Chapter 109 — Dark Plumes and Crimson Crests
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 1 of 3
The Dragon-Driving Sect's disciples had in fact long since taken up position ahead of them, waiting to sweep up whatever fish had slipped the net!
Snakes came surging over hill and field at the sound of the flute, a sight to make the blood run cold. Wei Yong, his face ashen, muttered, "What is the capital playing at? Every demon and monster under heaven turned loose—and where have the capital's guards gone?"
Just then a sudden rumbling came from the direction of the capital. Shen Mu's heart stirred; he snatched up Snow Fox and tucked her into the bundle on his back, and said in a low voice, "Back away!"
Wei Yong fell back in haste. They had barely withdrawn a hundred zhang when the snake horde abruptly fell into turmoil, as though seized by a terrible fright, and the maddened serpents came surging toward them. Nor was it the snakes alone: the Dragon-Driving Sect's disciples were in a panic too, leaping onto the serpents' heads one after another, and the great snakes swam swift as flight, hurtling straight at Shen Mu and his companion!
"Back to back!"
Shen Mu barked the words. Wei Yong understood at once and set his back to Shen Mu's. He pulled the sword case from his shoulders and thumped it down hard on the ground, brought his hands together, and with two fingers of each hand extended, formed the sword seal. The case opened; with a silvery jingle the flying swords rose one after another, linked nose to tail, their points turned down.
Then, with a single hum, the swords parted and ranged themselves in a ring about Shen Mu and himself, points outward, whirling at furious speed!
Shen Mu was astonished. This move of Wei Yong's was no art handed down by the academy; it was far more exquisite than the sword techniques cultivated by the academy's scholars. It must be a sword art passed down in his own family. Wei Yong had said the Wei family was one of Jiangling's great houses; plainly he had not been boasting.
The serpents came swarming. Shen Mu's primal energy erupted, and golden rings appeared before him and behind; from them shot bolts of sword light, stabbing at the onrushing snakes and the Dragon-Driving Sect disciples perched atop their heads. This was an art he had comprehended from the idol in the old temple of Crimson Dragon City—like a divine power, and yet not one; its force was far from weak. The great snakes that came at them, struck and wounded by that golden sword light, would veer aside and swim away; and the Dragon-Driving Sect disciples on the serpents' heads, harried by his sword light, had no leisure to strike back.
Yet these men and snakes seemed less bent on attacking them than on fleeing for their lives—only the serpents pouring in were too many. Even Shen Mu could not drive them all back. On they came like a tide, and in a moment they would drown the two of them!
Wei Yong shouted aloud. The flying swords spun furiously around the pair, slicing through the bodies of the serpents that surged in; lightning and sparks crackled and spat, great scales burst away from every cut, and some snakes were gashed open to the flesh—a pitiful sight.
The pressure on Wei Yong mounted sharply and he could scarcely hold. At once Shen Mu changed his technique: his palms crossed, and his primal energy ran surging like a mighty river, turned to rushing water, and battered the huge serpent bodies. Snow Fox, in his bundle, kept working her arts as well, raising a vast whirlwind that caught up the great snakes one by one.
The strain on the two men and the fox grew greater and greater; and just then the rumbling drew near. Great birds with black feathers and vermilion crests came racing through the mountain forest like the wind—birds like walking hills, their beaks several zhang long, striding through the woods as if through grass. Their talons crushed rock to powder; their beaks stabbed down, seized a serpent, and shook it wildly this way and that!