Chapter 287 — Guarding the Remains
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 2 of 4
The moment Ling Yuxiu landed she suddenly released the great hammer; the Nine-Dragon Hammer came apart into nine dragon-shaped weapons that abruptly locked together, and countless dragon scales shifted to form a mirror. Ling Yuxiu stood behind the mirror; with a hum a beam of mirror-light shot out, and within that light a golden dragon seemed to dance as it fell upon the flying Long Jiaonan.
Si Yunxiang at once skimmed along the ground, darted past the mirror, and her sword-threads coiled and cut at Long Jiaonan, held fast in the mirror-light. "Little Red!
" Long Jiaonan cried sharply, raising her palm; the earth shook, and hundreds of sharp stone spikes rose from the ground, blocking Si Yunxiang's path and the mirror-light. Behind the two women, the huge red snake suddenly stretched out its body; the serpent was as thick as a pillar that several men could barely encircle, and with boundless strength it swept straight across.
To be struck by such a monster meant grave injury at best, and being crushed to pulp at worst! The Dragon-Taming Sect's true trump card was neither cultivation nor dharma power, nor divine powers, but the "dragons" they spoke of!
The snakes they raised were all rare breeds carrying flood-dragon blood; even if a disciple's cultivation was low and his strength modest, a snake raised to sufficient power was enough to slay an opponent.
Long Jiaonan's red snake was a rare breed among rare breeds, sired by the Dragon King's flood dragon of the Heaven-Man realm; its bloodline was lofty and its flood-dragon blood pure, so that a single snake was enough to sweep the Seven Stars realm.
It was by this great snake that Long Jiaonan had become a master of great renown. The red snake erupted in terrible majesty, rolling and crushing toward them; just as it seemed about to grind the two women under, a beam of blinding light shot out from behind it.
The red snake froze, seeing its own body cut in two by that beam, the other half of its vast carcass rolling and tumbling, flattening whole stretches of forest! By the pool behind the great snake stood Shen Mu, holding up an enormous eyeball; a beam of light was shooting from that eye, and it was this light that had severed the snake's body.
The red snake shrieked in agony, opened its mouth and spewed a thick cloud of poison mist, and its half-body actually sprang up to bite down at Shen Mu!
The poison mist was virulent beyond measure, and Shen Mu had no wish to be touched by it; a step of his feet and he used the Sky-Skimming Divine Legs to evade the snake's strike.
He was so swift that before the red snake could react he was already in midair; looking down from his height, Shen Mu saw that the city of the yellow essences on the island had been utterly destroyed, and the woods where they lived had been flattened as well. Clearly, once Long Jiaonan discovered this place she had shown no mercy, killing some of the yellow essences and capturing others, razing their dwelling place to the ground!
No doubt Long Jiaonan had learned of Shen Mu and the others' whereabouts from the mouths of these yellow essences, and so had lain in wait here; after all, the yellow essences were a faithless lot, quick to sell anyone out.
Shen Mu's face darkened.
Faithless though the yellow essences were, they had helped them after all, and those who help are benefactors. Suddenly the red snake's huge head sprang into the air, its great mouth opening, the jaws splitting so wide they nearly formed a straight line, biting up at him from below.
"Die, then. " Shen Mu turned the jade eye, and with a hum a beam of light shot out, straight down through the red snake's mouth; wherever it passed, all flesh dissolved.
Hum!
The fierce light struck the ground, and the earth melted at once, opening a crater; the scalding magma in the pit began to evaporate, streaming out of the hole as vapor, which cooled and hardened into little stone beads that fell down like a small rain of rocks.