Chapter 556 — The Fat Dragon, the Black Tiger, and the White Fox
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 2 of 4
Suddenly a glittering pearl rolled over and lodged exactly between the two doors, preventing the gate from closing. A strongman near the gate kicked it hard, sending the pearl rolling out beyond the gate, and cursed as he did so.
The gate slammed shut with a thunderous boom.
But what he did not see was that as his kick sent the pearl out, his own "shadow" rolled out with it, merging with the pearl's shadow. The pearl rolled forward some dozen or more zhang, reached the moat's edge, and slowly came to a stop. The round, squat shadow beneath it suddenly grew hands and feet; the two shadowy arms stretched longer and longer, gripped the bank of the moat, and slowly exerted force.
The glittering pearl rolled forward once more and dropped into the river with a splash.
After a moment, from the shadows on the far side of the river, a dark, heavy shadow crawled up out of the water and shot away along the ground.
Not long after, the city gate swung wide open, and countless demons poured out with howls: "That man is not in the city! Search at once—do not let him escape the demon realm!
" Shen Mu hid here and dodged there, avoiding the watchtowers. His Shadow-Transforming Demon Art had reached its limit; he had no choice but to reveal his true form.
He climbed high and gazed into the distance, and still he could not see where Licheng lay.
"The Sun-Binder abducted me into the demon realm—just where is this place? How far is it from the lands of the human race?
" The earth stretched vast and wild, the sky dim and murky.
The sun in the eastern vault of heaven was cold, slowly reddening—a sign that night would soon fall.
Shen Mu steadied himself, concealed his form, and thought: "Taihuang Heaven has not a single star. In the dark of night one cannot read the sky, cannot tell direction.
I can only wait for daylight to travel. " Behind him demon scouts searched in every direction.
Shen Mu hid and dodged, nearly discovered more than once.
He simply killed a demon scout, put on the scout's heavy black-iron armor, donned the black-iron helmet, hung the long black-iron demon spear at an angle on his horse-hook, and rode a demon-fire nightmare steed, wandering through the mist of the demon realm. On the second day, the ugly remnant sun lit up in the sky as promised.
Shen Mu pushed up the visor of his black-iron helmet, took his bearings, and cursed the demon-fire nightmare steed in the demon tongue, driving it eastward. By afternoon, Shen Mu looked up at the sky, and his expression changed drastically—the remnant sun in the east had suddenly gone out!
"Imperial Preceptor of Jingping, aren't you a little too quick about things? " Shen Mu nearly spat out a mouthful of old blood. He had once told the Imperial Preceptor of Jingping to have Jingping's divine-power wielders help Taihuang Heaven design its two suns. Now that the remnant sun in the sky had gone dark, it must have something to do with the Imperial Preceptor of Jingping!
Surely the Imperial Preceptor of Jingping had found the sun in the sky an eyesore, and so at once summoned Jingping's divine-power wielders to Taihuang Heaven to do away with the sun and forge it anew. And with the sun gone, Shen Mu could no longer make out his direction!
Licheng.
Blazing flames lit the darkness, while the light of the spirit-energy resonance bridge shot into the mid-sky and linked with the wilderness ruins.
Many divine-power wielders were pouring in ceaselessly from Jingping, building a vast supervision forge near Licheng, forging giant after giant of smithing, hammering out components day and night without pause. The True God Pang Yu brought out blueprints no one could understand.
The blueprints were for the sun furnace, left behind by the Sun-Forging God. The Sun-Forging God had been assassinated by the demon race before finishing the second sun, but fortunately the blueprints had survived.