Chapter 305 — The Old Man in the Scroll
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 3 of 4
The two white bats hastily dodged aside and hung upside down on either side of the doorway, craning their heads to peer into the room. This room was one of the chambers in the buildings on the deck of the treasure ship. It measured seven zhang in length and breadth. There were screens and jade tables, and the candlestick on the jade table was still lit; a bronze crane held an incense burner in its beak, and wisps of smoke curled upward from the burner.
There was no one in the room, but judging by the candlestick and the incense burner, someone seemed to have been here only moments before. "It is safe here! " said Fu Yuchun.
Shen Mu opened his Azure Empyrean Heaven Eye and looked; he saw no problem.
Then he swept the room again with his Cinnabar Empyrean Heaven Eye, and still found nothing amiss.
They went into the room and looked all around.
Fu Yuqiu said: "How strange. This door has never opened before.
Why has it opened today. .
. " "It has never opened before? " Shen Mu was somewhat taken aback.
The two white bats nodded. "The doors on this ship cannot be opened; no matter how much strength one uses, they will not open.
It is very strange.
" There were not many things in this room. On the screen were embroidered green hills and blue waters, and a lone boat at the heart of the river, with an old man seated in the prow, fishing. One of the white bats came to the jade table and tried to pick up a candlestick for light, but could not lift it at all, and so gave up.
Shen Mu surveyed the room once over, and dimly felt that something seemed to be watching them; yet he could not sense the source of the gaze, and grew quietly wary.
His eyes searched all around, and still that feeling of being watched remained.
Shen Mu whipped his head around, but saw nothing. His essence qi surged forth and became a mirror that reflected all around him.
Suddenly he saw that the old man fishing in the painting on the screen had quietly turned his head and was furtively sizing them up. Shen Mu hastily turned and lunged at the screen.
The old man fishing was thrown into a panic; he flung down his fishing rod and, with two hops and three skips, nimbler than could be imagined, ran from the screen onto the wall, and raced along the wall on his legs into another doorway.
Shen Mu gave chase at once, opened the door, and rushed in. Suddenly a bang came from behind him as a door shut.
Startled, Shen Mu hastily retreated; the Carefree Sword at his back leapt into the air and became the Cloud Sword Form to guard his whole body, while he reached back to push open the door behind him and said in a low, heavy voice: "Brothers Fu, Fat Dragon, come in quickly! Brothers Fu. .
. " Shen Mu turned to look, and was slightly stunned.
Where the door opened, it was not the room he had come from, but another room entirely -- a room that looked like a woman's embroidery chamber! And the room he had just entered had vanished without a trace!
The two white bats and the dragon qilin hastily pushed open the door as well, but Shen Mu was nowhere to be seen, and their expressions changed drastically. They hurried to open the other doors, but could not find any trace of Shen Mu either.
"Something is wrong! " The dragon qilin batted open the door behind it with its claws, peered in, and cried out in alarm: "This is not the room we came in through! There is something strange about the rooms on this ship!
" The two white bats closed the door, and when they pushed it open again, the room had changed -- it was yet another room. Again and again they tried: every time the door closed and opened, the room was different! "We are done for! " Fu Yuchun's face was ashen, and his voice trembled: "If we do not find him, we just wait for the poison to erupt -- and our White Bat Divine Race will go extinct!
" "Do not panic," said the dragon qilin. "These rooms must have a fixed number; there cannot be an endless supply of them.