Chapter 889 — A Beauty Among the Flowers, Fair as Jade
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 2 of 4
Though Shen Mu and the others fell hard indeed, they took no injury; they were merely bounced to and fro, somewhat dizzy and muddled, but nothing worse.
Shen Mu rose to his feet and pulled Yan'er up; Dragon Qilin clambered up too, and feeling the ground soft beneath him he stamped on it a few times, discovering that even the ground here was soft, and could not help clicking his tongue in wonder. Shen Mu looked all around.
Compared with the outside, this place was startlingly still and startlingly vast; the two flowers formed two adjoining worlds, linked one to the other. These two worlds were not small at all, rivaling the heavens without; only there were no sun, moon, or stars in their sky.
And strangely, Guixu was a single sheet of darkness, yet here there was light: on one side a world of pink, on the other a world of dark black. They had fallen into the red world, where the veins of the petals interwove across the heavens, veins most peculiar, flickering ceaselessly with red light.
Where the two worlds met stood two palaces, likewise one red and one black, and the palaces ought to be connected. Dragon Qilin gazed this way and that, then said cautiously, "A star fell just now, and that was what brought on the dark current in the celestial river.
What if no star ever falls again?
Won't we be trapped here for good?
" Yan'er looked at him very gravely. Dragon Qilin lowered his head and said no more. He had just witnessed what Yan'er was capable of, and so he resolved to follow his heart and keep absolute respect for this elder sister who was forever tossing him food.
Yan'er was again tidying Shen Mu's clothes, smoothing out the hem of his robe.
Shen Mu was long accustomed to it. He walked to the edge of the sky and gently stroked the flower wall of this world within a flower.
The wall felt very soft, like a young girl's skin, even more delicate and singular to the touch than a young girl's skin.
"We are inside the flower chambers of these two flowers.
These two flowers truly are living flowers, not divine weapons or the like.
" Shen Mu's face turned strange, and he said in amazement, "What flower could withstand such dreadful gravity and destructive force as Guixu's? " The veins upon the flower wall were actually flowing gently, and then a young girl's face emerged, rising up out of the flower wall; with eyes closed she rubbed her cheek softly against his palm, seeming to enjoy it greatly.
Shen Mu jumped in fright and hastily drew back his hand.
"Her Highness the Empress!
" He had no doubt that had he been a cat, every hair on his body would have bristled! The face that surfaced from the flower wall was the face of Her Highness the Empress!
He had seen the corpse of Her Highness the Empress in the coffin aboard the ghost ship; that face he could never mistake!
The face on the flower wall grew out a little further, chasing after his palm, rubbing of its own accord against his palm, most flirtatious.
"Young brother!
" The face of Her Highness the Empress gave a pleasing laugh.
Shen Mu's body went taut, and he did not move.
The girl growing out of the flower wall had a very long neck and no body, like a beautiful serpent.
"Young brother, no one has come here for so very long.
" The beautiful serpent circled slowly around him, and upon her neck there even grew many reverse scales, which scraped across Shen Mu's neck; at once cut after cut appeared on his neck, and blood seeped out.
His fleshly body had long since been tempered to be as mighty as gods and devils, yet before the reverse scales of this beautiful serpent his body was as frail as bean curd.
"The ancient gods in Guixu are not only the Empress and her sister! " His mind shook violently.
"Other ancient gods have been born here as well! " The sparrow on Shen Mu's shoulder hastily took flight and landed on Dragon Qilin's head, cocking her head curiously to study this beautiful serpent stretching out from the flower wall.