Chapter 460 — The Liu Clan Within the Divine Burial Valley
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 2 of 4
" Shen Mu laughed heartily: "And what harm could there be? " With that he gathered Xiong Qi'er in his arms, leapt down from the dragon qilin's back, and came before Liu Ruyin's coffin. He looked inside and could not help but pause.
The coffin looked small, yet its interior was startling: more than a hundred feet in length and breadth, fifty or sixty feet high, like a great house. Within were tables and chairs and a jade bed, and it was divided into several rooms, with places for living and dining and even quarters for servants; it was scarcely different from a small palace.
Shen Mu clicked his tongue in wonder. When Liu Ruyin had leapt out of the coffin just now he had been startled, thinking that a corpse had truly sprung forth; little had he expected the coffin to be merely her dwelling. He glanced at the other black coffins and thought: 'Can these coffins all be the same, all dwellings of the Liu family's disciples?
These coffins that sprout legs and walk of themselves have a certain subtle kinship with Sister Yiyi's moving city. ' "Fat Dragon, you may come in too!
" Shen Mu said, turning his head with a smile. The dragon qilin hesitated, then shook its head: "Sect Master, I am rather superstitious.
I had best not go in. " Shen Mu cursed him with a laugh, then carried Xiong Qi'er into the coffin, leaving the dragon qilin outside. Liu Ruyin banged the lid shut, and at once the flock of coffins struck out their legs and moved at flying speed, some of them floating in the air, crowding around Liu Ruyin's coffin, crossing mountains and ridges, racing into the depths of the ranges.
The dragon qilin hurried after them.
When they had passed several peaks, a vast tomb appeared among the mountains; the Liu family's black coffins, like black boats adrift in the air, drove one after another through a great opening into the tomb.
The dragon qilin shivered again and again, muttering misgivings to itself, but it gritted its teeth and followed the coffins into the tomb.
And within the coffin, Shen Mu sat down, Xiong Qi'er in his arms, Liu Ruyin seated opposite. The two faced each other, silent a while, the air somewhat heavy. Suddenly Shen Mu smiled: "Chief Liu, who is the head of your Liu clan?
" In Liu Ruyin's eyes the soybean-sized black pupils revolved in ring upon ring, then returned to the size of any ordinary person's, and she smiled: "Sect Master Shen is, after all, an outsider and does not know the affairs of my Liu family. I am the head of the Liu family. " Shen Mu was astonished, and leaning aside said: "Then my calling you Chief Liu was no mistake.
Sister Ruyin, your Liu family's cultivation method is very strange.
When I first saw you, I took you for corpses. Might you tell me the reason?
" Warmth rose in Liu Ruyin's heart, and she shot him a delighted, sidelong glance: "You have such a sweet mouth.
Among outsiders, and men above all, who would dare speak so sweetly to my face? To escape being frightened to death is already a blessing from Heaven! Those stinking men — some were frightened until they wet themselves, some had their souls scared clean out of them — yet you, Sect Master Shen, can still chat and laugh, and even call me sister.
" Xiong Qi'er was puzzled, thinking: 'Big brother seems to call every woman he meets sister. . .
' The corpse aura about Liu Ruyin thinned a little, and she smiled: "My Liu family's art is indeed unlike any other. The Liu family — in truth, in life we were not surnamed Liu; only after death did we take the name Liu. " Shen Mu was shaken, and blurted: "You are all. . .
" Liu Ruyin said: "The origin of our Liu family of the Western Lands is exceedingly ancient: a spirit was conceived within a corpse and came to have awareness.