Chapter 1068 — Stirring the Origin Ancestral Star
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 1 of 4
Beside Shen Mu, Yan'er had turned back into an azure sparrow, hopping about in a fever of excitement: now onto the canopy, now onto Shen Mu's shoulder, then onto the top of his head, and then, beating her wings, onto the great head of the Dragon Qilin, where she pecked rapturously at its crown. "What has you so excited, Yan'er? " Shen Mu shook his head, spread his palm, and the myriad sword pellets above the Heavenly River arranged themselves like a matrix; of a sudden they collided two by two, and in moments all the pellets had merged into one, which dropped into his palm.
He had just now annihilated the gods and demons under the Five Luminaries Star Lords with sword pellets, relying on the myriad sword energies shot forth from within them.
It looked a simple sword formation, yet had a master of the sword from Jingping sought to perform it, it would have taken an entire army retrained in swordsmanship to bring it off! Jingping's armies dedicated wholly to the sword were equipped with sword pellets or sword caskets; once roused, tens of thousands of flying swords would shoot out at the foe and cut them down: gathered, they could form a formation; scattered, they could execute any sword move at all.
Shen Mu wielded swordsmanship through sword pellets, and every sword energy carried a different variation of the art; one man was the match of an entire army of sword cultivators! Say nothing of an age in which the way of the sword did not yet exist; even in Jingping his attainments in the sword way closely pursued those of Lizheng and Jiang Baigui, formerly Imperial Preceptor of Jingping, and in places surpassed them, second only to Kaihuang! The gods and demons under the Five Luminaries Star Lords, facing his swordsmanship, had never heard of such a thing nor seen such a thing, and could only choke on their hatred and die.
"Bugs! " Yan'er pecked excitedly at the Dragon Qilin's skull, her gaze fixed all the while on the Five Luminaries Star Lords. The Dragon Qilin's skull bled under her pecking, yet it stood immovable, letting the blood run down its face, a steadiness frightful to see.
It thought: "I have long since grown used to it. Still, these ancient gods are no bugs.
But I am used to that as well. .
.
" Yan'er's temper was past fathoming.
The girl knew nothing of the world, was far too simple, loved to wait upon others, and loved to eat strange and outlandish things. Back in Guixu she had taken the ancient gods that the stamens of Guixu's flowers had become for bugs, and eaten them up clean, so that for a very long stretch she grew fat sideways, and Shen Mu felt shamed to be seen abroad with her. Only after much difficulty did she digest them, and her figure returned to what it had been.
Now her eye had fallen on the Five Luminaries Star Lords, which gave the Dragon Qilin a feeling of unease.
Star Lord Zhenxing and Star Lord Chenxing alike had human heads and serpent bodies; the female ancient gods of Guixu were likewise lovely serpent-women with human heads, and so to Yan'er, a dragon sparrow, they were all bugs.
Star Lord Suixing had a bird's head and a human body, Star Lord Yinghuo an ox's head and a human body, Star Lord Taibai a tiger's head and a human body, and those were no bugs to Yan'er. But the crux was that all three of these ancient gods trod upon twin dragons. The dragons beneath their feet were bugs as well, to this dragon sparrow, and that was what set her leaping in exultation.
She had eaten an ancient god once in Guixu, and could not forget the taste. "I wonder how fat she will grow this time?
" The Dragon Qilin's skull rang hollow under the pecking. It thought: "But no matter how fat she grows, I will never hold her in disdain.