Chapter 494 — The Struggle in the Dark Chamber Behind the Scenes
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 1 of 5
Bai Qu'er still held the Dragon God Pearl high, the child of Bai Qingfu and his wife cradled in her arms, and turned to lead the crowd into the darkness. The Dragon God Pearl gave off a quiet radiance that scattered the dark before them. They had to reach the post station ahead as quickly as they could, and seek the protection of the deity there.
Beside the chest, the Dragon Qilin shook its body and gave a low, rumbling growl. Shen Mu took out the great cauldron and tossed it to Ban Gongcuo. Ban Gongcuo looked at the cauldron with its missing leg, shook his head, and said, "The cauldron is broken, its power diminished. I fear it can't protect us. Fortunately, I have other treasures."
He crammed the cauldron back into his Taotie Pouch and brought out a great gourd, winding its strap around himself, and chuckled. "Sect Master Shen, this was my primordial weapon in my first life. It is called the Jade Blood Gourd. It is the treasure that made my name, and I have not used it in a long, long while. I always hoped I might break through, fuse all I have learned in these ten thousand years into one, and reforge my Jade Blood Gourd. But I could never bring so many arts together into a single whole."
He slung the gourd on his back. The gourd stood over three feet tall, and Ban Gongcuo had no legs; carrying such a thing on his back made for a rather outlandish sight.
"Great Venerable, I never imagined you were once a man of such grand ambition."
Shen Mu drew the blade pouch from his Taotie Pouch, slipped its straps over his shoulders, and settled it on his back. Then he took out two Butcher Knives and slid them into the pouch. "A pity. Once you saw that godhood was beyond your reach, you turned twisted, and went astray."
Ban Gongcuo eyed his Taotie Pouch and sneered. "And you think that when you find godhood beyond your grasp, you won't turn twisted too? That Taotie Pouch is mine!"
"I picked it up in the Golden Palace."
Shen Mu drew a great iron hammer from the Taotie Pouch and gave it a light swing. The hammer rang with a clear chime, its head splitting and spreading outward, eight feet across, spinning ceaselessly with the handle as its center. He stopped channeling his mana, and the hammer shrank back down to its ordinary size. Shen Mu slid it into a leather loop beside the blade pouch on his back and fixed it fast, then took out a bamboo staff, gave it a light sweep that shook out a string of afterimages, and tucked that into his back as well.
Ban Gongcuo was dumbstruck. Then he saw Shen Mu draw brush, ink, paper, and inkstone from the Taotie Pouch and stuff them into his sleeve, and fix several scrolls with the other clasps of the blade pouch behind him, and could not help laughing. "Sect Master Shen, are you going up on stage to sing? Your back is nearly stuffed full!"
Shen Mu took out the poison pouch and the sword pellet. The poison pouch held bottles great and small; the sword pellet came apart into eight thousand swords, and he envenomed each flying sword one by one. "Better to be prepared. When I first walked out of the Wilderness Ruins, this was just how I was outfitted. It looked very crude, but it was practical. Later, when I had rank and standing, that was when I stopped being so crude. But in a fight to the death, the cruder the better, the higher the fighting strength!"
At these words, Ban Gongcuo took seven banners from his own Taotie Pouch and planted them at his back, then brought out a bronze mirror with a sleeve behind it, which he fitted over his left arm like a shield. He took out a set of flying daggers as well, hung in rows inside his lapels, both sides packed full.