Chapter 224 — For the Righteous Path of All Under Heaven
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 1 of 4
Shen Mu, his mind free of all distraction, went on summoning the demon. Of a sudden blood-light burst forth, dyeing the snow-cloaked valley as though it had been steeped in gore.
That blood-light shot skyward, some hundred zhang high, while crackling lightning became coiling thunderbolts that snapped and burst out in every direction. The thunderbolts struck the cliffs ringing the valley, melting the deep snow and even the stone, so that molten rock came running down the cliff faces. The thunder wreathed the blood-light in a net of lightning, shifting with a sizzle and a crack, and a dreadful magic power came smashing in from another world, striking the statue upon the altar within the blood-light.
The wooden statue split at once with a crack, swelled, grew taller and taller, its aura more and more terrible! From the Taotie Bag at Shen Mu's waist came the Dutian Demon King's voice, angry and frantic: "You brat! When you summoned the Jiahe Demon God last time, you were holding back, weren't you?
This Plague Demon God you're calling up now is far more powerful than before!
" In this he wronged Shen Mu. When Shen Mu had summoned the Jiahe Demon God at the Imperial Academy, he understood a good deal of the demon tongue, but had not yet fully mastered it. In the days since, he had digested the demon tongue he learned when he struck the Pact of Tubo with the Dutian Demon King, and mastered more and more of it; hence the demon gods he summoned were stronger.
Last time he had not deliberately held back.
When the old Daoist saw this dreadful sight, he too lost the composure he had shown a moment before. His expression shifted slightly, and he tossed out the whisk in his hand: "Go! " The whisk grew as it met the wind; in an instant each filament became a filament sword dozens of zhang long, scattering through the air, so that seen from afar it was like a white umbrella ceaselessly spinning, only unimaginably vaster. And the whisk was exceedingly perilous: every strand was a filament sword, and the finer it was, the harder to guard against!
The whisk flew with great speed, slicing through countless bolts and flashes of lightning, and the next moment it reached above the valley and cut off that dreadful magic power crashing in from the other world! Shen Mu immediately sensed that the summoning was about to be broken; hastily he shouted, and the dragon qilin leapt into the air with a roar.
The roar rushed at that whisk, tangling and scattering its filaments, and at once the severed magic power flowed through once more and came surging on. Seeing this dragon qilin, the old Daoist was glad at heart and sneered, "You brute beast, you serve the tiger without knowing it, and may well bring destruction on yourself. I see you are of no common spirit and beauty; if you will submit to me and serve a hundred years as my mount, you may wash away your sins.
Otherwise, your lifetime of cultivation may well come to nothing!
" "Beast? " The dragon qilin flew into a rage and roared furiously.
Fire kindled in its open mouth, and a blazing pillar of flame shot toward the old Daoist! The old Daoist's body shook; his vital essence burst forth and took form behind him as a god-man with a turtle's shell, more than ten zhang tall. In his hand the whisk was a great snow-white serpent; his other hand he stretched forward, and with a thunderous boom he blocked the flame the dragon qilin spat.
The flame surged away on either side of that great hand, fire-waves flooding the heavens, scorching the cliffs all around red. "A heaven-being? " Shen Mu's heart sank. The dragon qilin's four hooves churned; fire-clouds sprang up beneath its feet, and it charged straight at the old Daoist.
Of a sudden the whisk in midair rolled back, and countless filaments wrapped around the dragon qilin's four hooves, binding it fast and tight.