Chapter 383 — The Bloodline of the Evil Dragon
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 2 of 4
The enormous body swam on without raising the slightest wave; the scales that grazed the hull did the boat no harm, only jostled it a little, as though a swift current had struck it from below.
It was a sapphire-blue flood dragon, vast beyond compare. Upon the boat, the flood dragons grew feverish with excitement, one after another—some climbed onto Shen Mu's neck, others thrust their heads beneath his arms, craning out to look.
"Maha!
Maha! " a dozen or more flood dragons cried at the river.
Splash.
A colossal head rose from the water, studied them curiously, then plunged back in and swam into the distance; wherever it passed, the water-monsters of the Yong River fell back in retreat.
Some great fish, in their terror, fled so fast they burst out of the river, then beat their fins and tumbled down through the air.
At once a rain of fish began falling from the sky—a rain that would, no doubt, keep the folk below talking for a fortnight and more.
But what would give them far more to talk about, surely, was the simple fact that the Yong River had flown up into the sky! "That flood dragon is enormous.
. . "
Shen Mu was shaken to the core.
This sapphire-blue water flood dragon was far vaster than the flood dragons on his own boat at their fullest size—more than ten times larger!
The power of this sapphire-blue flood dragon was likely above even that of Lord Dragonkeeper.
Whether he had raised it himself or invited it from somewhere, there was no telling. "This is a water flood dragon that has cultivated into the Divine Realm.
Its command of water is exceedingly strong—frightfully strong. "
The blind elder's face was grave.
Facing west, his voice hoarse, he said, "I see a man covered in scales, of a very strange appearance, commanding this Flood Dragon King God and lifting the Yong River.
"
Shen Mu started slightly. "Can it be Lord Dragonkeeper of High Heaven, come to subdue the dragon vein?
I once saw him work his art of shifting rivers.
"
The blind elder gripped his bamboo staff tightly, his face anxious. "Such magnificent power is truly formidable. This fellow must be borrowing the Flood Dragon King God's strength to raise his own power to its utmost.
. .
No—with only these few flood dragons he could never lift the Yong River.
He is borrowing the Yong River's own strength as well!
"
Shen Mu roused the Nine Heavens Far-Sight Art and gazed upstream; his art could still be opened only to the level of the Cinnabar Empyrean Eye, and he could not see the middle reaches of the Yong River. Lord Dragonkeeper must be in the Yong River's middle reaches; to lift the river, the middle reaches were the best place to exert force.
From what Shen Mu knew of Lord Dragonkeeper, the man had not the strength to lift the Yong River himself; he must be borrowing the power of the Flood Dragon King God. Most likely he had summoned the Flood Dragon King God at the Yong River's estuary to raise the river, while stationing flood dragons elsewhere to stir up wind and waves, lifting the Yong River stretch by stretch. Lord Dragonkeeper was a master of the arts of dragon veins, skilled at rousing the power of a dragon vein.
Besides summoning the Flood Dragon King God, he had called in other flood dragons as well; and most crucially, he had no doubt roused the dragon vein's own power, using the strength of the Yong River's dragon vein to heave this great river, spanning tens of thousands of li, up into the sky. The Yong River was very ancient.
As far back as the Kaihuang era it had been a dragon vein, hiding many secrets; this great river's dragon vein was likely near maturity, on the verge of transforming into a dragon. The power of the Yong River's dragon vein was exceedingly great; if Lord Dragonkeeper roused the dragon vein's strength, it truly might raise this river up!
"Could he mean to take away the Yong River's dragon vein?
" Shen Mu murmured. The blind elder shook his head.
"No.