Chapter 77 — The Crown Prince of Tiantu
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 3 of 3
Then Ronglang invaded, bent on wiping Tiantu from the earth, and Tiantu could not withstand them; yet this crown prince was still lost in the way of the brush.
By the time he awoke from his immersion in brush and ink, Ronglang had already breached the capital and was slaughtering his people.
His father, the Emperor of Tiantu, was killed as well, and soldiers paraded the emperor's head about to show it off. " Behind him the generals of Jingping listened in silence, saying not a word.
Then the sword at one general's waist leaped into the air and flew off far away as a streak of bright light, heading straight for the thick clouds, the thunderbolts, the hundred ghosts and demon gods.
"And then the crown prince of Tiantu went mad. " The phoenix-eyed, willow-browed Imperial Preceptor of Jingping, his gaze deep and dark, went on: "He had heard nothing of the world's affairs, and so his kingdom was destroyed. What use were those two ears of his? He was a man of extremes. He wept aloud in the street, cut off his own ears, and pierced his own eardrums. He painted with the blood of the people on the ground, and what he painted was hell—he painted the Eighteen Levels of Hell. And then the capital of Tiantu vanished and became a bottomless abyss; the million-strong host of Ronglang fell into the Abyss of the Black Domain and became part of hell, devoured by the ghosts and gods of hell. Some powerful figures tried to flee, but the demon gods of hell seized them and dragged them down.
After that battle both Tiantu and Ronglang were finished. Before long both kingdoms had been destroyed, and this crown prince of Tiantu vanished as well.
I have been to the ruins of the Tiantu capital.
I leaped into the Abyss of the Black Domain there and made a circuit through the Eighteen Levels of Hell, and I saw his eighteen paintings of hell. I know well the grief and despair in that crown prince's heart, and I pity his talent besides. That is why I memorialized His Majesty and asked him to establish the Hall of the Painting Sage—for in truth, no one is fitter to be the Painting Sage of that hall than the crown prince of Tiantu.
I thought I might never set eyes on the Painting Sage in all my life, and yet here in this borderland of the Wasteland I have found him. It is only a pity that he has become an enemy of Jingping. " As he spoke these words, the thunderclouds and lightning, the hundred demons, the tornadoes and the torrential rain above the Jingping army all vanished at once, and a wash of ink came streaming down from the sky.
That sight sent a chill through the hearts of the Jingping soldiers below: those terrifying phenomena that had killed who knew how many of them were nothing but ink! "City Lord, there are fiends at work in the city! " In Crimson Dragon City, Shen Feiyue saw the spectacle in the sky and immediately rushed into the city lord's mansion, where he sought out Granny Zhu and said, "This fiend is working his arts to block our Jingping army, and his strength is extraordinary. He is hiding in a bookshop in the city. I beg the City Lord to cut him down!
" Granny Zhu's face darkened, and she said coldly, "A fiend of such caliber, here? To dare stir up trouble in my territory—what audacity!
Rest easy, Young General Shen.
I shall go cut him down at once. " With that she set off in a fury, heading straight for the bookshop.
Shen Feiyue followed close behind, but by the time they reached the bookshop, it was already empty.