Chapter 235 — A Youth Borrows a Boat
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 4 of 5
Even as he spoke, a shaft of light came shining out of the darkness between two great mountains. Daoist Lingjing at once led Shen Mu toward it; the light flickered bright and dim, drawing them onward.
Before they knew it they had passed through several great mountains and drawn near that light, which proved to be a will-o'-the-wisp — and in an instant it vanished.
At Shen Mu's chest the jade pendant gave off a faint glow and slowly floated up, pointing out the way.
Daoist Lingjing led Shen Mu and the others forward, as if passing through an invisible barrier; the scene before them changed in a blink, and the vast, uncanny Realm of the Living Dead opened out before them. Among countless mountains of white bone and a boundless sea of mist, a small flat boat came drifting slowly toward them.
Daoist Lingjing brought Shen Mu and the rest aboard. The skeleton on the boat poled it with a punt deep into the mist, and after a long while they reached the dock.
The stone stele of the Realm of the Living Dead stood before them.
Daoist Lingjing asked, curious, "Demon Sect Master, what have you come here to do? Your cultivation is too weak — even if you sold your own soul, Fengdu would not take it."
Shen Mu walked on, past a village now utterly deserted, over the great mountain ahead, and gazed at the immense soul-boat lying before Fengdu, like a giant three-legged toad bearing a hull of inconceivable size on its back. In a low voice he said, "I have come to borrow a boat for my journey!"
"Borrow a boat for your journey?"
Daoist Lingjing was taken aback. Shen Mu raced forward at speed, and in no time he soared into the air, covering the distance to the soul-boat in a few bounds.
The jade pendant he had worn at his chest since childhood floated up, and the light bursting from it grew dazzling.
The Demon King Dutian looked about him, shaken to the core, and murmured, "Is this the work of gods?"
"A visitor from the Land of No Sorrow..."
On the soul-boat, all in ruins, dying stars in the sky kept falling as fireballs, most perilous. A strange voice came, quavering: "You are of the Land of No Sorrow! What have you come for? I am no traitor — I merely ran away! Their deaths are not my fault. Heh heh, not my fault. I was only a coward, that is all..."
Shen Mu followed the voice forward to the very heart of the soul-boat, and there, among several enormous pillars, a face some acres across lay pressed to the deck, staring in terror at the jade pendant floating up from Shen Mu's chest.
"Not my fault — I did not betray my people—" the face screamed shrilly.
Shen Mu hesitated, let out a foul breath, and reached out a palm toward one of the pillars. Daoist Lingyun frowned. "I have been here. There is nothing else in this place but this madman. I examined these pillars too — nothing out of the ordinary."
"Do not touch it!" the face cried in despair.
Shen Mu's palm touched the great pillar, and suddenly a power of unimaginable terror came surging into his body, pouring into him with mad force. Cracking reports rang out from within him; his frame grew taller and taller, larger and larger, as that churning divine power rolled in and worked an earth-shaking transformation upon his flesh!
He felt his tailbone growing madly, and soon a third leg sprouted behind him, planting itself firmly on the ground; under his arms bone and flesh grew swiftly as well, becoming arm after arm.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
One after another Shen Mu's palms reached out and gripped the other great pillars. Everything around him seemed to be shrinking at furious speed — though in truth nothing around him shrank; he was the one growing larger, growing taller.