Chapter 1736 — The Marquis's Young Lord Chances Upon the Divine Palace Envoy
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 2 of 4
" Xu Shenghua explained patiently: "Cult Master Shen bade me guard this place, telling me only to hold it well, without detailed orders as to how, so my latitude is great. Thus I choose each day to release one powerhouse of the past universe.
So long as they die here before they walk out of the Great Black Mountain, they will not stir the blood sacrifice of the Ancestral Court.
" Lingguan's expression shifted slightly: "How long have you done this? " "Since the defeat at Youdu and the death in battle of Kaihuang Shen Ye, until now eleven thousand seven hundred and forty-two days. " Xu Shenghua raised his hand toward range upon range of mountains: "These black mountains, at the foot of every one lies a grave mound, a tombstone I raised for them, wherein these prehistoric fellow Daoists are buried.
" Lingguan turned to look where his finger pointed, his face changing greatly, for he saw the countless peaks on the rim of the Great Black Mountain already covered in green growth, trees dense and lush, the desolation of former years gone, and at the foot of the mountains grave mounds standing in ranks, each with its stone tablet before it.
Some tablets bore names, others were blank.
Eleven thousand seven hundred and forty-two grave mounds. The corner of Lingguan's clone's eye twitched, for in these thirty years every prehistoric powerhouse who had stowed away here had been slain by this young man before him and buried here!
And his drinking down a portion of Dao dew each day was to raise his own strength to meet greater perils ahead! This young man's conduct was far more meticulous than that of the Seventh Young Master Shen Mu, and more patient besides!
What Xu Shenghua did each day was monotonous, catching Dao dew by night and killing one stowaway, mending the black mountains by day and burying the stowaways, raising graves and stones for the dead, the same for thirty years without a day's change!
"No wonder the other Enlightened of Miluo Palace have never been able to descend.
" Lingguan breathed out a turbid breath: "In these thirty years wars have raged without cease, countless lives lost.
And I have moved the great blood-sacrifice formation to the Yuan Realm, thinking to let more Enlightened of Miluo Palace descend, yet through these years they have never come, never guessing it was you making mischief here.
Each night you draw out one prehistoric stowaway, thereby spending the exchanged energy, and the Enlightened of Miluo Palace are stronger and need still more exchanged energy, so they cannot descend.
You are clever! Then just now when you saw me you drank up all the Dao dew on your own, because you knew I had come to kill you?
" Xu Shenghua nodded: "You are strong, know the Great Black Mountain well, and bear a Dao fruit, so I have no full assurance of dealing with you.
If I died by your hand, the Great Black Mountain would become a passage for prehistoric powerhouses, with who knows how many stowing over each night. If I live, I may yet rely on my soaring strength to oppose them, so I chose to drink all the Dao dew. " Lingguan smiled in praise: "You are a thorny man, and a clever one. That this seventeenth-universe age should have birthed both the utterly wicked Seventh Young Master and such a man as you astonishes me. Are the grace and the evil of heaven and earth all gathered in you two?
" "The Cult Master is not an evil man, to you he is evil, to us he has given too much. " Xu Shenghua said gravely: "There are not a few others like Cult Master Shen and me, such as Lan Yutian, Yun Tianzun, Kaihuang, Hua Xuanxiu, and more, not only we two. That the seventeenth-universe age has so many talents is not because grace gathers in us, but chiefly because there has been no invasion by your prehistoric Enlightened.
" Lingguan raised an eyebrow. Xu Shenghua went on: "This is the merit of Taiyi.