Chapter 84 — The Evil Spirits in the Dark Night
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 2 of 4
" Cold sweat slid from the Village Head's brow past his temples, and he silently commended himself: I really am clever. Now that I have explained it this way, no matter how many more times Shen'er awakens, I can explain it calmly. The little one is easy to fool; it is those old fellows in the village who are hard to fool. Luckily, they do not know of this.
Yet Shen Mu did not think there would be a fifth awakening, for all the golden light in his Golden Sea had been absorbed by the spirit fetus. The darkness was thick and heavy.
As they delved deeper into it, the dark around them grew denser and denser, unlike what Shen Mu had seen last time. Last time, when he stretched out his palm, the darkness had actually begun to thin, the Dark Realm appearing, and a woman had reached out her palm to him from afar. But now the black only grew more intense; apart from the place lit by the Village Head's holy flame, nothing else could be seen clearly.
Suddenly, the curtain of light around the Village Head gave a violent shudder, as though some enormous thing had struck against it. Shen Mu hurried to look, and his scalp went numb: he saw a massive shadow trying to tear open the radiance the Village Head gave off.
Whssht. A sword-flash flickered from among the Village Head's hair and flew into the darkness. The massive shadow's form twisted, flickering again and again like a phantom, then gradually faded, as though retreating into the dark.
The sword-light flew back.
The Village Head's face was grave. A single drop of blood slid gently down the sword-light and hung at its tip. Shen Mu raised his palm, about to catch it, but the Village Head shook his head in haste: "Do not touch it.
" Clink. The drop of blood struck the ground, and it gave off the sound of iron smiting stone. At once Shen Mu saw the flowers, grass, and trees all around wither, leaves and branches wilting and dying away.
Shen Mu followed the Village Head onward.
Only after they had gone some hundred zhang did they leave the reach of that drop of blood's demonic influence, and he could not help but be appalled. "That dark demon-monster just now was extremely powerful, not much inferior to me.
" The Village Head looked around, his face grave. In the darkness he could dimly make out shadows crouching, moving, shifting, as though countless demon-monsters lurked around them.
He said: "That drop of blood was the blood of a demon god.
Had you touched it, the divine image the Deaf Elder painted upon your body would likely have been defiled and become useless. Shen'er, you drifted down from upstream, so let us follow the Yong River upward. " Before long they came to the bank of the Yong River. The waters rolled on in mighty waves. The Village Head floated above the river's surface, and Shen Mu trod the river as he followed.
Shen Mu looked all around: the shadows in the dark were still shifting without cease, and from time to time came eerie whispers, as though the demon-monsters in the dark were deliberating how best to devour them. It made the flesh creep. Yet with the Village Head at his side, his heart was much steadied. The Village Head said: "We are going to the end of the Yong River. It is a run of five thousand li, and your speed is too slow.
I will carry you.
" Shen Mu felt his body grow light, drifting up like a goose feather, and then he saw the Village Head ablaze with flame. In the holy radiance his figure grew all the more majestic, like a giant propping up heaven and standing upon earth, and he strode along the Yong River toward its source.
Shen Mu was astounded. Such speed was sheer wind and lightning; in a blur, a thousand mountains and ten thousand waters flashed by. Yet with the naked eye, the Village Head still had neither hands nor feet; but seen through the Ninefold Heaven Sacred Pupil, the Village Head was whole in hand and foot, radiant as a god.
Two different forms existed at once.