Chapter 1860 — The Immortal Veteran of the Battlefield
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 4 of 5
Shen Mu did not answer, but looked around. Seeing that the architecture here still kept the style of three and a half billion years ago, he shook his head and said, "Why does Teacher live here? Teacher has rendered immense merit to Jingping; would it not be better to go to the Heavenly Court? And there are old friends there, and much liveliness. Why such poverty?"
The Woodcutter Sage drank his tea and said mildly, "The supremely sage has no name. My realm is beyond your understanding."
Shen Mu laughed heartily. He could see that the Woodcutter Sage's cultivation realm was still stuck before the realm of the God-Slaying Platform, and that he had never once mounted that platform.
By rights, the Jingping Reforms had created no one knew how many kinds of acquired daos, and many people of surpassing talent had verified these acquired daos to the point of attaining the Dao.
Had the Woodcutter Sage wished to learn, he could perfectly well have completed his three hundred and sixty acquired daos and cultivated each great dao to its highest level.
But he had not learned.
"I do not wish to go to those places. Too bustling, too noisy."
The Woodcutter Sage glared at him. "My abilities are not great. What use is it to go there and be enshrined like an idol in a temple? I am a living man, not a wooden or clay idol. There, I would be less happy than I am here in seclusion."
Shen Mu reached out, wanting to stroke that head of his that had become like a wind-blown dandelion, but the Woodcutter Sage glared at him again, and he hastily drew back his hand.
"Of my three disciples, apart from the eldest, all have done better than I."
The Black Tiger God brought over a hat, a style of the new age. The Woodcutter Sage had been unwilling to wear a hat, but fearing that Shen Mu would stroke his bare head, he had no choice but to put it on first, and said, "The people of today have more ideas than we did in our day. Only they have no sense of peril. I am not comfortable among them; they always think me long-winded, say I fret over nothing, say I am forever worrying about dangers that do not exist. I cannot abide being among those young people."
Shen Mu listened with a smile as he rambled on about the faults of the young people of the new age, sadness in his heart: "Teacher's state of mind has perhaps truly grown old..."
The Woodcutter Sage spoke a great deal, and the food on the stone table gradually dwindled. They set down their bowls and chopsticks, and the Woodcutter Sage suddenly said, "How long will you be gone this time?"
Shen Mu said with a smile, "I do not know. Perhaps I shall have no sooner left than I return at once; or perhaps I shall not come back until this universe has become the void. It is also possible that this time I shall never return."
The Woodcutter Sage was silent.
Shen Mu roused his spirits and said with a smile, "Teacher's sense of peril will yet have its use. The Carefree Land is but a pool of dead water; sooner or later it will die away by degrees, and new dangers will appear. Then Teacher should come out of seclusion and give full play to his aspirations. Old soldiers do not die; in times of peace they merely put away their battle-axes and weapons in a corner to rust, and people merely choose to forget them for a time. But when war comes again, people will remember them once more, and they will grind their battle-axes and weapons sharp and walk onto the battlefield again."
He rose to his feet. "Teacher, you will yet have your use."
The Woodcutter Sage rose and looked at him. "When will you return?"
Shen Mu was silent a moment, then suddenly said, "Does Teacher still remember the Chaotic Space?"
The Woodcutter Sage thought it over. "That stretch of Chaotic Space in the Suspended Void Realm of those years?"
Shen Mu said, "One day in the future, the Chaotic Space will bloom like fireworks. That will be the sign of my return."