Chapter 28 — A Nameless Shadow Emerges from the Ancient Wall
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 1 of 3
Shen Mu steadied himself. The map from before the Wasteland Cataclysm had proved most useful: it marked out many of the ruins scattered through the wasteland, so that if he went out hunting and could not make it back to Hidden Remnant Village in time, he could follow the map into these ruins and take shelter from the onslaught of darkness.
"With this map, I can avoid a great many dangers.
" He set his mind to memorizing it, fixing the map in his memory, and after a while found where this mountain valley lay; on the map, the valley was called the Calamity-Quelling Palace. "Calamity-Quelling Palace?
'Calamity' means disaster, misfortune.
" Shen Mu had learned calligraphy and painting from the Deaf Elder, and though he could not claim to be deeply read in the classics, he had still filled his belly with a fair store of learning; he murmured to himself, "The Calamity-Quelling Palace is a palace for suppressing calamity. What calamity, in the end, was this palace meant to suppress? " He looked around and saw that the Dark-Fanged Demon Ape had gone out at some unknown moment and was no longer in the palace.
He supposed the ape had feared that staying would disturb him, and so had run outside. "The big fellow knows how to behave.
" Shen Mu walked out of the palace and called the Dark-Fanged Demon Ape over.
"Big fellow, is there anything strange about this place?
" The Dark-Fanged Demon Ape scratched its head, thought for a moment, and then dashed hurriedly toward the side hall of the Calamity-Quelling Palace. Shen Mu followed at a quick pace, and the silly roe deer behind them came tagging along as well.
"This!
" The Dark-Fanged Demon Ape entered the side hall and pointed. Shen Mu followed its finger and saw a white wall, upon which was painted a human figure—very small, no bigger than a thumb.
He looked the white wall up and down but found nothing besides that tiny figure.
The silly roe deer, sniffing all the way, pressed close to the wall, sniffed at the painted figure, and was just about to lick the wall when, without warning, a hand snatched out—and the roe deer vanished! Shen Mu gave a start.
The Dark-Fanged Demon Ape, too, beat its chest in fury and roared at the wall, yet dared not advance.
On the wall, beside the tiny human figure, there now appeared the painted image of a roe deer, rendered vivid and nimble; then Shen Mu saw the figure on the wall begin, little by little, to move. It opened its mouth, wider and wider, ever wider, and its mouth was full of nail-like teeth, and with one gulp it devoured the roe deer! Shen Mu was aghast.
Having eaten the roe deer, the figure on the wall abruptly took a step and came walking toward them!
Then, to his horror, Shen Mu saw that though the figure never stepped out of the wall, its body grew taller and taller, larger and larger, until gradually it reached the size of an ordinary grown person; still it did not stop, still it kept walking forward. In no time at all the figure had filled the entire wall, and even the ceiling of the side hall was covered by its shadow—a head, a head with a gaping maw—and then its palms spread from that wall onto the other two walls.
"Little bean, run! " The Dark-Fanged Demon Ape seized Shen Mu and sprang away; the shadow on the wall did not catch them.
A furious roar came from the wall, and the wall shook without cease, dust and smoke billowing; then the black shadow spread out from within the side hall, and in the blink of an eye the whole hall was drowned in that shadow from the wall!
The shadow strove to tear itself free from the walls of the side hall, but no matter how it struggled, it could not break out. "So this is a demon?
" Shen Mu halted, blinked, and turned back to test: "Kikeduo suomoye, prajna prajna suomoye, kikeduo prajna suomoye.