Chapter 78 — The Golden Crow Treasure Ship
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 3 of 3
Of a sudden figures flickered past, and several people stood beside Shen Mu: the Headman, limbless; the Pill Master, his face unrecognizable; the Silent Craftsman, and others. The Blind Elder was not among them; he must have been hauled out of the gambling den to the city center.
"Heavens.
.
. " The Pill Master looked at the black speck, and a look of utter shock came over him too.
He murmured: "What a great ship.
.
.
" "The legend is true.
The ship truly exists!
" The Headman was shaken to the core as well, and murmured: "Why has this ship appeared now?
" The Silent Craftsman's gaze went hazy, fixed there, staring. The Deaf Elder was struck dumb with wonder.
"Damn it all.
. . " The Butcher still could not stop cursing.
Shen Mu roused his Heaven-Reaching Eye and strained to make out that black speck, but could never see it clearly. Gradually the speck grew larger, until it had become a dark, heavy disc, still swelling without pause. Before long the disc was some ten feet across.
Soon after, the disc was some few acres wide.
Waves of shuddering sound kept coming up from the ground, the tremors growing ever stronger; standing on the dragon pillar, Shen Mu felt his legs and feet go numb, as though some monstrous, immeasurable creature were shifting its feet step by step.
He felt the air grow hotter and hotter, the temperature climbing higher and higher, as though the sun were blazing forth its fire to scorch the earth — yet it was still spring, and two months remained before summer. And then Shen Mu saw what the Headman and the others were seeing.
A ship, walking out from the direction of the Star Sea, drawing nearer and nearer. It was indeed a ship that came walking, and above it floated a black sphere that grew larger and larger.
Shen Mu's face took on a strange expression; the shock in his heart was past all measure. After a long while he let out a breath of foul air and ground out through his teeth: "Damn it all.
. . " The Butcher glared at him.
"Children should not use filthy language! Damn his grandmother, what is this thing that has come crawling out? " The ship that walked toward them was vast beyond measure, a ship made of volcanoes; the mountains that made it belched thick smoke and flame, towering into the clouds, and through the smoke ran thunder and lightning without cease, lightning flashing again and again to light up the sky. The shape of that mountain was strange as well — it had no peak, and from afar it somewhat resembled a tower ship, save that upon it there were no towers, only one towering palace after another, blazing with gold; though shrouded in thick smoke they still shone golden and magnificent, most gorgeous to behold.
Upon that mountain there were also great chains, thick enough that it would take scores of men with arms outstretched to encompass one; they streamed through the sky like kite strings, and at the end of these chains was tethered that dark, heavy sphere. As it moved through the air the chains clashed and clattered. And that black, heavy sphere, when it was dragged along, gave out boom after boom, so that even the air hummed and throbbed with the sound, as though it were immeasurably dense and solid. At this moment the ship was walking along the lower reaches of the Surging River, and it set that great river of the Wasteland boiling, boiling it dry and cutting off its flow; the fish-monsters and water-monsters of the Surging River leapt ashore in droves and fled for their lives!
"This is. .
. " Shen Mu stared, then blurted out: "The Dawnlight Vessel! "