Chapter 1528 — Take Your Head
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 1 of 4
Shen Mu knew that Granny Zhu meant well. This time, when she had taken the initiative to come along and deliberately brought up such matters, it was to distract him and help him emerge from the grief of Crippled Old Man's death. He was deeply grateful for what she had done. A maid of Moon Heavenly Venerable came to meet them from among the peach trees, carrying a lantern to light their way. The Peach Forest had been destroyed once before, but had now grown back. It connected the myriad heavens and worlds, and Moon Heavenly Venerable had hidden here the entrance to Carefree Village. To search the endless Peach Forest for the entrance to Carefree Village was practically impossible. The forest shifted and turned with the workings of the myriad heavens and worlds, changing from moment to moment. Entering it at any given instant could lead to countless different possibilities. Even the most powerful masters of the divine arts and calculations would need ten thousand years to calculate the precise route into Carefree Village. That was the might of Moon Heavenly Venerable's Scripture of the Ultimate Void. With one of Moon Heavenly Venerable's maids leading the way, however, things became far easier. They had taken only a few steps when day became deep night, and late autumn became early summer. In the space of a few steps, they passed through spring, summer, autumn, and winter, through the alternation of sun and moon. The wonders of the Peach Forest did not end there. They even passed into other worlds, at times standing upon stars high in the heavens and looking down over the lands of the myriad heavens, at times arriving in the midst of a great sea and hearing the thunderous surge of the waves. They traveled on like this, passing through who knew how many heavens and worlds, until at last they arrived before a palace. Its walls were covered everywhere with doors, incomparably more complicated than the three rooms at the end of the Great Void Void Bridge. Several maids went forward to open them, yet behind those doors there was nothing but more wall. They seemed to be opening the doors according to some hidden pattern, following a fixed sequence of opening and closing. Before long, one of the doors swung open. Behind it was no longer a wall, but a stretch of void. In that void stood a solitary doorway. "Heavenly Venerable, please wait here." One of the maids stepped forward, approaching the door with tiny, measured steps. She shook her sleeve, and a delicate jade hand slid from within it. She gently knocked on the door, then stood there in silence. After a moment, a huge eye appeared upon the lonely doorway. Its pupil rolled this way and that, looking first at the maid, then at Shen Mu and Granny Zhu. The door creaked open. The maid took two steps back and said to the two of them, "Heavenly Venerable, you may enter." Granny Zhu clicked her tongue in amazement and went to the doorway to examine the great eye, only to find that it had already closed, merging completely with the door. "No need to stare, Granny. It is a spatial divine ability. The caster must be holding a mirror; by bringing it before the mirror, he can see everything outside the door." Shen Mu thanked the maids, then entered through the door with Granny Zhu. The instant they crossed the threshold, their hearts and minds opened wide. White clouds drifted lazily above green waters and verdant mountains. This was a pure land envisioned by the Creators; high in the sky, one could even see many towering Creators forging stars into existence. Behind Shen Mu and Granny Zhu stood the legendary three rooms, the treasure that Moon Heavenly Venerable had designed in his youth for the Creators of the Other Shore. Before those three rooms floated a divine city in the air, where the soldiers of Carefree Village and the Creators of the Other Shore Void were drilling in formation. Shen Mu and Granny Zhu walked over and saw that the formation was being commanded by a great monk. His fe