荒墟牧神 - 第1132章 恨其不爭氣 - 錦書坊

The Lishan Deity's beak stabbed down, caught up the old man, and with a tilt of its head swallowed him whole; then it beat its wings and, turning into a streak of red light, fled far away. Shen Mu was dumbstruck. He had watched this god and this man chatting over homely trifles, and had taken it for a custom that the aged go to serve the gods, so that he had not even time to stop it. He followed the Lishan Deity. After flying several thousand li, the deity folded its wings and alighted on a divine mountain; then it whipped its head around and only then caught sight of Shen Mu, and said in haste, "Greetings, Brother!" Shen Mu nodded slightly and said, "Lishan Deity, I just saw you descend and eat a man, yet that man conversed with you most cheerfully. What is the reason for that?" The Lishan Deity laughed. "Brother, are you from out of town? No wonder you do not know our customs here. Our Southern Heavens are a land of civilization and propriety, the place where the Fire Heavenly Venerable bestows his teaching. The gods of the Southern Heavens live in harmony with all the myriad races of the world. The people of this world have need of us, praying for favorable wind and rain, praying for abundant harvests, and we too must eat. And so this custom came to be: any common man who reaches sixty years is reckoned as already dead, and must go to the temple to be offered up to the gods." Shen Mu asked, "Laid down by the Fire Heavenly Venerable?" "Just so," said the Lishan Deity. "The Southern Heaven is a nation of civilization, not coarse and savage like the Western Heaven and the Northern Heaven, and better than the Eastern Heaven by I know not how much." Shen Mu asked again, "And what of divine ability users? The longest-lived among the human race's divine ability users can live eight hundred years." "Divine ability users who reach seven hundred without becoming gods must also enter the temple and be offered up to the gods." The Lishan Deity laughed. "If they become gods, then they stand on equal footing with us, and we address one another as brother. Only, in the territory under my jurisdiction there are not many divine ability users; once in a year or half a year I get to eat one. Brother, you have come at an unlucky time. There has been no seven-hundred-year divine ability user of late, or I would certainly have treated you." Shen Mu frowned. "Is this the custom throughout the Southern Heaven?" "Throughout," said the Lishan Deity. "Look at this Southern Heaven, all peace and harmony, men and gods dwelling together amicably, demigods and post-heaven beings no longer slaughtering one another. Is it not a pure land?" Shen Mu's expression hovered between a smile and no smile. "What sort of pure land is it that eats men? What the Fire Heavenly Venerable has done is devour men without spitting out the bones, making them go willingly to their deaths." The Lishan Deity said gravely, "Brother, you are mistaken. When we eat a man, we are reasonable about it. We ask first: may I eat you? And then we eat." Shen Mu asked, "And if the man says no? Do you then not eat him?" The Lishan Deity could not help laughing. "Brother, your innocence is almost charming! We ask only to observe the proprieties. If we are refused, we eat him all the same." The Dragon Qilin could not hold back. "And what of the gods of the human race? Would a human god tolerate you eating his own people?" The Lishan Deity laughed. "Brother, a god of the human race is no longer a man! How exalted is a god? To become a god and still count oneself a man, if word of that got out, would it not be the death of laughter? A divine ability user spends a lifetime in bitter cultivation, tempering his breath, toiling at his practice, all for the sake of becoming a god high above! If you told a human god that he was still a man, he would die of rage and curse you for no true son of man!" Killing intent stirred in Shen Mu's heart, then dispersed. All the Southern Heaven was like this; wheth