Chapter 79 — The Sun-Driver of the Wasteland

The village head, the Alchemist, and the rest all turned to look at him, doubt in their hearts. The Alchemist asked curiously, "Shen'er, you have seen this ship?

" "I saw it on the Wasteland Atlas.

. .

" Shen Mu too was shaken in body and soul.

This great thing that looked like a ship must be the Sun-Boat he had seen on the map in the Calamity-Quelling Palace!

When he had first seen the term Sun-Boat, he had been somewhat puzzled, not knowing why it was called a Sun-Boat; now he knew.

The Sun-Boat was the ship that hauled the sun!

And the sun must be that great black ball hauled behind the Sun-Boat on chains. That great black ball must be the extinguished sun.

Surely, before the Darkness fell upon the Wasteland, a Sun-Boat had hauled a burning sun across the Wasteland's lands!

Shen Mu was dazed: why had the sun the Sun-Boat hauled gone out?

If the Sun-Boat hauled the sun, then what of the Moon-Boat recorded on the map?

Was it a great ship hauling the moon?

And what place was the Sun Spring? And the Moon Spring? Boom, boom.

That Sun-Boat was walking this way.

This inconceivably vast ship actually had legs, legs thick as mountain peaks, formed of lava too, and through the cracks between lava and lava one could even see firelight.

That firelight was magma, as though the Sun-Boat's blood.

This great ship had twenty-four legs, matching the twenty-four solar terms.

Its legs looked thick and strong, yet a single step carried it six or seven li. For this colossus to appear before their eyes was profoundly shocking. The Deaf Elder looked at the Silent Craftsman, whose gaze was fervent as he gestured there; the Deaf Elder said, "That is not the true sun, but a treasure refined by the people of that age, before the Darkness fell.

Silent Craftsman, I think you are right. .

.

" The enormous Sun-Boat drew nearer and nearer to Crimson Dragon City, and the air grew hotter and drier; Shen Mu raised his head and looked up, and could scarcely see the top of the ship. The ship was too vast. The golden, resplendent palaces above fell into his view; they looked quite ordinary, but that they should still look ordinary at such a distance was itself most extraordinary.

He supposed that if one came close, those palaces must be immense indeed, and a grown man standing within them would be utterly insignificant.

"That is where the god race dwells.

" The village head said softly, "I have heard them called the Sun-Herders, and their god is called the Sun Warden.

" "Sun-Herders? " Everyone was slightly startled. Of all in the village, the one who had dwelt in the Wasteland longest was the village head; he had come here several hundred years ago, and knew the most.

Clearly he had heard of the Sun-Boat, and knew certain secrets. "I wonder whether the Sun-Herders' descendants still live aboard this ship?

Whether the Sun Warden is still aboard? " the village head said in a low voice. The Sun-Boat walked past Crimson Dragon City and went on to meet the thousands upon thousands of the Kingdom of Jingping's troops.

The scene was so grand, so magnificent, that the army forgot to advance; countless soldiers gaped up at the colossus like fools.

Too terrible, too stunning.

Pff— One leg of the Sun-Boat came down, and that leg, mighty as a mountain peak, crushed countless soldiers into mire; and when the ship's leg lifted again, a small lake had been trodden out beneath it. "Run for your lives—" Only then did some come to their senses, shrieking as they fled backward, while the soldiers behind had not yet understood; and so man crushed man, man trampled man, and by the time those behind understood and tried to scatter and flee, it was too late.

This immeasurably vast Sun-Boat walked along the road by which the Jingping army had marched, toward the Kingdom of Jingping's border, trampling countless soldiers to death along the way.

Let the generals' divine powers and flying swords fall upon it as they would, they could not shake the great ship in the slightest. The two armies of the Kingdom of Jingping had merged into one, their numbers immense; now there was no road left for flight. Even adepts who soared into the air were struck by the Sun-Boat's lifted legs, as simply as swatting a fly to death.

The vast Sun-Boat moved on and on, trampling and crushing countless officers and men along the way. That General Lu hurled all his strength at the Sun-Boat, but it was no more than an ant shaking a tree; he could not budge the great ship a hairsbreadth. At the Yanbian Pass, the mighty frontier fortress of Jingping, sword-light after sword-light flew out, chopping at the towering ship-mountain; sparks flew in all directions, but they could not wound the Sun-Boat.

And when the swords were recalled, the strong ones of the Yanbian Pass could not help but change countenance: their swords had been burned red, and had even begun to melt! Within the Yanbian Pass, tens of thousands of adepts worked their arts, raising wild winds and torrential rain, thunderclouds rolling; but before they reached the ship's side, they were scattered by the searing heat. — Though what the Sun-Boat hauled was an extinguished sun, it was a sun after all, and its fire was truly too fierce.

This ship had twelve legs and moved fast; before long it came before the Yanbian Pass. Creak, creak, a harsh sound came, and the Sun-Boat gradually halted.

Then a humming sound came through the air, and that black sun drifted on with its momentum, nearly floating into the borders of the Kingdom of Jingping. Countless officers and men within the Yanbian Pass stared up in a daze at the colossus lying athwart the pass. The Yanbian Pass was towering and magnificent, but beside this unimaginable giant before them it seemed utterly small.

Some generals were pale, their bodies trembling, scarcely able to stand; and the soldiers in the pass, though warriors and adepts, had their courage shattered by the sight before them. "The Sun-Boat created by the living things of the age before the Darkness fell is indeed extraordinary.

" The Imperial Preceptor of Jingping stood upon the tower, gazing up at the Sun-Boat.

This magnificent ship gave off an incomparable sense of oppression; even he felt a flutter of dread. At the top of the Sun-Boat, before the splendid palaces, he saw figures standing there.

He raised his head and looked at that black sun. Though this black sun was not so vast as the true sun, it still shook the heart.

One could well imagine what a magnificent sight it would be if this sun were lit again! Though this sun had gone out, to send the armies of the Kingdom of Jingping to collide with such a colossus was no different from a mantis blocking a chariot, from overreaching one's strength. He sensed the breath of a god coming from the Sun-Boat.

"So there are still living gods. The mysterious Wasteland is not a place one may lightly tread, after all.

.

. " The Imperial Preceptor of Jingping raised his hand and gave the order: "Pass the command: withdraw the troops.

For fifty years, none shall set foot in the Wasteland!

" Behind him, the generals of every command were shaken at heart, then passed the order down.

The Imperial Preceptor of Jingping lifted his head, his gaze falling upon those palaces, and said softly, "The Sun-Boat cannot protect the Wasteland forever. Gods die too; the Sun-Herders are no more than a fallen race.

Fifty years from now, my Kingdom of Jingping should have the power to unify the Wasteland; now is not the time to pit hardness against hardness. " He turned and walked down from the tower.

From within the city came the urgent clang of the gong; the officers and men outside the Yanbian Pass, hearing the signal to withdraw, each felt a weight lift from them, and hurried back toward the Yanbian fortress.

And that vast Sun-Boat slowly lifted its feet, turned about, and with boom upon boom walked toward Crimson Dragon City.