Chapter 445 — Dragon Soaring Over the Sand Sea
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 4 of 4
Long Qilin hurried over. Beneath that lake lay white bones everywhere, heaped in mounds — who knew how many people's remains had been thrown in here!
Ban Gongcuo practiced his arts on the souls of others; he had killed untold masters of the Western Lands, and their remains had been dumped here.
"Do we still fetch water?" Xiong Qier's face was white as snow.
Long Qilin bit his tongue and spat a small mouthful of blood into the lake. The surface boiled at once; with a splash and surge countless droplets churned, and innumerable soul worms fought over the dragon blood in the water.
Long Qilin hastily seized Xiong Qier by the back of her collar in his jaws, lifted her up, and retreated swiftly, so that the lake water would not splash onto her.
"This lake has been poisoned with soul poison; the water can no longer be drunk."
Long Qilin set the little girl down and said: "Climb up onto the tip of my tail and sit facing backward."
His tail hung down, and Xiong Qier scrambled up hastily and sat facing backward.
Long Qilin raised his tail, and Xiong Qier slid all the way down from its tip onto his back. The little girl cried that it was fun: "Again! Do it again!"
"No more playing. There is a mane on my neck — hold on tight; I must be off to catch up with the Sect Master," Long Qilin instructed her.
Xiong Qier crawled over and burrowed into the long mane, her small hands gripping two strands of it tightly. Suddenly a dragon scale nearby lifted and covered her — Long Qilin feared that if he ran too fast she might easily slip off.
Before, with Shen Mu there to protect Xiong Qier, Long Qilin had no need to worry; but now that Shen Mu was gone, it fell to him to care for her with all diligence.
Long Qilin further used his dharma power to shield Xiong Qier, forming a barrier, said a word of caution, and only then set off in pursuit in the direction Shen Mu had gone. His speed gradually increased; he dared not accelerate all at once, yet he grew faster and faster, soon outrunning sound, the blazing sand dunes sweeping past behind him like fleeting shadows.
"Fat Dragon, you are even faster than before!"
Xiong Qier said loudly: "Why don't you run this fast in front of Big Brother?"
"What would a little girl like you know? If you want a horse to run fast, you must feed the horse well."
Long Qilin was exceedingly pleased with himself, and laughed: "I run a little slower on purpose, and the Sect Master gives me better spirit pills, hoping to feed me better and make me run faster. If I raise my speed by degrees, he knows it is the effect of the better pills, and then he works even harder at improving them — and he has to mind my taste as well. If I improved all at once, he would not bother to improve the pills, and would only feed me the inferior stuff mixed with fire-element spirit essence pills. Do not tell the Sect Master, or he will grow lazy."
Xiong Qier did not understand, but she nodded again and again all the same.
Long Qilin ran a long while and still did not catch up with Shen Mu, but he saw along the way the signs of one sand dune after another blown apart, and could not help being alarmed — plainly Shen Mu and Ban Gongcuo had clashed hereabouts.
Not long after, Long Qilin saw from afar a sand dune suddenly stand up and become a giant of red sand, hammering savagely at the ground.
"That is the art of my Western Lands' True Heaven Palace!"
Xiong Qier cried in astonishment: "Is it Big Brother?"
Long Qilin shook his head, somewhat wary, and said: "The Sect Master does not have such mighty dharma power. Let us go around."
He circled around to a distance and looked at the sand dune giant, and could not help but be startled.