Chapter 870 — An Elder of the Alliance
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 1 of 4
Shen Mu lured the Heavenly Dragon King's great head into another relic, a place strewn with bones, where blood seeped from the cliffs and from the ground, and an air of foreboding hung over all. Deeper and deeper they went, and more and more white figures emerged on every side.
At first there were but one or two, then more and more; some appeared abruptly atop the peaks, others abruptly upon the flat ground, staring dumbly at them, making no other movement.
Shen Mu looked at them, yet could not make out the faces of these white figures. "Young Master, there is a person in white riding on your neck," Yan'er whispered.
Shen Mu hurriedly turned his head, but could see nothing at all, and could not help feeling a chill of dread.
He hastily took out a mirror and looked into it; sure enough, a white figure rode upon his neck, a faceless face thrusting out from behind his neck, as though studying the mirror.
Shen Mu's scalp went numb.
He eyed the dragon qilin, and saw that several white figures had, at some unknown hour, draped themselves over it as well, hazy and indistinct. He looked to Yan'er, and upon her back too clung a white figure, making as if to draw breath from the back of her head. Shen Mu looked toward the Heavenly Dragon King's great head, and upon it clung even more white figures.
"This is no place to linger! " Shen Mu decided on the instant and opened the Heaven-Bearing Gate; the dragon qilin bore them in a single leap through the gate, escaping that relic, and they came to the Nether Capital.
In the very instant they stepped into the Nether Capital, Shen Mu faintly heard shrill and mournful cries, now audible, now not, rising from their backs. He hastily looked up, and saw the space beyond the Heaven-Bearing Gate crowded with white figures, all stretching out their hands to claw at the Nether Capital.
Shen Mu dissolved the Heaven-Bearing Gate, and saw severed arms drop one by one from where the gate had vanished, plunging into the darkness.
"The relics of the Primal Realm are truly strange.
. .
" Before Shen Mu's startled soul had settled, the dragon qilin and Yan'er went flailing into the darkness of the Nether Capital; Shen Mu reversed his divine treasury, transformed it into the demon-path treasury, and used the divine arts of the Nether Capital to seize them back. Shen Mu laughed. "Here your powers cannot be used, so I must still carry you both along.
Let us not be in haste to leave; we will wait for someone to come for us and catch a free boat.
" Yan'er was rather puzzled; she looked all around and asked curiously, "Where is this free boat?
" Shen Mu, quite certain, laughed. "It will be here soon!
" A moment later his face darkened despite himself, and he said sullenly, "Has the Nether Heavenly Sovereign been lazy today? He still has not appeared.
In the past, the moment I opened the Heaven-Bearing Gate, his little boat would come here to fetch me.
.
. " "In the past it was always the Sect Master standing on my head. This time, may I stand on the Sect Master's head?
" the dragon qilin said, both alarmed and delighted.
Shen Mu peeled back the willow leaf at the center of his brow and sent his spirit consciousness into the Shen Character Continent, where it landed and became his own image, and he asked, "Earth Lord, why has the Nether Heavenly Sovereign not come to fetch me today? " The Molten Earth Lord, in communion with his true body, said, "A heaven has been destroyed.
There are too many dead; the Nether Heavenly Sovereign has gone there to guide the souls of the departed. " "I see.
Could the Earth Lord send a master to escort me to the Lan River Academy?
" Shen Mu asked. The Molten Earth Lord stared at him; Shen Mu, his gaze sincere and his expression unchanging, said, "From the Nether Capital, I do not know the way to the Lan River Academy.
" The Molten Earth Lord was silent a moment, then said, "What if I escort you there myself?