Shen Mu reached out and caught one, taking a careful bite—it was scorching going down his throat, hotter even than the Butcher's strong liquor, and once it reached his belly it brought a burning sensation that set his vital energy unusually astir. He stirred his vital energy and, to his surprise, sensed a medicinal power much like that of the Essence-Condensing Pill, one that could advance his vital-energy cultivation, though the gain was far smaller than the pill's. "Is this creature a plant or an animal?

" He caught another one and studied it: this marvelous being had no eyes, no hands, no feet, no openings of any kind, drawing its nourishment from the moss through rootlike tendrils, so that he truly could not tell whether it was plant or animal. He himself had eaten only one, but Snow Fox went hopping and skipping about and ate her fill.

The farther down they went, the cooler the air grew.

After they had walked who knows how far, the murmur of flowing water reached them: a stream ran down the mountain wall, wonderfully clear, and at its end lay a pool where several huge eyeless fish lived—fish that gave off a glow of their own. To go on, they would have to cross the pool to reach the passage on the far side.

"Those big fish are vicious beyond words—the instant they hear a sound they come pouncing.

Frightful things! " Snow Fox whispered, "I'll throw a stone over to draw them off, and we'll dash across while they're distracted! " With that her paws snatched up a stone and hurled it with all her might. The stone struck the wall, and at once the huge eyeless fish burst from the pool with a great splash, tails lashing in midair, four fins spread wide like four broad wings as they whooshed toward the place the sound had come from!

"Quick—run!

" Snow Fox led the way, and Shen Mu tore along the edge of the pool for the far side. In his haste the boy heard several thunderous crashes: the monstrous fish had hurled themselves at the stone wall and, gaping their enormous maws, bitten great holes clean through it!

The hardest mountain rock seemed made of tofu in their mouths—had they closed those jaws on a person, the result did not bear thinking of! Man and fox had scarcely reached the far bank when the monstrous fish caught the sound of their footsteps; vibrating their fins, they wheeled about and came flying straight at them! "Follow me, young master!

" Snow Fox shot like a wisp of smoke into the passage opposite, and Shen Mu scrambled in after her.

The passage was none too wide; the big fish behind, unable to fly once they reached its mouth, took to their four fins as feet and came sprinting down the passage after Shen Mu and the little fox! "Are these things even fish? " Shen Mu's scalp went numb as he kept hard on Snow Fox's heels.

The monstrous fish gave chase for a stretch, but finding they could not catch up, they backed out of the passage one by one and returned to lurk in the pool. Shen Mu let out a breath of relief.

The way ahead slowly widened, and when they stepped out of a trumpet-shaped cavern, sunlight came pouring down all at once, glinting and shimmering. Shen Mu looked up—and stood transfixed.

Far above his head the mighty river rolled past in flood; schools of fish swam over his head, and he saw enormous dark-shelled spirit turtles, great fish big as little boats, and river beasts of towering size.

One of the big fish spied Shen Mu and the little fox and grew excited, lunging at them with gaping maw—only to strike an invisible wall of water and be flung back. The fish shook its head, seeming puzzled, then swished its tail and swam away. "The Surging River—this is the riverbed of the Surging River!

" Shen Mu's expression turned odd.

"The Surging River is right above our heads, yet the water has not come pouring down to drown this place. .

. " He looked ahead, and his heart quaked: dragon pillars rose before him one after another, massive columns tens of zhang tall, standing lofty on the riverbed with their tops touching the river's waters.

The ground beneath their feet was paved with white marble, and a road stretched onward, flanked by a forest of dragon pillars; after a hundred-odd zhang, whole clusters of palaces came into view. The dragon pillars ringed these palace clusters about; it must have been they that held up the river, keeping the flood from soaking in.

Yet many of the palaces had collapsed. Some great upheaval must have swept this place, leaving it in ruins.

Snow Fox hopped and skipped to the ruins of one palace.

On a half-collapsed wall Shen Mu made out a weathered mural: a dragon-headed elder feasting his guests, and the guests of this dragon-headed elder were all manner of strange creatures—old men with turtle shells, women with serpent tails, monks, and humans too.

Crash.

A pillar came toppling down, all but crushing Shen Mu and the little fox. Snow Fox picked her way into the half-collapsed great hall. "This is where I found those ancient books. " Shen Mu came closer.

In this ruined hall was a hidden stone chamber built into the wall; its stone door had fallen away, and that was how Snow Fox had come upon it. The chamber stood empty now; she must have carried off everything inside.

"Go any farther and you'll meet with terrible danger!

" Snow Fox pointed to a towering gateway ahead, quivering with dread. "It's frightful beyond words! " Shen Mu looked at the gateway. Beyond it, dim and indistinct, stood what seemed to be a palace, still whole, uncollapsed—but eerily it was veiled in a layer of watery mist that hid whatever lay within; the palace seemed to float in that mist, now glimpsed, now lost.

"There's a dreadful thing in there.

.

" Snow Fox's voice shook. "When you get close to the gateway you can feel its aura, and then you go all soft and can't even crawl.

.

" Shen Mu walked forward, Snow Fox screwing up her courage to follow at his heels.

The moment they reached the gateway, Shen Mu felt a baleful aura of overwhelming force rush at his face, startling, bone-chilling—as if in broad daylight half the sky had suddenly filled with black clouds pressing down before him, and within those ink-dark clouds an immense and terrible beast was fixing its gaze on him! A beast at once sacred and solemn, awesomely inviolable, and at the same time savage and ferocious—this was the great terror of which Snow Fox had spoken! Shen Mu drew a long breath, steadied his stance, and his mind righted itself once more. "Heaven-Soaring Divine Eye—open!

" In his pupils the patterns of vital energy interwove, forming another layer of pupil-patterns as he peered into the mist beyond the gateway.

Beside him, the white fox had already gone soft and boneless, sprawled belly-down on the ground, laboriously turning herself about and crawling sluggishly back the way they had come. Shen Mu picked her up, and the white fox hung limp in his grip.

"Don't grab me, I'm dying, my heart's going like a drum. . . " "You're not dead.

The thing in this dragon palace is the one that's dead.

" Shen Mu chuckled.

"Guess what I saw?

" Snow Fox did not answer; her four limbs paddled slowly through the air, her tail swaying back and forth, as though she were trying to crawl away, unwilling to linger in this place a single moment.

Shen Mu laughed. "I saw the Dragon Emperor of the Surging River!

" "Ah—" The little white fox gave a faint moan and fainted dead away, all four legs sticking straight out.

Shen Mu waited a moment, and the little white fox quietly opened one eye and stole a couple of glances about.

Shen Mu tried her: "Dragon Emperor of the Surging River.

" Snow Fox's four legs stretched out straighter still, and her eyes closed again. "The Dragon Emperor of the Surging River is dead.

" Shen Mu did not know whether to laugh or cry.

"Nothing left of him but bones.

This Dragon King has been dead who knows how many years—I saw his dragon skeleton there in the mist. " Snow Fox hastily opened her eyes. "Dead?