Chapter 306 — The Spirit of the Giant Serpent
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 1 of 4
Ban Gongcuo and his people had at last come before the treasure ship. Along the way another twenty or thirty had perished, slain under the strange and uncanny attacks of the creatures of the Nether Valley.
"Your Highness the Prince, these two white-browed monks are no weaklings in cultivation -- they have very nearly reached the Tathagata realm!
" Shaman King Gongmu's eyes lit up when he saw the two white-browed monks seated on the cliffs to either side. "Their fleshly bodies could be refined into quite decent treasures!
I will go fetch them!
" Ban Gongcuo neither assented nor refused, and Shaman King Gongmu at once led his men up to the niches in the cliff and took away the bodies of the two white-browed monks. Though the two white-browed monks were dead, their bodies still radiated Buddha-light, and Buddha-sounds quivered and shook, contending against the demonic qi surging in from Youdu. Now that their bodies had been taken away, the demonic qi behind the Hive Seal at once churned violently, shaking the seal until it tottered!
The demonic qi bursting from the cracks in the Hive Seal surged abruptly as well; in a single instant of impact many more cracks appeared in the seal, and some of the existing cracks widened greatly. From behind the seal came a faint, deep voice, and then the demonic qi abruptly drew back behind the seal, and that dreadful impact fell suddenly still.
Still to an uncanny degree. "At last I have come to this place -- a ship that can bear my hope of becoming a god!
" Ban Gongcuo gazed at the ship from beyond the heavens; even his mind, calm for ten thousand ages, was stirred, and lotuses bloomed beneath his every step as he walked toward the treasure ship.
The company came aboard and searched in every direction, when suddenly a great shaman discovered the open door and hurriedly reported it. Ban Gongcuo led the others into the room.
Several soldiers went ahead to scout the way and pushed the door open; suddenly the door behind them closed.
Those soldiers opened the door again and looked, but could find no trace of Ban Gongcuo and the rest. The people around Ban Gongcuo searched in all directions, and by degrees there were fewer and fewer of them.
Even though Ban Gongcuo cared nothing for their lives, at this moment he could not help feeling somewhat flustered. "Do not wander about!
" Ban Gongcuo's face was grave.
He examined the doors carefully, then laughed coldly: "The method of interlocking ruts -- space interlocking, layer clasped within layer. I once saw records of this art in Little Yujing; it is an art of the Kaihuang era!
" Shaman King Gongmu had not gone astray.
Hearing this he said joyfully, "Your Highness must know the way to break it! " Ban Gongcuo shook his head. "Little Yujing holds no record of how to break it. But the method of interlocking ruts is a school of spatial calculation arts, and my attainments in the way of calculation are very high -- I may say that even the Dao Lord of the Daoist sect is not necessarily my better.
Working out the way to break it will not be difficult for me! Let us go. I would like to see whether a god's interlocking method can hold me back! " In the treasure ship's study, Shen Mu closed the clan register.
"The last generation of the Kaihuang bloodline was called Shen Fengqing. Can the master of this ship be this Shen Fengqing?
The Shen family of the Kaihuang line, from Shen Ye down to Shen Fengqing, runs back far and unbroken -- this family was indeed a hereditary house. The master of this ship, Shen Fengqing, bears the surname Shen.
Is there some bond of blood between him and me? " He was about to put the register back on the shelf when, as though possessed, he stopped, and thrust the thick volume into his Taotie Pouch. He had just put the register away when he saw the old man from the painting crawl out from somewhere, run onto the desk, and appear upon the paper on its surface.