Chapter 11 — The Divine Sound Cracks the Wall and Opens the Spirit Treasury
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 2 of 3
But he had only blasted out a single lightning-shaped crack and had not fully broken the wall, so he could not see what else lay within. The lightning-shaped crack was slowly healing.
Shen Mu's heart sank a little.
Plainly the Primal Fetus Wall was not so simple as he had imagined: it had form but no substance, like a thick, sticky fluid—pierce a hole in it, and the hole would close. Only by mustering all his strength in one sustained effort and shattering the Primal Fetus Wall entirely could he open the Primal Fetus Spirit Treasury!
"My cultivation of qi is not yet strong enough, but striking out a crack can raise my qi at flying speed! It will not be long before my qi can break the Primal Fetus Wall open! " Shen Mu's spirits rose.
Suddenly the crowing of a rooster came to his ear.
His heart stirred, and he hastily opened his eyes. Among the strange beasts that had entered the ruins for shelter were several bald-necked roosters, extraordinarily imposing and tall, as tall as a man, with splendid plumage—only their necks were bare of feathers.
The crowing just now had come from those bald-necked roosters.
"The sky is about to brighten. " Shen Mu's heart stirred again. In the eastern sky a dim light had already appeared, showing that the sun would rise before long.
There was no longer time for him to break fully through the Primal Fetus Wall.
Fortunately, he had already grasped how to break the wall. So long as he could escape this place from the hands of Senior Brother Chu and Senior Sister Liu, he would have all the time he needed to break through.
Though he had not fully broken the wall, cracking open even one fissure had raised his cultivation considerably, and he had confidence enough to escape from the two of them!
"The sky is about to brighten," Senior Brother Chu said, with meaning in his voice. Senior Sister Liu said icily, "Three of our junior brothers died to rid the world of the demon.
If this little spawn of evil escapes, would we not have failed the spirits of the dead?
" Shen Mu turned a deaf ear, rose to his feet, and stretched his limbs. In the plaza the maidens were still contending with the darkness, thrust and counterthrust, neither giving way, light and darkness locked in savage slaughter.
Before long another crowing came.
The darkness grew restless; its voice became incomparably loud and heavy, while the divine sound the maidens gave forth grew fierce and shrill.
Divine light and darkness clashed violently, point against point, a sight of awe-inspiring force. Suddenly a third crowing came, and a thread of sunlight pierced the darkness in the east, falling upon the highest peak nearby. At that thread of sunlight, the ink-black darkness at once receded like the tide, fleeing swiftly into the distance.
Swift as it had come, it went faster and faster, and at last vanished beyond the horizon.
The morning sunlight shone down, lighting the gorge. Before the sun's rays had even fallen upon the ruins in the gorge, that pearl hanging on high was seen to descend slowly, and the riot of colored radiance that filled the plaza poured into the pearl.
The radiance vanished, and the maidens in the plaza became once more skeletons sitting cross-legged there, motionless, as though this night of maidens battling the darkness had been only a gorgeous dream. Shen Mu had long since heard the villagers speak of the strange happenings in the desolate ruins; the things that occurred here were bizarre and beyond all reason.
But hearing of them was one thing; to live through such strangeness himself was far more staggering. Whenever night fell and the darkness came creeping, the faces in the dark, the mysterious demonic sound, the painted skeletons in these ruins that turned into maidens each night, and the struggle between light and darkness—each was a wonder past all understanding.