Chapter 373 — Setting the Sky Ablaze
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 2 of 4
Shen Mu blew the golden flute, and more than a dozen flood dragons flew over, joining forces to lift Mojiang up. Only then was Mojiang satisfied. These dozen-odd flood dragons were all exceedingly powerful, equivalent to the very finest sect-master-level beings carrying Mojiang in flight, so naturally their speed was not slow.
The group pressed onward at tremendous speed. The trees on either side flashed past almost without shadow, and one mountain peak after another swept by them. On the dragon's back, the great stag kept staring at the dragon qilin, the contempt in its eyes growing thicker, snorting again and again, as if mocking this fat brute.
The dragon qilin's tail drooped, and it stared at the tip of its own nose.
Shen Mu felt rather gratified. "Fat Long still has a sense of shame. He's not a piece of rotten wood that can't be carved. Tomorrow, when I feed him another Fire-attribute Divine Essence Pill, he ought not to spit it out."
Suddenly, several black flood dragons with slender waists burrowed out, some crawling on treetops, some flying in the air, raising their heads to watch as flood dragon after flood dragon escorted Shen Mu and the others past.
Shen Mu caught a fleeting glimpse, and his heart gave a jolt.
Mu Qingdai said in surprise, "Flood dragons are exceedingly rare among exotic beasts. How have they suddenly become as common as weeds?"
Those few black flood dragons flew up, raised their heads, and cried out in a strange voice: "Maha, maha!" The group turned to look, and saw a dense black mass of thousands upon thousands of black flood dragons flying toward them, blanketing a whole stretch of mountain.
Then those thousands of black flood dragons leaped, swam, and flew, chasing after them.
Shen Mu withdrew his gaze and turned his head.
"Only one with such ability could be Lord Dragonkeeper! Most of Lord Dragonkeeper's flood dragons are with me. Where did these black ones come from? They don't look like true flood dragons."
He opened Lord Dragonkeeper's Taotie Pouch and took out the Dragon-Raising Sutra. Opening it, he examined it carefully. One passage spoke of nourishing the body with dragon qi.
"Draw in dragon qi, refine the body into a dragon; as the art progresses and transforms, muscle, flesh, skin, and hair may all be transformed."
Shen Mu was slightly startled. He turned to look back at the black flood dragons madly pursuing them. "Then these black flood dragons must be things from Lord Dragonkeeper's body. With so many of them, they can only be his hair. Worthy of a god of Heaven, to refine even his hair into dragons. And if they're hair, then they must fear fire..."
He blinked. The flute's melody shifted slightly. The fire flood dragon carrying Mojiang slowed its pace, then suddenly dropped, plunging into the mountain forest below.
Shen Mu drove the flock of dragons onward, while behind them that dense black mass of flood dragons came chasing madly, like a black cloud.
When the black cloud flew over the place where the fire flood dragon waited, terrible true fire suddenly swept up from below, in an instant shrouding a sky tens of li across. Countless black flood dragons struggled and burned in the flood dragon's true fire, and black smoke rolled through the air. In but a moment, the black flood dragons transformed from Lord Dragonkeeper's hair were burned to nothing by the fire flood dragon Shen Mu controlled, utterly consumed.
Having burned away the black flood dragons, the fire flood dragon shook its head and wagged its tail, chasing after them. It soon caught up and resumed carrying Mojiang onward.
Mojiang looked approving, and gave Shen Mu a thumbs-up. Shen Mu smiled bashfully and waved his hand. "Grandpa Mojiang, don't praise me like that..."
Wang Muran, Mu Qingdai, and Long Yu stared at one another, watching those thousands of burning black flood dragons turn to black ash in the flames and drift down. Each of them shivered.
"Muran, you're a good boy. Keep your distance from the Human Emperor."