Chapter 238 — A Mother's Love, Belated
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 1 of 4
The Dutian Demon King heard Shen Mu's voice and started slightly, and in that instant he understood what the words meant.
This forest forbidden zone had not been made to guard against outside foes, but to keep the people of Wuyou Township from ever leaving it.
Had it been a defense against outside enemies, its defenses would face outward, and only those who tried to force their way in would suffer the zone's attacks.
This zone, however, destroyed without mercy any who tried to enter and any who tried to leave alike.
Those ruins must be roads the people of Wuyou Township had hacked open by main force in their attempt to escape it, not roads that had come into being of themselves.
"Seeing the great in the small — an ordinary man would never have thought of such a thing. Whoever trained this boy must be cunning beyond measure, a thorough villain."
The Dutian Demon King could not help but shiver. Plainly these heavenly demons clinging to the Soul Boat had not escaped Shen Mu's notice, and yet he had said nothing all along, for the very purpose of making them scout the way for him.
A youth so ruthless, so wickedly cunning — his teacher must be an out-and-out scoundrel.
The Dutian Demon King surveyed the forbidden zone and thought: "With the Soul Boat alone, there is no way to set foot in this place. The Boat is too large; force it in and it will surely stir the zone. The zone destroyed that female demon god so easily; destroying the Soul Boat would be little trouble for it..."
He had barely gotten this far when the Soul Boat shuddered; the three-legged giant vessel slowly crouched low, and then a mighty tremor passed through it, and the great ship lay flat against the ground, motionless.
At once the Dutian Demon King sensed Shen Mu's godlike aura disperse, and only then did he breathe easy. Had Shen Mu forced the Soul Boat into the zone, even he would have been destroyed.
That Shen Mu, though he had seen Wuyou Township destroyed, still kept his reason — that surprised him somewhat.
The Dutian Demon King kicked the Dragon Qilin awake and stepped outside.
The Dragon Qilin shook his head, followed behind him, and asked in his rumbling voice, "Iron Lump, where have we gotten to?"
The Dutian Demon King raged, "You slept the whole way, and you still have the face to ask me?"
The Dragon Qilin laughed. "So you do not know where we are either? Which means you slept the whole way too."
At the center of the Soul Boat's giant pillars, Shen Mu's body had returned to its original state; he was drawing back the legs he had sunk into the hull.
The great ship's hull had been joined to his legs and feet; a moment before, Shen Mu's frame had been immeasurably vast, and now that he shrank, huge footprints remained, closing of themselves and giving him the chance to pull his legs free.
Shen Mu stood up and at once felt his mind and spirit waver, felt himself unspeakably weak; the divine storehouses within him, blasted open by the Soul Boat's immense power, closed one after another, until only the Spirit Fetus and the Five Luminaries remained open.
The ship's power was too mighty; it had poured into his body, and to command it he must spend his own life force as the price.
"Yan Jingjing has lived on the Xi Boat all this while; she has lost far more of her life than I. It must be hard on her..."
Shen Mu gulped two breaths, took some spirit elixirs to restore himself, then rose and said, "Demon King, Fatty Qilin, we walk into this forbidden zone on foot."
The Dutian Demon King spat out a breath of turbid air. "You mean to borrow my eyes and my knowledge, to shun the ill and seek the good, and find the scoundrel from your village?"
Shen Mu nodded. "You are the Demon King of the Dutian World, king of the demon gods; your eyes and knowledge surpass mine by I know not how much. Only you can lead me in."
The Dutian Demon King laughed aloud and said proudly, "True enough — only I can bring you in safely and bring you out again. Lick my foot—"