Chapter 304 — The Giant's Body Lies Athwart
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 2 of 4
These beings were powerful, uncanny, sinister, evil -- more evil and more uncanny even than the Demon Hosts Shen Mu had once seen! Compared with the creatures of the Nether Capital, the Demon Hosts were almost kindly.
These creatures of the Nether Capital and the soul couriers of the Nether Capital were two absolute extremes!
He raised his head and looked at the ship hanging in the air, touching neither heaven nor earth.
The honeycomb seal held it fast, equilateral hexagonal columns set into space itself, layer upon layer, half-transparent as glass -- the seal the ancient gods had left behind.
And from that ship drifted wave upon wave of demonic qi and other uncanny breaths, and faintly, within the demonic qi, came sounds that filled a man with deep unease -- like the twisted screams of countless wronged souls suffering torment in the Nether Capital.
Shen Mu steadied his heart. All at once his body shook, and he took on his human-headed, serpent-bodied form, a scroll of scripture in his hands, the Gate of Heaven-Bearing rising behind him; his tail undulated and he floated up at once, swimming around the god-man colossus ahead toward the ship. The two white bats were startled, and hurriedly beat their wings and rose, studying Shen Mu with curiosity.
"He's changed again, changed again! First he was an ox, then he became a man, and now he's become a snake!
" "There's something odd about this gateway. I'll go in and have a look!
" said Fu Yuqiu, curious, and made to push open the Gate of Heaven-Bearing and peer inside. "Beyond it lies the Nether Capital.
If you want to die now and have your souls enter the Nether Capital, then go ahead and open the door," Shen Mu said gravely.
As he spoke, his heart suddenly gave a great jolt.
He halted in midair and stared, dazed, at the giant gateway ahead.
The Gate of Heaven-Bearing.
This gateway, sealed by the honeycomb, was a Gate of Heaven-Bearing!
If this gateway was a Gate of Heaven-Bearing, then what was that statue?
Shen Mu turned his head with difficulty and looked at the colossus of the god-man.
Was not this statue, and this Gate of Heaven-Bearing, exactly like Shen Mu as he was now?
"This is no statue, but a man who, like me, has perfected the Star-Steward form!
" Shen Mu's mind rang like a struck bell. Though the Star-Steward form was always human-headed and serpent-bodied, not everyone could cultivate the Gate of Heaven-Bearing and the scroll in his hands; the Imperial Preceptor Jingping, though hailed as a sage such as appears once in five hundred years, had never attained this form. It was the most perfect of forms.
Once, Shen Mu had believed this to be the mark of the Overlord Body, and the very reason he was confident that even the Imperial Preceptor Jingping, at the same realm, could not be his better.
And now he had seen another being who had cultivated the Gate of Heaven-Bearing.
"Was this an Overlord Body of ancient times?
Why was he turned to stone?
Why had he come to this? " Shen Mu stood silent in the air, gazing at the colossus.
It was no statue, but a god-man in the human-headed, serpent-bodied Star-Steward form, turned to stone; the greater part of his body must still lie buried in the earth. His Gate of Heaven-Bearing had become the passage linking the Nether Capital to the world of the living, but for some reason the gateway had slipped beyond control, and the creatures of the Nether Capital had poured out through it to wreak havoc in the world of the living; and so the ancient god-man had had no choice but to seal the gateway. "Then how was he turned to stone, and by whom.
.
.
?
" Shen Mu was perplexed.
What had this ancient Overlord Body met with, that he should come to such a pass?