Chapter 765 — Old Memories of the Nether Capital
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 1 of 4
Shen Mu quickly mastered the craft of steering the paper boat. The little vessel was, you might say, the fastest thing that flew in all of Youdu; with it, he could go in search of his mother, held prisoner somewhere in Youdu.
"By the time the Lord of Earth and Heavenly Venerable Yu find out, it will already be too late!"
He stood at the bow, gazing into the endless dark. The little boat drifted through that darkness, looking utterly forlorn.
Yet Youdu was not wholly dark. There was molten rock as well, blood-red, streaming down the surface of the Lord of Earth's body. The Lord of Earth was so vast that his skin was like armor forged of incomparably hard stone; the seams between the rocks were like the grain of that skin, and lava, crimson as blood, flowed through them.
Shen Mu urged the boat nearer. Seen from afar, that rocky hide revealed nothing, but up close it bristled with peaks like blades and spears and halberds, all coarse and jagged; and there were enormous demon-beasts and demon-gods bearing palaces upon their backs, threading their way among the mountain ranges.
And countless green-skinned imps swarmed around the palaces borne on those backs, jabbering and shouting as they went to war with another horde of imps, slaughtering one another until the blood ran in rivers.
The green-skinned imp was a kind of creature found only in Youdu, though Fengdu had imps of this sort as well: blue-faced and fanged, their faces indigo. Some imps stood three or five times the height of a man, while others did not reach past a man's calf, and they ran very fast.
Among these imps there were Ghost Kings too, beings of tremendous power, the match of gods and demons.
War of this kind was to be seen everywhere in Youdu; even the demon-beasts and demon-gods joined in. The demon-beasts and demon-gods who bore palaces on their backs possessed immense strength, but their weapons were crude in the extreme: they snapped the peaks off the Lord of Earth's skin, and these, like cudgels of monstrous girth bristling with spikes, they swung and smashed about in every direction.
Sometimes Shen Mu would see several primordial spirits of gods and demons emerge from the palaces on the backs of those demon-beasts and demon-gods, to work their arts before the halls, or to unleash divine powers and command divine weapons as they battled the foe across the way.
"Youdu is a clamorous place indeed."
Shen Mu watched, exhilarated. Passing over a battlefield, he halted the little boat and called out in a ringing voice: "Fellow Daoists!"
Both sides in the battle were startled by the sound of his voice. Countless green-skinned imps hastily ceased their killing, and the demon-beasts on either side hurriedly stayed their hands, leaning on their clubs hewn from mountain peaks as they lifted their heads to gaze up at the little boat.
From the palaces on both sides, primordial spirits of gods and demons flew out and stood in the air, and crying out a great salute, they bowed to the little boat and said: "Lord, we are unworthy of the words 'Fellow Daoist'!"
"Is the Lord here to kill us? Is the Lord of Earth going to eat us?"
The two gods and demons who had been locked in battle suddenly fell into each other's arms, clutching their heads and weeping bitterly, choking out: "Everyone else fights and fights, scrambling for territory. Why is it that when our turn comes, we are to be eaten..."
Shen Mu said hastily: "Don't cry, either of you. The Lord of Earth does not mean to eat you. I have only come to ask the way; once I have asked, I will go, and you may go on slaughtering each other."
The two primordial spirits of gods and demons hastily let go of one another.
Shen Mu said: "Where is the place where the gravest prisoners are held?"
The two primordial spirits of gods and demons breathed a sigh of relief and said: "In the Jade Lock Pass of Youdu, beneath the feet of the Lord of Earth."