荒墟牧神 - 第256章 借劍屠真龍 - 簡牘書房

Shen Mu's eyes went wide, utterly dumbfounded, seized by a feeling both grotesque and absurd: that sword-light just now had passed him by and struck straight at Foxin's brow, piercing clean through Foxin's skull, and he had not been able to block it in time even had he tried.

The sword-light had come out of nowhere, its purpose to cut down him, the Hierarch of the Dark Demon Cult; yet in his clash with Foxin he had wielded the Thunderclap Mahayana Sutra, Buddha-light surging to the heavens, while Foxin had wielded the Great Nurturing Dark Demon Sutra, steeped deep in demonic nature.

The master of the flying sword was still a li or more away, and with the moonlight hazy he had seen only the radiance about the two men and sent his sword flying, taking Foxin's life.

The Crown Prince's attendants were, naturally, of the highest skill, trained in orthodox swordsmanship; and Foxin, gravely wounded by Shen Mu, was caught off guard and muddled away his life.

Beside the boundary stele the Dragon Qilin was staring at the Four-Unlike; the two strange beasts had not yet come to blows before it was all over.

The Four-Unlike, seeing that Shen Mu had not killed Foxin, had breathed a sigh of relief; who would have thought the sword-light would come so abruptly that even it could not react in time, and Foxin was run through with a single stroke.

Several figures came leaping through the air from behind; Shen Mu, without a moment's thought, at once fell back toward the Dragon Qilin. The Four-Unlike, seeing Foxin slain, was thrown into confusion, and the Dragon Qilin's aura pressed it into the lower hand.

Shen Mu sprang onto the Dragon Qilin's back; the Dragon Qilin at once drew away, turned, and went off treading fire-clouds.

"That head is mine!" one of the Crown Prince's attendants cried aloud. "Let no one try to steal my merit!"

He came to the foot of the boundary stele, drew the flying sword out of Foxin's brow, and was just about to cut off Foxin's head when he paused, startled: "Why is there no hair?"

The other attendants of the Crown Prince hurried over; seeing that the "Buddha-Child" had actually ridden off on the Dragon Qilin, while the Four-Unlike that guarded the mountain gate of Great Thunderclap Temple stood there without stirring, they were all astonished.

Shen Mu looked back; beneath the moonlight the Hierarch of the Dark Demon Cult smiled faintly at the Crown Prince's attendants, and it was as though they had plunged into an ice cavern.

"The Hierarch of the Dark Demon Cult..." Each of the attendants went cold to the bone, at a loss. If the one who had fled on the Dragon Qilin was the Hierarch of the Dark Demon Cult, then who else could the man lying dead beneath the boundary stele be?

With difficulty they twisted their necks and saw the attendant beneath the boundary stele standing there helpless; he reached out to plug the sword-hole in Foxin's brow, wanting to stop up the wound, found it useless, rose to drag the corpse away, and turned his head and saw them.

That attendant, utterly distraught, turned to look at the Buddha-Child's corpse beneath the stele, then looked at them, then at the corpse again, over and over.

"What do we do?" he said, on the verge of tears. "We came out together, so don't think you can leave me to fend for myself. If you turn me in, you won't escape death either! Killing the Buddha-Child is a monstrous sin; the Crown Prince will have you executed along with me!"

The attendants had no plan either; one said in a hoarse voice: "In for a penny, in for a pound. Destroy the corpse, erase the traces, and lay it all at the Hierarch's door! The Hierarch has filth enough heaped on his head already; one more won't matter!"

Another reminded them: "But that Four-Unlike saw..."

As one, they turned their heads to look at the Four-Unlike.