Chapter 127 — Draw Your Blades
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 1 of 3
Shen Wanyun turned to look, and saw that a girl in blue robes had come to the Scholars' Lodge.
She wore a close-fitting martial outfit, her hair bound up and caught in a net of gauze, pinned through with a small golden sword-hairpin. She too was travel-worn, come from some far place, and could not long have stepped off the boat; behind her followed a giant, twice the height of an ordinary man, brutish and powerful, all rippling sinew. The giant bore the girl's bundle and followed at her heels into the Scholars' Lodge. Yue Qinghong came on with the giant in tow, paying no heed to the scholars who turned out to greet her; her gaze fell straight upon Shen Wanyun, and she walked directly toward him.
When the two were still more than ten feet apart, Yue Qinghong halted, and the giant behind her halted as well.
"Eldest Senior Brother," Yue Qinghong saluted. Shen Wanyun returned the salute.
"Junior Sister Yue.
From what place have you returned from your training?
" Yue Qinghong smiled.
"I have just come back from the battlefield in the Kingdom of Langjuxu. I hear that Eldest Senior Brother went to the battlefield as well?
" Shen Wanyun nodded. "Indeed.
I went to the battlefield of the Kingdom of Man Di, and fought the barbarians a few bouts. You have made no small progress. " Yue Qinghong laughed.
"Nor have you.
Now I worry that I still cannot beat you. Luckily, though, in Langjuxu I subdued a wolf slave. Wolf slave, come and pay your respects to Eldest Senior Brother!
" The giant behind her set down the luggage with a thud, then all at once shot out a hand to seize Shen Wanyun! His aura was fierce as fire; as his hand came, the air turned utterly parched, filled even with drifting sand, giving a sense of yellow dunes and vast desert, of blazing sun and leaping flame, rushing at one's face! Upon the wolf slave's bared chest there surfaced dragon-wolf markings, and many a scholar felt his heart turn cold at the sight; these dragon-wolf markings were in truth a variant of the Azure Dragon spirit body among the four great spirit bodies, called the dragon-wolf spirit body, and they were the totem of the Kingdom of Langjuxu!
Shen Wanyun betrayed nothing; he raised his palm to meet the wolf slave's great hand. With a thunderous boom, Shen Wanyun's robes flapped and cracked, and the wolf slave's towering frame swayed where he stood. The look he bent on Shen Wanyun had changed somewhat, and in a voice somewhat rolled and guttural, he said, "You are not weak. " "Nor are you.
" Shen Wanyun smiled.
"That Junior Sister Yue could subdue a wolf slave is proof enough that your strength has advanced by leaps and bounds.
" Suddenly a voice, ethereal and full, laughed. "Senior Sister Yue, Eldest Senior Brother, you flatter each other again.
When will the two of you be free of pride and impatience, as I am? " Another youth came walking up, his head bare, like a monk in white robes, yet with no ordination scars upon his crown.
"Junior Brother Yun Que," Shen Wanyun said politely.
This young monk must have cultivated the Buddhist path, yet his temper was plainly no Buddhist temper; full of rivalry and itching for a fight, he said, "I went to the Lan River, that land of rebellion. The Lan River Sword Sect was wiped out to the last soul; the other sects there rose in revolt, and I went with the great army to put down the rebellion. These past days I have gained a good deal of insight, and I would beg Senior Brother Shen and Senior Sister Yue to instruct me. " Yue Qinghong's eyes glinted. "The three of us have fought one another since the day we enrolled, and we were ever a shade weaker than Eldest Senior Brother; that is why he is the Eldest Senior Brother of our Scholars' Lodge.