Chapter 86 — The Realm Where the Dead Dwell
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 2 of 3
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.