Chapter 429 — At the Head of the Yellow Springs Bridge
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 1 of 4
Thud.
The village chief's stone statue fell before the Po Boat. It had no limbs—only the carved figure of a weathered old man, his face seamed with wrinkles as though chiseled by wind and frost, eaten away by the years.
The statue seemed to be looking toward where Shen Mu stood, wearing a gratified smile, and Shen Mu could not help but recall that old man rocking unsteadily in his recliner, his gaze nonetheless fixed on him with a kindly, loving smile. "Village Chief.
.
. " Shen Mu was stunned, and a vast desolation suddenly surged up in his heart.
Darkness pressed in; the statue gave off a faint, ghostly glow, its reach small, as though it had conjured once more the sight of that somewhat stubborn old man, still obstinately wanting to guard his corner of the world.
"Grandpa Village Chief. . .
" From Shen Mu's eyes dripped moonlit tears, one after another floating up to hang in the air, their gleam like moonshine—when suddenly the agonized scream of the Flood Dragon King God rang out. Shen Mu shut his eyes and squeezed the moonlight from them. This time he had gone deep into the Desolate Ruins, escorted by the Flood Dragon King God, forcing his way into the place he had once mistaken for the Land of No Sorrow, where the colossal continental ship built by the Ministry of Heavenly Works lay, and then he had returned piloting the Po Boat.
When he tried to enter the Po Spring, he encountered another band of gods and demons who had come down from the High Heavens—not many, only three deities. These three did not travel as ostentatiously as Star Lord Qiao and his like, transforming into starlight to hurry on their way; instead they walked upon the earth, concealing their dazzling divine radiance and giving off only a faint glow to drive back the demon monsters in the dark.
When Shen Mu met them, one of the deities took him for some uncanny thing in the darkness and at once uttered a divine word: "The High Heavens are at work—let all demons disperse. " He was instantly met with a devastating blow from Shen Mu. Catching him off guard, Shen Mu swung up the Broken Moon and brought the moon down, smashing the deity to powder.
Only then did the other two realize they had met a formidable foe. Shen Mu was not like Yan Jingjing, who had to beware of her sun being smashed; he fought without the slightest scruple, recking nothing of the consequences, battling these two deities across thousands of li, and just now he had crippled another of them alive.
The reason it had taken so long was mainly that the Po Boat's moon was too battered, inferior to the Xi Boat. The Xi Boat possessed a whole sun, whereas the Po Boat's moon had long gone dark, and was damaged beyond measure.
Shen Mu had fought so long that the moon was now battered beyond recognition, and two of the chains binding it had come loose.
Yet in the instant he looked at the village chief, he still lost his focus for a moment; the sight of the village chief turning into stone and falling from the sky had shaken him too deeply, and an inexplicable sorrow welled up in him. The Flood Dragon King God's fighting strength was on par with Lord Dragon-Keeper's, his power inferior to the other deities of the High Heavens, and in that instant of Shen Mu's distraction he had been gravely wounded. Shen Mu opened his eyes and raised a hand to release the divine pillar, wanting to touch the statue that smiled at him though it had no hands or feet; his massive palm swept past before the statue but did not come down.
Clatter—his palm seized a chain that dangled down, his furious hair flying.