Chapter 152 — The Golden Palace of Loulan
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 3 of 4
Libationer Bashan led them to the gate, where many great shamans already stood waiting, along with steppe powerhouses who were no disciples of the Golden Palace yet kept watch there too — famous names of the steppe, come at the news. "Little Ox!
" Libationer Bashan barked.
The Green Ox gave a low moo, and his body suddenly swelled with thumping sounds, muscles bulging, rising higher and higher until he was a hideous, sinewy, ox-headed monster of a man. He strode to the golden gate, shrugged his shoulders upward, and tore that immensely heavy gateway out by the roots!
The barbarian great shamans and experts beside him were struck dumb. Libationer Bashan said mildly: "Carry the gate up the mountain. " Shen Mu's heart gave a jolt; he understood Libationer Bashan's intent.
Blockading at the gate below, they could scarcely reach the heart of the Golden Palace of Loulan; but hauling the gate up the mountain and blocking it before the palace's main hall would make it far easier to steal Zaifu's lower half.
Yet that would also offend the Golden Palace of Loulan beyond repair; this venture, he feared, would end only with somebody's death. If they went deep into the Golden Palace of Loulan, those powerhouses had only to block the road down and they would be trapped, which would be very bad indeed. Libationer Bashan gave a cold snort and walked on, sending his voice into Shen Mu's ear: "Once we are up the mountain, it won't be you two blockading the gate — I fear they mean to come for me.
This is rather different from what I had in mind.
.
. " Shen Mu consoled him: "The man who taught me to steal is a lame old fellow — truly formidable. " "How did he come to be lame?
" asked Libationer Bashan.
Shen Mu hesitated, then answered honestly: "It seems he was caught while stealing something, and a leg was chopped off.
" Libationer Bashan sneered: "When I heard he was lame, I already knew he'd been caught thieving and beaten lame. Have you ever stolen anything?
" Shen Mu hesitated again, then shook his head: "I haven't tried yet.
" Libationer Bashan's last hope perished; his face shifted between gloom and brightness, and he abruptly thrust a map into Shen Mu's hands: "This is a map of the Golden Palace.
Keep it for now.
.
.
I hope you never need it. For now we take one step and watch for the next; once we reach the palace, adapt as things come, and perhaps I can find a chance to steal my master's lower half. " The stairway of the Golden Palace of Loulan was exceedingly long, stretching all the way to the summit.
Shen Mu and Ling Yuxiu climbed after Libationer Bashan, looking about: on both sides of the road stood many golden statues of gods, each one grotesque beyond measure — human yet not human, demon yet not demon, god yet not god, bearing at once the features of men and of gods and demons, in shapes strange and multifarious. To walk such a road weighed heavily on the spirit; even Snow Fox, who loved to bicker with the Green Ox, fell strangely quiet now, and only the Green Ox's ponderous footsteps sounded. Shen Mu looked back: the steppe experts and the barbarian great shamans followed them in silence, eyes blazing fire. Ahead, glittering palaces appeared one after another, and beneath them stood people of monstrous shapes — some with horns on their heads, some with wings on their backs, some with beast heads, some with serpent tails.
Yet these were not of the demon race; the demon race carries demon aura, as Snow Fox does, and the Green Ox, though his aura is faint, has it too. These monstrous folk had no demon aura at all.
Snow Fox and the Green Ox were transforming toward the human; the powerhouses of the Golden Palace of Loulan seemed rather to be transforming away from it.