Chapter 883 — Gathering the Milky Way Before the Moon Palace

Shen Mu saw her smile, and his heart seemed to melt all over again.

It melted on that sun-drenched day, beside the reed marsh of the Yong River, where the reeds drifted with snow-white blossoms and a cowherd rode his ox, the ox plodding slowly along the bank. That day, a strange melody kept echoing in his mind; he wanted to hum it, to sing it aloud, yet somehow he could never hum or sing it out.

The melody felt so familiar, so dear to him, and yet he could never quite recall it. Now, at this moment, he remembered that nursery rhyme.

In the swaddling clothes within that basket, he had heard this nursery rhyme, heard this voice.

He walked to the girl humming the children's song he knew yet could not remember, sat down beside her, and said with a smile, "Long time no see.

Do you remember the baby in that basket, the one called Shen Fengqing?

I am him. " Bai Qu'er looked at him, surprise slowly rising on her face, and the surprise turned into a smile. "Do you remember the girl who sat on the box?

" "I do. " Shen Mu's heart burned hot within him; he could not tell whether his wounds had yet to heal, or whether some strange emotion was at work.

Bai Qu'er wrapped her arms around her knees, her back held perfectly straight, and gazed blankly at the land below.

"Jingping is so beautiful," she said.

Shen Mu looked down and saw ten thousand lamps; on the vast and boundless earth, among the mountains and rivers, the lights of the cities were scattered like points, and wherever there was lamplight, there were people. Though Jingping had met with such upheaval, its tenacious people still found ways to survive.

To sit in the Moon Palace and look upon the mortal world had a beauty all its own. The Heavenly Court, enthroned on high in eternal day, could appreciate no beauty in shadow, nor see the hope in the hearts of those who lit lamp after lamp in the darkness.

The moonlight was bright and clear; the moon formation in the Heaven Diagram had opened more than halfway and was about to become a full moon.

Shen Mu reckoned he must have slept five or six days.

"How did you come to be here? " he asked, turning his head to look at the cheek of the girl beside him.

"The Imperial Preceptor of Jingping came upon me, and I spent several days debating the sword with him. Then I heard that a girl named Si Yunxiang had sent people everywhere seeking Kaihuang's Four Great Celestial Masters and Four Great Heavenly Kings, saying that a son of the Shen family was in peril and had gone to the Northern Heavens for rescue.

" Bai Qu'er said, "So I hurried here first, meaning to enter the Palace of Mahakala through the Heaven Diagram.

I had just finished sweeping the Heaven Diagram clean of the gods of the outer Heavenly Court when Long Pang brought you over. " Enlightenment dawned on Shen Mu, and he laughed. "Slipping into the Palace of Mahakala through the Heaven Diagram, and even launching a surprise attack on Mahakala, is an excellent plan; it is precisely the way to evade his senses.

" Bai Qu'er laughed. "Indeed.

While you lay unconscious, Wen Tiange, Han Tang, and Yan Yunxi also found their way here, entering through the Heaven Diagram as well. Three of Kaihuang's Four Great Celestial Masters had arrived.

Han Tang meant to tear a gap in the Heaven Diagram, then send a fishing line into the Palace of Mahakala and fish you up. " Han Tang was the name of the Fisherman Celestial Master, while Yan Yunxi was the name of the Zixi Celestial Master, though Yan Yunxi was the name he used when dressed as a woman. The Fisherman Celestial Master was famed for never casting a hook in vain, so fishing Shen Mu up was not beyond possibility. "Yan Yunxi intended to set a formation and ambush Mahakala, but Wen Tiange said that Jingping and Mahakala had no grievance between them, and that perhaps they might be both enemies and friends.

" Bai Qu'er laughed. "They were all very concerned for you.

Only after seeing that you were in no grave danger did they leave.

How are your wounds? " Warmth filled Shen Mu's heart.

"Strange as it sounds, I woke from sleep and my wounds were wholly healed. I had injured my very source, and I thought it would take years of recovery before I could cultivate back to my full strength.

What miraculous medicine did you feed me? " He was deeply puzzled. To injure one's source was to suffer a most grievous wound; even he, a grandmaster of the healing arts, would have needed to search far and wide for rare elixirs and nurse his body back little by little.

Even then, it would have taken at least several years to make up the body's deficit. Bai Qu'er had once fed him medicine and used the Black Water Dragon Pearl to nourish his primordial spirit, which had led him to believe it was the work of her elixirs.

"The elixirs I gave you were nothing rare; they only kept you alive and could not cure you at the root.

Yet I found that while you slept, your wounds healed of themselves, little by little. I was greatly puzzled as well.

" Bai Qu'er mused. "While you slept, Wen Tiange and the others arrived and also sensed that you were recovering on your own. Wen Tiange said that within your body a Buddhist dharma was circulating in a strange manner, making it seem as though you had lived your life over again.

But where this dharma came from, even he was not certain, and I too could find no source for it. " Shen Mu's heart stirred. To live one's life over again, and then have one's wounds heal, with one's source restored to its peak; such an art seemed connected to the Brahma Heaven King Buddha's entry into the Way through the seed of dreams. Could it be that in his sleep he had cultivated the Brahma Heaven King Buddha's True Scripture of the Emperor's Throne?

But he had never learned such an art! Years ago, the Brahma Heaven King Buddha had told him that on the Shenzi Continent there was a great Buddha enshrining his True Scripture of the Emperor's Throne, and that he would have to comprehend it himself before he could learn it.

Yet the Shenzi Continent had long been occupied by his elder brother Shen Fengqing, and he had spent little time there, with no leisure to comprehend it.

Then when had he learned it?

To never study it, never comprehend it, and yet obtain this art of the Emperor's Throne was truly too strange. Suddenly Bai Qu'er rose to her feet and held out her hand to him, a radiant smile on her face.

"Would you like to see the real starry sky? " Shen Mu was startled for a moment, then reached out, and their palms met.

Bai Qu'er took his hand and flew through the Heaven Diagram, away from the moon.

"The Heaven Diagram holds false celestial phenomena, all of them formations," she said with a smile.

"But behind the Heaven Diagram lies the true starry sky. I know of a hole in the Heaven Diagram; go out through it, and you can see the real stars.

" Shen Mu followed involuntarily, and glancing back, he saw before the Moon Palace in the moonlight the Dragon Qilin dozing beneath a pillar; now it rose to its feet and peered in their direction, wanting to run over and see the real starry sky as well.

Shen Mu shot it a fierce glare, and the Dragon Qilin hastily halted, lay back down, and resumed its doze. Shen Mu smiled, and hand in hand with the girl, he roamed the Heaven Diagram with her. They flew through the river of stars in the Heaven Diagram, stars formed by formations great and small, intricate and complex in structure; but the gods here had already been slain by Bai Qu'er, and these formations had no one to guard them.

Though the river of stars was false, flying through it, with those brilliant starlights pouring down around them, was still exceedingly romantic. "Wen Tiange said he intends to have Emperor Yanfeng send some scholars well versed in the arts of divination to keep the Heaven Diagram running. " Bai Qu'er led him through the river of stars.

"Over there is the sun of the Heaven Diagram.