Chapter 309 — Pulling Each Other Down
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 2 of 4
Ban Gongcuo, for his part, was only thirteen; because he was a man of the grasslands, weathered by wind and sun, he looked rather mature for his years. Both of them appeared to be fifteen or sixteen.
Those inverted pupils showed a look of bewilderment; faced with the present situation, the being too seemed at a loss.
The present state of things differed from what he had surmised. He had guessed that either someone would come from Carefree Village, or that a sixteen-year-old youth surnamed Shen would come here, take the treasure ship, and return to Carefree Village. Yet now two youths of about the same age had come together — and both, astonishingly, were surnamed Shen!
Which was real and which false, none could tell.
"Drive this ship and set course for Carefree Village!"
The voice went on, "Whichever of you is surnamed Shen, so long as you can drive this treasure ship to Carefree Village, you may all live."
Shen Mu hastily pulled the silver helmet from his head and stuffed it into Ban Gongcuo's hands, saying with the utmost sincerity, "Shen Gongcuo, haven't you always wanted this helmet? Now you may take it."
Ban Gongcuo held the helmet, his head swelling as big as a bushel; he wanted to decline, but Shen Mu would insist on forcing it on him. Inwardly he cursed Shen Mu over and over, heaven knows how many times, yet he steeled himself and put the helmet on.
His eyes flickered. For all that he had lived ten thousand years, witnessed countless great events in history, seen much and known much, and was privy to no end of hidden secrets, of Carefree Village he knew but little — and as to where Carefree Village lay, he was utterly in the dark.
He had learned only from the records of the Daoist sects, the Great Thunderclap Temple, and Little Jade Capital that it was a place where one could become a god, that deities moved about there, and that it was a remnant of the Kaihuang Era.
His coming this time had likewise been in the hope of relying on this ship to reach that mysterious place and thereby become a god.
Now he had obtained the helmet he had dreamed of, the key to steering the treasure ship — but how was he to get to this so-called Carefree Village?
He put on the helmet and felt as though his head inside it had swelled several sizes larger; he could not help but grunt.
What a swindle.
Swindled by one surnamed Shen.
No wonder this fellow had called him Shen Gongcuo the moment they met — he had been lying in wait for him here all along!
"But if you think you can make me perish here, you underestimate me far too much! Over ten thousand years, countless heaven-favored prodigies have died and their dao dissolved with them — Dao Lords, Tathagatas, immortals, what of them? The moment their allotted span ran out, they breathed their last all the same. In all these ten thousand years, I alone have survived — and not by my talent or my comprehension, but by my extraordinary abilities! That I have lived until now is no unearned reputation!"
Ban Gongcuo's eyes flickered; he quickly worked out how to operate the silver helmet and tried tapping the map upon it. The treasure ship shuddered once, but still could not sail out of the honeycomb seal.
"Senior."
Ban Gongcuo said hastily, "This ship is stuck fast and cannot move."
Suddenly the treasure ship shook violently, jarring loose the honeycomb seal all around it — plainly the fearsome being outside had acted to shake the treasure ship free of the seal.
The honeycomb seal was shaken loose; many honeycomb-shaped seals showed crack after crack, then collapsed and crumbled like glass. The demonic qi of Youdu surged abruptly, rushing into the Wild Ruins.
At the same time, in the Nether Valley, those two white-bat statues, vast as mountain ranges, rumbled and shook; rocks and stones rattled and slid, falling ceaselessly from the statues a thousand zhang tall.