Chapter 575 — The One Who Holds the Heavenly Emperor's Jade Register

" Shen Mu was left staring, speechless, watching him go into the distance.

Xing An walked to the great cauldron. His gaze flickered; he was just about to take the cauldron away as well when the star sand within it suddenly stirred, slowly heaping up and taking shape, becoming a sand sculpture of a young man. Xing An was startled. He flashed away, speeding through the ten-li gorge. He was afraid after all, fearful that the Ten-Mile Star Sand Tribulation Formation might erupt once more.

Shen Mu led Jiang Miao out of the hall, and saw a sand figure standing in the great cauldron, star sand flowing ceaselessly over its surface.

"Eldest Senior Brother? " Shen Mu ventured, "Founding Patriarch of the Heaven Sage Sect, I am the sect master of this generation. Not long ago I met the Woodcutter Sage.

Eldest Senior Brother, are you still alive?

" The sand figure opened its mouth but could produce no words.

Suddenly it collapsed, and the star sand flowed across the ground, forming a pattern. Shen Mu hurried to look.

The pattern on the ground was a map, the run of mountains and rivers clear before his eyes.

The mountains and rivers in the map kept changing. Shen Mu hastily committed them to memory.

The star sand shifted more than ten times, then flowed back into the great cauldron. Shen Mu frowned slightly: apart from the first map, the maps the star sand formed stirred no recollection in him at all.

Surveying the mountains and rivers of the Wilderness Ruins, not one place matched the geography in those maps. The geography in the first map was somewhere in the Wilderness Ruins, but not one of the other thirteen maps showed the geography of Jingping or the Western Lands, nor did they match the terrain of Taihuang Heaven.

"What is Eldest Senior Brother trying to say? " Shen Mu narrowed his eyes. The founding patriarch of the Heaven Sage Sect must have sensed that the divine dragon was dead and that his own undertaking had met with some success, and so had stirred the star sand avatar to come and observe the situation here. But he was surely not in the Wilderness Ruins or Jingping; he must be in another world, one from which his voice could not carry. That he used the star sand to lay out maps must be to guide Shen Mu to seek him out.

"These fourteen maps are immensely complex. Where am I to look for him? " Shen Mu suddenly understood, thinking, "My knowledge is shallow, but the Woodcutter Sage has seen much and knows much; he is sure to recognize these maps!

Still, the first map may yield some clue.

I may as well go and take a look there first. " At this thought a stone lifted from his heart, and he smiled. "Jiang Miao, let's go! " Jiang Miao answered in assent.

Shen Mu suddenly turned back, threw his arms around the great cauldron, and strained to lift it.

Jiang Miao scratched his head; Shen Mu barked, "Aren't you going to help?

" Jiang Miao hurried forward. The two of them went red in the face, spent every ounce of their strength, and could not raise the cauldron a hair. Jiang Miao caught his breath and ventured, "Sect Master, I think we'd better let it be? Your eldest senior brother's abilities are too high—even Xing An didn't dare carry this cauldron off.

We certainly can't haul it away.

.

. " Shen Mu had no choice but to give up.

Then he caught sight of the dragon-binding chains, and his eyes lit up. He hurried over. "Taking a few chains away wouldn't be bad either! These chains could bind a divine dragon—the material must be of the very highest grade! Even melted down to forge a treasure, they'd be the finest of the finest!

" Jiang Miao had no choice but to follow. The two of them laboriously dragged one thick chain and at last hauled it out of the hall. Shen Mu opened his Taotie Pouch and tried to put one end of the chain inside, but the chain was too thick and too large to fit at all, and the other end was buried deep in the cliff face and could not be pulled free either. The two stared at each other, at a loss.

Shen Mu, furious, turned and left. "And you call yourself my eldest senior brother—you miser!

" Jiang Miao hurried after him. Shen Mu, face dark, flew up into the air, searched the surroundings, took his bearings, and sped off with him toward the direction marked on the first map. Two days later they came to a small village—the very place marked on the map.

Shen Mu and Jiang Miao walked into the village and looked around. It was like the most ordinary village in the Wilderness Ruins, save that everywhere in it stood statues of gods with dragon heads and human bodies.

"Why did Eldest Senior Brother send us here? " Puzzled, Shen Mu saw an old man white-haired and hoary sitting before a thatched hut weaving a fishing net. He hurried forward and bowed in greeting.

"Elder, what place is this?

" The white-haired old man raised his dim eyes and studied him, then showed surprise and smiled. "I gave the Heavenly Emperor's Jade Register to the Ling family. Why is it on you?

" Shen Mu's eyes went wide, and he could not speak.