Chapter 246 — Truth Hidden in the Illusion
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 1 of 4
Shen Mu looked at the Green Dragon Crescent Blade in the hand of the Heavenly King's statue. The blade was real enough, not made of stone.
When they had first arrived at this Temple of the Heavenly King, Shen Mu had already surveyed the place carefully on every side, and he distinctly remembered that the statue's hand had held no blade at all, much less a Green Dragon Crescent Blade of such monstrous size. What was more astonishing still: there was blood on the blade. Shen Mu had just reached out to touch it and see whether the blood was truly fresh when the blind elder's bamboo cane came over, lifted his wrist, and flicked it aside.
"Shen'er," the old man said, smiling, "don't be so curious.
It will get you killed. " Shen Mu shuddered, suddenly recalling what had happened when the village head led him through the darkness: a single drop of demon blood had withered and stripped every plant and tree for a hundred zhang around. If the blood on the Green Dragon Crescent Blade was real blood, then the inconceivable strangeness of last night was real as well. Which meant this Heavenly King's statue had truly gone and beheaded a Dragon King of the East Sea, and the drop on the blade was that Dragon King's blood.
"A divine blade has a spirit of its own. Do not provoke it lightly. " The blind elder seemed to read his thoughts, and spoke softly.
Shen Mu laughed. "I'm not Grandpa Lame, to go around causing trouble and try to carry the Heavenly King's divine blade home on my shoulder. I only want to collect the Dragon King's blood from it. This is the blood of a Dragon King among divine dragons.
Who knows, it might be good for refining medicine. " The blind elder praised him: "Shen'er is a thrifty one, keeping house and finding a way to turn a profit.
" Shen Mu fetched a jade bottle and carefully gathered the drop of Dragon King's blood from the Green Dragon Crescent Blade into it, then screwed the stopper tight. In the courtyard of the Temple of the Heavenly King, an enormous stone dragon's head had smashed a great crater into the ground. Blood still stained the head, bright crimson. Shen Mu fetched a box, turned a thread of vital essence into sword energy, and with careful control scraped the blood off and put it in the box.
He came to the neck of the dragon's head and saw that the cut was perfectly clean, as though severed by an incomparably sharp blade.
From that cross-section alone he could imagine how domineering, how swift, how keen that one stroke had been. Though the dragon's head was only stone, at the cut of the wound he could still feel the vast, unmatched saber intent, the saber realm.
"If I sat here and studied the cut on this dragon's head, I could probably comprehend an extremely domineering saber art, one no inferior to Grandpa Tu's Butcher's Saber Art. A pity there's no time.
We have to be on our way. " Shen Mu felt the regret keenly.
If he could comprehend the saber art within it, for the saber intent and saber realm concealed a divine realm, its aura alone would be enough to frighten a great many people to death. Lord Huo urged him on: "Shen'er, let's go! " Shen Mu hurried after him and called the dragon qilin over, meaning to mount it. But the dragon qilin had been ridden all night long like a horse by that Heavenly King's statue, through battle and slaughter, and its whole body ached and felt weak.
The moment Shen Mu climbed on, the beast began squealing like a stuck pig. Shen Mu hastily jumped down, and the dragon qilin said, "I must have run into some evil spirit.
Last night a stone statue rode me the whole night through. Blind Elder, you can tell fortunes. Can you drive out evil?
" The blind elder shook his head. "That isn't my trade. I only tell fortunes and drive out evil now and then.
The evil you've caught, I can't drive out.