Chapter 500 — One Stele Divides Yin and Yang
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 1 of 4
Shen Mu, the box, Dragon Qilin, and the skulls and skeletons whirling across the sky came crashing down in a great clatter. Despair filled Shen Mu's heart. He had meant to make no sound at all—that was the only way to evade the freakish keenness of Xing'an's ears—but human schemes cannot best Heaven's will, and now his plan had fallen utterly apart. Thump, thump, thump—they plunged into a disordered pile of bones. All around, a crowd of skeletons was shouting and squabbling, arguing over who had shattered whose pelvis, who had broken whose thighbone, while others snatched ribs from one another—a deafening pandemonium.
Suddenly some skeletons broke into a fight, producing bone cudgels from nowhere and swinging them wildly, cracking skulls with thumping blows.
Unless Xing'an was stone-deaf, this could never be hidden from his ears! Shen Mu staggered to his feet and looked around in a daze. The fog that had been so oppressively thick moments before had grown much thinner here, and light now filled the space more generously.
He looked to the east and froze. Through the mist over the Yongjiang, a vast, boundaryless world of white bones was hurtling across, materializing in the heart of the Ruins and overlapping with the world of the Ruins.
"You're stepping on me.
. . " a feeble voice said from beneath the box.
Startled, the box hopped into the air.
When it saw that the speaker was a pile of bones, it grew delighted and, overjoyed, opened itself and "swallowed" the talking pile of bones inside. Ever since Shen Mu had awakened its spirit, it loved collecting these strange, bizarre things.
"A ghost!
" Dragon Qilin's fur and scales stood on end all over his body, and he went stiff. When he saw the wilds covered with dry bones, the great fatty flipped over, belly up, with his four legs stuck straight out. Seeing him dead, the box wanted to swallow him as well.
It began with his tail, and when it reached his rear, Dragon Qilin kicked his legs and muttered angrily, "Stop that.
I'm playing dead.
. . " "Fengdu.
. . this is the outer world of Fengdu.
.
. " Shen Mu stared at the world in swift motion. When it overlapped with reality, the mountains and rivers of reality seemed to recede out of existence—an uncanny sight.
A thought stirred in his heart. He nudged Dragon Qilin with his foot and said, "Fatty Dragon, get up. Your playing dead isn't as convincing as Ling'er's.
If you don't get up, these skeletons will come gnawing at your flesh. " "Meat!
Meat!
" Beneath Dragon Qilin, a skeleton caught the smell of flesh, grinned in delight, opened its mouth wide, threw its arms around his leg, and bit down. "Meat! Meat!
" In the sea of skeletons, countless bones grew excited and came running toward them in a frenzy.
The running skeletons churned up a wave of skeletons a hundred zhang high that swept down upon them. Crash.
The skeleton wave fell, and innumerable bones rolled together into a giant of white bone that came charging over, wild with eagerness for flesh.
"I have no flesh—give me your flesh!
" "Leave me a piece of skin—mine has rotted away! " Dragon Qilin frantically rolled over, crushing the skeletons that had piled onto him into powder, and at the sight of this scene nearly fainted in terror again.
Buddha light blazed all around Shen Mu, and the phantom image of a great white jade Buddha materialized behind him. The charging skeleton giant collapsed at once, and the skeletons scattered in all directions. "Not tasty—it's that young bald donkey from before!
Run!
" Shen Mu was speechless. He took out a gold coin and shone it toward the sea of mist.
A lone skiff was sailing out of the fog.
"Get out of my way, all of you! " Xing'an's voice came from the distance. He had drawn back his eye and, guided by the sound, had forced his way in, approaching at tremendous speed.