Chapter 375 — The Artless Smile
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 2 of 4
The dragon qilin, stung with pain, roared in fury, yet fearsome as the tearing force was, the beast stood firm as a mountain. Boom—outside the hall came a world-shaking crash; it must have been the power of Lord Dragonkeeper's blow erupting as it collided with Mojiang.
The four of them shuddered violently in midair, as though struck by countless thunderbolts.
They had not been struck by thunder: Mojiang's attack and Lord Dragonkeeper's had met, and the force of their fleshly bodies set space itself rippling, heaving violently like waves, and caught within that space the four heaved and pitched without cease. Blood seeped from the corners of their mouths.
The rippling of space did not merely toss them about; their very bodies twisted with the warping of space, their organs all but displaced, their bones crackling and popping under the unbearable strain, splitting into hairline fractures. "Too strong!
" the dragon qilin cried. "I am about to throw up!
" Shen Mu and the other three and the great stag felt so wretched they were near spitting blood, yet this fat dragon could still talk, and in full voice at that.
Just then light burst outside, a brilliance so white that they instantly could see nothing. When brightness reaches its extreme, it becomes darkness; they knew not whose divine power this was, but it left their eyes steeped in gloom.
Tears streaming, the four hurriedly roused their pupil arts lest their eyes be damaged. Thump, thump, thump.
Their bodies struck the ground, but the ripple of a second collision came. That clash had been some distance off, yet its tremors reached them, and the ground became like the surface of the sea, heaving in wave upon wave; even a lump like the dragon qilin was bounced into the air. Crack, crack, crack, several sharp reports, and Shen Mu and the others were flung up against the ceiling of the hall.
"Who built this hall for Granny, that it is so solid.
.
.
" Shen Mu, blood at the corners of his mouth from the impact, swallowed what welled up his throat and said in bitter vexation. In the past, when Sect Master Shen tore down houses and palaces, had he ever met anything this hard? Even the palace halls on Sacred Lin Mountain of the Youmo Cult he had smashed as he pleased; even the imperial palace, the Imperial Academy, the palaces of the Golden Palace he had demolished however he liked.
Not only palaces; he tore up dragon veins as well.
Yet Granny Zhu's palace was unimaginably hard. Slamming against its ceiling nearly scattered their bones, and still the great hall stood unscathed, without the slightest sign of collapse.
The ripple of the third exchange came, and Shen Mu and the others, dragon qilin included, crashed down again, piling atop one another: Mu Qingdai at the very bottom, Wang Muran next, then Long Yu, Shen Mu, the great deer, and the dragon qilin.
They scrambled to their feet, only to see that Mu Qingdai, the senior sister of Little Jade Capital, had been squeezed until her eyes rolled white.
Shen Mu hurriedly pried open her mouth and poured a vial of dragon saliva down her throat, and so brought her back.
The fourth ripple came from farther still, yet it was no small thing; it set them all trembling, and the warping of space made their bodies swell and shrink by turns. When they swelled, even Mu Qingdai, the slightest of them, was squeezed by compressed space into a plump little ball of a girl; when they shrank, even the fattest of them, the dragon qilin, was stretched out slim and slender, its great belly gone.
By the fifth ripple its effect upon them was already slight, and at last everyone breathed a sigh of relief. When gods fight, mortals suffer.
Though they were the finest among those who wielded divine powers, faced with a clash of such mighty ones, one slip would mean a hideous death. "Maha!
Maha!
" A strange cry came from beyond the hall.