Chapter 517 — A Detailed Explanation of the Mechanism of Sacrifice

" The Dutian Demon King sat on the box, gave a ha-ha, and swung his feet. "Hearing your account — that the world in the darkness overlaps with this sinister world of yours — reminds me of a most terrible possibility. A world sacrifice!

" Upon all four of his puppet faces rose expressions of the most sinister and uncanny delight; he was so excited he nearly leapt up.

"A world sacrifice is the sacrifice of an entire world. With that dreadful power they descend upon another world — a million gods and demons descending together to destroy that world!

This is a far grander plan! " Shen Mu said in astonishment, "They go to destroy that world? " The puppet demon-god statue turned its head with a creaking and clicking, and the gazes of all four faces came to rest on him one after another. Shen Mu's hair stood on end.

"You mean tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of demon gods burst apart the barrier of that world in the darkness, and now they mean to blood-sacrifice that world and descend upon ours? " The Dutian Demon King's head whirred round upon his neck for several full turns; then he clapped his hands in praise. "Clever!

The Waste and that world overlap, and that world is to be sacrificed. The energy of sacrificing an entire world is so immense, so dreadful, that it can bring that world, teeming with demon gods, descending into the Waste in a single stroke! When that time comes, there will be the terrible sight of two worlds colliding, and hundreds of millions of living beings plunged into ruin. The very thought sets me aquiver!

" Shen Mu's face went blank; then he suddenly shook his head.

"Impossible. Utterly impossible!

The darkness has existed for twenty thousand years. Would that not mean the war in that world has gone on for twenty thousand years? How could any war last so long?

Impossible! " The Dutian Demon King jumped down from the box. "If I were you, I would have emigrated to another world long ago. A wise man does not stand beneath a crumbling wall; when the nest is overturned, how can any egg stay whole? This world is too perilous. I am going back!

And don't come pestering me so often — you frighten me! " He leapt into the darkness, his consciousness leaving the body to return to the Dutian world, and cried, "When the world in the darkness is destroyed, that will be the day your world collides with another world of demon gods — and the day of your downfall! " He jumped into the darkness and was at once eaten away by it. Shen Mu hurriedly ran into the darkness, and saw that the wooden puppet demon-god statue lay shattered across the ground.

Shen Mu frowned and returned to the box's side. The energy of the white-bone altar was spent, and the white bones had crumbled away of themselves. "Is what the Dutian Demon King says reliable at all? That fellow has never seemed reliable, and now he talks in such terrifying terms.

. . " He steadied himself.

The Dutian Demon King's words were truly dreadful — but how much of them could be believed? Then again, thinking it over, with the Dutian Demon King's disposition — delighting in others' misfortune and dreading only that the world should remain untroubled — there was no need for him to frighten Shen Mu.

"Jingping is still too weak.

" Shen Mu expelled a breath of stale air and thought to himself, "But the world in the darkness has been at war with the demon race for twenty thousand years and has held out until now; surely they will not collapse at this very moment and be blood-sacrificed by their enemy? So the collision between Jingping and the demon world must still be far off.

There is no need to worry overmuch.

. .

Heh heh heh, that wretch Dutian nearly scared the piss out of me.

Groundless worry, it must be groundless worry! " Several days later, Shen Mu finally walked out of the Waste and returned to Jingping. At once he took the flying ship through Mishui Pass and hurried to the capital, where he submitted a memorial to Emperor Yanfeng, presented the Xuanwu Pearl sent as tribute by Xiong Xiyu, Palace Lord of the True Heaven Palace, and raised the matter of building the road. Emperor Yanfeng summoned his civil and military ministers to deliberate, and the Imperial Preceptor of Jingping was among them. The ministers argued this way and that, and many opposed the road; the Imperial Preceptor of Jingping disputed with the assembled scholars and overrode every objection.

Only when Emperor Yanfeng, smiling, spoke of beheading in open court was the matter of the road settled. The Imperial Preceptor of Jingping said doubtfully, "Cult Master Shen, is it not rather improper to leave this matter to me? " "You are one of the Holy Cult's Four Heavenly Kings.

Naturally it falls to you. " Veins bulged on the Imperial Preceptor of Jingping's forehead, and he said stiffly, "And what of the Cult Master, then? " Shen Mu laughed. "I am off to visit kin and look up old friends, then do a little business and make a bit of money.

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