Chapter 291 — The Heavens Above
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 2 of 4
Night in the Desolate Ruins was shrouded in darkness; no stars hung in the sky, no moon, and many a strange beast hidden away in the scattered relics, and the people in their villages, could not help lifting their heads to stare dumbly at a spectacle never seen before.
Suddenly that star plunged wildly, streaking down from the sky into the ruins, and those beasts and people who witnessed the marvel all sighed inwardly with regret.
Boom! The carriage came plunging down slantwise from the sky as though out of control.
Below lay the source of the Yong River, and in the darkness two mountain peaks stood like a gateway; it was between those two peaks that the carriage fell. The two suanni strove desperately to master the carriage but could not govern it at all, and were so frightened that they roared again and again.
The four girls on the carriage were in a panic too, and only then did they discover that at some unknown hour they had turned into withered bones! The four girls looked ahead, and saw that the two suanni drawing the carriage had likewise become two running skeletons of white bone.
They looked into the carriage, and a skull sat there. The skull, unhurried, gave a cold snort.
"To drag my carriage down - is Fengdu's thieving heart still not dead? " Ahead, gray gloom and mist stretched vast and dim; shadowy shapes loomed enormous within the fog, and red lights kindled in it, lanterns that moved as the carriage moved.
They were no lanterns, but eyes, pupils one and all.
The shadows in the mist withdrew one after another, and the red lights went out one after another. Flesh and blood grew back over the two suanni, and feeling the carriage no longer so heavy, they hastily put strength into their feet and hauled it up into the air.
Seeing flesh and blood restored to their bodies, the four girls on the carriage all breathed sighs of relief.
Star Lord Qiao's body likewise returned to its usual state, and he said mildly, "Fengdu, who will not submit to the governance of Youdu, and dares even to affront Heaven Above - it should long ago have been wiped out. " The carriage traveled on along the Yong River, and when the sky grew bright they saw the end of the Desolate Ruins, only a little more than a thousand li distant.
Suddenly a sword light rose from below and soared upward, bursting open in midair; the snow-bright sword radiance exploded in an instant, dazzling beyond compare, outshining the glory of the sun.
The suanni and the four girls on the carriage hastily shut their eyes, and when they opened them the four girls cried out in astonishment: the earth-shaking sword light of a moment before had vanished, and before the carriage stood a majestic expanse of mountains and rivers, towering peaks and sheer ranges, unbroken and endless.
Strangely, this landscape had not been there at all a moment ago, and moreover it floated in a sea of clouds, as though it had grown up out of the cloud layer itself.
From among the high crags came the rumble of a river rushing forth, and they saw waterfalls pouring down the cliffs and precipices, flying jade and spilling pearls. This green mountain and blue water floated amid the clouds, betraying no trace of anything amiss, not like a mirage.
"Stop," said Star Lord Qiao slowly from within the carriage.
The two suanni hastily halted.
Star Lord Qiao rose and looked toward the far end of this landscape, and saw that the mountains and rivers were still extending, as though growing of themselves; the peaks in the clouds were vast and grand, and range after range, river after river, kept surfacing from beneath the cloud layer. And at the edges of this landscape, sword lights flickered, hard to catch, yet unable to escape his eyes.
This sight was as though someone had used a sword for a brush and painted, in the clouds, a scroll of magnificent mountains and rivers. "Old cripple, so you are still alive.