Chapter 431 — Carrot and Stick
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 3 of 4
" "I trigger the Five Thunder Gourd, you let me go, and I will not so much as touch the other weather weapons! " Shen Mu swallowed the pills and answered in a languid, sickly voice, "No. " Bai Xi's small eyes contracted sharply. "Do not push me into a dead end!
If I cannot complete the task the supreme gods have set us, I cannot survive either. Either let me trigger the Five Thunder Gourd and let me leave, or I trigger it and we fight to the death!
Even if I die, I can drag you all along with me!
" Shen Mu shook his head.
"You cannot drag any of us. " Bai Xi laughed aloud. Shen Mu brought out the True Dragon's Nest, produced the divine limbs he had seized from Xinghan, and assembled them into a demon-god image with four heads and many arms. He said, "Senior Brother Bai Xi, I have no shortage of ways to protect myself. I am well versed in teleportation, and I know summoning arts.
This body I prepared for an old friend of mine.
If you will not come to terms with me, I shall summon him from the Dutian World. Forget protecting myself - killing you would be child's play. " Bai Xi's gaze fell upon the four-headed, many-armed patchwork figure, and his eyes grew smaller still. "Are you bluffing me? What demon-god could you possibly know? " Shen Mu smiled faintly, then produced a bone-white altar and a wooden effigy of a demon-god. He activated the divine ability of talisman-writing to command ghosts and summon deities, performing rites upon the altar.
After a moment, gusts of yin wind sprang up, demonic vapors churned, and rune after rune on the wooden effigy flared in turn. Bai Xi's expression shifted slightly, and he called out in haste, "Stop!
No need to summon. I believe you! " Shen Mu stopped at once and secretly breathed a sigh of relief. Had he continued the summoning, even if he reached the Dutian Demon King, the king would not necessarily have paid him any heed.
The Dutian Demon King bore heavy burdens - heavy responsibilities and a timid heart.
Since their last parting, he had never contacted Shen Mu again, declaring that he would absolutely never return to this world. If he learned that over a hundred divine statues had sprung up across Jingping, along with one weather weapon after another of inscrutable might, he would be even more afraid to show his face.
Shen Mu took down the wooden demon-god effigy, set the assembled demon-god body upon the altar, and smiled. "Can we negotiate now?
" Bai Xi's face churned with uncertainty. After calculating for a moment, he gritted his teeth and said, "I have elders and children in the Upper Heaven!
If I fail in my task, my race will surely be wiped out! I must return to the Upper Heaven and bring them out!
" "Do not believe him, my lord," Jiao Wangshen said under his breath. "He does indeed have a race in the Upper Heaven, but the Upper Heaven is not a place one can go to just because one wishes, nor come down from at will. The Upper Heaven has officiating gods of reception.
Without their permission, no one may freely enter or leave!
" Shen Mu smiled faintly. Bai Xi's face changed dramatically, and he sneered, "How could the Dragon-Keeper have raised a traitor like you? " Jiao Wangshen sneered back: "If the Dragon-Keeper had not been subdued by my lord, how would I ever have become a traitor? " Bai Xi stared with his mouth agape and said in disbelief, "The Dragon-Keeper was subdued by him?
" "The Dragon-Keeper, like you, was gravely wounded by me and in the end had no choice but to submit.
" Shen Mu smiled gently.
"The terms I gave him were exceedingly generous - command of the Yong River, Dragon King of the Yong!
Every year those who leap into the Yong to die, those who die in its shipwrecks, are his rations.
The fare is absolutely first-rate.