Chapter 308 — The Height of Baseness
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 4 of 4
Yet, to his consternation, though Shen Mu was indeed performing the Thundering Mahayana Sutra, his legwork abruptly changed: uncanny beyond measure, varied beyond reckoning, his figure spun about Ban Gongcuo like a phantom! Ban Gongcuo was caught unprepared, and Shen Mu's driving knee slammed into his crotch; the pain set tears streaming from his eyes and made him gasp in cold air.
Slap, slap, slap!
Shen Mu kicked his face any number of times, sending him stumbling backward until his body was pressed against the wall. Death seemed at hand — when suddenly Ban Gongcuo's body dissolved into a shadow and fled along the wall.
It was the Shadow-Demon Transformation Art of the Great Nurturing Nether Demon Sutra, and by it he slipped clear of Shen Mu's Heaven-Sweeping Leg.
Exultant, Shen Mu raced for the cabin door, at the same time driving his flying swords with his qi; at a single thought, several hundred blades stabbed in unison at the shadow on the wall. He had no sooner reached the door and made to wrench it open and dash out than his feet were pinned fast: Ban Gongcuo had blocked his flying swords with the locusts, and, his demonic shadow hugging the floor, reached out two great black hands and seized Shen Mu's ankles.
"Then, Sect Master Shen, you had best leave the helmet behind!
" Ban Gongcuo gave a mighty tug, and Shen Mu's form instantly turned into a black shadow, clinging to the floor as well.
Both drove the Shadow-Demon Transformation Art, becoming two shadows that flashed across walls and floor, dealing lethal strokes at each other. Bang!
The wall of the bridge shook violently; Ban Gongcuo was blasted out of it, turning from demonic shadow into solid flesh, and at once drove his locusts to bite at Shen Mu's shadow on the wall. Shen Mu sped along the wall, then suddenly dropped headlong from the cabin ceiling — his legs still a demonic shadow, but his body restored to normal — and a hand-seal stamped down, knocking Ban Gongcuo head over heels. Ban Gongcuo sprang upright, but did not attack; instead he stared blankly past Shen Mu, and from his forehead beads of sweat as large as beans rolled down one after another.
Shen Mu was about to hurl himself at him when he, too, felt something amiss; his body stiffened, and two dreadful gazes came to rest upon him.
Almost against his will, he dispelled the Shadow-Demon Transformation Art, dropped to the floor, and turned his head with difficulty. In the darkness beyond the bridge, two enormous eyes had taken shape — one to the left of the bridge, one to the right, two hundred and sixty-four zhang apart. Their pupils ran vertically, sinister and uncanny, and their gaze came to rest upon the two men.
Ban Gongcuo's body trembled and his legs knocked together; in a hoarse voice he said, "Sect Master Shen, now I see why you wanted to leave this place. . .
" "You goddamned Shen Gongcuo!
" Shen Mu ground his teeth. "If not for you, I would have been long gone!
" From beneath those two pupils came an unpleasant voice, shrill and grating as fingernails clawing across steel: "Which of you bears the surname Shen?
" "Him!
" Shen Mu and Ban Gongcuo raised their hands at the same instant, each pointing at the other.