Chapter 1141 — The White Earth God of Ji Province
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 2 of 3
Amid encircling mountains and beneath shrouding thunderclouds, a giant altar a thousand li across appeared before them. The altar was so vast, vaster by far than the altar of the Spirit Energy Transfer Bridge — who had built it, none could say.
Around the altar, amid thunder and mist, stood towering skeletons, one after another, facing the altar in worship. Myriad dry bones ringed the vast altar in circle after circle; the towering corpses were like so many hilltops, comparable to giant gods.
Yu Chudu walked up beside the bones and raised his head.
On the brow of each skeleton was set a diamond-shaped gem, and those gems still gave off a faint, ghostly light.
The light flowed from the brows of the corpses toward the altar, now there, now not. "These are the Creators, the makers of the White Earth Ancient God," the Dragon Qilin said softly.
Yu Chudu gazed at the bones with some awe.
The Creators who had made the ancient gods were, to be sure, no mightier than he; but that they had created such strange beings as the ancient gods was worthy of respect. The civilization of the most ancient age had a charm all its own.
They climbed onto the altar. Upon it were many gods and demons — whether the descendants of the White Earth Ancient God or gods who had passed the lightning tribulation and come here, none could tell. The White Earth Ancient God had built a divine city on the altar, a city of boundless luxury, where the gods of this divine land wallowed in extravagance, in wine pools and meat forests. As Shen Mu led Yu Chudu and the Dragon Qilin through the divine city, they saw "sacrifices" not yet eaten, penned in cages.
These were the offerings the various tribes of White Earth had presented to the demigods — slaves from every tribe, and among them not a few humans. The people were caged, frightened and uneasy, but more than that, numb, their eyes vacant, blinking only after a long while.
"Martial Nephew Yu, you are a god born and bred in this place; you should know well the history of the Nine Provinces and the Three Pillar Heavens. " Shen Mu halted.
"Has this place never known the Longhan Revolution, the Chiming Revolution?
" Yu Chudu thought for a moment.
"I have heard my master speak of the revolutions and reforms of the Longhan and Chiming eras, and he said a little of the Shanghuang era as well. But this is not the Yuan World. This place, like the other heavens, has not changed in a million years. Our forebears, generation upon generation, have lived just so.
" Shen Mu stood lost in thought.
The Longhan Revolution, the Chiming Revolution, the Shanghuang Reforms, the Kaihuang Reforms — how magnificent they had been!
And yet they had never spread beyond the Yuan World, never reached the heavens scattered throughout the cosmos.
The people outside the Yuan World had never seen their lives change. They were still enslaved by ancient gods and demigods; all was as it had been in the early years of Longhan.
They had grown numb; they had accepted the fate of their forebears, and their own fate, and the fate of their children and grandchildren to come. Only in the Yuan World, for a million years, had men of conscience and resolve risen one after another, resisting without cease, struggling without cease, reforming without cease.
Shen Mu raised his head and looked far off toward the center of the altar.
At the center of the altar, where the power of sacrifice converged, a mighty ancient god came into their view.
That ancient god was white of body from head to foot, like a white ape, its sinews and frame hideous, with four arms, lumps of muscle bulging over its body, and a single crimson sharp horn growing from the crown of its head.