Chapter 156 — A Dangerous Notion Stirs
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 2 of 3
Qingxiao Heaven Eye, open! " Within Shen Mu's pupils the Shenxiao Heaven and the Qingxiao Heaven opened; dense ranks of runes formed two heavens in his eyes, and as he looked around, everything here at once became distinct in its layers. Every golden altar here was thick with seals, like the cubes he had seen before; within each cube hid a vicious-looking little figure, its features twisted together, its hair in wild disarray, its claws and fangs sharp — yet without the Heaven Eye one could not see them at all.
Shen Mu picked up the talisman treasure and examined closely the runes upon its fourteen faces, compared them, and shook his head: this talisman treasure was not the key to undo the seals of the golden altars; it could likely only open the golden hall itself. He walked forward, examining the golden altars one by one; he had to make haste.
Outside, Ling Yuxiu should still be holding the door, but Ling Yuxiu's abilities were a notch below his own, and though he had studied the Basha Libationer's fusion of battle arts, he likely could not hold out much longer. The treasures upon the altars differed one from another; many were treasures unique to the Golden Palace of Loulan, refined in most bizarre fashion — human skin flayed to make paintings inscribed with runes, bowls made from human skullcaps, drums made from human skin, as well as White Bone Banners, Thousand-Poison Soul-Devouring Banners, and White Bone Shrines — all instruments of demonic and heretical paths. But besides these there were no few fine things, shining with golden light, seemingly treasures refined by beings of the Shaman King's level.
Shen Mu also saw treasures not of the Shaman Cult placed here — a Thousand-Banner Pagoda and sarira relics, which must be great treasures of the Buddhist order, as well as a sword pellet the size of a grape, an ancient zither with one end scorched, and a broken sword. Suddenly Shen Mu stopped, unable to move on. On this altar stood a stone slab carved with a fragmentary diagram of cultivation; one glance told him it was a diagram of the Three-Cinnabar Art of the Mystic Body — though not the diagram for the Six Harmonies realm.
In his haste he could not tell at all which realm it belonged to.
"Move, move — go find the legs! " Shen Mu urged himself on, racing like the wind toward the depths of the treasure vault.
After a moment he had swiftly traversed the whole place, then stopped before a golden altar. He had already looked at this altar once, yet in the end he had come back to it. Upon the altar rested the lower half of a human body — only the portion below the waist — yet it still stood, steady and square.
Yet Shen Mu was certain this was not Zaifu's lower half.
This half-body shone with golden light; even its blood seemed molten gold, and its bones too were gold. The body gave off a fearsome aura, mightier even than the Shaman King's.
"The Shaman Venerable's body?
" Shen Mu blinked, measured it against his own waist, then carefully recalled Zaifu's body.
Zaifu's body seemed as though it might fit perfectly upon this half-body.
"The Shaman Venerable destroyed the sect that stole Grandpa Tu's lower half and carried it off, then cut off his own lower half and placed it here — and yet Grandpa Tu's lower half, which ought to be here, is gone.
.
. " The corner of Shen Mu's eye twitched as a dreadful possibility came to him.
The Shaman Venerable had cut off his own lower half and grafted Zaifu's lower half onto himself! "With my medical skill, this could certainly be done.
The Shaman Venerable should be able to do it as well!
" His scalp prickled with numbness.
To cut off one's own lower half and join another's to it — what did the Shaman Venerable seek?
"Perhaps he believed Grandpa Tu's fleshly body was even more formidable than his own golden body, beyond anything he could attain in his whole life, and so traded away his own lower half.