Chapter 1556 — A Teardrop
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 3 of 4
" The Master of Miluo Palace fell silent once more, and after a moment his voice came through the incomparably dense purple light: "The Ancestral Court altar has nothing to do with me, but it does indeed have something to do with Miluo Palace. Over these sixteen years, I have witnessed the destruction of sixteen universes—the joys and sorrows, the partings and reunions of countless living beings, the ambitions and obsessions of countless geniuses, all turned at last to ashes of calamity in the Great Destruction. I no longer wish to come ashore, nor to ferry anyone across. But not everyone in Miluo Palace shares my thoughts.
" Shen Mu found it hard to grasp the insight in his words, and hard to tell whether his words were true or false. Logically speaking, the Master of Miluo Palace had no need to deceive him, yet in his heart he truly did not want to believe the Master's words. He did not want to believe that Tai Yi had been deceiving him all along, using him all along. "I still remember Tai Yi telling me that when I gave up my own path, he turned into a teardrop at the corner of my eye," Shen Mu murmured. This had moved him enormously and shaken his soul. "And yet tears are the cheapest thing," said the Master of Miluo Palace. "If this alone can move you, then I can give you more tears.
How many tears do you want?
" Shen Mu stubbornly walked on and said in a deep voice, "Then let me see your tears! " He took a step forward, and abruptly the incomparably dense purple qi before him parted; at last he came to stand before the Master of Miluo Palace.
What lay before him was a towering, magnificent dao tree, like the World Tree itself, lush and verdant, seeming to tower amid the destruction-kalpas of sixteen universes, unscathed by the great catastrophe that had annihilated them.
On that dao tree hung sixteen dao fruits, and each one revealed a different Great Dao, with the sounds of the Dao winding about them and the light of the Dao suffusing the air. Standing before this dao tree, Shen Mu felt himself as small as an ant, insignificant beyond measure.
He strained to look beneath the tree and saw a vast and towering figure seated at its roots.
The man sat there with his hands forming a mudra, in a strange posture, as if he had never moved at all.
It was a skeleton. A skeleton of nothing but bone.
There was not a trace of flesh upon him—no physical body, no primordial spirit, no breath of the Dao.
Only a frame of withered bones sat within the palace. "Mu Tianzun, the tears you asked for.
" On the towering dao tree, the dao fruits swayed one after another, and a drop of dao dew dripped down from a leaf, falling upon the brow of Shen Mu, who had lifted his head to look. "Is this one tear enough? " The voice of the Master of Miluo Palace came from among the dao fruits: "Or do you need more?
" Shen Mu's mouth fell slightly open; he could hardly describe the shock this scene dealt to his soul. All along he had believed that the Master of Miluo Palace was the one directing all of it—directing the invasion of the prehistoric Dao Achievers, directing the altar of the Ancestral Court, directing the trap of the Jade Capital!
Yet it had never occurred to him that the Master of Miluo Palace had died long ago.
He had long since turned into the Dao and vanished.
All that was left of him was this frame of withered bones, this dao tree.
All that was left was his Dao.
Perhaps he had died at the moment he discovered that he could never save the people of the world.
Shen Mu closed his eyes, and the vertical eye between his brows slowly closed as well. All along, it had not been the Master of Miluo Palace speaking with him; it had been the Dao into which the Master of Miluo Palace had transformed, conversing with him.
A Dao Achiever can lie, but the Dao cannot.
After a moment, he opened his eyes, turned around, and walked out of the hall. "I don't believe it," he murmured.
"I absolutely do not believe it!