Chapter 305 — The Old Man in the Scroll
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 1 of 4
At the mouth of the Abyss, Ban Gongcuo arrived with his host of great shamans and shaman kings. Of the several hundred masters of supernatural power of the Man-Di Kingdom, fewer than a hundred still remained; all the rest had died in the strange and unfathomable forest of the Nether Valley. Countless waves of great shamans from the Loulan Golden Palace had explored this place before, and yet this great expedition had still cost them grievously in dead and wounded.
To Ban Gongcuo, how many died was of no consequence, so long as the dead did not include himself. The lives of these soldiers and great shamans -- even of the shaman kings -- had always been ready to be cast away at any moment; his purpose in bringing them was simply to have them shield him, to pile up a road to the heart of the Nether Valley out of their corpses.
As an old monster who had lived ten thousand years, he could already disregard and overlook the lives of all others; the only thing he cherished was himself. "At last, I have come to this place. " Ban Gongcuo stood at the edge of the Abyss, gazing down, his eyes somewhat entranced. It was sixteen years ago that the Nether Valley had first entered his sight -- the affair of the ship from beyond the heavens, when visitors from beyond the sky had piloted a treasure ship down into the Nether Valley, drawing the attention of three powers. The Loulan Golden Palace, the Youmo Cult, and the Great Thunderclap Temple had all fixed their eyes upon this place.
At that time the Youmo Cult had no leader, and the Tathagata of the Great Thunderclap Temple, though he knew certain secrets, had never ventured deep into it. And at that time Ban Gongcuo himself had already grown ancient and frail; cherishing his own life, he had not come in person, but had hidden himself away in the Golden Palace, awaiting his reincarnated holy child.
Yet the broken sword that a shaman king of the Loulan Golden Palace had brought back from the Nether Valley had made him realize that this ship from beyond the heavens was no small matter.
And now he had successfully reincarnated, and could at last come to this place. What was more, the Luandi Khan was preparing to send troops against the Kingdom of Jingping, so he could borrow the Luandi Khan's forces to enter here. "Gongmu, do you all feel it?
" Ban Gongcuo said in a low voice. "This place is filled through and through with the power of souls. The power hidden in shattered souls has bred these grotesque living things.
This is the finest holy ground for we great shamans to cultivate. " Beside him, the great shamans and shaman kings felt their souls shudder over and over; the breath of this place set their souls and primordial spirits alike rejoicing. It brimmed with the power of spirit and soul, and the spirit-power and soul-power here were so abundant that they far surpassed even the Loulan Golden Palace. Along the way they had already seen how bizarre the life of the Nether Valley was.
To the soldiers of the Man-Di Kingdom, the creatures of the Nether Valley were nightmares incarnate; to great shamans such as these, they were walking tonics of immense power -- though admittedly, such tonics were rather dangerous. A great shaman, by his very nature, cultivated through the souls of other living things!
Shaman King Gongmu breathed greedily of the air that drifted up from the Abyss, where spirit-power and soul-power were stronger still, and sighed in admiration: "If my Golden Palace could gain a foothold here, it would strengthen the might of our great shamans, and cultivation would yield twice the result for half the effort!
The spirit-power and soul-power here would greatly enhance the primordial spirit! " The Loulan Golden Palace had always excelled in matters of soul and primordial spirit; their attainments in soul and primordial spirit ran deep, and among the other holy grounds, even the Great Thunderclap Temple fell a notch short in the cultivation of the primordial spirit.