Chapter 687 — Fishing the Sun on a Hook, and Binding It Again
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 3 of 4
The Clan Chief's face went blank. Before long the seemingly unremarkable Old Angler had fished up another sun, and did the same with it, tethering it beside the well.
Quickly he fished up a dozen or more suns, tethered them all beside the well, and reeled in his line. The two little red fish leaped out of the well as well and jumped into his basket.
The Old Angler picked up his rod, folded his little stool, and said, "I still have to go to the Soul Spring to fish up a few moons. Boy of the Shen family, will you come too?"
Shen Mu nodded again and again. "I smashed the Soul Boat, and the moon aboard it as well. I want to see whether there are any other Soul Boats; if there aren't, then I'll have to go look in the Red Sea Oasis of the Western Lands — there may be Soul Boats there."
The Old Angler nodded. "Then let's be off."
He walked out of the Dawn Spring, and Shen Mu said hesitantly, "Martial Uncle, shouldn't we go from the Dawn Spring to the Soul Spring? By land the road is long, and the Soul Spring is blocked off to the west of the Desolate Ruins by Luofu Heaven and Taihuang Heaven."
The Old Angler said, "No need. I want to take a look at Taihuang Heaven."
Shen Mu had no choice but to summon the Dragon Qilin. "The road is long," he said. "Better to ride Fatty Dragon."
The Dragon Qilin had been left in the Dawn Spring taking a bath; hearing this, it could only say, "Sect Master, I can't carry a deity on my back."
The Old Angler's eyes lit up. "What a magnificent Dragon Qilin! Why do you call him Fatty Dragon?"
Shen Mu hesitated, and did not tell him just how fat the Dragon Qilin had once been. The Old Angler laughed. "You needn't carry me. Just keep up with my fish." With that, one of the little red fish leaped from the basket.
The little red fish swelled in the wind, and quickly became a great red kun several hundred zhang long, floating in the air.
The Old Angler leaped onto its back. Its broad fins glided and quivered like wings, its tail beat up and down, and it swam through the air with extraordinary speed.
Shen Mu was startled, and taking Yan Jingjing by the hand he leaped onto the Dragon Qilin's back. The Dragon Qilin gave a mighty roar, like a dragon's cry and a qilin's bellow mingled together; its body swelled, it tossed its head and swung its tail, and became a colossal beast some sixty zhang long, treading fire-clouds, and gave chase to the great red kun.
Once it set off it was like wind and lightning; because it had the Azure Dragon bloodline, when it ran at full stretch there were flashes of lightning and peals of thunder, so that from afar it looked like a half-dragon, half-qilin beast wrapped in thunder-light and treading flame, racing onward!
This was the first time Shen Mu had seen the Dragon Qilin run at full speed, and he was both startled and delighted. "The tempering in the Five Thunders Pot really did work! What a pity that it took gathering so many dragon experts to cultivate for barely a month. If he could cultivate all the time, Fatty Dragon would probably be a great master of the Spirit Bridge realm by now!"
The Dragon Qilin's cultivation had already reached the peak of the Life-Death realm. The elixirs and wonder-drugs it had eaten had all turned to fat stored in its body, until it was round as a ball; but after being tempered in the Five Thunders Pot at Li City, that medicinal power had been dissolved and condensed into a Dark Water Dragon Pearl and a Qilin Pearl, and its cultivation had advanced by leaps and bounds!
Its speed had advanced by leaps and bounds as well. Had it not tried to overtake the great red kun this time, the Dragon Qilin itself would not have known just how fast it could run.
On the Dragon Qilin's back, Shen Mu and Yan Jingjing saw that they were surrounded by thunder-light; even the wind could not penetrate the shield the thunder-light formed, and they clicked their tongues in wonder.