Chapter 804 — Mists Shroud Longhan; a Giant Fish Bears the Woman Away
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 1 of 4
Long Qilin stared at him in suspicion, and all at once a bitter ache welled up in his heart, and grief came with it: "Sect Master, you lied to me. I thought you meant to give your life for the cause, to shield us and let us slip away. But you used us as bait, to draw off these little ladies..."
Shen Mu decided on the spot: "I will give you an extra meal."
Long Qilin's grief ceased at once, and he said to Yu Tianzun and Gongsun Yan, who stood there utterly bewildered, "The Sect Master is brilliant and martial, luring the tiger down from the mountain, capturing this little lady to trade for our return — a masterful stratagem."
Shui Qilin rolled his eyes and thought, "This fellow's shamelessness far exceeds my own; with a few words he has wrangled himself a meal. Truly the most brazen of creatures. By the way, what was that scripture scroll of his called? I must curry favor with him, borrow it and study it, and in the future I too might earn an extra meal..."
He had been wounded protecting Yu Tianzun, but the worst hurt of all was Gongsun Yan's.
The girl had been beaten miserably, and her whisk had been seized by Yan Qiling's maidservants.
Yan Qiling's maidservants were formidable in cultivation; one of them stood at the Lingxiao realm, and the others at the Yujing realm. Gongsun Yan, though a true god — a demigod born of the kernel of an Earthly Origin Dao Fruit — and though she commanded the Six Harmonies Primordial Sword, could not bring out much of its power.
After a bitter fight she had been wounded and captured, and the little sapling in the halo behind her head had been beaten limp and withered.
Seeing that the others were unharmed, Shen Mu was relieved, and said with a smile, "Sister Yan, the situation is clear enough now. You have fallen into my hands — so what shall we do now?"
Yan Qiling mustered all her strength to suppress her injuries, her breath like a thread, and said with the utmost difficulty, "Let them go."
The women hesitated a moment, then did as they were told and released Yu Tianzun and the others.
Yan Qiling's eyes were swollen to slits, her former beauty wholly gone. She said in a low voice, "What now, Mu Tianzun?"
Shen Mu pressed several spirit pills into her mouth and said, "These are medicine for your wounds. Have no fear, they are not poisoned."
Yan Qiling held the pills in her mouth but dared not swallow.
Shen Mu smiled faintly. "Swallow them. I still have questions to ask you."
Yan Qiling kept her mouth shut and said nothing.
Suddenly Shen Mu pressed a finger to her throat; with a gulp Yan Qiling swallowed the pills, cold sweat beading on her brow and back.
Yet the moment the pills fell into her belly, she felt the thousands of wounds all over her body begin to itch, the wounds slowly closing.
"These pills I refined from Long Pang's spittle, together with several other ingredients," Shen Mu said with a smile. "Ordinarily one pill sells for ten thousand Da Feng coins."
Long Qilin was thrown into a panic and whispered, "Sect Master, it is dragon saliva! Dragon saliva! If you say it is my spittle, no one will ever buy it."
Yan Qiling gave a cold snort. Her wounds had stopped bleeding, freeing a portion of her cultivation, and she said indifferently, "What do you want to ask?"
"First, return the Six Harmonies Primordial Sword," Shen Mu said.
Yan Qiling looked at the women and said, "Give him back the whisk!"
One of the women came forward bearing the whisk. Yu Tianzun said hurriedly, "Give the whisk to me!"
The woman hesitated, then handed the whisk to Yu Tianzun, who carried it forward and gave it to Shen Mu, saying in a low voice, "Brother, these women are formidable. I fear she may take the chance to ambush you."
Shen Mu took the whisk and praised him: "Well done, worthy brother."
"You come from the Heavenly Court Beyond the Realm?"
He turned to Yan Qiling and asked with concern, "Is the Heavenly Emperor well?"