Chapter 793 — The Earth Mother Venerable God

Shen Mu smiled faintly and bade the Dragon Qilin and the Water Qilin wait outside. "Brother," he said, "let us go in."

Gongsun Yan led the way, and Yu Tianzun, dazed and muddled, followed Shen Mu into the underground palace.

Outside the hall, the Water Qilin hung its head, trembling, not daring to look at the old dragon, still less to raise its eyes and take the measure of that phoenix.

The phoenix stood before them, leisurely preening its feathers, while the old dragon coiled about a pillar, head lowered, its dim old eyes fixed on them as though guarding against thieves. Its head was bigger than the Dragon Qilin and the Water Qilin put together.

The Water Qilin grew more and more unnerved. Beside it the Dragon Qilin rustled about, and from somewhere produced several spirit pills. "Will you eat one?" it asked the old dragon.

The Water Qilin groaned inwardly — but then the old dragon uncoiled, came down from the pillar, and transformed into an old man with a dragon's head and a human body. He took the pills, tasted one, and praised them: "Refreshing! Why have you, youngster, not taken human form? The path you walk is still the crude path of the demigods, growing by eating. That path has been proven a dead end. Only in human form do you gain a divine treasury and a heavenly palace, and only then can you cultivate."

The Dragon Qilin asked humbly for instruction: "The Cult Master taught me the Ancestral Dragon Grand Mystery Art, saying it is a technique of the Emperor Throne tier. But whenever I cultivate it, something always feels wrong. The Cult Master said I have qilin blood, and the art does not suit me well."

"So that is it," said the old dragon. "Dragons are born from dragon veins; I too was born from a dragon vein, and the Ancestral Dragon Grand Mystery Art is the highest of all secret arts. But your blood carries qilin blood, so it is indeed hard for you to cultivate it. I have no qilin techniques, but there are many qilin here. You may go and beg some superior arts from them. Come with me!"

The Dragon Qilin followed him.

The Water Qilin's eyes went wide. "He is that easy to talk to?"

The old dragon led him to an imperial tomb and bellowed in a coarse voice, "Lu Shouyi! Lu Shouyi!"

A stone qilin gradually shed its stone, becoming a fiery qilin of awe-inspiring majesty. "Dragon King, why do you call me?"

"There is a junior here with the blood of both my dragon clan and your qilin clan, but he has no qilin cultivation art. Teach him a few."

The old dragon added, "I ate his spirit pills, so I must give him something in return."

The fire qilin looked the Dragon Qilin over. "So it is the youngster from just now. Have you any more spirit pills?"

The Dragon Qilin hastily produced some. "A moment ago I saw how mighty you were, brother, and did not dare come up and speak."

The fire qilin was rather pleased with himself. "We are charged with guarding the imperial tombs; naturally we must be somewhat mighty."

Suddenly the qilin before the other tombs revived one after another, each alighting on auspicious clouds around the Dragon Qilin, laughing, "How fragrant, how fragrant!"

The Dragon Qilin brought out more spirit pills and gave them away. "When I passed by just now, I was so frightened by you brothers that I wet myself."

The qilin were much gratified. "We were only trying to scare you, to keep petty thieves from slipping in."

The Dragon Qilin took out every last one of his spirit pills; the old dragon took a share too. Everyone was soon calling him brother, and the talk grew lively.

An inexplicable emotion moved the Dragon Qilin's heart. "Thank goodness the Cult Master, because I carry both dragon and qilin blood, refined his spirit pills to suit the tastes of both clans. Otherwise I could never have struck up a conversation with them."

"Brother, your bloodline is both dragon and qilin, which makes things troublesome. No wonder you find it hard to take human form."

A qilin demigod said, "If you cultivate two arts at once, it is hard to master either. Let us help you modify them."

Before the palace gates, the Water Qilin watched the giants among those demigods crowd around the Dragon Qilin, teaching him hand over hand how to cultivate, and could not help but envy him bitterly. "We are both mounts — why has he slipped straight into the upper ranks of the demigods, while I must stay out here being stared at by this phoenix..."

The phoenix was still staring at him. Suddenly it spoke in a thin, soft voice: "Have you any spirit pills?"

The Water Qilin answered honestly, "No."

The phoenix paid him no more attention, and went on staring at him.

The Water Qilin's spirits sank. "When will Old Master Lan ever learn to refine spirit pills?"

The underground palace was vast; even walking through its gates took a long while, so that Shen Mu felt for a moment as though he had returned to the wild, savage age of Longhan.

Yu Tianzun looked at the palace, somewhat bewildered, and murmured, "I feel as though I have been here before... this place is familiar..."

Shen Mu slowed his steps, hope in his voice. "Can you recall anything, brother?"

Yu Tianzun grew more bewildered still. He knocked on his own head and shook it. "I cannot remember a thing... Brother, I think I am not your real younger brother!"

His face was utterly serious.

Shen Mu laughed despite himself. "What are you saying? Your surname is Lan, mine is Shen. Of course we are not true brothers."

He quickened his pace to catch up with Gongsun Yan and studied the arrangement of the great hall. It was simply furnished, with no murals on the walls; only on the smooth floor were there some pictures.

Behind Shen Mu his primordial spirit rose, looking down from on high, and only then did he make out the pictures on the floor.

The pictures were enormous. One showed the first opening of heaven and earth: a great tree rooted in the ancient land, holding fast the surging earth, water, wind, and fire between heaven and earth.

Beneath the great tree lay a woman, waking from a dream, while beside her a man reached out his hand as if to raise her up.

In the sky stood a giant formed of light; below the earth stood a strange being with ox horns and a tiger's head.

Yu Tianzun's face fell further. He said in a low voice, "I knew it — I was picked up. Where are my true parents?"

Shen Mu, gazing at the picture on the floor beneath his feet, nearly stumbled at these words, and could only shake his head. "What sort of jumble is packed into Yu Tianzun's little head?"

He looked at the second picture. In it the woman and the great tree towered to the heavens, and the leaves turned into heavens great and small, in which many demigods and ancient gods lived in joy; beneath the tree the roots spread through the continent, becoming all manner of mountains and rivers, forming dragon veins of every kind.

Some of those dragon veins, in the course of ages, took spirit and became divine dragons, in the midst of transformation.

"True parents?"

Just then the divine consciousness of the Earth Mother Yuanjun rippled over, perplexed. "Yu Tianzun, your parents died long ago. Do you not remember?"

Yu Tianzun was stunned. He turned his head aside and quietly wiped away tears.

Shen Mu had no time for the pictures on the floor. He looked toward the voice, and saw that what had spoken was a patch of radiance — radiance unlike that given off by the palace, which was too dazzling; this light was gentle, as though it held the power of life within it.

Within the light an ancient divine consciousness stirred faintly like ripples on water, and in those ripples a woman swam to and fro.

Behind the woman was a heart formed of light condensed into substance, and through that heart was thrust an iron sword, thick with rust.

Shen Mu looked closely and made out the woman's face. She looked the same as the idol in the temple, with a full forehead and a square jaw.

He also saw that many roots, like blood vessels, extended out from that heart.