Chapter 1786 — The Elder of No Bounds
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 2 of 4
Shen Mu ignored the hostility of the others and walked forward to meet the song. Ahead beneath the tree appeared a pond, not large, in which a white-haired old man was bathing, both hands pulling a white towel back and forth across his back with vigorous effort.
Shen Mu was dumbfounded.
The water of this pond brimmed with spiritual energy. It was unmistakably dao dew and Hongmeng essence dripping from Taiyi's Dao Tree, mixed together by this old man to make his bathing pool.
Taiyi's Dao Tree should still appear at night, dripping the dao dew used to repair the black mountains.
After Xu Shenghua left this place, the remaining dao dew should not have been enough to make such a large bathing pool, but the quantity was still considerable. Such treasures, and this old man was using them to bathe!
Not only was he soaking in dao dew and Hongmeng essence, he was even scrubbing himself in it—truly a waste of heaven's gifts!
The white-haired old man stood in the pond water brimming with high spirits. Catching sight of Shen Mu's arrival, he laughed and said, "Old Seven of Miluo Palace, come down and wash with me!"
Shen Mu shook his head and said, "I possess a Hongmeng Body, spotless throughout. I no longer need such treasures."
"Is a Hongmeng Body so remarkable? I doubt it!"
The white-haired old man laughed heartily and rose from the pond. Shen Mu turned his gaze away to look at the World Tree, while the old man walked openly to the pond's edge, picked up his clothes, and dressed himself neatly. He said, "Old Four of Miluo Palace I beat and drove away. Even Zixiao would suffer a loss against my divine ability. Old Seven of Miluo Palace, you owe me a favor."
Shen Mu brought his gaze back and settled it on the old man's face. He smiled and said, "Daoist brother, you severed the Fourth Young Master's lute strings only to save the three elders of Fengshu. That favor is not owed to me—it is owed to the three elders of Fengshu."
The white-haired old man shook his head and said with contempt, "What are the Five Elders of Fengshu worth, that they deserve my favor? These five old things know nothing but digging holes beneath the tree day after day, terrified they might lack the opportunity to live to the next epoch. Truly loathsome. This epoch, they intended to entrench themselves here again. I found them utterly tiresome, so I drove them out."
Shen Mu saluted and said, "May I ask, Daoist brother, how you are called? What is your origin?"
The white-haired old man looked at him with a half-smile and said, "Old Seven of Miluo Palace, you still do not know my origin? When you came to see me in years past, you saw through my origin at a single glance and were exceedingly reverent, saying you owed me a great favor—you even wrote me an IOU."
Shen Mu opened the vertical eye at the center of his brow and looked, yet could not discern the old man's roots. He could only see a vast divine light shrouding his true body, and his brow's vertical eye could not penetrate that radiance.
"In years past, the master of Miluo Palace paid me homage. Later, Taiyi felled me. Fortunately, to prevent those little wretches from stowing away through my roots, he had to fetch the Dao each day and pour it over my roots, keeping a breath in me. I took advantage of Miluo Palace's unsealing to revive from death, and with great difficulty put out a sprout—and then you borrowed Taiyi's axe to cut me down."
The white-haired old man glanced at Shen Mu and said, "After you saw my sprout, you planted it in your own divine treasury. Who would have thought you actually managed to grow it? Truly a bizarre affair!"
Shen Mu stared at him wide-eyed, stammering, unable to speak.
"It was only then that I suddenly understood why you said you owed me a great favor and even wrote me an IOU."