Chapter 228 — The Wish to Return Home
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 2 of 4
Long Jiaonan and the rest were nearly overtaken by the tentacles; luckily the ballistae's attack hurt the demon, and she drew her tentacles back, letting them escape calamity. "These Xuanji ballistae can shoot even Heavenly Men dead," they said, "so they are sure to finish this demon! " Everyone breathed easier — when suddenly they saw the Withered Silence Ridge Root Demon swing its tentacles at the ballistae on the peaks.
With a thunderous boom, one of the ballistae was smashed to powder, and its massive bronze arm went tumbling down the mountain. Then the ballista on another peak was likewise smashed to powder by the Withered Silence Ridge Root Demon. Long Jiaonan and the others went ashen. They scrambled onto the back of the great red snake Long Jiaonan had reared and fled madly forward, and at last got clear of Withered Silence Ridge.
Looking back, they saw countless roots in the canyon crawling toward them like black pythons, and from the valley came a heavy, rolling sound.
Plainly the dreadful Root Demon's body was too large and too heavy to fly; she could only use her roots to grip the cliffs and drag her enormous body forward. The creature was so immense that as it moved its body struck the mountains on either side and set the peaks swaying.
"The Nether Demon Cult truly has much to answer for, rearing such a monster to do men harm!
" Halfwit Monk, whether shaking with rage or with fear, stormed: "How many people must they have killed to rear this demon to such a size! I hate that my strength is so shallow that I cannot vanquish demons and guard the Way! " The others knew that it was he who had loosed the demon, and felt guilty, and so they laid the blame at the Nether Demon Cult's door.
No one pointed it out.
Instead they all said, "At least it is a piece of luck that we have drawn the demon into the Barren Ruins, so that it has not ravaged the people of Jingping. " "Those in the Barren Ruins are all cast-offs and wicked heretics driven past their last resort; if this monster goes on the rampage there, it is a kind of demon-quelling and Way-guarding too. " Halfwit Monk's face eased. "The Nether Demon Cult's Hierarch made that din on purpose to lure us into the canyon.
I fear he meant to borrow the demon's hand to destroy us. We good folk have Heaven's protection and have escaped with our lives; how disappointed he must be!
" He had barely spoken when the Withered Silence Ridge Root Demon's enormous body squeezed out of the canyon as well and came rolling down from the heights, its countless roots dancing without cease.
Everyone hastily sprang into the air.
The scholar Lan Yu said in a low, steady voice, "This demon cannot fly, so you may all set your minds at ease. .
. " At that very moment a bird's cry came, a fierce wind struck their faces, and a great golden-winged bird flew up like lightning, its two talons closing on Lan Yu's shoulders and carrying him off. The scholar Lan Yu's shoulders hurt; both shoulder blades were pierced through by the bird's talons.
He was about to use his arts to save himself when the golden-winged bird lowered its head and pecked once at his skull, shattering it to pieces, and bore his headless body off into the depths of the vast forest. The Barren Ruins.
They had arrived. A wild land beyond all law. The strange beasts here cared nothing whether you were a disciple of some famous sect; in their eyes there were only two kinds — the edible and the inedible.
Qiu Yue cried in alarm, "Don't fly in the sky! Go by ground!
" Everyone hurried to land.
Behind them the Withered Silence Ridge Root Demon came hunting them, and they ran for their lives. Passing a pool, a great fish suddenly leapt from the water, seized one man and shook him this way and that, biting the young master to death and dragging him down into the water.