Chapter 1607 — The Remains of the Sages
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 1 of 4
The two of them stood upon a lotus leaf, and awe rose unbidden in their hearts.
Upon that sea of chaos drifted lotus leaf after lotus leaf, and twin lotuses on single stems plunged into the pure darkness, linking one prehistoric universe to another, while streams of light came surging up from time to time.
Only by coming here in person could one feel such grandeur and magnificence, could one come to know the wonder of the vast worlds and be shaken by it.
"So by that reckoning, we were born even earlier than Tiangong and Tubo — earlier, perhaps, by a great deal, than the so-called Innate Five Great Ones..."
Suddenly Yuanmu's voice came drifting over, murmuring, "Elder Sister, marrying that lecher Taichu truly was a loss for you."
Her Highness the Empress gave a humph. "I lost out, did I? And what of you? You threw yourself at him — how utterly shameless."
Lady Yuanmu giggled without cease.
Shen Mu's eyes flickered as he looked all around, and suddenly his gaze fell upon a set of dry bones.
It was a corpse of immense size, collapsed upon another lotus leaf — a mountain of bone, though beside the lotus leaf it seemed much smaller.
Upon that skull's brow lay a Taichu divine stone, still glittering; Guixu had not ground all of its power away.
"A Creator! Could this be Boyang?"
He sprang up in a single bound and alighted beside the bones.
Her Highness the Empress leaped over as well, and studying the remains, she said in admiration, "We threw the God King Boyang in here back then to plug the sea eye. To think he did not die in the fall, but held on until he reached this place before he perished. Worthy of the foremost God King of the Ancient Era — such strength would not be reckoned weak even today."
Shen Mu came to the God King Boyang's side and looked him up and down. As the first Creator, the life of the God King Boyang had been full of legend.
He was the first to gather the Taichu divine stones, and the first to discover their mystery.
In that age, the Creators were not yet Creators, but the giants of the Ancient Era. Though born mighty and counted among the wise races, before the ancient behemoths they seemed weak.
Floods and savage beasts made life hard for the people of that age, and after Boyang uncovered the secret of the Taichu divine stones, he selflessly taught the method to the world, giving the people the strength to stand against flood and beast, and the power to subdue the ancient gods and to create them.
In that age of ignorance, that they should have wrought a brilliant civilization of divine consciousness was no small feat, and it owed much to the selfless devotion of this ancient God King.
"The old fellow was a hard bone to gnaw. It cost us no small trouble to kill him."
Lady Yuanmu kicked at Boyang's bones. "To deal with the Jade Register of the Grand Heavenly Emperor, all it took was one night between our brother-in-law and Gong Yun, and Gong Yun turned coat and shattered the Taichu primal stone in the Grand Emperor's brow. But this old fellow was another matter. He was an old hand of the world, his divine consciousness boundless, able to see through every scheme we laid. Had we sisters not joined hands, I doubt any of the other ancient gods could have dealt with him."
The Empress too recalled those glorious years, and sighed, "That must have been the last time we sisters fought side by side — and our most splendid battle."
Lady Yuanmu felt the same. Remembering those days, and thinking of how the two sisters were now as incompatible as fire and water, she was moved to no small reflection.
But spilled water cannot be gathered up again, nor a broken mirror made whole; the two of them could never return to what they had been.
"Elder Sister, this deadlock between us will get us nowhere. You cannot refine me to death, and I cannot refine you to death."