Chapter 708 — The Sacred Blade of the Imperial Court

Qi Jiuyi slid down the wall, the shock on his face still undissolved, staring blankly at the great head that poked out of that doorway.

It was a bizarre head—a human face, yet crowned with a pair of goat horns, a tuft of goatee on its chin, reeking of wine as it belched and gazed at them with curiosity.

Shen Mu said politely, "Senior, we are men of Jingping. We strayed into this place and disturbed you. Might I ask, Senior—how does one leave here?"

The goat-horned man smoothed his garments and stepped out from the doorway. He stood far taller than Shen Mu and Qi Jiuyi, taller even than Long Qilin. His face was grave as he bowed his head to scrutinize them, his gaze coming to rest on Long Qilin. He swallowed with an audible gurgle and muttered, "It has been so long since I last tasted meat. A pity you are primordial spirits—no flesh on you... You say you are men of Jingping? What sort of place is Jingping?"

By his attire, he was plainly no man of the present age, but clad in the dress of the ancients.

His body was all lean sinew and muscle. Though he lacked the robust bulk of the Green Ox, he gave off an impression of wiry competence—and a dreadful sense of menace.

Nor was he a goat-spirit. From the spiral patterns, large and small, that covered his body, he was the primordial spirit of a deity—though that spirit had been refined into substantial form. Whether he was the primordial spirit guarding this blade, one could not say.

To refine a primordial spirit into substance was no small matter. Plainly his cultivation was exceedingly high.

Shen Mu asked, suspicious, "Senior, are you a man of the Kaihuang Era? Then do you know of Huangxu?"

"Huangxu? Of course I know it. Kaihuang commanded me to use the divine blade Dique to sever a corner of Youdu, that it might be forged into Fengdu. Kaihuang said he wished to carve out a Fengdu world of roughly the same size as Huangxu."

The goat-horned man belched wine and asked, "Where is Jingping? What age is it now?"

"Senior, are you the shaper of Fengdu?"

Shen Mu was greatly shaken. He said hastily, "Jingping lies to the east of Huangxu. The Kaihuang Era ended twenty thousand years ago. Eight hundred years past, Jingping was founded, and now we stand in the age of reform. Senior, you are one of Kaihuang's..."

The goat-horned man, muddled with drink, murmured, "The Kaihuang Era ended twenty thousand years ago? Has it been so long? Heh heh, no wonder. I seem to have passed seven or eight million years here... I was beneath Kaihuang's throne—Left Shaobi of the Heaven Emperor Star Dipper, surnamed Tian, named Shu. But then, you would not know of me."

He turned back into the room and lugged out a great wine jar, tipping his head back to gulp it down.

Only then did Shen Mu notice that his legs were not human legs either, but curved goat legs ending in a pair of hooves. Because he was so tall, the hooves were large as well.

"The Heavenly Court of Kaihuang? Left Shaobi of the Heaven Emperor Star Dipper?"

Qi Jiuyi's expression shifted slightly. He thought, "A remnant of the false dynasty!"

Shen Mu asked, puzzled, "Senior, you too are in a primordial spirit state, are you not? Do you truly dwell here? Then where is your physical body?"

Tian Shu drained that great jar of wine in one gulp and smashed the bottle carelessly. Shen Mu at once noticed that after the jar shattered, it swiftly restored itself, and within it was once more a brimming jar of fine wine, its fragrance spilling in all directions.

The wine jar flew into the air and returned to the room.

"It is a long story."

Tian Shu's face darkened. He ducked back into the room for more wine and said, drunk, "You must be a descendant of Kaihuang? I sense the aura of Kaihuang's lineage upon you, and your features bear some resemblance to his. The little chick at your side must be of the Nine Phoenixes lineage of that so-called Heavenly Court. Heh heh, Qi Xiayu—the Crimson Emperor of the Southern Heaven of the Nine Phoenixes lineage—is quite a figure. Only he had to go and fall for that bastard Li Youran..."

He tipped his head back to drink again, then smashed the empty jar before continuing, "In those years, Kaihuang forged the divine blade Dique and named me its Blade-Bearing God. I could freely enter and leave Youdu, and so he had me sever a length of Youdu to forge Fengdu. Thus I cut off a small piece of Tubo's horn. Then Kaihuang wished to go to the Land of No Sorrow, and again he commanded me to guard Dique, to keep the darkness of Huangxu from invading other places—that place you call Jingping."

Shen Mu blinked and glanced at Qi Jiuyi.

Qi Jiuyi was alarmed and uncertain. Plainly he knew nothing of this hidden history.

"Should I kill Brother Qi to silence him?" Shen Mu thought to himself, a smile fixed on his face.

Left Shaobi Tian Shu sighed, "But I have a failing—I love to drink. Without wine there is no joy. Guarding this place, I am tormented by craving day after day, always wanting a drink. Yet I could not well leave to seek wine. One day, an old rival of mine—the Left Shaobi of the Heavenly Court, a villain named Yan Shaoqing—sought me out and proposed a wager. The stake was wine that could never be finished. The fellow was ever a troublesome one, yet oddly enough he lost to me. The scoundrel was wicked indeed. By some means he hid all that fine wine within the divine blade Dique, then departed snickering. I knew well there was trickery in it, but I could not govern my own mouth. And when the mouth cannot be governed, neither can the head."

Shen Mu glanced at Long Qilin and said, "Senior, that feeling—I know it well."

"You too are greedy for wine?"

Tian Shu shook his head. "You should not be. When you look upon wine, there is no desire in you. I could neither sit nor lie still, always wanting to enter the divine blade Dique, to take out that fine wine, to drink my fill and be gloriously drunk. But I knew too that Dique was formidable, that it could devour a man's primordial spirit. I was only the blade-bearer, not its forger. If I was careless, my primordial spirit too would be trapped in the blade with no escape. Yet in the end I could not hold back. I told myself I had controlled this blade long enough—perhaps I could take out the wine, then walk out and return to my own body..."

Long Qilin could not help asking, "And then?"

Tian Shu sighed. "And then I could never return. That bastard Yan Shaoqing spoke no lie—this wine can never be drunk dry..."

On the ground, the shattered empty jar restored itself, still brimming with fine wine.

"I have drunk here for tens of millions of years. The wine is never finished, and I can never leave."

Tian Shu said, "You three have come at a good time. We can drink together."

Despair filled the hearts of Shen Mu and Qi Jiuyi. If Tian Shu had dwelt within the divine blade Dique for tens of millions of years and still could not escape, then surely they too could never get out!

Were they all to be trapped within this divine blade forever, never to free themselves?

Trembling, Qi Jiuyi opened a door and saw it piled full of wine jars. He opened another, and again wine jars. Door after door he opened, and every one was heaped full of fine wine!

Qi Jiuyi ran madly onward. How long he ran, he did not know—and still this long corridor showed no end!

On both sides of the corridor, countless rooms, all stuffed with wine jars!

After a long while, he slumped against the wall and sat down, defeated. After a spell of silence, he rose and silently opened a door, lugged out a jar of fine wine, and tipped his head back to drink deeply. Before long he was dead drunk.

Yet no matter how much he drank from the jar in his hand, the wine never diminished.

"Senior, there was once a man whose primordial spirit likewise strayed into the divine blade Dique—yet he escaped."

Shen Mu's eyes flickered. "Does Senior know of this?"

"You speak of a matter from two thousand years ago."