Chapter 182 — The Waters of the Southern Wilds Run Deep
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 1 of 4
The Cloud-Chasing Pirate Ship flew for a day and a half, and at last reached the Yong River, steering toward the camp upon the riverbank.
The riverside stretch of Lizhou Prefecture had already been placed under heavy guard; the great army had linked more than two hundred water forts, and its troops and horses were numberless. By the time they arrived, a fierce battle was drawing to its close. Tower ships prowled the river's face; some had been smashed open, masts and decks ablaze, pouring out rolling black smoke. Corpses drifted upon the water.
On the tower ships, soldiers cast fishing nets to fish out the dead, hooking the bodies and hanging them from the sterns, ready to drag them ashore for burial.
Shen Mu opened his Azure Heaven Eye and looked across the river. On the far bank stood a broken city, where scattered fighting still flickered, for within the city there still burst the many-colored lights of divine abilities.
Yet the scale of the fighting was small now; the army of Jingping must be wiping out the last of the enemy within the city. Fan Yunxiao brought the tower ship to a halt and descended slowly toward the military camp.
Soldiers flew up to the ship to question them; learning that they were scholars of the Grand Academy, they at once waved their banners, and the archers below lowered their bows.
The tower ship landed in the camp. Fan Yunxiao, one eye black and one eye white, gazed at the scattered fighting on the far bank, glanced at Shen Wanyun, Yun Que and the others, and shook his head. "Brother Shen, these scholars of yours can only drag you down; they are no help.
In a battle of any size, you scholars are of no use at all -- you will be hard put to keep yourselves alive. I am off. When I have got enough dark iron and the blueprints for a treasure ship, I will come find you! " With that, he had the pirates aboard fire up the pill furnace, and sailed away. Yun Que and the rest were badly shaken. Shen Wanyun sneered, "That man's strength is not bad, but his judgment is sorely lacking. " A general came over and asked, "Are you scholars of the Grand Academy?
" Shen Mu nodded. "Is Vice Prefect Yuyuan Chuyu of Lizhou Prefecture at the front?
Might I trouble you to announce me -- say that Shen Mu of Dijiang County requests an audience.
" The general was astonished, and not daring to be negligent, hurried off. Before long, the clatter of armor came to their ears.
They all looked toward the sound, and saw a woman general approaching, clad in armor with a helmet tucked under her arm -- a figure of martial splendor, and of rare beauty besides, cheeks powdered, lips red, the kind of face one does not forget.
She must have just come from the battlefield; there was still blood upon her. "So it is little brother Shen Mu. " Yuyuan Chuyu's gaze fell upon Shen Mu, and her eyes brightened.
"The little brother who walked out of Dijiang County a few months ago has made a name for himself.
I heard my elder brother speak of your affairs.
You have risen in the world now, and it gladdens my heart for you. " "You flatter me, sister. " Shen Mu flushed. "I concealed from you before that I came from the Wasteland.
" Yuyuan Chuyu said, "After you left, I kept wondering when Dijiang County had acquired a Shen family that could raise so outstanding a youth.
Later my brother sent word and spoke of you -- so you came from the Wasteland.
" Yun Que, Yue Qinghong and the others were shaken inwardly. Lizhou Prefecture was where every scholar of the Grand Academy who went out to temper himself made his base; who would have thought Shen Mu was in fact well acquainted with the Vice Prefect of Lizhou Prefecture! Such a great regional official was a frontier governor in her own right, and beyond that, Yuyuan Chuyu's origins were extraordinary -- she was the princess of the former Yuyuan Kingdom, and the other Yuyuan crown prince, Yuyuan Chuyun, had become a great general in the capital.