Chapter 557 — The Perilous Domain

"A council of primal spirits?" The Black Tiger God was rather baffled; he had never heard the term. Si Yunxiang took out a great stack of diagrams and spread them open in the gate tower; drawn on them were runes and sigils of every kind.

"This is an art the Sect Master and the adepts of Jingping created together," she said. "His Majesty named it the Three Primal Spirits Assembly Art."

Si Yunxiang searched until she found Shen Mu's primal spirit imprint, then took out cinnabar and a brush, dissolved the cinnabar, and painted on a pillar of the gate tower, drawing out Shen Mu's primal spirit imprint. "The Sect Master once burned the primal spirit imprints of us all into the Taixue Hall of the Taixue Academy," she said. "His own among them. A council of primal spirits works through the imprint: you draw your own primal spirit toward it and gather everyone's spirits to deliberate."

Ling Yuxiu took out a stick of incense, planted it below the painted imprint, and lit it. "This incense was refined by the Cowherd with his Soul-Leading Art," she said. "It is used to draw the primal spirit. We mean to use the soul-guiding incense and the imprint to resonate with his primal spirit, lure it here, and ask him where he is."

The two women exchanged a glance. Si Yunxiang's vitality bloomed outward and lit Shen Mu's primal spirit imprint, while Ling Yuxiu wrapped the incense smoke in her vitality and poured it into the imprint.

Everyone in the tower waited in silence, watching the burning incense. It curled up faint and slender; the fragrance was not heavy at all, but exceedingly light.

The span of one stick of incense is not long. As it burned down bit by bit, unease crept into every heart. The imprint and the incense would resonate with Shen Mu's primal spirit, and by invoking the Three Primal Spirits Assembly Art he could come here and meet them. But if Shen Mu had met with disaster, he would not come.

When more than half the incense had burned and still nothing stirred, and they were secretly fretting, a rushing wind suddenly blew into the gate tower.

Their hearts leaped. In the tower Shen Mu's primal spirit flickered in and out, faint and unstable.

"Sect Master, where are you?"

Long Qilin, wild with joy, cried out in a fluster, "The elixirs you prepared are all eaten up! Hurry back!"

Shen Mu said in surprise, "I prepared three or four months' worth for you. Why is it gone already?"

"That..." Long Qilin had no answer.

Xue Hu'er quickly said, "Young Master, we are searching for you. Where are you now?"

Shen Mu shook his head. "I do not know either. In the demon race's territory there is no sun in the sky, no moon or stars. I cannot tell direction, and I do not know where I am. The Sun-Binder carried me off, and I barely escaped. Right now the demon race's elite are hunting me. My primal spirit cannot linger here long."

Everyone frowned deeply.

Sang Hua suddenly said, "Brother Daguzi, look at the lie of the mountains around you and commit it to memory, and see whether there are any cities nearby. Our Taihuang Heaven has sixty-four god-cities; each bears a different name, and the mountains near each lie in different shapes. Whether we know the lay of the mountains or the name of the god-city, we can fix your position."

Shen Mu's primal spirit picked up the cinnabar brush and drew on the ground, swiftly sketching out the mountains around his location. "I have seen no god-city," he said.

Sang Hua, Yu He, and the other adepts of Taihuang Heaven crowded forward to look, and one and all they shook their heads. They were young, and none had ever gone to the demon race's territory.

"I will go fetch my father!" Sang Hua hurried off.

Suddenly Shen Mu's primal spirit dimmed. "The enemy is here. I must go back!"

A wild wind swept through the tower, and his primal spirit vanished without a trace. Not long after, Sang Hua returned with the Venerable God Sang Ye, who examined the map of mountains and rivers Shen Mu had drawn, mused a moment, and cried out in dismay, "He is near the demon race's old lair! The Liyang Mountains, beside Guimei City!"

Yu He frowned. "Guimei City? Was that god-city not destroyed long ago? I heard the place has become an ill-omened land..."

The Venerable God Sang Ye nodded. "When the demon race invaded, they appeared first at Guimei City and razed it utterly. In front of the Liyang Mountains lies the Guimei City battlefield, the cruelest and bloodiest field of every god-demon war in Taihuang Heaven's history. More than a thousand gods and demons fell there! The adepts of Taihuang Heaven and of the demon race who died or were maimed are beyond counting. If he walks on, he will step into that ill-omened land!"

Ling Yuxiu asked, puzzled, "Why do they call it an ill-omened land?"

The Venerable God Sang Ye said, "Too many gods and demons died in battle. Divine blood and demon blood gathered together and formed an exceedingly strange zone. Within it are the unyielding wills of gods and demons, and wronged souls bearing curses and demonic nature. So many adepts and gods and demons fell there that when night came down, the whole place was ablaze with light."

A flicker of dread crossed his face. "What lit the night were storm lanterns, hung one to a little boat. Those boats came from Youdu. Countless old underworld constables appeared on the battlefield carrying storm lanterns, turned it into a realm of ghosts, and bore away the souls of the slain. In those days I had not yet cultivated to the god realm; I was only a common soldier in that battle..."

After the great war all was desolation. The young Sang Ye was gravely wounded in the fighting, and when he woke, night had fallen.

He crawled out of the heap of the dead, and saw a sight he would never forget in all his life: boat after boat, hung with storm lanterns, sailing out of the gloom, and beneath those lanterns thousands upon thousands of old men, all identical, who came to Taihuang Heaven in utter silence and reaped souls on the battlefield.

Those old men made no sound, yet in the darkness of the battlefield countless ghosts wailed and howled, unwilling to sink into Youdu; and yet every one of them was seized and shackled by the old constables, and drifted away into the gloom aboard the boats.

He would never forget that sight.

"The shattered souls were not carried off by the constables. In time the place became an ill-omened land, where many strange things happen and many strange things lie hidden."

The Venerable God Sang Ye steadied himself and went on: "Later, both Taihuang Heaven and the demon race abandoned it. If Sect Master Shen keeps going, he will step into that ill-omened land."

Long Qilin suddenly cried, "Divine blood and demon blood mingled can birth things as terrible as the root demon of Withered Silence Ridge! Tell the Sect Master at once to shun that place!"

The Venerable God Sang Ye asked, "How strong is the root demon of Withered Silence Ridge?"

"About the equal of a powerhouse of the Life-and-Death realm."

The Venerable God Sang Ye smiled coldly. "Then it should be a small fry. Some things in that ill-omened land are far more ferocious than a Life-and-Death realm adept. Tell him quickly, and have him shun it!"

Ling Yuxiu and Si Yunxiang hastily tried to reach Shen Mu again, but this time, even when the incense had burned out, Shen Mu never answered.

"He must have run into the enemy and had no time to reply! This is bad!"

Si Yunxiang said swiftly, "Those enemies must be exceedingly strong. They may even have forced him into the ill-omened land!"

The Black Tiger God rose to his feet. "I will go there and bring him out!" he said resolutely.

The Venerable God Sang Ye shook his head. "You cannot go. The road is too long and too full of hazards; if you meet a god-demon on the way, you will die there too. You had best stay here and wait quietly for his primal spirit to answer, and hope he can walk out of the ill-omened land. Only by walking out is there any chance to live."