荒墟牧神 - 第310章 詭秘長廊 - 簡牘書房

They burst into that room, and the old man in the painting still had not halted; he went on into another. Shen Mu hurried after him, and there, charging straight at him, came a figure. The two nearly collided, and each hastily twisted aside.

In the instant their bodies crossed, they caught sight of each other's face, and both were startled.

"Sect Master of the Nether Demon Sect!"

"A Mandi Kingdom warrior!"

Shen Mu's reaction was the quicker. In the instant they brushed past, his palm was already raised, and in a flash it broke the sound barrier, erupting in a thunderclap as he drove one palm-seal onto the man's back, over the heart.

Nine Dragons Commanding Wind and Thunder!

His palm landed on the man's back; the force was on the very verge of releasing when the man at last reacted. His blade orb had only just floated up, and then the power of Shen Mu's strike erupted. Draconic force came surging. The first wave of impact shattered his protective vital essence; the second, a twin-dragon blow, wrecked the muscle and sinew of his back; the third smashed his bones; the fourth ground his heart to pulp; and the fifth drove the draconic force straight out through his chest, bursting from his body as a blood dragon, claws bared and fangs bared wide!

That Mandi warrior's blade orb hung in the air, and the curved blades within it rang with a shrill note. One after another, slender curved blades split out from the orb. In that same moment Shen Mu's other hand brought up his sword; the edge of the Carefree Sword caught the orb, and with one stroke he cut it open.

The blade orb burst apart at once, scattering into a hundred-odd broken curved blades that went clattering to the floor.

And the Mandi warrior's vital essence scattered into nothing; he fell dead.

Ban Gongcuo, a step behind, had not even had time to rescue him before Shen Mu had cut the warrior down at close quarters. He could not contain his fury. "Sect Master Shen, that was one of my men!" he said, his voice harsh.

Shen Mu returned the Carefree Sword to its sheath and shook his head. "When your man met me, his first instinct was to strike me dead. I only defended myself. Had I not seized the first move, it would be I lying there now. If the Venerable One is displeased, why not walk in front? When your own men meet you, they will not raise a hand."

Ban Gongcuo hesitated. To walk ahead of Shen Mu was to lay his back bare before him. With what ease this brat had killed that Mandi warrior with a single palm strike—given the chance to kill him, he would surely be all the more nimble about it.

He did not dare entrust his back to Shen Mu.

What was more, Shen Mu had named only one possibility. What if the next one they met was not Ban Gongcuo's man, but the two white bats and the dragon qilin that kept to Shen Mu's side? Then he would be pinned between them, and Ban Gongcuo could already picture his own end.

But to keep running around after Shen Mu was no answer either. Shen Mu charged this way and that without rhyme or reason; plainly he had not cracked the treasure ship's art of spatial alignment. If they went on careening from room to room like this, Ban Gongcuo feared he too would be dragged off course by Shen Mu, and would have to recalculate everything from the start to work out the structure of the ship's rooms.

"I cannot let this brat lead the way."

With that thought, Ban Gongcuo pushed open a door. "This way!"

Behind him came the sound of a door opening; Shen Mu had run off into another room. Furious, Ban Gongcuo had no choice but to chase him down—after all, the silver helm that commanded the ship was still in Shen Mu's keeping.

The two entered this room and stopped short. Shen Mu lifted his foot; some slime had stuck to the sole of his shoe.

The room was thick with green slime. It coated the floor and the walls, and there was even slime on the table, enough to turn the stomach.