Chapter 820 — The Imperial Guard's Crossing of the Boundary

The village chief's expression turned solemn as he lowered his voice, "Shen'er, put away the jade pendant and make no display of it. Let us first see what these people are.

" Shen Mu flipped his hand, and the jade pendant in his grasp vanished from sight.

That great blue-green kun bore an overwhelming aura, easily capable of churning rivers and overturning seas, and now, bathed in the lamplight of the ghost ship, it carried a host of demigods to the side of the great vessel. Beside this Yulin Army man-of-war, the kun looked small indeed.

Shen Mu was no stranger to kun, for a million years ago many kun had lived in the Star River, demigods themselves who could swim in the water and fly in the sky.

In those days the kun of the Star River mostly earned spirit pills by ferrying passengers. Though many of the demigods on the kun's back had human bodies, their faces were all different, and they bore differing numbers of heads.

Demigods are the descendants of ancient gods with divine blood flowing in their veins, and ever since Haotian Zun created the art by which demigods may take human form, they too can cultivate the Divine Treasury system and the Heavenly Palace system.

Yet demigods cannot wholly become human but retain some feature of their true bodies, and only a few ever assume full human shape.

When those demigods saw them they did not halt but pressed on toward the ghost ship. "Hook-serpents, halt that ship!

" cried a stooped old demigod leaning on a staff from the kun's back.

"It is the Ancestral Dragon King!

" Shen Mu exclaimed in surprise.

All around the river ran swift and turbulent, and suddenly one massive body after another surfaced, strange serpents hundreds of zhang long, covered not with scales but with bony plates, the plates edged with sharp spurs, while their tails bore scorpion-like barbs.

These strange serpents lashed out their tails and hooked the ghost ship's masts and gunwales to drag her to a stop. The hook-serpents were pulled ramrod straight, and several were torn apart on the instant, spilling blood across the Surging River. As the great kun swam toward the ghost ship, the old demigod unhurriedly tossed forth his staff, which turned into a divine dragon that threaded through the chains of black qi and struck into the ghost ship.

Only then did the ghost ship come to rest.

The old demigod then produced a mirror which blazed with light in the river water and hung above their heads, shining upon the great kun and all those on its back.

The black qi chains that bound the ghost ship recoiled from the mirror's light and could not approach. When the great kun reached the ghost ship's deck, it suddenly shook its body and became a radiant golden divine bird, and then the bird folded its wings and became a bird-headed, human-bodied god.

The others on the kun's back leapt down one after another.

The kun race is unlike all others and possesses three forms, the kun, the peng, and the bird-headed human form. The village chief felt a chill in his heart and whispered, "That old man's strength is great, and I am no match for him.

The demigods beside him are none of them weak, and that kun's power is not to be trifled with!

Shen'er, we must invite the First Ancestor before we can hope to explore this ghost ship. .

.

" He had just spoken when a beam of light shone down upon the river, a pillar of radiance like a moon falling from the sky, its moonlight falling upon the ghost ship.

Within the pillar a small boat drifted downstream bearing a one-armed man and several one-armed youths, yet the little boat came sailing along the pillar of light, plunged into the river, and made straight for the ghost ship. The one-armed man sat in the bow, unnaturally sacred in the moonlight. "Luo Wushuang!

" Shen Mu's heart leapt as he looked toward the boat, and there he saw Zhe Huali among them, the only one sound in both arms. At that moment flames blazed across the river, and as Shen Mu and the village chief watched from beneath the water, they saw a great fireball rolling close above the surface, boiling away the waters of the Star River.

From underwater they could not see clearly, yet as the fireball drew near it suddenly plunged into the water and became a seven-colored phoenix swimming through the depths toward the ghost ship. Upon the seven-colored phoenix's back rested a stone coffin, a most uncanny sight.

Shen Mu's heart stirred, "Can it be Feng Qiuyun?

She still lives, not slain by Qi Xiayu, and her skill is indeed formidable!

Why then has she come here, unless at Earth Mother Yuanjun's command?

And the stone coffin on her back. .

. can it be a coffin from the Nine Emperors Mausoleum?

" He could not help but shiver.

If the coffin Feng Qiuyun bore was indeed a stone coffin from the Nine Emperors Mausoleum, then what lay within must be one of the Shanghuang Celestial Emperors of the northbound Shanghuang Court! Why should Earth Mother set such store by this ghost ship as to dispatch even an imperial coffin from the imperial mausoleum? When she fought her rival Earth Mother, she had not brought out an imperial coffin!

Suddenly a rope of light shone down from the sky, and Shen Mu looked up to see a silver cord hanging from Jingping's moon, wrinkled like a flower, falling squarely upon the ghost ship's flagpole where it tied itself in a knot.

Several figures slid swiftly down the silver cord and soon landed upon the flagpole. One of the gods untied the cord and shook it, and the cord fell from the moon in the sky and burrowed like a spirit snake into his sleeve.

From the moon to the earth is a hundred thousand li, yet when the cord slipped into his sleeve, the sleeve showed not the slightest bulge.

Having gathered the cord, this god bowed to another youth, who nodded, and the party leapt from the flagpole to the mast and slid down the mast spinning like civet-cats before slipping into the ghost ship.

"Those who came down from the sky, can they be gods from the Celestial Chart? No, the gods of the Celestial Chart were left here by the outer Heavenly Court to delude all living beings.

Bound by duty, they dare not leave their posts.

" Shen Mu's heart stirred, "Then they are visitors from the Heavenly Court! Strange, Luo Wushuang's Lingxiu Army also comes from the outer Heavenly Court, so why did they not come together?

" At that very moment a great star appeared in the sky, a star like an apple with a bite taken out of it, the anomalous star of the Chiming remnant clan.

Light flickered upon the alien star, a red beam fell from heaven onto the ghost ship's deck, and as the light dispersed the figure of the Chiming Divine Son appeared there. "The Chiming Divine Son has come too!

" Shen Mu laughed, "Village Chief, the Chiming Divine Son is friend, not foe, and I know the One-Armed Divine Blade Luo Wushuang as well, while that phoenix is my sister. And that old man with the dragon-headed staff I have met once before, called the Ancestral Dragon King.

We will be in no danger if we go aboard. " The village chief glared at him with an unkind look, his face dark, "The Chiming Divine Son may not be a friend at all.

And that phoenix must be Earth Mother's creature, no? As for the One-Armed Divine Blade, I heard his name in Taihuang Heaven, and he is plainly an enemy!

As for the Ancestral Dragon King, he must be a leader among demigods, no? What meeting have you had with him!

Not a soul who just boarded that ship can be trusted!

" The ghost ship tossed ever more violently, and a great many hook-serpents snapped apart and perished miserably. The remaining hook-serpents hastily released their barbed tails, and the ghost ship sailed up the Star River, gathering speed. Seeing this, the village chief hesitated and asked, "What is that jade pendant of yours?