荒墟牧神 - 第378章 代天行罰 - 雲海書庫

Shen Mu nodded and said gravely, "This kind of divine blood—I have indeed seen it. When that snow calamity abruptly ceased more than a year ago, it was because State Preceptor Xuan Kang had found the divine being who unleashed it and fought a great battle with him. He was gravely wounded by that divine being, and that divine being too was hurt and bled. I helped State Preceptor Xuan Kang treat his wounds, and I saw that divine being's blood. The energy in that blood is very like this drop."

At the time, Shen Mu had used a sword pellet the Silent Artisan had given him as a bridge, linking the remnants of the deity's divine ability within State Preceptor Xuan Kang's body to the divine blood, rousing the power of both the divine ability and the blood so that the two annihilated each other, easing the State Preceptor's injuries—only then could he treat him.

But that sword pellet had been worn away by this energy and shrunk greatly. The sword pellet was what the Silent Artisan had given him to deal with the Village Head, and also to let him comprehend a deeper art of refining treasures; Shen Mu had mourned its loss for quite a while.

That period was deeply etched in Shen Mu's memory, for at that time Emperor Yanfeng had also been besieged by the Old Daoist Master and the Old Tathagata and nearly died—and it was he who had stepped in to heal him.

At the time, both State Preceptor Xuan Kang and Emperor Yanfeng had been reduced to cripples, utterly wretched. The State Preceptor had taken his wife into seclusion in a small valley, and the State Preceptor's wife was with child.

"The god slain by the Sun-Shooting Divine Cannon—that is the very deity who brought down the snow calamity!"

Shen Mu's gaze flickered between light and dark. He said softly, "This too is retribution; he died as he deserved. In the snow calamity, it was the poor who suffered. Yan Kang's population dropped by twenty or thirty percent in an instant—more people died than in any of the wars past."

The three from Little Jade Capital said nothing.

When the snow calamity broke out, State Preceptor Xuan Kang had gone to Little Jade Capital. Qingyou Shanren urged him and his wife to stay, wanting to keep them in Little Jade Capital and halt the reforms. The immortals of Little Jade Capital held that the reforms of State Preceptor Xuan Kang and Emperor Yanfeng were the chief cause of the snow calamity, and that the only way to avert it was to stop the reforms.

Wang Muran and the others had heard something of this too.

State Preceptor Xuan Kang had been despondent for several days, but in the end he left Little Jade Capital. Not long after, the snow calamity ceased. Qingyou Shanren had frowned with worry and told them that the State Preceptor was still resolved upon reform.

At the time, neither State Preceptor Xuan Kang nor the immortals of Little Jade Capital had foreseen that matters would come to this pass; no one had foreseen that a god would fall—and that it would be the very god who had brought the calamity.

What changes the slaying of this god by the Sun-Shooting Divine Cannon would bring to Yan Kang, no one could say, no one could foresee.

Shen Mu washed the Heavenly Emperor's Jade Tablet with clean water more than a dozen times over, yet still did not dare take it directly in hand. He then mixed several kinds of medicinal solutions, washing and boiling and steeping it, and only then put the Jade Tablet away, hanging it once more about his neck.

Outside, the blood-rain gradually ceased, the dark clouds in the sky dispersed, and the day brightened. Shen Mu and the others walked out of the great hall, their bodies rising into the air to avoid the bloody water on the ground.

Outside, the sky was clear and bright, not a cloud in sight. That divine battle over Yan Kang seemed like a dream, as though it had never happened.

Sunlight spilled down from the west; the azure sky was washed clean and utterly limpid, and the air seemed to have grown much fresher.