Chapter 102 — The One Who Communes with the Gods
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 1 of 4
"So he really is the son of the Corpse Immortal Cult's patriarch.
. .
" Shen Mu's face darkened.
Was this not far too much of a coincidence?
The patriarch's son had chosen to strike at him, and chosen to be so weak that he could not withstand even a single sword stroke from him.
This time the Corpse Immortal Cult would never let him go! Before the flying zombies in the air had even drawn near, he caught a stench of rot and blood; the nails of these flying zombies were dark green, plainly venomous! "Corpse poison!
" The moment Shen Mu caught that smell, he identified the toxin. The alchemist had taught him pharmacology, and among those lessons was the art of distinguishing different poisons and medicinal properties by scent alone.
Shen Mu had been dosed with medicines almost from infancy, and his ability to discern the nature of drugs and poisons was exceptionally keen.
These dozen or so creatures had corpse poison on their nails; if they broke the skin, the blood would first congeal, then the muscles would stiffen, hard as rock, impervious to blade and spear, and at last the mind would vanish and the soul would dissolve!
Shen Mu ran with all his speed, but the flying zombies behind him were faster still; the distance between them shrank with every breath. Sheet after sheet of yellow joss paper spread forward across the ground; the flying zombies in the air bounded and leapt, about to overtake them!
Behind him, He Yin waved a hand, and again fire birds came winging through the air, their wings beating. Before they even drew close, waves of heat rolled off them, raising a hot wind; the green grass on the ground withered in an instant, all its moisture gone. This man must walk both the path of spells and the path of sword-riding, a dual cultivator of the spell school and the sword-riding school. Such a thing had once been exceedingly rare, but the Imperial Preceptor of Jingping had cut and carved with a great blade, sweeping away the old and forging the new, gathering the sects of the world into the service of the imperial house.
He had broken down many entrenched barriers and made the divisions between schools less deep, and so this convergence of paths had come about. Wicked sects like the Corpse Immortal Cult had also seized upon this great upheaval to improve their own doctrines and divine powers, developing many new spells and arts.
"No, it should be three schools!
What these flying zombies are using are moves of the combat-technique school!
" Shen Mu frowned. His steps suddenly surged with power, his body winding and running like a dragon as he dodged the fiery bird hurtling at his back.
But the fiery bird burst apart with a thunderous roar, the flames exploding into a great fireball six or seven zhang across that swelled violently, and the surging blast and blazing fire sent Shen Mu flying hard. Before he had even landed, he saw sheet after sheet of yellow joss paper come fluttering toward him, and eight or nine flying zombies came striding upon the paper, passing through the exploding flames to kill him!
These flying zombies were all of the Five Luminaries realm, the level of martial powerhouses; their bodies had been refined to a hardness like that of primal weapons. Their moves were simple, shoveling, slicing, shearing, stabbing, but if he were surrounded by them, there would be no chance of escape at all.
Below, flying zombies hunted him; in the air, more came at him; and He Yin attacked with divine powers.
The situation could hardly have been worse for him. Sheet after sheet of yellow joss paper fluttered and flew, slicing swiftly through the air with a shrill whistling shriek. He Yin seemed to be driving the yellow paper, but in truth he was wielding swordsmanship, and swordsmanship of the most exquisite kind, hardly inferior to that of the Lanjiang Sword Sect.
Most crucial of all, the talismans drawn on the yellow paper in cinnabar and fresh blood gave him a very bad feeling.