**Chapter 79: The Sun Herders of the Great Ruins**
The Village Chief, the Herbalist, and the others all turned to stare at Qin Mu, their faces full of puzzlement. The Herbalist leaned in with curiosity. "Mu'er, you've seen this ship before?"
"I saw it on the map of the Great Ruins..."
Qin Mu's heart pounded with shock. This colossal vessel that looked like a ship had to be the Sun Ship he had seen depicted on the map in the Suppressing Calamity Palace. When he had first come across the term "Sun Ship" on that ancient map, he had wondered why it was called such a thing. Now he understood.
The Sun Ship was exactly what its name implied — a ship that hauled the sun.
And the sun was that massive black sphere the ship dragged behind it on great chains. The black sphere must be a sun that had been extinguished.
Before the darkness descended upon the Great Ruins, there must have been a Sun Ship that hauled a burning sun across this land. Qin Mu stared blankly into the distance. Why had the sun that the Sun Ship carried been snuffed out?
If the Sun Ship hauled the sun, then what about the Moon Ship recorded on the map? Was it a ship that hauled the moon? And what about the Sun Well? The Moon Well?
*Boom. Boom.*
The Sun Ship was walking toward them. This impossibly massive vessel actually had legs — legs as thick as mountain peaks, forged from molten rock. Between the seams of cooling lava, flickers of firelight were visible, as though magma — the very blood of the Sun Ship — pulsed through its limbs.
The giant ship had twenty-four legs, each one corresponding to one of the Twenty-Four Solar Terms. Though the legs appeared enormously thick, each stride covered a distance of six or seven li.
The sight of such a titanic creature materializing before their eyes left everyone thunderstruck.
The Deaf turned to the Mute, whose eyes burned with fervor as he gestured wildly. "That is not the true sun," the Deaf said slowly. "It is a treasure crafted by the people of that era, before the darkness fell. Mute, I think you're right..."
The colossal Sun Ship drew ever closer to Xianglong City. The air grew hotter and drier with each passing moment. Qin Mu tilted his head back, straining to see the ship's summit, but the vessel was too enormous. He could barely make out its highest point.
It was simply too vast.
Golden palaces and jade halls lined its upper surface, appearing normal at first glance. But the fact that they still looked normal from this distance was itself deeply abnormal. If one stood before them, those palaces would no doubt prove equally colossal — adults would seem like ants within their halls.
"That is where the god-kind dwell," the Village Chief murmured. "I have heard they call themselves the Sun Herders. Their god is known as the Sun Keeper."
"Sun Herders?"
Everyone exchanged startled glances. Of all the villagers who had lived in the Great Ruins the longest, the Village Chief held that distinction. He had been here for several hundred years and knew more than anyone else. He had clearly heard of the Sun Ship before, and knew certain hidden truths as well.
"I wonder whether the descendants of the Sun Herders still remain aboard? Whether the Sun Keeper still lives?" the Village Chief whispered.
The Sun Ship passed alongside Xianglong City and walked straight toward the advancing armies of Yankang. The spectacle was too grand, too overwhelming. The entire army halted in its tracks, and countless soldiers gazed upward in dumbfounded awe at the titanic vessel.
It was terrifying. It was staggering.
*Squelch.*
One of the ship's legs descended. The limb, mighty as a mountain, crushed untold numbers of soldiers into paste. When it lifted again, a small lake had been stamped into the earth below.
"Run for your lives—!"
Only then did some of the soldiers react, screaming as they fled toward the rear. But the soldiers behind them had not yet grasped what was happening. Bodies pressed against bodies, people trampled over one another. By the time the rear ranks understood and tried to scatter, it was already too late.
The impossibly enormous Sun Ship followed the road along which the Yankang army had been marching, heading toward the border of the State of Yankang. Along the way it crushed countless soldiers underfoot. The divine techniques and flying swords of Yankang's generals rained upon its hull to no avail — they could not so much as scratch the vessel.
The two wings of Yankang's army had merged into one enormous column. With so many troops packed together, there was nowhere to flee. Even those divine-art masters who tried to take to the air were swatted aside by the ship's rising legs as easily as swatting a fly.
The enormous Sun Ship continued its relentless advance, killing untold numbers of soldiers and officers along the way. General Lu hurled everything he had at the vessel, but it was no different from an ant trying to shake a tree — not a single strike made any difference.
At Yankang's Yanbian Fortress, waves of sword-light shot from the battlements and struck the towering mountain-like hull. Sparks flew, but no harm was done to the Sun Ship. When the swords were recalled, the expressions of the fortress's experts turned to horror — their blades had been heated to a dull red glow and were beginning to melt.
Within Yanbian Fortress, tens of thousands of divine-art masters summoned storms and tempests, rolling thunderclouds gathering overhead. But before the tempests could even reach the ship, the intense heat dissipated them.
Though the sun hauled by the Sun Ship had been extinguished, it was still a sun. Its thermal power was simply too overwhelming.
