Chapter 366 — A Unique Skill
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 1 of 4
Long Jiaonan lunged at him and snarled, "You little brat, this state I'm in is all your doing! " Shen Mu raised a hand and Buddhist radiance blazed out; they traded one hard blow, both bodies shuddering violently, and in an instant Long Jiaonan's lovely hair came loose and drifted down in tangles, exposing patch after patch of bald scalp, while the skin of her face suddenly sagged.
Shen Mu's blood and qi churned; he was about to strike when he abruptly paused, and did not attack her. Out on the Eastern Sea, Long Jiaonan had nearly died beneath the joined assault of Ling Yuxiu and Si Yunxiang; she had strained every sinew to shed her skin, but it had cost her her own life-force, and though the Dao Master had carried her away, she had not yet recovered. Now, trading that one hard blow with Shen Mu, her wig came off at once and her taut skin went slack.
Long Jiaonan noticed too that her hair had been knocked loose; with a shriek she began snatching and scrabbling, gathering up strands from every side and pressing each wisp back onto her head, but the hair had already scattered, and how could it stick?
"Sister Long, your allotted lifespan is nearly spent. If you do not fight desperately, you may still live a few decades like any ordinary person. But if you raise a hand against me again, I will not kill you; I need only wound you once, and you will have no chance at all of surviving.
" Shen Mu shook his head. "There is no longer any possibility of you taking revenge on me in this life.
Why insist? " Long Jiaonan cried fiercely, "You are the one who reduced me to this! And now you come with your cold comfort!
" "You ruined yourself, and your father the Dragon King ruined you as well; it has nothing to do with me. Fastening on me is nothing but finding someone to vent your spite on. " Shen Mu studied the thick, sturdy legs beside him and raised his head to gaze up. The god was looking downward, but not at them; he was surveying the mountains and rivers, the geography of Jingping Kingdom.
Clearly this god did not hold them in his heart at all, deeming them no threat whatsoever, their greatest use merely to raise dragons for him.
Shen Mu steadied himself and weighed the possibility of fleeing with the Sky-Skimming Divine Legs, then dismissed the thought.
The Sky-Skimming Divine Legs were swift indeed; at full burst he could exceed the speed of sound more than fourfold, but he could sustain it only briefly, half a quarter-hour at most before his vital essence was spent and his flesh exhausted. And judging by the pace of the two flood dragons beneath the god's feet, though he might gain some distance, catching him would be no difficult matter.
Besides, that useless lump Long Qilin had gone limp as a puddle and could not stand up at all; if he had to carry Long Qilin as he ran, the distance he could cover would be limited. Long Qilin was simply too fat and too heavy! "Raising dragons, is it?
I raise Fatty Long every day; this is easy work for me! " Shen Mu sat down; beneath his backside was the body of a flood dragon, broad and wide. With a skill to rely on, he feared nothing at all.
If he could raise Fatty Long, could he not raise other flood dragons? "How should I address you, Senior? " Shen Mu called out loudly. "You may call me Lord Dragon-Keeper. " The god surveyed the mountains and rivers, his voice rolling like thunder: "I am a god of the Upper Heaven.
So long as you serve my dragons well, I will spare your lives, and not only spare them: I will carry you out of this foul world, up to the Upper Heaven, to enjoy blessings by raising dragons for me. " Long Jiaonan's eyes lit up.
"Patriarch! " she cried.
"I am a disciple of the Dragon-Taming Sect; the Dragon-Taming Sect is the sect you founded!
" Shen Mu gave a sudden shudder.