Chapter 606 — The Old Soldier at Dusk
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 1 of 3
The scripture of the Great Nurturing Dark Demon Sutra had once more become a ball of thread. Granny Zhu handed the thread to Shen Mu, but he shook his head. "Granny, you keep the scripture for now. Luofu Heaven is full of peril, and it would be of no use in my keeping."
Granny Zhu took out a small bamboo basket, a little flower basket round above and square below, and laid the ball of thread inside. The basket also held scraps of cloth, scissors, silver needles, and the like—her own primordial soldiers, most likely.
The two of them looked up at the churning river of blood in the sky. That blood river had trapped the halberd-wielding deity on the altar at its center, and the purpose of this sacrifice did not seem to be a simple summoning of gods and demons.
The blood river had not transformed into the blood-light that calls down gods and demons. Instead it split into streams of plasma that became in the air a variety of profound patterns. Those runes were exceedingly abstruse—surely a sacrificial art of the demon race.
Sacrifice, in truth, originated with the demon race. Shen Mu had learned a few sacrificial arts himself; the Talisman Command to Summon Ghosts and Dispatch Gods was one such art, and it came from the Dutian Demon King. The Dutian Demon King had spread this sacrificial art to Jingping with the aim of summoning himself there and invading it, though after encountering Shen Mu he abandoned that notion.
—The demon race, too, had many heavens. Dutian and Luofu Heaven were both among them, and both worlds had fallen into ruin, each seeking a way to prolong the lives of its people and ensure their continuance.
In fact, most sacrificial arts came from the demon race. The demons had created a great many sacrificial methods and built a unique civilization, vastly different from those of Jingping and Taihuang Heaven.
The human race had also learned some sacrificial arts from the demons. The Great Nurturing Dark Demon Sutra, for instance, contained many sacrificial methods, which were likewise cultivation techniques of the demonic path.
What the human race learned from the demons was not limited to sacrificial arts; there were also many demonic techniques. The witchcraft of the Loulan Golden Palace, for example, was passed down from the Kuiwu Deity, and the Kuiwu Deity was a demon god sent down from the Heavenly Court to the Dark Capital.
"Something is wrong!"
Granny Zhu studied the blood river encircling the altar in the sky. More and more blood-colored runes were surfacing, and within that encircling river the halberd-wielding deity from the Desolate Ruins seemed caught in a trap, ramming again and again, trying to break through the sacrifice, yet never able to break it.
He even tried to charge out of the altar, but could not break free either.
The demon god presiding over the sacrifice was not strong—otherwise he would not have died to Granny Zhu's sneak attack—and his strength was surely far inferior to the halberd-wielding deity's. Yet his sacrificial art was truly unfathomable.
Even in death at Granny Zhu's hands, his flesh-and-blood sacrifice could still trap the halberd-wielding deity at its center, leaving his opponent no escape!
"He means to sacrifice the halberd-wielding deity as well!"
Granny Zhu shuddered and murmured, "He is using the halberd-wielding deity as an offering, along with the blood river, sacrificing them to some ancient being, summoning that being to descend..."
Shen Mu's study of sacrifice was not deep—his attainments were in fact inferior to Granny Zhu's—but even so, he could see that the halberd-wielding deity's situation was exceedingly grim.
The halberd-wielding deity wore armor, and from beneath it beads of blood were slowly drifting out, floating into the air to merge with the blood river!
Not only that—the halberd in his hand and the armor on his body were both beginning to lose their essence!
The demon god's sacrificial art was simply too powerful!