Chapter 765 — Old Memories of the Nether Capital
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 2 of 4
Shen Mu thanked them and said: "Everywhere along my road I have seen war. Why is Youdu in such chaos?"
The two primordial spirits exchanged a glance, and each saw astonishment in the other's eyes. One of them, the primordial spirit of a demon god, said cautiously: "Has the Lord forgotten what happened twenty-two years ago? Twenty-two years ago, that existence whose name cannot be spoken fought its way down from the Nine-Bend Corner, through one layer of the Yellow Springs after another, who knows how many; it slew who knows how many titans, devoured who knows how many titans. We too are but seizing on the fact that there are so many masterless lands, to contend for a scrap of territory and settle a few old scores."
The other primordial spirit nodded hastily.
"An existence whose name cannot be spoken? There is a being as terrible as that in Youdu?" Doubtful, Shen Mu urged the boat onward and departed.
Only when the two gods and demons saw the little boat recede into the distance did they set their hearts at ease and say: "How strange. Why did the Lord ask us the way? He is the Heavenly Benevolent Sage King; how could he not know the Jade Lock Pass of Youdu? Not know the Little Tyrant of Youdu either?"
"Never mind him. Kill! Cut down those bastards across the way, and thirty ghost beauties are your reward!"
"To think that in life I took you for a brother, and you made advances on my wife! Help me kill this bastard!"
And the two sides fell to fighting again.
Shen Mu flew on downward along the body of the Lord of Earth. The farther down he flew, the heavier the demonic aura of Youdu grew, and the stronger its demonic nature became.
What he saw along the way made his heart pound and his flesh crawl. Youdu was at war everywhere, slaughter so fierce it darkened heaven and earth; and many powerful ghosts that made the heart quail were stirring up trouble, burning, killing, and plundering wherever they went.
"That nameless existence in Youdu twenty-two years ago must have done no end of evil, slain who knows how many titans, to have stirred up such turmoil in Youdu, and even now it has not subsided."
A chill ran through Shen Mu's heart. "It seems Youdu is unfathomable too, with hidden dragons and crouching tigers everywhere."
Upon the body of the Lord of Earth there were many ancient cities, where the lights blazed bright and splendid, and where gods and demons were garrisoned.
And there were cities of darkness floating in the air, joined to the cities on the ground by cableways; arrayed one and all in battle formations, they looked grim and murderous.
Shen Mu gave them one distant look and did not draw near. He thought: "Those must be the garrison grounds of the military commissioners whom Lu Li and the other outland Heaven Courts have stationed in Youdu. Best not to approach."
He flew a long way farther, and saw divine cities in the sky battered and tattered, and dark, sunken cities on the ground beaten into ruins. And in these cities, strewn everywhere, were mutilated limbs and bodies, judging by the wounds as though some incomparably savage behemoth had gnawed half of each body away.
A mighty fortress wall barred the way ahead like a rampart of black iron. The wall was exceedingly high. Shen Mu was about to go around it when he suddenly froze: upon that fortress wall were palm prints, one after another, shocking to behold.
The palm prints were immense beyond measure, the fingers like mountain peaks smashed against the wall. Truly, five fingers like five mountains.
There were fist prints upon the fortress as well, and a great many marks left by gods and demons smashed against the wall. On the ground lay demon-gods' bleached bones scattered everywhere, and broken divine weapons and demon-god weapons heaped like mountains.