Chapter 1516 — Heavenly Punishment Descends
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 2 of 4
Shen Mu said hesitantly, "If I comprehend the Dao beneath the tree alongside them, my attainment will surely fall short of theirs, and then they will know that this Tyrant Body of mine is a counterfeit, full of water. If instead I take a devious path and directly refine the World Tree, they will still praise me, saying, indeed a Tyrant Body. Therefore, even if I cannot refine the World Tree, I must still grow one..."
"Then, are you prepared to face the prehistoric experts who have climbed here from a ruined universe?" the girl Tai Yi asked.
Shen Mu faltered.
The girl Tai Yi sneered, "You are still no match for them. The weakest among them is no less capable than the Ten Heavenly Lords, and that is only after the great calamity of destruction has worn them down and whittled them away. If they come into this universe and brand the void with the imprints of their own great Dao, reaching straight into the ultimate void of our universe, then they can restore themselves to their peak. By then, never mind you; even if the Ten Heavenly Lords were bound together, they would not be a match for any single one of them!"
Shen Mu hung his head in dejection and turned to leave. Just then the voice of the girl Tai Yi came from behind him: "But it is not that there is no solution."
Shen Mu halted, turned back, and a look of hope came over his face.
The girl Tai Yi broke into a smile, showing the few scattered teeth in her mouth, plainly in the midst of shedding her milk teeth. She said, "The reason I stand guard here is precisely to deal with such a situation. Should prehistoric experts set foot in here, I will slay them one by one!"
Shen Mu's eyes were bright as snow.
"But why should I do so? This Black Mountain is, after all, your Black Mountain. I have already yielded the seat of landlord to you."
The girl Tai Yi said with the air of an elder, "Mending Black Mountain every day is labor enough for me. So it is not that I cannot make a move, but mending the mountain day after day is truly dull."
Shen Mu said hastily, "I will mend the mountain! However many days you want me to mend it, I will!"
The girl Tai Yi winked slyly. "I will not ask you to mend it long, only half a year. In this half year I must leave Black Mountain to see to a certain matter. You need only climb to the very top of the World Tree every night; my Dao Tree will drip its Dao dew, and you collect that dew, and by day repair the cracked Black Mountain. After half a year I will hurry back, and then you will be free."
Shen Mu was overjoyed and nodded again and again.
The girl Tai Yi then produced another iron bucket, filled to the brim with Dao dew.
Shen Mu was suspicious. He looked at the little girl, then lowered his eyes to the Dao dew in the iron bucket, and ventured, "Daoist brother, how is it that you have two iron buckets here, both full of Dao dew? Did you not just say that the leaves of your Dao Tree are fixed in number, and that each time you can gather only one bucket of Dao dew?"
"Only one bucket can indeed be gathered."
The girl Tai Yi answered his doubts readily, "But before you all returned to the ancestral court, Black Mountain's activity was not so violent, so each time I mended it a little would be left over. A little added up to a lot, and so there came to be several extra buckets. Being frugal by nature, I kept them in case of need."
The corner of Shen Mu's eye twitched. "In other words, Daoist brother, you need not deal with those prehistoric experts who crawl out after all."
The girl Tai Yi said, crisp and clean, "Correct!"
Shen Mu gave a muffled snort, took the iron bucket, bowed, and said, "Many thanks, Daoist brother."
The girl Tai Yi's eyes curved into crescent moons. She laughed, "You are not angry?"
"Angry at what?"