Chapter 777 — The Old Fox and the Little Fox
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 3 of 5
The Yin Son of Heaven hurriedly retreated, and saw a god-devil of three heads and six arms leap from the cauldron, its body spinning madly like a great Buddha with a thousand arms. Boom, boom, boom — the deafening crashes came without cease, and in the space of a single instant that madly whirling god-devil landed heaven knew how many fists upon the Yin Son of Heaven! The Yin Son of Heaven was struck flying high, the crackle and snap of breaking bones sounding from within his body.
That god-devil of three heads and six arms, still spinning, closed on the Yin Son of Heaven with astonishing speed. With every third of a revolution its arms rose high, the primal qi in its hands swarming together and shaping itself into long sabers; and as each third of a turn was completed, the sabers chopped down with the wind! Its speed of rotation was frantic, and its speed of movement frantic too; Lu Li and the others could see only saber-light after saber-light, like bolts of white silk, illuminating the land outside Youdu's Jade Lock Pass as bright as snow, the blades of light all but joined into one!
Almost in the same instant, the saber-light cut into the brow of the Yin Son of Heaven in midair! Lu Li and the others could only watch the weal on the Yin Son of Heaven's brow grow wider and longer, and their hearts quailed.
Xuanming cried: "The god-child of Youdu is not yet dead!
" "The Yin Son of Heaven's head is about to be split open!
" Han blurted. Lu Li shouted: "Run! " Huang said: "And the Slaughter Cauldron!
The Huntian Luo!
" The four Military Commissioners hesitated and turned their heads to look at the Slaughter Cauldron — and saw that when Shen Mu burst up from the cauldron and charged at the Yin Son of Heaven, the Slaughter Cauldron followed him like his own shadow, paying the four Military Commissioners no heed at all.
Ever since they had taken up their posts as the Heavenly Court's Military Commissioners in Youdu, the four had refined that great cauldron day and night, even feeding the Slaughter Cauldron with their own blood, and had at last refined it to obey their will — able to grow or shrink at command, able to refine all living beings away. Yet now the Slaughter Cauldron seemed to have turned traitor, forsaking them and following the god-child of Youdu!
"Forget the cauldron! " Lu Li cried.
"Get out of here at once!
If the god-child of Youdu kills the Yin Son of Heaven, the next he kills will be us! " The four fled in panic, and Huang said in alarm: "The Huntian Luo is still in the Yin Son of Heaven's hands!
" "Leave it!
" Lu Li's serpent tail writhed as she said in a fury of exasperation: "Let it be a burial offering for that man of Yin!
Let us be gone quickly, far away from this place!
" Xuanming caught up with her and said: "Senior Sister, can we still stay in Youdu? Whether or not the god-child of Youdu kills the Yin Son of Heaven, he will remain in Youdu, hunting for our whereabouts.
Let us flee Youdu and return to the Heavenly Court to fetch reinforcements! " Huang and Han nodded again and again.
Lu Li, beside herself: "Lose Youdu, and if we go back to the Heavenly Court we shall be dragged onto the God-Slaying Terrace to die.
Only a fool goes back to the Heavenly Court!
" The three Military Commissioners were struck cold.
Lu Li said: "Tubo will not suffer the god-child of Youdu to run wild, and he will not tear his face with the Heavenly Court utterly; so he is certain to banish the god-child.
Hidden away in Youdu we may still keep our lives; go to the Heavenly Court and we go to our deaths.
This must not be reported to the Court, or every one of us will take a blade on the God-Slaying Terrace!
" The three Military Commissioners nodded again and again. Lu Li looked back, and saw the ghostly light of the Yin Son of Heaven chasing straight after the god-child of Youdu; plainly the Yin Son of Heaven had shaken off the daze of the blow.