Shen Mu sat beneath the lantern, the jade pendant at his chest shedding a faint glow, still straining to float up, to fly off toward some far place. "Is this the Land of No Sorrow? And if it is not, then where in the world is the Land of No Sorrow?" The little boat drifted leisurely, and yet it did not go slowly; once aboard, Shen Mu had noticed that the skeletons paid them no heed at all, as though they could not see them. One mountain of skulls after another returned to normal, the skeletons seeming to lapse back into death, into a deep and utter stillness. Shen Mu shook his head; the whole journey had been beyond all reason, things he would never once have dared imagine had come to pass, each one stranger than the last. The demons in the dark, the underworld officers in the village by the river, the world within the gray mist, and now the little boat they rode and the skeleton boatman beneath his straw cape — all of it was so inconceivable, and yet it had all happened. And the world within the darkness of the Wasteland was not so simple as the Village Head had supposed. The Village Head had taken it that a Dark Realm existed; now it seemed that a Dark Realm alone could not explain all they had seen and suffered. The Dark Realm might exist — and there might be more than the Dark Realm; perhaps other worlds dwelt within that darkness as well. "Village Head, who was that passenger who gave us the Fengdu coins?" Shen Mu glanced back at the boatman and asked softly. "An old acquaintance." The Village Head's face was calm. "It has been a long time since I saw him, and I have heard no word of him. I thought he was dead; I never looked for him to be alive. Those of us from that age who can still be living are all extraordinary men." Shen Mu was lost in wistful imagining: the Village Head's age must have been one that threw up champions in crowds, an age brilliant as a sky full of stars, and it must have begotten many a figure who shook heaven and earth, dazzling as the Village Head himself. Only it was lamentable how time hurries a man into age; even one unmatched in his prime was, in his late years, bowed and frail, with little life left in him. "I never thought he would still be so restless, so fond of running about. How he came to run all the way here this time, I cannot guess." The Village Head smiled. "He is craftier than I am, and he has seen more of the mysteries. In truth I envy him — he lives freely, more lightly than I do. Shen'er, you may well meet him. That fellow has no fixed dwelling; he loves to rush off wherever there is a bustle. His name is Ling Jing. He has a black mole under his left eye, and his right hand is missing a ring finger — I cut it off." "Village Head, where will this boat carry us?" Shen Mu looked about them. They were already far from the entrance to that strange world, and the way they had come was no longer to be made out; drifting on like this, there was no telling where they would drift to. And who was to say whether this place was even the Wasteland? It might even be a world where the Wasteland was not. The Village Head frowned slightly. It was Shen Mu's jade pendant that had drawn them here; he had lived in the Wasteland for so many years, and this was the first time he had met with anything so bizarre, come to any place so bizarre. But since Shen Mu's jade pendant had brought them here, it must in all likelihood have some bearing on where the pendant came from. As things stood, they did not know where they were, could not leave the boat, and could only let the boat and the uncanny boatman carry them on toward the unknown. "Shen'er, had I not brought you out with me, I might never have discovered this place." Even as he spoke, the gray mist ahead began to thin, revealing a vast stretch of land and range upon range of towering mountains — no longer mountains of skulls — and near the edge of the sea of mist a wooden dock appeared, where boats could moor. The little boat slowed gently and came to rest at the dock. Shen Mu hurriedly drew out a Fengdu coin, meaning to pay the fare; the boatman raised two fingers of bare white bone. Shen Mu drew out a second Fengdu coin; the boatman nodded, and the two of them stepped ashore and walked toward the land. Shen Mu looked back, and saw the little boat and the skeleton boatman upon it vanish into the mist, only the lantern at the prow still shedding a frail light within it. "What a strange place..." The jade pendant on his chest rose gently and pointed ahead. Shen Mu followed the Village Head on. They had not gone far when they came upon a boundary stone, on which a few seal-script characters were carved. "The dead live here; the living halt; the dead go on." Shen Mu read the words aloud, and both of them started. Shen Mu hesitated: "Village Head, do we still go forward?" The Village Head raised his eyes ahead, where many villages could be dimly seen, and smiled. "Since we have come, how can we not keep going, and see what lies before us? We go on." Shen Mu followed him, and the two of them stepped past the boundary stone — when suddenly Shen Mu cried out and lifted his hands, for his hands had, without his knowing it, turned to stark white bone! He hastily tore open his clothes, and saw that beneath them his flesh and blood were gone, nothing left but gleaming white bone. He looked at the Village Head, and the Village Head too had become a skeleton floating in the air; and what was strangest, the Village Head had grown arms and legs! His chest and head were bare bone, but both legs and both arms were flesh and blood! Yet the Village Head plainly had no arms and no legs — how had he suddenly grown two arms and two legs? "The dead live here, the dead live here... Shen'er, we go back." the Village Head said abruptly. Shen Mu retreated to the boundary stone and looked down: the flesh and blood had returned to his own body, while the Village Head's hands and feet had disappeared again, and the flesh on his chest and head was restored as before. "So that is how it is. To think there could be such a wondrous world..." The Village Head smiled faintly and stepped once more into the realm where the dead live. "Let us go in and have a look." Shen Mu pressed down the shock in his heart and followed him into this wondrous world. The Village Head's feet came down upon the ground; he took a stride, then stopped short to look at his own hands, overcome with feeling, as though mourning the limbs he had lost. Ahead, mountains rose and temples piled upon temples, and a village of no small size appeared before them. The two came to the village, and found it full of birdsong and the fragrance of flowers, very peaceful; the villagers dwelt in contentment and kept chickens, ducks, cattle, and sheep, and at the mouth of the village a plump white pig went by them with a grunt and a snort. Shen Mu and the Village Head halted at the village entrance without going in. Several villagers turned to look, their gazes strange. After a moment an old man came tottering out of the village, and a smile broke across his wrinkle-crossed face. "You two strangers, what business have you here?" Shen Mu and the Village Head bowed in salute. Shen Mu asked, "Elder, might I ask how one gets to the Land of No Sorrow?" The old man raised a hand and pointed beyond the mountains. "Cross a few mountains, pass through a gateway, and you will see the Land of No Sorrow." "Many thanks." "Not at all." Shen Mu and the Village Head walked up into the mountains, and Shen Mu looked back to see the villagers still watching them, their gazes eerie. The Village Head said, "In their eyes we are dead men; that is why they look at us so." Shen Mu looked back and said, "Village Head, I think there is something strange here... The Blind Elder opened the Ninefold Heaven Sacred Pupil for me. My eyes are gone now, but I can still dimly see certain things..." The Village Head halted. "What do you see?" Shen Mu said, "There is demon aura upon them