Chapter 1562 — The Fourth Young Master in the Immortal Palace
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 1 of 4
Shen Mu's heart gave a jolt — the zither music of the Fourth Young Master of the Miluo Palace!
The Golden Ship of Salvation plunged into the mist. The chaos mist confounded all sense of direction, yet it could not confound him: he had only to observe, in the long river of chaos below, the course of the Tenth Universe's destruction, and he would find the far shore.
The Golden Ship of Salvation raced on. Shen Mu pressed a hand to his sword hilt, his eyes flickering.
Suddenly the mist ahead parted, and a Dao tree appeared before him, hung with several dao fruits. Shen Mu counted them: seven.
Beneath the Dao tree sat the Fourth Young Master of the Miluo Palace, still in his imperial regalia, a zither score cradled in one hand while the other tried to play, though he could never quite bring forth the melody written upon the score.
The Golden Ship of Salvation seemed to sink into deep mire, slower and slower, and when it drew alongside the Dao tree it could advance no further.
Shen Mu draped himself over the ship's rail, his right leg planted firm, his left crossed behind it on tiptoe; he swung his legs lightly, wholly at ease.
The Fourth Young Master laid down the score, his brows knit tight; he tried to adjust the strings, then plucked again, but the notes came out even more off-key than before, harsh upon the ear.
"I fear this melody cannot be played. I have tried any number of methods, and never once succeeded."
The Fourth Young Master sighed and went on trying, saying, "Young Master Mu, you have seen the Master of the Miluo Palace? Is he well?"
"Very well indeed."
Shen Mu smiled. "We talked a while, and I borrowed a ship from him as well, and so hurried back."
The Fourth Young Master nodded, tuned a string, and said, "I was one of those who followed him fairly early. That the Jade Capital City could be forged at all owes something to my merit. In those days I was won over by his foresight and his insight, and set my heart on assisting him to build a divine city that could shelter all living things. He always had about him a compassion for heaven and a pity for men, and it spurred me on without cease. Until the divine city was wholly built — and then, all at once, he lost his courage."
He raised his head, his eyes settling upon Shen Mu aboard the ship. "When the tribulation of destruction came to the Sixteenth Universe, he wearied of it, grew listless, and told us that his ideal might never succeed. He did not try to bring us into the Seventeenth Universe; instead he sent us each back to the universe of our birth, and he himself returned to the first universe."
The Fourth Young Master laughed softly. "He was the leader; his word was naturally mine to obey, and so I came back here. But I was not reconciled."
He looked at the zither score, tenderness rising in his eyes, and said quietly, "This score was left by my beloved wife, and in all this world the only one who could play the melody upon it was she. When our universe was destroyed, I had no power to save her; I watched her perish in the Great Tribulation of Destruction, everything reduced to ash, nothing left behind. The only thing I could save was this score. After I returned here, the tribulation of destruction could no longer harm me in the least, and still I could not save her."
Shen Mu listened in silence.
"I dwell in the long river of chaos, trying to save her, and failing again and again. I try to play her melody, and fail again and again."
He shook his head. "You have never heard such a wondrous tune. Once heard, you would never forget it in all your life. Perhaps, looking across universe after universe, the only one who could play this melody was she alone. I came here only to hear her play it once more — and even that slender wish is denied me. Therefore..."
Shen Mu raised an eyebrow. "Therefore?"