Chapter 1150 — Can I Devour You?
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 3 of 3
as astonished and listened carefully. "...The sovereign is the bond of the minister, the father the bond of the son, the husband the bond of the wife—these are the Three Bonds..." Shen Mu frowned and thought, "This is teaching people not to rebel." He was about to leave this little mountain village when he suddenly stopped. A funeral dirge reached his ears. In this village, an elderly man was being given a funeral. The villagers carried a coffin; it had no lid, and the old man sat inside, bowing in all directions to the villagers who had come to help, laughing: "I am now ascending to heaven to serve the deities. Do not grieve!" Shen Mu, puzzled by the local custom, stopped to watch. The villagers beat gongs and drums, carried the coffin out of the village, walked more than ten li to a temple. At the temple gate a Daoist guard hurriedly opened the doors and invited the funeral procession inside. The drum and music were deafening. The villagers placed the old man and the coffin in the main hall before the idol, lit a few sticks of incense, and then left on their own. Shen Mu, the Dragon Qilin, and Yan'er stood outside watching. After a moment, a beam of light descended from the sky and landed before the idol, transforming into a deity with a bird's head and a human body. The old man in the coffin was not afraid. He bowed and said, "A rustic villager pays respects to the God of Lishan!" The bird-headed deity looked him up and down and said, "How old are you now?" "This old man is sixty this year, O God of Lishan." The God of Lishan said, "At sixty, one is rare indeed. To have lived sixty years is no easy feat, old man." The old man beamed with joy and said, "Whenever one reaches sixty, one must come to serve the Mountain God according to the rules. In these sixty years I have held my grandson; I have no regrets." The God of Lishan nodded and said courteously, "Then may I eat you?" "Please," said the old man, overjoyed.