荒墟牧神 - 第45章 湧江水府開龍門 - 星閱書城

name is Xue Hu'er. May I ask yours?" "My name is Shen Mu. It means a cowherd surnamed Shen—I am no gentleman." Shen Mu laughed. "I happen to live not far from here. Where did you get these old books?" Xue Hu'er drank some hangover soup, felt the fuzziness in her head lessen, and said, "Sixty li west of here there are ruins. One time I went out and came back late, so I hid from the darkness in the ruins. By accident I opened a stone chamber and found these books and a bottle of elixir pills. I took the pills, and suddenly my eyes and ears grew keen, and consciousness opened in me. I thought the books were good things, so I brought them back. It is only that I cannot read, so I have always had nothing but the pictures to study. All my spells I learned from these books." "Sixty li west?" Shen Mu was astonished, and fell into thought. "Could that be the Dragon Emperor's palace on the Surging River?" Xue Hu'er's eyes lit up. "There really are many dragon carvings there. But inside it is hazardous and full of terrible danger. I did not dare go deep, so I brought a few books back and left." Shen Mu promptly said, "Can you take me there?" The little white fox said, "It is very fierce in there, not a place one should enter lightly. I had barely reached the entrance when I was frightened..." She was too ashamed to finish; presumably she had been scared out of her wits and fled in undignified haste. Shen Mu grew excited. "Don't you want to see the Dragon Palace? There might even be a Dragon King inside!" "No." Xue Hu'er thought for a moment, then blinked with a sly glint. "If Young Master Mu is willing to come often and explain these old books, I will take you there. But I won't enter." "Deal!" Shen Mu laughed and raised his palm. Xue Hu'er hesitated a moment, then raised a furry paw and tapped it against his. Afterward she drained the hangover soup dry. The two, a man and a fox, left the thatched cottage and headed west. "Whose feast did you attend the day before yesterday?" Shen Mu asked, recalling the day before yesterday's business. "It was a feast given by King Meiluo, in honor of all the great demons of every kind. After I obtained the ancient books from the Surging River Dragon Palace, my spiritual wisdom expanded enormously, and I became a great demon of some little renown around here. But I cannot beat those brutes with their raw strength, so I rank last among the great demons." Xue Hu'er jumped onto a banana leaf, worked her art, and raised a gust of demonic wind. The wind lifted the leaf into the air, and she said with a laugh, "King Meiluo has already cultivated a human body—a truly formidable feat. All the great demons for a thousand li around, whether beast lords or not, must obey his commands." The demonic wind blew the banana leaf, carrying the white fox into the sky. Shen Mu leaped into the air, treading the wind-ridges as he headed west. Meanwhile, two or three li from the thatched cottage, a colossal Taotie beast was peering this way and that, deeply puzzled: "By my reckoning, Shen'er should have arrived long ago. This time I have disguised myself as a strange beast, so he certainly won't recognize me... How odd. Where has the little brat run off to? Hmm? A fox's demon wind! The brat goes out hunting for the first time and is bewitched by a vixen!" A hundred li from Hidden Remnant Village, over the river, a breeze stirred a banana leaf a full zhang long. On the leaf sat a white fox, and beside it a youth was running along the wind. They were none other than Shen Mu and Xue Hu'er. "With my cultivation, I cannot fly. I can only stir a demonic wind with my magic and ride the blown leaf through the air. If I were running in the wind like you, I would certainly fall... The Dragon Palace is somewhere near here!" Xue Hu'er lowered her demonic wind, and Shen Mu and the white fox on the leaf gradually descended. After a moment the two landed. Shen Mu looked around. The Surging River curved around a lofty mountain here, green wa