Chapter 1681 — The Footsteps of That Heavenly Venerable
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 1 of 4
Shen Mu smiled a smile that was not quite a smile, and pressed the Da Feng coin back into the god-devil's hand. "No need for that. I have money enough.
Keep these two Da Feng coins for now; if they don't cover it, I'll make up the difference the next time I come. " The god-devil gaped, staring blankly as Shen Mu "stood" upon the plank door and drifted into the stream of light on the Spirit Energy Translocation Bridge.
No sooner had Shen Mu and the plank door entered that stream than it abruptly howled and swelled, thickening several times over, until the whole of the Star Source heavens quaked and shuddered, the earth shook, and the stars swayed. The altar of the Spirit Energy Translocation Bridge was immense, a mountain a thousand fathoms tall, cast whole from divine gold and divided into many tiers; when it turned, each tier revolved in its own direction, the runes upon them leaping without cease, bearing up the pressure of the translocation. The old bridge had been built by Shen Mu and the Black Tiger God.
It had one main altar, and the other was a common altar; but their attainments in the arts of calculation were not great in those days, and the bridge they made was crude. After a century and more of growth in Jingping, however, the bridge's efficiency had soared. Both ends were now main altars, and each could share the burden of the translocation's pressure. Yet the instant Shen Mu entered the bridge, the stream of light swelled so swiftly that the runes of the main altar of the Star Source heavens were driven to their utmost in the space of a single breath.
The god-devil's eyes went round. The tiers were spinning like tops, so fast that the runes shifted faster still, until the whole altar seemed to have been set in the sun to be forged, burned red-hot. "Quick, fetch the water gods! " the god-devil cried in a fluster.
"Cool the altar! " Every Spirit Energy Translocation Bridge was furnished with water gods and river gods; such was the rule, a safeguard against the day some mighty being crossed over and overloaded the altar, wrecking the bridge and killing all upon it.
When the Heavenly Court had migrated from the Primordial Realm to the Ancestral Court, it had ordered Jingping to build many enormous translocation bridges, and these had carried the whole of the Heavenly Court across in one movement. The spirit-energy surges then had been so violent that the Heavenly Court's armies of gods and devils had been forced to use the waters of the Heavenly River to cool the altars.
Several water gods flew up and did all in their power to summon the neighboring rivers, striving to cool the altar, but common river water was of no use whatever. The tiers spun faster and faster, scorching the altar red, and at once someone nearby shouted, "Draw down the waters of the Heavenly River to cool it! " The others looked at one another.
The Heavenly River ran through the Northern Pole Heaven, through the domain of the Northern Emperor Xuanwu.
The Star Source heavens too were founded near the Heavenly River, but far indeed from the translocation bridge.
Who among them had the power to draw down its waters? Just then a youth suddenly flew up into the air and worked his arts upon the void, and the waters of the Heavenly River came pouring down from the heavens in a mighty flood, like a long water dragon coiling round and round the Spirit Energy Translocation Bridge. The crowd roared its praise as one, and then someone recognized the youth and cried out in delight, "It's the Venerable Shepherd's younger brother, the one called Lan Yutian!