Chapter 306 — The Spirit of the Giant Serpent
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 2 of 4
Shen Mu was about to catch this strange painted figure when suddenly a shadow flickered before his eyes: a young man appeared abruptly in front of the desk and walked toward him. Shen Mu had no time to dodge -- yet the young man passed straight through his body.
He was a phantom.
The man had an uncommon bearing, and his appearance gave Shen Mu a familiar sense of closeness.
Just so he passed through Shen Mu's body and emerged behind him. Startled, Shen Mu hurriedly turned.
The young man in white moved with unhurried ease, made the gesture of opening a door, and then vanished. Shen Mu rushed forward, and indeed saw a doorway.
He opened the door and went in, and again saw the man in white. This was a great hall within the tower ship; suddenly the empty, echoing hall was filled with people coming and going -- many people had walked out from somewhere.
Shen Mu was caught unprepared. Many people ran to and fro, passing through his body, greatly busied; some mishap must have befallen them.
Some of them could not keep their footing and were tossed this way and that by the jolting. It seemed the ship had suffered a collision -- this collision more violent still, so that many people were flung about the hall, and some were gravely hurt, making as if to vomit blood.
The man in white raised his hand, and all were fixed in midair, then slowly set down; though the ship shook violently, they still stood firm where they were. A woman of dignified and elegant bearing walked quickly toward the man in white.
What the two said to each other was unclear; the young man seemed to be soothing her in a low voice, and then walked outward.
Shen Mu's gaze fell upon the woman, and a look of doubt came over him. He felt an inexplicable familiarity; the sight of her gave him only a sense of closeness.
He hesitated a moment, then chose to follow the man in white. The man in white walked down the long corridor, passing through one doorway after another.
He stretched out a hand and beckoned, and a sword flew up and came to rest behind him, following him step for step. Shen Mu was slightly startled.
He roused his own Wuyou Sword; the Wuyou Sword trembled faintly, and seemed the very same sword as the one behind the man in white. The man in white walked to the bow of the ship, raised his head to look at the sky, and said something.
Suddenly the sky shook violently, and there appeared an incomparably vast serpent, its great mouth open. The serpent seemed immeasurably far from them, yet it was enormous; it appeared in the black sky showing only its head and neck, the rest of its body hidden in the darkness.
Upon the serpent's head stood dreadful beings, one after another -- not like humans, but like the god-statues in the temples of the wilderness ruins, except that these were living gods.
They were attacking the ship, and every blow felt as terrible as the annihilation of a world. Shen Mu was drawn in by the man in white's swordsmanship.
That swordsmanship was not like any sword art of the mortal world; it had a wondrous savor.
The savor it gave Shen Mu was like the Dao of which both the Village Head and the Dao Lord had spoken. The difference was that the Dao the Village Head spoke of was swordsmanship approaching the Dao, while the Dao the Dao Lord spoke of was mathematics approaching the Dao.
The path taken by this man in white's swordsmanship was unlike that of either the Village Head or the Dao Lord; another sword-Dao was contained within it, though what exactly it was Shen Mu could not tell.
His eye had not yet reached such a level. He watched, drunk with fascination. In the past, when he learned swordsmanship, he had always been learning -- learning the technique, bringing technique to its utmost, so that his sword art was enough to make him a champion.