound, as though he had returned to those years of iron and blood.

"May there be a next life."

The True God Chiliarch did not open his mouth, yet a voice resounded, like the clash of metal and the beating of war drums.

"May there be a next life, when we are reunited, and make war upon heaven and earth once more!"

His voice rolled out across the desert as he cried to his soldiers, his comrades: "The Supreme Emperor will return, and he will lead us once more to slaughter our foes! Now, all of you soldiers, you may rest!"

"General, we shall meet again in the next life!" came the voice of one divine bone.

One after another, the bones of gods and demons walked into their tombs, laid their battered weapons at their sides, and lay themselves down, as though at a single blast of the horn they would leap up, seize their arms, and go on fighting.

In the True God Chiliarch's deep sockets the last flames leaped; great stone steles flew silently through the air and sealed the doors of the divine tombs one by one.

Runes flowed across the walls of the tombs, and as the steles closed, the formations guarding those tombs at last became whole.

Shen Mu let out a breath and looked up at the skeleton of the True God Chiliarch beside him. "Senior," he said, "you built divine tombs for them and laid them to rest. Why did you not build a tomb for yourself?"

The towering divine bone sat down, leaning on the banner. The great flag stood unbroken, and he sat bolt upright, facing the tall, desolate graves one after another.

"I was their general. I failed to lead them home. I do not deserve a tomb of my own."

The True God Chiliarch sat there quietly, the banner streaming in the wind. "I will keep watch over them, and be their grave-keeper. I know they never woke. It was you speaking through their mouths."

He lowered his head toward Shen Mu. "Thank you."

Shen Mu was taken aback. "I did not want you to feel that you were the only one left here. So I..."

The True God Chiliarch lifted his head and smiled. "Though it was you, my heart is greatly comforted. I have no regret left."

From his hollow sockets two streams of light, long as dragons, flew out and into Shen Mu's eyes, where they coiled and settled.

Those were the last of the pure yang and pure yin qi in his divine store, bestowed on Shen Mu as a gift.

"Darkness is coming. Go there!" He raised a finger, pointing into the distance.

Shen Mu turned to look. The sun was sinking in the west, about to drop into the desert.

"Senior, what do you mean, darkness is coming?"

Shen Mu asked in astonishment, "Does darkness invade this place at night as well? Senior..."

He fell silent and said no more. The skeleton of the True God Chiliarch beside him had no breath left in it; the last will had gone still, had scattered, leaving only the raised arm pointing into the distance.

Shen Mu rose without a word and called over Chest and the Dragon Qilin, who sat trembling atop Chest. "Let us go there," he said.

Chest moved its legs and followed him in the direction the True God Chiliarch's finger pointed.

The Dragon Qilin plucked up his courage. "Cult Leader, what did that big skeleton mean just now, saying that though it was you, still..."

"My spirit-exchanging art cannot exchange for the souls of those gods and demons who died in battle. The bones I awaken have no consciousness and can only obey my commands. He saw that too, and that is why he said what he did."

The Dragon Qilin was baffled. "But I heard those skeletons talk, and call him General."

"That those skeletons could speak, it was I who spoke through their mouths. I did not want him to feel lonely, to feel that he was the only one left from the age of the Supreme Emperor."

Shen Mu looked back at the divine bone sitting there, leaning on the war banner, keeping watch over the divine tombs, then turned his head away again, his face calm. "But in the end he found out. He did not call me on it at the time. In his heart, I think, there was still a little hope, a wish that it was not I who spoke, but his comrades."

The Dragon Qilin still could not comprehend such feeling, and simply sprawled on Chest to sleep, muttering, "These things frighten me most. Last time at the Liu family's place, I had nightmares for days..."

The sky grew darker and darker, and Shen Mu hurried his steps, until at last the setting sun sank into the desert.

Darkness came surging in from the west like a tide, and in an instant it caught up with them and drowned them.

Shen Mu was startled. This world, too, was devoured by darkness; it was like another Desolate Ruins, except that here it was the reverse: the day of the Desolate Ruins was this place's night, and the night of the Desolate Ruins was this place's day.

Suddenly Shen Mu's heart quivered. "I understand! I understand where the darkness comes from!"