Chapter 886 — Dragon's Roar in the Azure Sea, Accompanied by Song
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 2 of 5
These days Yan'er had eaten nothing but sea fish and sea beasts, and she had grown sick of them. Perched on Shen Mu's shoulder, her eyes glazed, she would from time to time raise a paw to pick at the corner of her mouth and pull out a fish bone.
Shen Mu opened the geographical chart Bai Qu'er had drawn, glanced at it once, and tossed it into the sea.
The chart Bai Qu'er had drawn recorded the seas as they were forty thousand years ago; the blue sea becomes mulberry fields, and the geography of the East Sea was long since no longer what Bai Qu'er had seen in her day. Moreover, the Primal Realm had once been sealed, and after the seal was broken its geography had changed greatly.
The sea especially: the shifting of the mountains and rivers beneath its floor was all but imperceptible, and many islands that had stood upon its surface had vanished, making bearings still harder to fix.
Suddenly Shen Mu tilted his head and said, his voice hoarse, "Sister Yan'er, do you hear singing? " "There is no singing anywhere, Young Master; you must have misheard," Yan'er said listlessly.
".
.
. Eh?
There really is singing! " They followed the song, and before they had gone far they saw upon the sea an immense skeleton, half sunk in the water, half towering above it.
It was the skeleton of a divine dragon beyond imagining.
The water there was deep, and yet half of that dragon's bones still stood above the surface; one could well imagine how colossal it had been in life. The song came from the skeleton.
Only when Shen Mu and the others drew near did they see that it was this bone dragon itself that sang. Its dragon jaws opened and closed, and the song issued from its mouth.
Yet this divine dragon was nothing but bones; how could it still sing?
The bone dragon's singing was rough and long-drawn, deep and low; it was like a poet of the ocean, and its song was steeped in melancholy and grief.
"What is he singing, Young Master?
" Yan'er asked.
She could not understand the dragon tongue. "He sings of his homeland in a very ancient dragon tongue. " Because in his early years Shen Mu had labored to decipher the dragon script upon the lair of the Lord of True Dragons, his knowledge of the dragon tongue ran deep. "His homeland is the Kingdom of Longbo. " Listening to the bone dragon's song, Shen Mu said, "He says that Longbo was a beautiful place, where divine dragons roamed over the face of the sea and a beautiful tongue of the Dao was spoken, where the dragons raised splendid and imposing buildings upon the islands and ruled the vast ocean.
The peoples of the sea made offerings to them, presenting fine foods and the beautiful jade and pearls of the deep, and they lived in harmony and joy.
Many dragons went far away to other lands and became rain-bringing Dragon Kings, greatly revered. " Suddenly the song turned somber, laden with killing intent and bewilderment. "He says that one day, of a sudden, the Feathered Forest Army of the Heavenly Court came and destroyed his homeland.
The dragons were torn from their wives and children and made slaves, chains run through their bodies. Many captives were beheaded, and their blood dyed the sea red; many slaves were driven aboard ships. " Listening to the bone dragon's chant, Shen Mu went on: "The Heavenly Court's Feathered Forest Army used their flesh and blood as offerings, sacrificed for the Heavenly Emperor of the Heavenly Court to feast upon. Their king, the Longbo King, was taken too and made a slave, sent up to the Heavenly Court for judgment. Thus was his homeland destroyed, and he became a wanderer with no homeland.
When he longed for home, he came back to that devastated land and saw rootless ghosts and wandering spirits drifting there. " Hiding behind Shen Mu, Long Qilin peered timidly at the divine dragon's skeleton and asked, "Cult Master, where is his homeland?
And why did he die here?