Chapter 550 — Smiling On, Unchanged

Behind them, tree giants tapped and hammered with wooden mallets, fitting the slabs neatly together and making the road smooth.

And paving the road with stone slabs would make future repairs much easier: simply take up the broken slab and put a new one in its place.

The Imperial Preceptor of Jingping walked side by side with Xiong Xiyu. They were searching for stone statues, to carry them near the road; and if there were villages, so much the better—move the villages and villagers over, and in time this place would become a town.

Before moving a stone statue, they had to burn incense and make offerings. This was of the utmost importance, and it was Shen Mu who had told the Imperial Preceptor of Jingping so; thus the paving went a little slower than Shen Mu had expected.

To build the road Shen Mu had planned, the Imperial Preceptor of Jingping and Xiong Xiyu, Palace Master of the True Heaven Palace, had labored long, laying the road into the Barren Ruins. In another month or so it would reach Crimson Dragon City, and Jingping would not be far off.

Shen Mu had wide connections in the Western Lands and dealings with every great clan. This time the road would link the Western Lands and the Central Lands—a vast undertaking—but the great clans all supported the measure and sent out no small number of divine-ability practitioners.

"Let everyone rest!"

The Imperial Preceptor of Jingping glanced at the sky and declared in a ringing voice: "Darkness is coming. Hurry to the side of the stone statues, and do not walk about in the night!"

The people hurried to the statues, lit fires, and cooked. The girls were chattering excitedly again, talking of the men of Jingping, glancing now and then at the divine-ability practitioners of the Heavenly Craft Hall and letting out bursts of low laughter. Those practitioners flushed red and dared not speak.

The Imperial Preceptor of Jingping gazed into the distance at the sun about to set. This time Shen Mu had played the hands-off boss, tossing the hard and dirty work to him while he ran off to enjoy himself—yet he had no complaint.

The last time the Western Lands were pacified, he had tossed the dirty and hard work to Shen Mu, and Shen Mu had done it well.

Just then, the sky suddenly shook. A black light descended from the heavens and pierced through space, spinning madly as it shone down.

The Imperial Preceptor of Jingping's expression shifted slightly. He looked toward the place where the black light fell.

Boom!

The black light struck the ground, and the earth trembled without cease. The trembling reached their feet, as though some dreadful monster were about to burrow up from below!

"Imperial Preceptor of Jingping!"

The Imperial Preceptor of Jingping rose and said in a low voice, "Stay here. I will go and look."

Darkness surged in. The Imperial Preceptor of Jingping walked through the dark to the place where the black light had fallen. The black light's energy was spent, and from the ground a blue light shot up into the sky, piercing through space, forming a channel of flowing light.

What released the blue light was a vast altar, mountain-like in size, and now every rune on its surface had been lit.

A strange look came into the Imperial Preceptor of Jingping's eyes. He studied this altar that had appeared so suddenly, pondered a moment, then walked straight up onto the altar and into the blue light.

In Taihuang Heaven, the smiles on the faces of Shen Mu and the Black Tiger God had frozen completely. In the sky, the smiles of the True God Pang Yu, the Venerable God Sang Ye, and the other gods, and on the ground the smiles of the thousands of divine-ability practitioners, had frozen as well. Everyone had been frozen there for some time.

Just then, from the light at the center of the altar, a slender figure stepped out—a middle-aged man. He looked around in surprise, and his gaze fell on Shen Mu.

"So it is Cult Master Shen. What remarkable thing have you done now? And what place is this?"