Chapter 426 — Blazing Flame Forest Sea
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 2 of 4
The Alchemist refined pills and compounded medicines without pause, faster even than Shen Mu, ceaselessly poisoning the gods of the High Heavens or dosing the Headman and the others to heal their wounds. He urged, "Lame Old Man, hurry! Faster! Didn't you boast that your speed was number one under heaven?
" "If I weren't carrying you, I would be number one under heaven!
" The Lame Old Man was frantic with rage. "If you don't believe me, try having your legs cut off and put back on! Twice — my legs were severed twice, and only recently reattached.
I'm afraid that if I run any faster they'll leave my upper body behind, that the two of them will abandon me and run off on their own! " The Alchemist consoled him: "It's fine.
Shen'er's handiwork is excellent; they won't come off so easily. Run a little faster; there's another god close behind us.
" Behind them a three-headed god was in wild pursuit. The Alchemist had long since released the "little darlings" he raised; countless venomous creatures surged like a tide toward that god. These creatures had been nourished for many years on the Alchemist's miracle elixirs and every sort of poison, and each was mighty.
As they ran they transformed: in a few blinks their bodies swelled, muscle and exoskeleton bursting out with thuds, becoming one behemoth after another, hideous and savage, swallowing clouds and breathing mist, spitting fire and water and poison.
Yet even so they could only slow that three-headed god a little. The god's strength was terrifying; with the lift of a hand he smashed each venomous creature to powder, into clumps of gaudy pulp, severed limbs flying.
The creatures could not even draw near; a single roar from him burst them apart.
And even when he was poisoned, one of the three-headed god's heads blazed with roaring flame, turning into a head of fire that burned madly from within outward, tempered in divine fire that coursed again and again through his whole body, burning the venom away. Another of his heads turned sapphire, and a sapphire treasure-light scoured his flesh over and over, expelling the deadly poison in an instant.
The Alchemist's poisons had met their bane in this god. What was more, if he did not rely on his venomous creatures, the Alchemist's own strength was perhaps the weakest in the Hidden Maimed Village — merely the Heaven-Human realm.
All his strength lay in poison and poisonous things.
Counting poison and poisonous creatures, his fighting power could not be reckoned: he might poison a god to death, or he might be smashed apart by a single slap. Carrying him on his back, the Lame Old Man could not match his peak speed, and still had to dodge the sneak attacks the other gods might make at any moment; the plight of the two was dire indeed.
Even though the Lame Old Man's speed was unmatched under heaven, threading among world-shaking divine abilities was a heart-stopping thing; one careless step and both might lose their lives.
"The Imperial Preceptor of Jingping has lost his fighting strength — go rescue him first! " The Lame Old Man, carrying the Alchemist, rushed toward the place where the Imperial Preceptor had fallen, but just then the three-headed god gave a sudden shake, and two of his heads came flying through the air, water and fire together, rolling toward the two of them!
The Lame Old Man dodged in panic; suddenly the ground ahead turned unbearably hot, in an instant becoming a rolling sea of lava, and the whole snow mountain sank slowly into it. A god stood upon the lava, holding a bright mirror in his hand; the mirror floated up and hung in the air, and its vast surface shone down into the lava.
Everything beneath the earth became like clear lake water, plainly visible.