Chapter 299 — Snow-White Flying Bats

I can only have our scouts follow at a distance to see you on your way. Take care along the road. " Shen Mu thanked him, seated himself on the Dragon Qilin's back, and galloped toward the Duck-Tongue Strip between the two nations. Behind him the scouts of Qingmen Pass followed far back on all manner of strange beasts. When they reached the Duck-Tongue Strip in the middle of the two lands, a body of riders suddenly appeared on the far side as well, oddly dressed and mounted on camel-wings, those strange beasts of the steppe—Mandi Kingdom scouts, surely.

The two sides spied each other from afar and struck almost in the same instant; sword-pellets and blade-orbs flew across the sky, clashing with a din of ding and dang.

Suddenly the Qingmen Pass scouts opened several gourds, and clouds and mist came howling out, shrouding ten-odd li in every direction so that the eye could see no more than a dozen or so zhang. At once each side lost track of the other, and a rare quiet settled over the field. Shen Mu opened the Azure Empyrean Eye; his sight pierced the fog and picked out the road, and the Dragon Qilin made use of the mist to press on toward the far side of the Duck-Tongue Strip. "The Emperor did indeed take my advice and gather cloud, mist, thunder and lightning as weapons.

With Mandi massing so many troops, breaking through Qingmen Pass will not be easy. " The Duck-Tongue Strip was very long, stretching a thousand li.

It belonged to the Wastes, and by night it was the barrier that cut the two nations off from each other. Once inside the Wastes, the greatest peril was the darkness. Shen Mu was a castoff born and raised in the Wastes, and he knew well what mattered most there; so he surveyed the land on every side, searching for ruins, stone statues, anything of the kind.

If he could not return to Qingmen Pass before dark, he would have to spend the night in the Wastes, and so he first had to find a place where he could shelter.

The Duck-Tongue Strip was utterly quiet; along the whole way he saw not a single bird or beast. Shen Mu's expression grew grave.

The absence of any bird or beast here meant that there was no safe ground; when night came, even the strange beasts of the Wastes could not survive in this place. He passed a lake, blue as a jewel, its surface utterly still, without a single ripple. It was a dead lake; there were no fish or shrimp in it.

"There is no place to hide from the darkness in the lake either. " Shen Mu steadied himself and went on.

Unawares, the Dragon Qilin had carried him out of the Duck-Tongue Strip; the peaks around them gradually grew steep and sheer, and a gorge opened before them. Sitting on the Dragon Qilin's back, Shen Mu saw that the trees in the gorge grew every which way, sprouting from the cliffs as though they had thrown off the earth's magnetic essence and grown sideways, roofing over the sky above the gorge. He seemed to have entered a world turned upside down, where the cliffs were the ground.

The great trees were exceedingly ancient; some were so thick that a dozen men could not have encircled them. Their roots coiled like writhing dragons, and beneath the roots ghost-fires and phosphorescent glimmers showed—the white bones of colossal beasts, some of which Shen Mu could not even name.

Strangely, those remains lay upon the cliffs, not fallen to the bottom of the gorge.

And the leaves that came loose from the trees did not drift down to the gorge floor either, but fell upon the cliffs. The gorge itself was astonishingly clean; not a withered branch or rotting leaf was to be seen. Thud.

The Dragon Qilin, paying no heed, bumped into a great boulder floating in the air; the stone spun lazily aside and went on floating as before. In the gorge path ahead, stones drifted—great and small.

"Hierarch, we must have entered the Nether Valley by now?

" the Dragon Qilin asked in its muffled, booming voice.

Shen Mu nodded. "We should be within the Nether Valley's bounds now. There is still no other living thing here—it makes me uneasy.

. . " He had barely said this when he suddenly heard voices ahead: ".

.

. You always like to eat them raw. Myself, I still prefer them cooked—medium-well is best, roasted over a fire until the fat runs and the inside stays tender. Some people came these past few days, and they tasted very good.

But you had to eat yours raw.

Look, you have got yourself all dirty. " "Medium-well is no good—no freshness, no tenderness. Best to just give them a turn over the fire, singe off the hair and they are ready to eat, and they squeal while you chew.

That is the greatest delicacy of all.

. .

" "Nonsense.

Medium-well is still the best.

. .

Shh. Quiet. Someone is coming again. " Shen Mu roused the True Art of the Fire Lord of Yinghuo and took the form of the Star Lord Yinghuo—an ox's head on a man's body, both feet treading twin dragons. The Dragon Qilin bore him cautiously forward.

When they came to the place the voices had come from, Shen Mu looked around and was briefly startled. The voices had come from precisely here, yet he saw no one speaking. All he could see was a great bonfire on the cliff wall, and over the fire a Great Shaman of the Golden Palace of Loulan was being roasted.

The shaman, having after all deep cultivation, was not yet dead, but the roasting had drained his strength; he opened his eyes feebly and cast one glance at Shen Mu and the Dragon Qilin.

Whuff.

The leaves suddenly stirred. Two great white-furred bats swung down from the trees and hung head-down before Shen Mu. The two white-furred bats were powerfully built, all knotted muscle, arms folded across their chests, white light shining from their eyes as though white flames flowed there. Shen Mu's heart gave a small leap.

These two great bats were a strange breed, a very terrible breed; the demonic aura was gone from them, replaced by a breath like that of gods and demons—they must be descendants of gods and demons! "Not human. " One of the great bats drew itself back into the canopy. "What a bore. I thought it was those humans again. " The other bat also drew itself back.

Shen Mu said hurriedly, "Greetings to you both, fellow Daoists!

" The leaves rustled loudly; the two great bats swung down from the canopy again, arms still folded on their chests, and said in one voice, "Greetings! But we will not give you any to eat—we two caught it! If you have the skill, go catch a man and eat him yourself. There are more in the valley. " Shen Mu smiled hastily.

"This little brother eats only vegetables—I have been a vegetarian since the womb. " The two great bats were reassured. Shen Mu said, "This little brother is an outsider.

Fellow Daoists, is the valley safe at night?

" One of the bats laughed. "No wonder your face looked unfamiliar.

The valley is very safe. " Shen Mu breathed a sigh of relief and thanked the two bats.

They drew themselves back again and reappeared on the cliff, hanging head-down beside the bonfire, quietly waiting for the Great Shaman to finish roasting. "That ox just now—it seems to carry the bloodline of Yinghuo. A pity it would not taste good. Humans are the tasty ones, succulent and full of juice," one bat said, staring at the bonfire.

The other bat chuckled hoarsely.

"Then why did you do him harm? You know very well how perilous the valley is.

.

. "