Chapter 84 — The Evil Spirits in the Dark Night

The surface of the Yong River gradually narrowed, and clearly they were drawing ever nearer to the great river's source. On the road Shen Mu saw many sights he could never have seen in former days.

He saw, along the banks, giant after giant standing tall, propping up heaven and standing upon earth, giving off in the darkness a torch-bright holy radiance. Those were the stone statues in the villages along both banks of the Yong River. By day they were common stone statues; but at night, mortal eyes could see only that the statues glowed, while seen through the Sacred Pupil they were like two different worlds.

Beyond these villages there were the ancient ruins along both banks of the Yong River, where holy light shone bright as day. Shen Mu even saw living giants walking about within the ruins. "Are there living gods and demons there?

" He was shaken to the core. Apart from the living giants in the ruins, he encountered even stranger things: in the darkness, colossal beasts that existed only in myth were hunting.

Divine beasts the size of mountain ranges battled demon-monsters in the dark, fighting until mountains crumbled and the earth split.

Those divine beasts were covered all over in holy radiance, like torches in the darkness. That night, he saw a Wasteland utterly different from before, a world out of myth, a world out of epic.

In years past, when Granny Zhu had picked Shen Mu up out of the water, it could be judged that Shen Mu and the woman in the water had drifted down from upstream. Now they had already drawn near the source of the Yong River.

If, when they found the source, they still had not found the Land of No Sorrow, then they could only turn back.

The Wasteland was too vast, its perils too many; they could not possibly search the whole of it in a single night. Just then, the Village Head suddenly halted. Shen Mu hastily steadied himself, and was about to speak, when all at once the hairs on his body stood on end.

He shut his mouth in haste, and even stopped breathing.

Ahead of them, a colossal army was on the march, hurrying toward the depths of the Wasteland. The soldiers of this army were tall and mighty, like gods and demons blazing with ten thousand rays of light, yet their faces were livid, their fangs jutted, their eyes were dull.

Though their auras were terrifying beyond measure, these god-and-demon-like beings were plainly corpses. Some lacked hands, some had severed legs, some had half a head, some had a great hole torn through their chests, and the weapons in their hands were for the most part broken. Now this great army, formed of the corpses of gods and demons, was marching through mountain and forest, treading across the river. Among the host were ancient bronze chariots, battered and broken, and the war-banners that hung from them battered and broken too, riddled with a thousand holes.

And from afar came bronze warships one after another, these bronze warships likewise utterly battered, great holes torn one after another in their hulls, masts collapsed in no small number. Shen Mu did not dare to breathe.

Even the Village Head now held his breath, quietly watching this uncanny army march. Only after the corpse-army had crossed the Yong River did Shen Mu at last gasp for breath in great gulps. The Village Head, too, let out a murky breath, his eyes flickering, and said: "Let us follow and take a look.

" With that, his form floated toward the corpse-army. Suddenly, ahead, the din of slaughter shook the heavens, and wave after wave of terrifying force came surging.

The Village Head brought Shen Mu up onto a high peak, and both of them were startled by what lay ahead. There before them, maimed corpses of gods and demons fought a great battle, and those they fought were also corpses.

Weapons of every kind, of gods and demons, burst forth with incomparably brilliant light, illuminating the gorge, lighting it bright as day. "This is the Ancient Battlefield of Gods and Demons. " The Village Head's face changed slightly.

He hastily drew Shen Mu back and said in a low voice: "I once came to the Ancient Battlefield of Gods and Demons by day. It is perilous in the extreme; I nearly failed to walk out alive.

In this battlefield, by day, not a single corpse of god or demon can be seen. The corpses revive when the darkness comes surging in, and then they march on again, enter the battlefield, and make war. .

.

" Shen Mu was dazed. These gods and demons fought on even after death. What grudge, what hatred, could it be? "Shen'er, be careful. We have already gone deep into the Wasteland.

By no means go wandering about.

" The Village Head spoke with utmost gravity.