Chapter 286 — The Demolition Boy
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 1 of 5
The hall suddenly grew somewhat dim, yet when one looked up, the starlight appeared all the more limpid and brilliant, moonlight and starlight lending each other luster. In the world outside, such a sky would surely mean a bright moon and sparse stars; but here the moonlight and starlight adorned one another, making the starry vault within the hall all the more enchanting. Shen Mu had not returned to the hall. Before long, an ox head suddenly thrust out from behind the moon and plucked it down.
The two women were somewhat angered. "This spoilsport of a fellow, utterly devoid of any romantic sensibility!
Had you stayed in the hall, beneath the interplay of moonlight and starlight, and spoken some pleasing words, sweet nothings—would that not have been tender intimacy? Of course, you would first have to drive away the vixen at your side! " Then Ling Yuxiu and Si Yunxiang heard the sound of bricks and tiles being stacked outside. They saw that the sky above the hall was gradually disappearing, an ox head thrusting in from time to time to pluck down the stars from the heavens.
The stars above the hall grew fewer and fewer. After the better part of an hour, the sky was peeled away entirely—stars, sun, and moon alike had all been plucked down by Shen Mu. The two women came outside the hall and saw a heap of bright pearls piled mountain-high upon the ground, along with two great eyes, their pupils closed.
These two eyes stood over a zhang in height, towering far above the two women. Their substance resembled jade, and they did not look like true eyes but rather seemed to have been carved from fine jade.
Ling Yuxiu stepped closer and saw within the eyes many exceedingly intricate patterns, surely the brands of formation arrays. Their pupils were already closed, concealing the formation arrays within as a single white line; no pupil could be seen.
Around it were radiating patterns, like the myriad golden rays cast forth by the sun. The two women touched them; they were ice-cold to the hand, not at all like the fiery display of moments before.
"I thought they were Taotie's eyes," Si Yunxiang said, somewhat disappointed. "I never expected them to be made of jade.
" Shen Mu was standing behind one of the eyes, fiddling with something—what exactly, they could not tell—when suddenly that eye's pupil split open in a thin line, like an upright almond. The two women immediately saw that within the split pupil, an incomparably complex formation array had begun to activate and turn, like a precision mechanism composed of countless gears.
Then a terrifying firelight surged forth from the pupil, growing ever more intense; to rest one's gaze upon it felt as though one's own eyes were being scorched and split!
Si Yunxiang hastily pulled Ling Yuxiu back, and the two women dodged aside.
With a whoosh, a snow-white beam of light shot forth from that pupil, igniting the air as it went. Wherever it passed, the white marble slabs upon the ground instantly turned to magma—and the magma too was evaporating!
The beam fell upon several glazed tiles. Though those tiles bore rune brands as well, under the light of this beam they instantly vaporized! Ling Yuxiu was startled. "If that light had fallen on a person, wouldn't they be dead?
Thank goodness the Holy Maiden Xiang pulled me back. . . " Shen Mu was still fiddling behind the eye.
The two women went around to look, and saw that behind the eye was a formation array branded with runes. It was not complex, yet what exactly it was proved difficult to discern.
Shen Mu was using his own yuan qi to adjust the changes of the formation array. As he adjusted it, the jade eye's pupil gradually parted to either side, the firelight growing ever more intense, pouring down like sunlight.
Even standing behind the eye, one could feel an unbearable wave of heat. "Close your eyes. " Shen Mu's expression was grave as he said in a low voice, "I have fully activated this eye's formation array.