Chapter 873 — The Secret Treasure of the Star Sea

Though Dragon Qilin said only a single word, "Yes," Shen Mu looked as though he had been granted some vast encouragement, and his spirits soared anew. Yan'er, seeing this, could not help but click her tongue in wonder, and stuffed a spirit pill into Dragon Qilin's mouth.

The Water Qilin looked on with no small envy, thinking, "When my lord is at a loss, I too shall say yes, and so wrangle more rations out of him.

Though it seems my lord has been at a loss for as long as I can remember. . .

" Lady Tianyin saw them courteously out of the Tianyin Realm, and at parting she said in a low voice, "The Great Dharma Master won't be angry at what I have done, will he? The Heavenly Emperor is, after all, the sovereign of us ancient gods. He has done many wicked things to the other ancient gods, but at bottom he is not a bad sort. When the Dao Ancestor came to me, wanting the runes of the Tianyin Realm to gather the Emperor's soul, I could not refuse. " "Say no more, my lady.

I understand it all.

" Shen Mu smiled. "That you remember old ties and choose accordingly is only natural. But my lady, you are no longer an ancient god born of heaven and nurtured by earth. The ancient god you were is dead; you are now an entirely new being.

You are like us, a creature born after heaven and earth.

" Lady Tianyin was taken aback. "You are a simple soul, my lady, so simple that you keep no guard against outsiders, so simple that you do not know why you died, so simple that you have once more placed yourself beneath the Heavenly Emperor's banner. But have you never considered this? At the very moment of your death, a wisp of the Heavenly Emperor's soul was already serving as a high-ranking member of the Heaven Alliance.

" Shen Mu bowed and took his leave, saying with utter sincerity, "He did not stop the Yin Son of Heaven from striking at you. Nor did he stop the Heaven Alliance from moving against the Earth Mother Yuanjun. My lady, your mortal body was destroyed; when I revived you, nothing remained but an empty husk. And after your revival you were not the same as the Heavenly Emperor, for his ancient divine flesh still endures, and he may yet become an ancient god again. You and he are no longer the same species.

" Confusion showed on Lady Tianyin's face as she watched them go, and Shen Mu's voice still echoed at her ear: "My lady, you must not be so simple anymore. " Dragon Qilin bound a great mirror with his vital essence and carried it on his back as he went forward, yet Shen Mu was not perched on his head.

The Water Qilin walked alongside, Yu Tianzun had vanished as well, and only Yan'er hopped to and fro, busily feeding them spirit pills. Now and then the girl would pinch a spirit pill and thrust her hand into the mirror, and within the mirror Yu Tianzun would open his mouth and catch it. Shen Mu was in the mirror world as well.

He took out a small mirror, turned his back to the jade slip within the glass, and raised the mirror to study the runes upon it. Then he brought out a great many computation elemental soldiers and assembled them into a massive calculating instrument, working ceaselessly at his figures, trying to fuse into it the Taiwei Calculation Classic as perfected by Dao Master Lin Xuan, and so perfect those runes.

Yu Tianzun, meanwhile, sat nearby in a daze. He had cultivated to a bottleneck, having reached the very peak of the Spirit Fetus realm, and meant to advance one step further.

Shen Mu did not teach him how to open the Five Luminaries Divine Treasury, nor did he teach him how to cultivate; and Yu Tianzun did not ask, for Shen Mu had told him that those with bodies like theirs, bodies of tyranny, all created their own methods and groped out their own paths. So he stubbornly resolved to find a path of his own. Dragon Qilin followed the Yong River eastward.

On the river's face many sand barges were also sailing east along the channel, and beneath those great vessels the Dragon-Rearing Lord and a number of Dragon Kings revealed their true forms, swimming in the heavenly river and using their magic to borrow the water's momentum, speeding the barges on their way. Tianyin metal was not rare in the Tianyin Realm, but in the outer world it was a precious thing, and there were many robbers on the road; even the heavenly river connected a number of heavens, and gods and demons from certain heavens came to waylay them, only to be driven off by the Dragon-Rearing Lord and his Dragon Kings.

Shen Mu did not let Dragon Qilin travel at full speed, so he was scarcely faster than the sand barges below, and the journey passed pleasantly enough on a diet of spirit pills. Now and then a Dragon King would fly up from the water; learning that this was Shen Mu's mount, he would present delicacies of the sea. Dragon Qilin seldom ate meat, and accepted only treasures such as Black Water Dragon Pearls, while Yan'er and the Water Qilin were bound by no such scruples, meat or vegetable.

Some of the sand barges, upon reaching the Yong River Academy, began to unload, carrying the Tianyin metal there to be smelted; others continued east, all the way to the sea.

The sea was broader now than in former days. Dragon Qilin looked east and saw that the heavenly chart could no longer cover the sea's surface; the sun rose, incredibly, from midair, and not from beneath the horizon. Stranger still, great planets hung above the sea; some had plunged into the ocean and showed half their round bodies, others hung upon the vault of heaven, immense beyond measure. These planets had torn the heavenly chart apart, leaving the sky seamed with shocking cracks.

The deities who guarded the heavenly chart had long since given up all pretense; they paid the damaged chart no heed at all, and did not trouble themselves to mend it. Suddenly Shen Mu thrust his head out of the mirror and looked all around. He too was arrested by the sight before him.

"This is the mouth of the Yong River? The gods who guard the heavenly chart grow more slack by the day.

It is a sight too ugly to bear. " "We have reached the river mouth," said Dragon Qilin. On the other side of the mirror, Yu Tianzun poked his head out and gazed about in curiosity.

"In ancient times the heavenly river flowed on without cease, emptying into the Returning Void; but now the heavenly river enters the sea, and is shorter by a great stretch. To find the Returning Void will be terribly difficult. " Shen Mu abruptly turned the mirror and set it upright, so that his body lay parallel with the sea and he could look down.

He saw the sand barges formed into fleets, sailing north along the coastline, and said, "Without the Dragon Kings to protect them, won't the sand barges be in danger? " Even as he spoke, great blue backs surfaced on the sea, like islands, as one huge fish after another swam up to guard the barges on every side. Then Xuanwu beasts came swimming from the deep, accompanying the barges as they moved forward.

At that moment a tower ship came sailing from a dock on the coast, and from that ship a strange phenomenon rose into the air, taking shape as a long river and a dam built of earth, wood, and water. The dam and the river crossed at right angles: the dam eight hundred zhang long, the river several hundred li, a spectacle beyond compare.

Several of the great blue-backed fish swam toward the phenomenon, suddenly leaped from the water, transformed into men and women, and boarded the tower ship.

Several giant Xuanwu swam up as well and, taking human form, climbed aboard. "Such a phenomenon of waterworks and earthworks; that is Wei Pingbo, the Grand Minister of Works of Jingping.