Chapter 108 — The Dragon-Driving Sect's Disciples
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 1 of 3
Whoosh—
The giant serpent's vast, thick body coiled around, wrapping itself about several decks of the tower ship, squeezing them until they groaned and creaked. Everywhere aboard were stunned scholars, and the boatmen were frozen with terror.
"Brother Wei Yong, can you fly?" Shen Mu said suddenly.
Wei Yong had not yet gathered his wits: "What?"
Shen Mu raised a hand and flung the pudgy fellow off the tower ship. Wei Yong's scream came up from below: "I can't fly! Aaah—"
Shen Mu leaped down from the tower ship. Snow Fox, drunk a moment before, was now as clear-headed as an owl in the night; in the instant Shen Mu sprang, the little fox worked its art, and a gust of wind caught him up.
Shen Mu rode the wind, whistling downward, and reached out to seize Wei Yong. Wei Yong, his soul still unsteady, looked down and screamed again.
"Quiet!"
Shen Mu ran with all his strength. Above them the vast tower ship groaned and creaked, and shattered decks came howling down. Shen Mu dodged again and again in midair, slipping past one hurtling timber after another, and rushed into the distance.
Wei Yong looked back, eyes blank. The decks had been crushed to splinters; the great snake was coiled about the tower ship, squeezing with all its might, and the ship was about to be wrung in two!
The scholars aboard leaped off one after another. Some who possessed divine powers had learned the art of flight and rode their primal weapons through the air; others had never learned it, and tumbled down flailing and shrieking.
"Long Jiaonan! Are you rebelling?"
The ship's master flew into a rage, his body transforming into a giant of flame as he charged the bewitching man. His divine power was overbearing in the extreme—but the tower ship could no longer bear the battle of two such masters. The elixir chamber at the ship's core was crushed open by the serpent; the elixir masters and their boy attendants within rushed out in panic and leaped overboard.
At the same moment the serpent spat a cloud of poison into the ship's master's face. The flame giant was snuffed out at once and fell straight backward.
"We're done for..."
Wei Yong's face was ashen: "The Dragon-Driving Sect has turned traitor. That one, the fellow who keeps that great long worm—he's Long Jiaonan, the young sect master of the Dragon-Driving Sect, a villain of the first notoriety..."
Shen Mu struggled to hold him up and ran for the ground. Below lay the mountain's foot, where they could hide their tracks from the Dragon-Driving Sect's masters.
A moment later they touched down. Snow Fox dispersed its art and was about to speak when a scream came from above; a scholar crashed through the dense canopy and struck the ground before them, bursting apart, brains and blood spattering the earth.
Bang!
Another dull thud came from not far off.
Bang, bang, bang...
It was as though rain fell upon the mountain's foot—scholar after scholar dropped from the sky, smashed to pieces!
Wei Yong's face went the color of clay, his body trembling. Shen Mu's ears twitched; suddenly he seized him and sprinted forward. Behind them came a thunderous roar—half a ship came crashing down, obliterating a stretch of mountain forest, and the trees it struck were sent flying in every direction, a terrifying sight.
The vast hull of the tower ship slid a hundred zhang and more, nearly crushing the running Shen Mu, and at last came to rest.
Shen Mu kept sprinting with all his might. From the tower ship came an earth-shaking blast—the elixir furnace exploding—and the surging shockwave hurled the two men and the fox through the air.
Shen Mu landed, released Wei Yong, and said in a low voice: "Let's go, quickly. Dragon-Driving Sect masters will be here soon to see if anyone's still alive."
Wei Yong, barely recovered, ran on and said: "What will they do if they find someone alive?"
Snow Fox rolled its eyes at him, a little drunk—it had plainly been sneaking drinks: "Fat Wei, what do you think?"