Chapter 399 — Watertight

The corpse of the headless demon god suddenly went limp, the claws gripping the mountain ridges on either side came loose, and the body plunged into the river channel below, blocking the gateway behind it completely with its bulk. On the Dawn Ark, meanwhile, the Sunherd warriors were locked in a bitter struggle; the many-bodied demons surged in such numbers that even the Sunherds, born warriors that they were, could barely hold the line, and one after another their kinsmen fell, assimilated into the enemy horde.

Then, without warning, every many-bodied demon stiffened where it stood, standing blank and motionless.

In the next moment, their heads and faces began to writhe and twist at dizzying speed, as if two faces were fighting for control of the body, features flickering wildly; on some demons, the eyes would suddenly split in two, then just as suddenly merge back together—utterly bizarre. The towering Sunherds lowered their weapons one by one, at a loss, for the enemies who had been slaughtering them in a battle that darkened heaven and earth had all sunk into a peculiar state. After a while, the many-bodied demon fighting the Sunherd chieftain suddenly collapsed in on itself, dissolving into a throng of many-bodied demons.

The face of the demon at the lead changed completely, the demonic patterns on its body molting away at speed, until it became a woman dressed in translucent scale-feather garments—a figure graceful and willowy, skin fair and supple and almost transparent. The woman looked about in a daze, unaware that her scale-feathers did not even begin to cover her. "Where is this place? " Her eyes were full of doubt.

She did not speak, yet her spiritual fluctuations let everyone hear her voice and understand her meaning: "How did I end up here? " Then more many-bodied demons shifted into another form.

Like the woman, these beings wore no true garments; what covered them were flimsy wings made of scales—and not one pair, either: wings both great and small, long and short, sprouted from every part of their bodies. These were scale-feathers. Creatures bearing scale-feathers were rarely seen in the Jingping Kingdom, though strange beasts of the Ruin did grow them; but people covered in scale-feathers—no such outlandish race was to be found even in the Ruin. The scale-feathers on these beings were still shifting.

The first woman to awaken soon noticed that she was hardly dressed; her scale-feathers seemed to change color to match her mood, and one after another the scales turned over, rapidly blackening as they rippled, until she was quickly wrapped in something like a black gown that veiled her body.

The scale-feathers of the others likewise changed color to cloak themselves.

All the strange scale-feather folk looked around in bewilderment, knowing not where they were. The Sunherds on the Dawn Ark were equally baffled, unable to fathom why the many-bodied demons had undergone such a transformation.

The Sunherd chieftain offered a guess: "They must be alien races that were assimilated by the many-bodied demon god.

Now that the demon god's main consciousness is dead, the will that controlled them has scattered, and they have regained their freedom. In other words—the many-bodied demon god is dead! " The elders at his side were overjoyed.

Then, abruptly, a clattering, clanking racket sounded behind them, and they spun around. There was Shen Mu, two hands gripping the pillar, his other two hands hauling back on chains.

Those chains pierced straight through the sun, treasures used to tether it, and dragging them back was strenuous work.

The old chieftain's heart seized with anxiety. He hurried to the middle of the pillar and looked up. "Your Highness, why have you gone and hurled the sun out again? You haven't broken it, have you?

" Shen Mu lowered his gaze to those hopeful eyes and hesitated.

"Well.

.

. " A moment later, the old chieftain saw Shen Mu haul the sun back—two enormous black lumps, like two mountains split into hemispheres. The old chieftain and the elders were struck dumb, and nearly every Sunherd aboard the Dawn Ark stared blankly as the two black lumps came crawling toward them.

Not only had the Sunherds' sun gone dark—it had split in twain! Clank, clank. The chains made a shrill din as they were drawn.

Shen Mu dragged the two halves back, carefully recalled the Carefree Sword, and the sword hoisted the sun's jade eye, flying over with an unsteady sway.

"Chieftain, I have two pieces of good news. The first is that the many-bodied demon god is truly dead.

" Shen Mu sounded somewhat sheepish.

The old chieftain's face was wooden, his voice grinding out stiff as machinery: "And the other piece of good news?

" "We can get ourselves a brand-new sun!

" The old chieftain turned his head to look at their liege, wanting to weep but having no tears. "How wonderful, how wonderful.

.

.

" he muttered.

Shen Mu hauled the two black halves of the sun back, and behind the sun trailed tens of thousands of scale-feather folk, who had followed the black sun to the vicinity of the Dawn Ark. Many of them had failed to keep up with the shattered sun and perished in the darkness of the Ruin.

Those who survived learned the grave danger and alerted one another; more and more scale-feather folk caught up with the sun and thus escaped death. They communicated not by sound but by waves of their spiritual thought—without needing words, they could inform one another.

A truly remarkable gift.

As Shen Mu pulled the two halves onto the Dawn Ark, a voice suddenly rang out in his mind: "Yu Zhaoqing of the Heavenfeathers greets the honored master of this place.

" Shen Mu started slightly and looked at the woman in black walking toward him.

She approached with graceful, unhurried steps, composed and at ease; the black garments on her body shifted rapidly, turning pale yellow.

When she arrived before the Sun Pillar, her clothing had not only become pale yellow but had adopted a cut much like the robes worn by the old chieftain and the others—it seemed the scale-feathers on their bodies could alter shape and color at their wearer's will. Shen Mu released the Sun Pillar.

The two arms beneath his armpits gradually retracted, and the third leg at his rear withdrew into his body. The Dawn Ark's dreadful power within him ebbed away, and before long his form returned to ordinary size. He hurriedly slipped behind a pillar, took out a set of clothes, changed out of his tattered garments, tidied himself, and only then stepped out from behind the pillar.

When he had held the Sun Pillar, his power had surged and his flesh had swollen to towering proportions, splitting his clothes apart. His garments were numinous treasures, to be sure, but Shen Mu's body had grown into a giant of a hundred zhang in that moment, like a heavenly god—far beyond what the clothes could withstand, and with the third leg sprouting from the tailbone at his rear, they had been rent clean through.

"Clan Chief. " Shen Mu offered his salutation.

Yu Zhaoqing of the Heavenfeathers studied him, astonishment on her face; a moment ago Shen Mu had been a being like a heavenly god, and now he was a mere youth. Her robes spread across the floor as she made a deep, courteous bow in return.

Shen Mu hastily pointed at the Sunherd chieftain and laughed: "I'm not the chieftain of this place—he is. I wouldn't dare overstep my place. " The old chieftain shook his head.

"All under heaven is the king's land. The Sunherds too are Your Highness's domain; Your Highness is the master here. " Shen Mu had no choice but to receive the Heavenfeather woman.

"Clan Chief, this is no place for talk. Please have your people come aboard, and we will speak at Dawnspring.