Chapter 288 — Lord of the Great Dao
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 2 of 4
" Shen Mu shook his head. "On the road I can show you courtesy, and I won't make things difficult for you. But you rose in rebellion and spread disorder; handing you over to the Ministry of Justice for interrogation is only fitting. You once held office, so sending you to the Court of Judicial Review for inquiry would also be possible—but there are Holy Cult people in the Court as well. " Long Jiaonan's expression shifted through cloud and sunlight, but she still said nothing.
Shen Mu got nothing from her. He flicked his fingers repeatedly, sealing her soul within her body with the Creation Heavenly Demon Art, then said to the two women, "Fan Yunxiao's ship is swift. Finding this place shouldn't be too hard. At the earliest we'll be found tomorrow, at the latest in three or five days.
We'll stay on the island a few days and see whether these yellow essences can come back to life.
" Si Yunxiang hesitated.
"The Cult Leader pities the lives of these yellow essences, but if Long Jiaonan slips away, I fear she'll return and ruin them. The Cult Leader must not covet her beauty simply because she's pretty—" "Covet her beauty? " Shen Mu studied Long Jiaonan, puzzled. "She isn't even pretty.
What beauty is there to covet?
" Si Yunxiang was taken aback.
For all her odd temper, Long Jiaonan had always been a beauty in the making; this molt had aged her, but she was still a comely woman. That the Holy Cult's Sacred Cult Leader should fail to find her pretty struck Si Yunxiang as impossibly obtuse. She probed, "What does the Cult Leader consider pretty, then?
" "Someone like Granny," Shen Mu answered without thinking. "Or chubby like Sister Yuxiu—those are pretty.
Granny says plump girls look good, but you have to beware of vixens. " Ling Yuxiu was quite pleased and cast a glance at Si Yunxiang, secretly taking the cowherd to be her own kindred spirit.
Si Yunxiang refused to let it go.
"I am family with the previous Cult Leader's widow; by seniority I call her aunt. Does the Cult Leader think me pretty? " "You're too thin, and still young—you're younger than me, aren't you? " Shen Mu looked Si Yunxiang up and down, then shook his head. "Granny said thin girls aren't pretty; a little meat is good and makes for easy childbearing.
Alchemist Grandpa also said girls should be plump, though the villagers all called him an old lecher. Don't be upset. Eat a bit more and you'll be quite pretty—but not too much. Alchemist Grandpa said overly fat is ugly too.
" Si Yunxiang was dumbfounded. By Shen Mu's aesthetic, Long Jiaonan indeed was not pretty, and even she herself was not pretty. No wonder the fellow had not given her a second glance when she had stripped down to her underclothes earlier.
He had been led astray by that old lecher in his village! Their young Sacred Cult Leader was faultless in everything—wisdom, ability, aptitude, insight, even boldness were all brilliantly outstanding. The only thing one could not fathom was where his sense of beauty had gone wrong. Shen Mu did not lower his voice on purpose. "The reason I'm keeping this Sister Long is mainly to lure the Dragon King out. The Dragon King is extremely capable, and he keeps a flood dragon. He is, after all, a sect lord in his own right.
Unless I get rid of him, I'll never feel safe. From now on I'd have to go about in constant fear, worried that someone might kill me. Once I hand Sister Long over to the Crown Prince, I'll summon the Left and Right Dharma Protectors and a few protecting elders. So long as the Dragon King dares to come, he'll leave without a whole corpse.
" His expression grew solemn. "He must die without a whole corpse—and his head must be smashed to pieces, or who knows whether he'll come back! Speaking of which, I wonder what business this Dragon King has with me.
.
.
but that hardly matters. What matters is killing him!
" Long Jiaonan shuddered several times over.