Chapter 368 — Deep in the Dark Underground
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 1 of 4
"Lord Dragon-Keeper's art for reckoning dragon veins is truly masterly.
" Shen Mu watched the dragon-shaped qi swimming in the golden vat. Lord Dragon-Keeper's method of calculation seemed able to divine out treasure mountains and treasure grounds; the Taibai Sword Sect, for instance, had built itself upon a dragon's eye, and appeared to sit upon a land of treasure—yet judged by the patterns in the Lord's vat, this was no treasure ground at all, but a baleful place where a host of dragons seized fortune and fed it back to the True Dragon Sovereign! A sect that settled here would for the most part have its fortune stolen away, dwindling and withering day by day. "No wonder the Taibai Sword Sect has fallen to such a state," he thought.
Lord Dragon-Keeper put away the golden vat.
Shen Mu hurried to return the Dragon-Keeping Sutra to him, but the Lord shook his head: "Keep it for now and study it.
As a boy who tends dragons, you must at the very least know the habits of every kind of dragon. The methods of dragon-rearing are in there; ponder them well. I give you two days—how much you comprehend will depend on your own understanding. After two days I will take it back.
" Long Jiaonan's face went green on the spot.
Lord Dragon-Keeper had no idea of Shen Mu's terrifying comprehension—but she knew it all too well! On a barren island in the East Sea, the Dao Lord had brought Shen Mu the fourteen chapters of the Daoist Sword and let him study them for ten days; in comprehending the Dao Sword, Shen Mu was no inferior to Lin Xuan the Daoist Heir!
The Dragon-Keeping Sutra, though the cultivation art of a god, could not be harder to fathom than the Dao Sword—only easier. The Dao Sword involved the arts of calculation, and the deeper one's mastery of calculation, the more effortlessly one grasped it. But how difficult were the arts of calculation?
The Dragon-Keeping Sutra was more concerned with rearing dragons, commanding dragons, living in symbiosis with dragons; among its arts, the Dragon-Taming Formula was the secret lore unique to the Dragon-Taming Sect, concealing within it the art of shedding one's skin and being reborn. Though the Dragon-Taming Sect was founded by Lord Dragon-Keeper himself, he had not passed down the complete Dragon-Keeping Sutra; what the sect master of the Dragon-Taming Sect obtained was only a broken remnant of the text.
Even so, with only that remnant the Dragon-Taming Sect counted as a formidable sect indeed—to be sure, it could not match the Three Great Holy Lands, but in the martial world it bore a resounding name; otherwise Emperor Yanfeng would never have let the Dragon-Taming Sect command an army of its own. Jingping had once had its Dragon Army, and the Dragon-Taming Sect had been its core.
A sect founded by Lord Dragon-Keeper himself had never possessed the complete Dragon-Keeping Sutra—yet Shen Mu, that scoundrel, had gotten his hands on it, which drove Long Jiaonan wild with hatred. Yet Lord Dragon-Keeper, precisely because of the lad's honest, simple looks, trusted him, and trusted her the less—which left Long Jiaonan feeling utterly powerless. Lord Dragon-Keeper did not know her thoughts.
In the eyes of a god like him, keeping Shen Mu and Long Jiaonan at his side was a trifling matter, much like carrying two ants along; naturally there was no need to wonder what the ants might be thinking.
Had Shen Mu not still been of use, his attitude toward him would have been no better than toward Long Jiaonan. Such was the height from which he stood.
He was a god; nothing could threaten him, and ants like Shen Mu certainly could not. There was no need to take them to heart—only to make them work for him; now and then one might toss the little ant a small benefit, so that it would serve all the more willingly.