The ship had twelve legs now — it had folded half of them — and it moved with surprising speed. Before long it arrived before the gates of Yanbian Fortress. A piercing screech rang out as the Sun Ship gradually came to a halt.
Then a humming sound drifted from above. The black sun, carrying its momentum, drifted dangerously close to Yankang's border before stopping.
Countless soldiers within Yanbian Fortress gazed upward in stunned silence at the behemoth blocking their gates. The fortress was a mighty bulwark, an impressive sight in its own right — but compared to the unimaginable colossus before them, it seemed as insignificant as a child's toy.
Some generals' faces drained of color. Their legs trembled so badly they could barely stand. Even among the soldiers of the border fortress — themselves martial artists and divine-art practitioners — the sight before them had shattered their courage.
"The creatures that lived before the darkness fell truly created something extraordinary with this Sun Ship," murmured the State Preceptor of Yankang as he stood atop a watchtower, gazing up at the vessel. Even he felt his heart quail before the overwhelming pressure radiating from the magnificent ship.
At the ship's summit, before the gleaming palace complex, he could make out figures standing there.
He raised his eyes further, toward the black sun.
Though the black sun was not as immense as the true sun, it was still a sight to inspire awe. One could only imagine how spectacular it would be if this sun were reignited!
Though it was extinguished now, sending Yankang's army to collide with such a colossus would be no different from a mantis trying to stop a chariot. It was sheer folly.
He sensed a divine aura emanating from the Sun Ship.
"So there are still living gods in this world. The mysterious Great Ruins should not be entered lightly..."
The State Preceptor raised his hand and issued a command: "Pass the order — withdraw the army. For fifty years, no soldier of Yankang shall set foot in the Great Ruins."
Behind him, the generals' hearts trembled, but they relayed the command without hesitation.
The State Preceptor lifted his gaze to the palaces atop the ship and murmured, "The Sun Ship cannot protect the Great Ruins forever. Gods can die. The Sun Herders are merely a declining race. In fifty years, the State of Yankang should possess the power to unify the Great Ruins. Now is not the time for a direct confrontation."
He turned and descended from the tower.
The urgent clanging of gongs echoed through the city. Outside the fortress walls, the soldiers of Yankang heard the retreat signal and felt an overwhelming wave of relief. They scrambled back toward the gates of Yanbian Fortress.
The great Sun Ship, too, slowly lifted its legs, turned around, and with thunderous steps walked back toward Xianglong City.
Not long after, the remnants of Yankang's army returned within the fortress walls. The Sun Ship arrived at the edge of Xianglong City. Qin Mu gazed upward at the magnificent vessel that pierced the heavens, dragging a black sun behind it. This was a sight beyond even his wildest dreams.
The Sun Ship stopped. Its twenty-four legs slowly bent, and it settled down in a kneeling posture.
On the dragon pillar, the villagers wore strange expressions. This Sun Ship was not behaving like a ship at all — it seemed more like a living creature with twenty-four legs.
The vessel's proximity to Xianglong City sent waves of searing heat rolling through the streets. Even the city walls glowed red-hot, as though they might melt at any moment.
The ship did not leave immediately. It was presumably waiting for the Yankang army to withdraw completely.
"Is the Sun Keeper still up there?" Qin Mu murmured.
"Yes. I sense the aura of a god," the Village Chief replied, his expression grave. "The State Preceptor of Yankang has chosen to retreat. He will not dare set foot in the Great Ruins again for decades. Butcher, withdraw your blade-intent — otherwise the dragon pillar will collapse and this place will be destroyed."
The Butcher nodded, then looked up at the Sun Ship with excited eyes. "We've been preparing for this battle for so long, and the State Preceptor was frightened off by the Sun Keeper before we could even have a proper fight! How about we board the ship and pick a fight with a god?"
Everyone exchanged amused glances and shook their heads. The madman was talking nonsense again. If the Sun Keeper truly still lived up there, the Butcher — with only his upper half intact — would be crushed to dust if he tried to fight.
The Village Chief and the others descended from the dragon pillar. Qin Mu remained on the column, his gaze flickering with curiosity. He desperately wanted to climb aboard this magnificent Sun Ship and see for himself what lay upon its deck.
*What kind of era must it have been, to create something so enormous that it could haul a sun across the land?*
Just as this thought crossed his mind, the prow of the Sun Ship suddenly tilted downward, lowering itself toward the city.
Qin Mu froze. The ship's prow was roughly the size of Xianglong City itself, yet it descended with impossible grace, as though it weighed nothing at all.
In that moment, Qin Mu caught a glimpse of what lay upon the ship's surface. There were mountains and rivers, flowers and grass. Golden halls rose in magnificent rows, like a paradise of immortals. And there were many tall figures — the Herbalist was a large man, but compared to these people, he would look like a child.
Qin Mu estimated that these beings must stand at least ten zhang tall — comparable to the strongmen of the Heavenly Demon Cult.
Strangely, though the prow had tilted so dramatically, the waters of the lakes on the ship's surface remained perfectly level, not spilling over the edge.
"Your jade pendant... it is very strange. It carries a sacred, extraordinary aura..."