Chapter 378 — The Fall of a God
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 1 of 4
Shen Mu, Wang Muran, Mu Qingdai, and Long Yu had all been gravely wounded and could not move. Long Yu's legs were broken; Mu Qingdai lay unconscious from her hurts; nearly every bone in Wang Muran's body had been smashed to pieces. The worst of Shen Mu's wounds was still that punch he had taken while in shadow form—it had nearly shattered him outright while he was nothing but a shadow.
All four of them lay there. Long Yu's neck was bent crooked and his tongue lolled out; he had wrenched the neck himself, and that backward blow had almost snapped it clean through.
He watched helplessly as Long Qilin walked over; watched helplessly as the creature stretched out its long tongue and slathered it over him. The tongue rolled him head over heels, then licked him once more and flipped his face forward again. Still his tongue would not go back in.
Long Qilin licked him again, until Long Yu was soaked from head to toe.
A fury of itching broke out all over him—the maddening itch of broken bones regrowing, severed tendons re-knitting, flesh sprouting anew. He hurriedly roused his vital essence and used it to align his bones, lest they set crooked.
If a bone knitted crooked, then even after the wound healed he would be warped and twisted all over, and that would be a sorry business indeed.
Wang Muran lay nearby and watched him get plastered all over with slobber, Long Qilin's great tongue flipping their senior brother over and over like a spatula turning meat so it would not scorch; he could not help but snort and sputter with laughter.
The boy laughed until his wounds split and bled, laughed until the pain had tears streaming down his face.
Long Qilin walked over and stretched out its long tongue, and Wang Muran stopped laughing. The tongue came down over his face like an enormous sticky blanket that wrapped him up and rolled him head over heels.
Having dealt with Wang Muran, Long Qilin gave the unconscious Mu Qingdai a thorough licking too, leaving the girl drenched. The licking woke her; to spare herself embarrassment, she simply went on feigning unconsciousness.
Long Qilin started toward Shen Mu, and Shen Mu said, barely breathing, "Don't lick me. Senior Brother Long Yu, how are your injuries? There is dragon saliva in jade bottles in my Taotie Pouch—take one out and help me smear some on, and that will do..."
"Lick him! Fatty... Big Dragon, you must lick him!" Long Yu shouted in a fluster.
Wang Muran nodded vigorously and cried, "We all got licked—you think we would let him off? Big Dragon, lick!"
Mu Qingdai hastily opened her eyes too, no longer feigning sleep, and laughed. "Share the blessings, share the hardships. Big Dragon, lick!"
Shen Mu's expression changed drastically. He crawled laboriously to one side, but Long Qilin raised a claw and pinned down his trouser leg. Unable to crawl away, Shen Mu flew into a rage. "Fat Dragon, I am covered in poison! Lick me and in a moment the poison will flare and kill you—blood pouring from every orifice until you die!"
Long Qilin hesitated, and the other three all burst out laughing. "Who on earth smears poison on himself? Fat Dragon, lick away—if you die of it, we will see to the burial!"
Reassured, Long Qilin licked Shen Mu until he was turned belly-up and soaked through. This was the master who fed him, after all, so of course he had to take a little more care; he licked Shen Mu more meticulously than he had any of the others.
Shen Mu's face went ashen. Flipped this way and that by that tongue like a thing on a spatula, he did not move or struggle; he seemed to have accepted his fate.
Long Qilin withdrew its tongue, then noticed that it had licked Shen Mu's hair into disarray. It hastily and carefully licked his hair back into place, until it gleamed with grease.
"Enough, Fat Dragon..."
The Great Cult Master Shen said woodenly, "Enough, stop licking... all right, all right, it is already neat... do not lick anymore!"