Chapter 85 — A Lone Sail on the Sea of Mist
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 2 of 3
"Shen'er," he said, his face composed, "we have come to the place; there is no need for haste.
Take it step by step. This place is deeply strange. . .
" Shen Mu calmed his heart and went forward. The mountains here were handsome and steep, but the gray mist made them seem indistinct and unreal.
Was this truly the Land of No Sorrow?
Had that messenger of the underworld not said they could never reach the Land of No Sorrow? Ahead the gray mist stretched dim and boundless, the mountains showing through only here and there.
All at once a brittle crunch sounded beneath Shen Mu's foot, and a voice said, "You are treading on me. . .
" Shen Mu started in fright and looked hastily down.
A fleshless hand of withered bone was drawing itself out from under his sole; then a skeleton poked its head from the fog and turned its hollow eye sockets upon him. "A man!
" the skeleton shrieked. The harsh, thin wail echoed through the gray and misty world, piercing to the ear. Shen Mu stepped hurriedly back, and another crunch rang underfoot.
Only then did he see that the ground was covered with countless withered bones, heaped and packed one upon another, no telling how deep! The Ninefold Heaven spun in his pupils, and he gazed at the mountain ranges in the gray mist; he could not keep from shuddering again and again.
Those mountains in the mist were built of innumerable bones—withered bones piled up into peak after peak, hidden inside the fog! An icy chill ran through Shen Mu.
The bones on the ground were rising one by one; skeleton after skeleton staggered upright in the murky gray mist, and every kind of warped voice echoed through the fog: "A man? Where is the man? " "It has been ages since a man came here!
What sort of person could have broken in?
" "They have flesh, and we have none—tear their flesh away—.
.
. " The Village Head frowned and gazed into the distance. The distant mountains were trembling as well; then the mountains stood up, like a monster pieced together from countless white bones, and began to stride this way. As the bone-mountains advanced, swarms of skeletons came running over in wild glee, capering and waving their arms, and scrambled up their flanks, making the bone-beasts grow ever larger. Some of the bones still carried the majesty of gods and demons—these were plainly the bones of deities and devils!
The clamor of the skeletons was a raucous, tangled din; untold voices were shrieking to devour those who had broken into this place.
"Where did so many withered bones come from? " Even the Village Head felt a creeping dread.
A few little skeletons, barely three feet tall, dashed out of the gray mist, seized Shen Mu's legs, and bit at him.
Shen Mu smashed them with a palm-strike apiece, but more and more skeletons came rushing up with crack after crack, like the billowing waves of the sea—a truly terrifying sight! The Village Head's primal qi poured out and turned into beam after beam of sword-light, but the skeletons here were far too many; even he found them a headache, and those divine bones and demonic bones would likely be even harder to deal with. Yet at that very moment radiance burst from between Shen Mu's brows. The phantom of a great Buddha took form and sat in solemn majesty behind them, and instantly countless skeletons shrieked and scattered in all directions. Many skeletons merged as they fled, becoming giants that ran; some of the giants stumbled and fell, and as they struck the ground they burst into countless skeletons that bolted off, only to merge once more as they ran and become skeleton giants again.
Shen Mu sighed in relief. The great-Buddha phantom Old Master Huo had left between his brows worked wonders on these bizarre skeletons, keeping them from daring to come close. The distant bone-mountains halted as well and looked on from afar; at the sight of the great Buddha behind Shen Mu, they dared not approach.