Chapter 9 — The Ruined City of Powdered Bones Greets the Black Tide
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 2 of 3
" Senior Sister Liu ground her teeth. "You dare to quibble, you little wretch. .
.
" "Demon, my ass! " Shen Mu said furiously.
"Granny and I killed one deer to make clothes, and you call us demons. You killed a whole herd of deer, and you still dare to call us demons? " Senior Brother Chu's face darkened; he stepped forward.
"This little monster is a glib twister of men's hearts.
There is no need to waste words on him.
Kill him outright! " The three were about to make their move when low, rumbling beast growls came from all around.
Startled, they looked about and saw that these ruins had gathered eight hundred to a thousand strange beasts, among them no few lord-class beasts, every one of them staring their way with unfriendly faces and murder in their eyes. Senior Brother Chu thought this boded ill and quietly stepped back a pace.
And when the beasts saw that they did not act, they too grew calm and made no further move. Shen Mu clicked his tongue in wonder. These beasts would ordinarily tear at one another over territory and prey, yet now they stood perfectly peaceable — very strange indeed. "Could these beasts have laid down a rule, that no killing is permitted within the ruins?
" Shen Mu blinked. Many of these beasts were sworn natural enemies that would fight to the death, yet here they stood in peace, which meant his guess was right.
The villagers often said that strange beasts had spirit, and the Xuanliao demon ape he had seen could even speak, calling him little bean-sprout over and over. These beasts might truly have set rules here.
Senior Brother Chu had hit on the same thought and breathed a sigh of relief.
"Do not act tonight," he said quietly. "Wait for dawn, and then kill him at once. " Senior Sister Liu and the other youth nodded. Shen Mu looked around.
The ruins sprawled over a vast area, like a city set down within the canyon. Strange beasts were everywhere, and yet upon the plaza there was not a single one.
On that plaza there were only skeletons — human bones, two or three hundred of them at least, dead here for some unknown reason, still dressed in splendid garments.
"These people were all women. " Strangely, the women's skeletons all sat cross-legged in neat ranks — fifteen rows of fifteen dry bones each — as though a calamity had struck while they sat in meditation, leaving them no time to escape, turning them in an instant into dry bones.
He came to the edge of the plaza and studied them closely. The women's skeletons had a leader, seated cross-legged before the ranks of bones.
All of them, leader and ranks alike, faced that vast gateway, turned toward the same direction.
"Senior Brother, look! " Senior Sister Liu's eyes lit up. She jerked her chin toward the skeletons on the plaza and whispered, "There are treasures in these skeletons' hands! Every one of them is holding something!
" Senior Brother Chu swept them with his gaze, and his heart began to pound. Some skeletons cradled precious swords, some gripped whisks, some carried jade pendants, some held jeweled vases — weapons of every kind.
The treasures still shone bright and gleaming, as though fresh from the forge; plainly they were remarkable things beyond price.
Most striking of all was the bright pearl resting in the palm of the leader's skeleton, floating there in the hollow of the hand.
Within the pearl, mists and clouds seemed to drift and flow. This place was nothing less than a vast treasury!
"If we could only get our hands on these treasures. . .
" Senior Sister Liu said softly, her breathing a little quick.
Even the treasury of the Five Elders of Lanjiang was not one ten-thousandth of this! With treasures like these, they could found their own house and become a sect in their own right!
Senior Brother Chu's eyes flickered; he smiled.
"Heaven has dealt generously with us!
Fifth Junior Brother, go and fetch those treasures.
" Fifth Junior Brother stepped forward.