Chapter 152 — The Golden Palace of Loulan
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 2 of 4
But the moment the boat stopped, the air beneath one's nose would be breathed away, and in time one would surely suffocate. As for flying arts, to rise from the surface of the lake was all but impossible; a flying art must agitate the air to form an upward lift.
Yet here, agitating the air only produced a vacuum, and there was no flying at all.
Snow Fox tried it too, and found that her spells for summoning wind and rain were utterly useless here. The barbarian great shaman chuckled: "Going around is not impossible.
But the Weak Water lake is too wide; a detour would take two days, and once you are in the snow mountains — heh heh — few who go in come out again.
" Ling Yuxiu clicked her tongue in dismay. Shen Mu quietly opened his Soaring Heaven Eye and his Azure Heaven Eye and surveyed the sky, where he dimly made out a gauze of mist, all but imperceptible, shrouding the whole breadth of the lake; his heart stirred: "This gauze must be what keeps the air from moving. " The gauze could not be touched, yet it truly existed — surely the prohibition Libationer Bashan had spoken of.
Absently he looked beneath the water, and his heart quivered: the whole floor of the lake was strewn with skeletons, sunk there in the depths.
Ling Yuxiu looked down as well and gave a low cry. Libationer Bashan said: "Those are all slaves used up in the Shaman Cult's cultivation.
" Shen Mu shivered with dread.
The Goat-Face Great Shaman poled swiftly; he had secret arts of his own, letting him come and go across the lake like the wind, and the Weak Water could not sink this boat.
Before long the wooden boat moored at the foot of the snow mountains, and the Goat-Face Great Shaman chuckled: "Khagan of War, after you! " Libationer Bashan smiled slightly and walked toward that golden-lit peak.
Toot, toot — From the mountain came long, deep blasts of horn, full and powerful, setting a man's eardrums and chest to resonating.
Far off, avalanches suddenly broke from one snow mountain after another, rumbling and crashing, lending the moment yet more weight.
Libationer Bashan burst out laughing, drowning out both the horns and the thunder of the avalanches.
Shen Mu and the others felt nothing amiss, but on the mountain his laughter set men's blood and qi seething, rushing to their heads, their skulls swelling as though about to burst, and none could press it down. Then a heavy voice came down from the mountain: "The Khagan of War's cultivation runs deep, deeper than in years past.
Why open with such a show of force? Khagan of War, come up the mountain and let us meet. " The voice rang clearly audible even through Libationer Bashan's laughter, aged yet brimming with power — plainly a peerless master.
"The Shaman Sovereign has spoken; I can hardly refuse. Only, this visit of mine is to blockade your mountain gate, not to reminisce.
" Libationer Bashan answered the aged voice across the distance, unhurried: "I shall come up now.
" Shen Mu looked up and saw a stairway paved in gold running all the way up the mountain, yet before they had gone far a great golden gateway barred the way, with no door leaves in it.
The gateway was cast entirely of gold, more than ten zhang tall and over twenty zhang wide, inlaid with precious jades and pearls — luxury indeed.
In those years it was Zaifu who had brought Libationer Bashan here; they had blockaded that gate for three months, defeated the young talents of the Golden Palace of Loulan, and beaten every expert who came rushing from all quarters of the steppe at the news. For this Libationer Bashan was honored by the steppe as the Martial Emperor.
And Zaifu, in those days, had fought a hundred-odd battles great and small, thrashed the entire elder generation of the Golden Palace of Loulan, and won the fair name of Heavenly Khagan, Heavenly Emperor.