荒墟牧神 - 第50章 狐靈少女入荒局 - 錦書坊

r side could never train as quickly as you. Hurry now—drive your sword and slay the Dark Dragon Mother!" Joy swelled in his heart: deliverance was at hand, and even a master of his standing could not help his mind swaying, torn between hope and fear. "This lad saved me, and his talent is so great that I really cannot bear to kill him..." Just then, Shen Mu turned on his heel and walked out of the dragon palace with the Chu Bao sword, his figure swallowed in the thick mist. Pei Wujiu blinked, still dazed, and before he could collect himself, Shen Mu had already left the dragon palace with the Chu Bao sword and Snow Fox, walking away without a moment's pause. "Come back here!" Pei Wujiu's roar came after him, harsh and furious: "You rotten little wretch! You break your word! I taught you the art, I gave you the sword—why will you not slay the Dark Dragon Mother?" From beyond the palace, Shen Mu's voice grew ever more distant: "Senior, it is true that the Dark Dragon Mother killed many martial artists who entered this place, using the Dark Water Dragon Pearl. But the pearl only turns its victims into dried corpses, walking dead. In the dragon palace there were also many sets of bones that did not die beneath the pearl; they did not become dried corpses, but skeletons." Pei Wujiu was taken aback. "You little wretch—when did you notice?" "The moment I entered the dragon palace, I noticed." Pei Wujiu gnashed his teeth. "Are you truly only twelve years old? Can a twelve-year-old see all this, reason it all out, and turn my plan back on me without showing a thing?" "Your junior will not turn twelve until this autumn—I am eleven right now..." Shen Mu's voice grew softer and softer, until it faded into nothing. A torrent of furious curses burst from the dragon palace, loud and ringing, reaching the ears of Shen Mu and Snow Fox, who were already far away. Snow Fox poked her head out from his robes and asked uneasily, "Young Master Mu, how did you know he meant you harm?" Shen Mu said, "When we first arrived, I drove the mist back with my staff, and many dried corpses fell from the air. Did you notice that, apart from the corpses, there were also many dry skeletons?" Snow Fox nodded. She had noticed. Some of the skeletons had been crushed by the falling corpses, and these skeletons still wore clothes. "The clothes the skeletons wore were official robes." Shen Mu went on: "Pei Wujiu said he brought his disciples into the Wasteland on a training expedition and discovered this underwater dragon palace. His disciples were supposedly killed by the Dark Water Dragon Pearl. But one who is killed by the pearl should have all the blood and vital energy drawn out of him and become a dried corpse; he should not become a skeleton. Since they did not die by the pearl, how did they die?" Snow Fox suddenly saw the truth and hurried to say, "In Pei Wujiu's other hand he leaned on a Nether Soul-Devouring Banner, a very sinister thing! His being sealed in the ice was a gradual process—he must have used that banner to kill his disciples." "When he was sealed in dark ice by the Dark Water Dragon Pearl, he could not break free, and he knew he was bound to be trapped there for a long time. Officialdom is full of endless jostling and betrayal. His disciples bore the name of protégés, but they were all officials of the state of Jingping, with no true master-disciple feeling between them; they were unlikely to inform the court and come to his rescue. After all, everyone stood to gain if the post of Junior Guardian of the Crown Prince fell vacant." Shen Mu nodded. "Since the court might well not come for him, he decided to see the matter through to the end—he killed them without hesitation and absorbed the blood and vital energy of his disciples, to keep himself from starving during his long imprisonment. But his method must have differed from the Dark Dragon Mother's pearl and been far more sinister: he drained even their flesh and blood, turning each of them int