Chapter 1638 — The Long Night Without Dawn

The Golden Ship of Salvation sailed out of Youdu and came to the Ancestral Court. Yue Tianzun brought Ling Tianzun with her and found the place where the Great Luotian of Spirit Consciousness had clashed with another Great Luotian; there she wielded her divine arts, sent Ling Tianzun into the Great Luotian of Spirit Consciousness, and startled Taichu into flight.

Ling Tianzun said little to Yun Tianzun, telling him only of Kaihuang's fall.

Yun Tianzun was silent a while, then said, "When you go back, tell Mu Tianzun this. Through the long ages from Longhan to this day, we have endured miseries darker than these, and we walked through them and came out the other side. He will walk out of this too."

He thought for a moment, wishing to say more, and found he did not know what to say.

Yue Tianzun brought Ling Tianzun back, and saw that Shen Mu was still lying there, whether sunk in stupor or simply unwilling to wake, none could tell.

"Where are we to go?" Tiangong asked, at a loss.

"To Jingping," You Tianzun said.

Shen Fengqing, arms wrapped around his knees, hidden in a corner of the golden ship, said in a small voice, "I want to go home. I want to go back to the Land of No Sorrow. Kaihuang ought to still be there..."

The golden ship came to Jingping.

When Emperor Yanxiu, Ling Yuxiu, heard the news she came at once. She boarded the ship and saw that Yue Tianzun, Ling Tianzun, and the rest had withdrawn; Shen Mu had risen at some unknown hour and was sitting on the rim of the golden ship, staring blankly into nothing.

Ling Yuxiu came to his side, climbed up onto the ship's edge, and sat with him.

She turned her head to look: at his temples, where the tears had soaked them, white had already begun to show.

He was a youth no longer; he had taken on something of a young man's steadiness, a grown man's maturity. The cowherd boy who had once tended cattle by the Yong River had grown up, and his heart had grown somewhat haggard.

"Let us be married."

Shen Mu bowed his head and looked down. Below lay the Lower Capital of Jingping, wrapped in cloud and mist beneath the canopy of Yuanmu. His face calm, he said, "Let us be married. I do not want to be Jingping's Imperial Preceptor any longer. Do you still mean to go on being emperor?"

Ling Yuxiu leaned against his shoulder and said softly, "I will find my father and lay down the throne. Once I have found my father and Jiang Baigui, we can each set down our burdens. Wait a few more days for me. Do the Jingping reforms need to be halted?"

"If the human race is to live, the reforms must be stopped."

The two of them leaned upon each other, their souls seeming hollow, leaving only bodies that moved and nothing more. Shen Mu murmured, "There is no hope of turning this around any longer... While you go to find the emperor and the Imperial Preceptor of Jingping, I will pay a visit to the Heavenly Court."

Ling Yuxiu nodded slightly: "After we step down, will you go to the Yong River?"

"I will. I was a cowherd by the Yong River to begin with; it is time I was myself again..."

"I will go with you."

...

After Ling Yuxiu left, Shen Mu took off his clothes, baring his upper body, wearing only his trousers.

He fetched ropes and brambles and bound himself with them; the brambles bristled with sharp thorns that pierced his skin.

You Tianzun watched this and did not step forward to stop him, but slowly put on his ghost-face mask.

Yue Tianzun came forward to dissuade him. Shen Mu smiled. "When Yun Tianzun fell in battle all those years ago, you too despaired of everything and went into hiding. There is no need to talk me out of it."

Yue Tianzun could find no words.

Ling Tianzun thought it over, and did not try to persuade him.

Tiangong hesitated, then steeled himself and stepped forward. "When will Mu Tianzun revive Tubo?"

Shen Mu said gently, "Rest easy, brother in the Dao. I will go to the Heavenly Court and kneel before the Southern Heavenly Gate, bearing thorns to beg for my punishment. If Hao Tianzun spares me, I will live, and Jingping and the Land of No Sorrow will both be preserved; then I will come back and revive Tubo. There is one thing more. I would trouble you, brother, to inform the Western Emperor, the Northern Emperor, and the Eastern Emperor that they must not rise in rebellion. Tell them to come and kneel with me before the Southern Heavenly Gate."

Tiangong froze where he stood.

Shen Mu stepped down from the golden ship. From the shadow of the ship Shen Fengqing called out weakly, "Little brother, I want to go home..."

Shen Mu smiled. "Go on home. I am sorry, brother. I should never have laid so heavy a charge on you; I should never have let you become Tubo. I can keep you safe. Go back and tell Father and Mother that I am well."

Shen Fengqing stared at him blankly and did not move to go.

Shen Mu walked toward the Spirit Energy Transfer Bridge of the Lower Capital of Jingping. Ling Tianzun barred his way. "Yun Tianzun asked me to tell you: we have walked through even the darkest of hours, and walked out of them. He also said that you can walk out of this."

Shen Mu smiled. "But I cannot walk out of it. I can see no way to win. Perhaps in time I will walk out. For now, I am tired."

Ling Tianzun looked at the white at his temples, was silent a while, and said, "Give me fifty thousand years, and I will unravel every secret of the red cord knot of the master of the Miluo Palace. By then, no one will be your match!"

"Fifty thousand years..."

Shen Mu's smile was a little frail. He shook his head. "I can wait. Jingping cannot. The human race cannot. If we keep resisting, the human race will be erased. Elder Sister Ling, do not block my way."

Ling Tianzun fell silent and stepped aside.

Shen Mu walked on. Ahead, Langwan stood waiting for him, still and graceful, quietly watching him come.

Shen Mu halted and asked, "Langwan, have you come to stop me as well, from bearing thorns and surrendering to the Heavenly Court?"

Langwan shook her head. "I have come to go with you."

Shen Mu was startled.

Langwan said calmly, "If you go to beg forgiveness, you can preserve only Jingping and the Land of No Sorrow; you cannot preserve the last of the Creators. I mean to go with you to the Heavenly Court. You kneel before the Southern Heavenly Gate, and I will go to Hao Tianzun. Perhaps I can become his empress, and preserve the Creator race."

A complex look crossed Shen Mu's face. After a moment he said, "I am unworthy to be the Holy Infant of the Creators. You all set your hopes on me, believing I could lead you to restore the glory of the Creator race, yet all of it was a lie of mine. I have failed you and your people. If you will trust me, I will do all in my power to preserve the Creators of the Land of No Sorrow."

Langwan shook her head. "Hao Tianzun wants me for his empress. That is the victor's right. As the defeated, you have no standing to bargain with him."

Shen Mu said nothing, and walked on with the thorns on his back.

Suddenly Yue Tianzun came hurrying from Dide Yuanjun's celestial palace with the Village Chief and the Alchemist, set them down, and ran off.

The Village Chief steadied himself, his face grave, and shouted in a heavy voice, "Shen'er! Is one setback enough to break you? When you were small, how did I teach you? You are the Overlord Body, the matchless Overlord..."

Shen Mu's voice was hoarse and low. "Grandpa Village Chief, the Overlord Body was only a lie. It spurred me on for a time; it could not spur me on for a lifetime. The dream of the Overlord Body should have ended long ago. I am only an ordinary man, an ordinary child you picked up by the riverbank. I am not even the equal of ordinary men. I have no soul of my own; this body is my brother's. I am tired..."

The Village Chief looked at him, his face complicated, and suddenly let out a long sigh. "Alchemist, you talk to him."