Chapter 657 — Hard to Tell Friend from Foe
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 1 of 4
The tower ship in the surging waves was like a tiny skiff in a storm on the vast ocean, battered up and down by the great billows, when suddenly the windows burst open one after another and went whistling away from the ship. Whuff — a whole deck snapped clean through and shot off sideways.
Shen Mu and Ling Yuxiu hurriedly clutched at the pillars of the tower, only to hear them creak and crack. "Hold on to my waist!
" Shen Mu shouted.
Ling Yuxiu did not catch it.
"What?
" "Hold on to my waist —" This time she heard him clearly. She let go at once and wrapped her arms around his waist. Shen Mu felt two soft places against his back, very pleasant indeed, but he had no leisure to wonder what they were that felt so soft; he acted at once to rouse the Heaven and Earth Seal.
Heaven Spins, Earth Turns, the Heart Unmoved!
Once this seal was unleashed, the wild surges were drawn up by his palms and spun around him. Shen Mu gave a muffled groan, feeling the pressure between his hands all but snap his arms, but he could only grit his teeth and keep holding. Suddenly the pillar propping up the tower cracked and broke.
The whole tower flew level off its base and crashed into the starry void.
Ling Yuxiu was frightened out of her wits and clung to Shen Mu for dear life.
Shen Mu urged the Heaven and Earth Seal with all his might, striving against the ever-growing surges. The tower ship still rolled madly on; the phoenix figurehead at its prow had been snapped off, the deck planks burst with a rattle of explosions and kept flying away, leaving the hull battered and broken. Boom — the cabin door blew open, and from the Divine Ship's hold came Ban Gongcuo's scream of terror.
Hearing it, Ling Yuxiu thought, 'Ban Gongcuo really is frightfully quick-witted — he hid himself in the hold so early.
Can he truly foresee danger ahead of time? ' Ban Gongcuo tumbled and rolled within the hold, knocked this way and that by the tossing, until all at once the surges subsided, and still the broken ship rolled on and on, with no telling when it would stop. Shen Mu crossed his hands and shifted to the next move of the Heaven and Earth Seal, Earth, Water, Wind, Fire — the Five Elements Fixed.
The tower ship slowly ceased its spinning. His face was flushed crimson, his skin on the verge of splitting apart, but at last it steadied.
Shen Mu dispersed the Heaven and Earth Seal. Both legs trembled; his hands convulsed and could not be raised; the muscles at his waist seemed torn, and he drew hissing breaths through his teeth in pain. The ship was a wreck: its six wings snapped apart, three pairs of them; the phoenix figurehead broken off; the mast toppled; the sails riddled with holes; the tower gone as if it had never been; the hull leaking at every seam — even the air within was rushing out at a furious rate.
The ship's vitality shield must have burst. Shen Mu forced his steps forward, racing along the vessel's vitality shield to patch its cracks.
After a while he came down again and let out a breath. "That should hold for a while. I wonder how the First Ancestor is. .
. Yuxiu, you can let go now. " Ling Yuxiu hastily released his waist, her face flushed pink. While Shen Mu had been racing along the vitality shield, she too had clung to his waist without letting go, making him drag her along the whole circuit.
Shen Mu suppressed the ache throughout his body and tried to get his bearings — only to find himself in an unfamiliar starfield, with no up or down, no distinction of the six directions.
And when he looked into the distance, he could not see where the battlefield between the First Ancestor and the Great Sun Star Lord lay! Not only could he not find the battlefield — he could not even see the sun the tower ship had once circled!