Chapter 791 — Antecedents and Roots

The scholar raised his head toward the two strands of baleful aura. "My first-rate skills are qin, chess, calligraphy, and painting—those I labored at with bitter effort," he said. "My second-rate skills are saber, spear, sword, and halberd—those I merely played my way into. My first-rate skills can rank first or second in the world; as for the second-rate skills I played my way into, they are nothing to speak of. My qin has lost once—to the Crimson Emperor, Qi Xiayu."

His face darkened. "That woman's gifts are extraordinary. Her attainments in the qin surpass even mine."

Shen Mu was deeply shaken.

The Crimson Emperor Qi Xiayu's powers were transcendent and sage-like; she was a Throne-tier expert. Shen Mu had tasted her qin music. When he and the Deva King Buddha fled the Buddha Realm, Qi Xiayu had hunted them across realms with a piece called The Phoenix Seeks Its Mate, and with qin music alone she had gravely wounded the Deva King Buddha!

This scholar had once contested the qin with her—and was still alive. That told one what he was made of.

"Once I thought my qin ranked first," the scholar said. "Now I think my chess deserves first place. It should be chess, calligraphy, painting, qin."

He rode his donkey up the divine mountain, waving his feather fan. "Sect Master Shen, where would you rank your qin and chess?" he asked with a smile.

Shen Mu sighed. "I know next to nothing of such things," he said.

The scholar laughed. "I had thought the great Sect Master Shen was omniscient and almighty. To think that even you have things you do not understand."

Shen Mu took out paper and brush. "Your calligraphy ranks second," he said with a smile. "Might you write a few words for me?"

The scholar lifted the brush. "What difficulty is there in that? What shall I write?"

"Just the three characters Shen Fengqing."

The scholar wrote Shen Mu's name on the paper. Shen Mu took back the paper and brush and studied those three characters closely, his eyes flickering. "Where is the Land of No Sorrow?" he asked.

The scholar turned his head on the donkey and smiled. "Sect Master Shen's thoughts leap about so! We were speaking of qin, chess, calligraphy, and painting—why do you suddenly ask after the Land of No Sorrow? You leave me quite bewildered."

"You have been to the Land of No Sorrow—you may even have come out of it!"

Shen Mu took out the Shen clan genealogy and turned to the place where his own name was written. "On my father's boat I saw your hand," he said. "In the Shen genealogy, many of the names were written by you! And the name my father wrote on the last page—my name—his brushwork is very like yours. Clearly he learned his calligraphy and his painting from you, copied you. You come from the Land of No Sorrow!"

He grew suddenly agitated. "Master Zixi, where exactly is the Land of No Sorrow? Is Kaihuang still there? Why has he not shown himself in twenty thousand years?"

The scholar was silent, then suddenly laughed. "Kaihuang's descendants are indeed no simple characters. In the Shen genealogy I did indeed revise many names, but I never wrote yours. You had me write your name to catch me off guard—but I forgot that I once taught Qin Hanzhen calligraphy and the way of painting."

She turned to look at Shen Mu, her gaze somewhat pitying, and shook her head. "You do not want to go back to the Land of No Sorrow. Give up the thought and live well. I have seen you—you are very good, and you have not disgraced Kaihuang... Lü Zheng, let us go!"

She poked at the radish, and the donkey suddenly leapt, bounding up to the peak of the high God-Slaying Platform. The donkey brayed loudly, its body shook, and it became a god-demon with a donkey's head and a man's body, all sinew and muscle, two palms reaching out to seize the two strands of baleful aura on the God-Slaying Platform!

Those two strands of baleful aura were this heavenly palace's God-Slaying Mystic Blade, and the donkey Brandished them like two great dragons, splitting the God-Slaying Platform with a crack!

The God-Slaying Platform broke in two, and at once fresh blood gushed from the divine mountain, countless streams of gore pouring out, and in a few breaths it had become a vast ocean of blood, cutting off the road ahead!

"Shen Fengqing, this is not a place you can enter. Go back!"

The scholar's voice came from ahead. "If you were not so clever, I might have taken you on a tour. But you are too clever—so turn back the way you came!"

Shen Mu looked ahead. The sea of blood grew ever wider, and all over it were shattered baleful auras forming layer upon layer of monstrous apparitions, impossible to set foot upon!

Shen Mu also possessed a God-Slaying Mystic Blade, and he knew the origin of the God-Slaying Platform: it had been forged in imitation of the one in the Dragon Han Heavenly Court, absorbing the qi-blood of gods and demons. Anyone who took even a slight wound on the God-Slaying Platform would have all his qi-blood stripped away, absorbed by the divine blade and the divine mountain.

And Chixi had once said that the age of the Supreme Emperor was the most savage of all, that countless gods and demons had been beheaded on the God-Slaying Platform. One could imagine how frightful the baleful aura here must be!

"But to block my way is no easy thing!"

Shen Mu reached into his Taotie Pouch and drew out a small box, and with a click he opened it.

The box opened, and with a clatter of bone membrane the jade throne-head inside grew wildly excited, frantically drawing in the baleful aura of the sea of blood!

Shen Mu held the box aloft on his primordial qi, floating it before him, and sent it into the sea of blood.

The Heavenly Worthy of Imperial Heaven hastily urged the water qilin after him, and saw Shen Mu's little box swallow the baleful aura of the sea of blood like a whale, blood qi growing ever denser, the bone membrane turning red as blood, the baleful aura in the jade skull's eyes growing ever stronger.

The dragon qilin was frightened out of its wits, again and again lifting its head to eye the little box. The water qilin said quietly: "Brother, why do you keep watching that box?"

The dragon qilin said, trembling: "I am watching to see when that box will eat its fill. You have never eaten a spirit pill, so you do not know that eating too much stuffs you—I have stuffed myself before. Once it has eaten its fill, it will eat no more..."

Even as he spoke, a sound of belching came from inside the little box.

Click—the little box snapped shut.

The dragon qilin shuddered with dread and cried: "We are done for!"

The blood-colored baleful aura surged toward them over the sea. Countless formation glyphs appeared around Shen Mu, and he was about to rouse the teleportation formation when the blood-colored baleful aura suddenly subsided, and from deep within the sea of blood a voice came: "Honored guest, the Earth Mother invites you. Please follow me!"