Chapter 373 — Setting the Sky Ablaze

Wang Muran and the others were rather puzzled. Shen Mu had ridden the dragon qilin at what was plainly a snail's pace, yet somehow he had still arrived ahead of them. Could it be that this fat brute had been hiding its true strength all along, playing the pig to eat the tiger?

The three of them went up to exchange greetings. Long Yu looked much better than he had a few days before, no longer raving, with some color back in his face.

"This is our blacksmith, Grandpa Mojiang," Shen Mu said, introducing him to the others.

Mojiang grinned wide and handed the wooden box to Wang Muran. Shen Mu said hurriedly, "Don't take it!"

Wang Muran froze, his hand not reaching out. Mojiang pursed his lips and mumbled a string of gibberish, grumbling that Shen Mu had no respect for his elders.

Shen Mu did not explain. He knew all too well just how heavy Mojiang's box was. If Wang Muran had taken it, he would surely have been crushed down to the very heart of the earth.

If the village ever held a contest for Worst Old Man, Shen Mu would cast his vote for Mojiang without the slightest hesitation!

True, ever since he was small the Lame Old Man had swindled him out of every last candied hawthorn, but the Lame Old Man had at least been playing with him. After biting off two of the hawthorns, he would hand the rest back to the tearful boy.

Mojiang, though, was the village's truly sneaky, rotten-hearted villain, his belly brimming with wicked schemes. From childhood to now, the number of times Shen Mu had been duped by Mojiang was beyond counting.

"A couple of days ago, the fighting suddenly stopped. We don't know what happened."

Wang Muran said, "We were on the road when we stopped sensing those auras of gods clashing. But judging by the direction, the place where they fought should be somewhere between Shuzhou and Bazhou."

He took out a map of the Kingdom of Jingping, located Shuzhou and Bazhou, and marked a spot between them.

Shen Mu was slightly startled. That was exactly where Grandma Zhu lived!

"The place where those gods fought isn't far from Granny. I fear Granny may be in danger!"

Unease stirred in his heart, but the village headman and Qingyou Shanren and the others had already gone there first. They traveled faster; they ought to have arrived long ago.

Mu Qingdai said, "We're not far from there now, less than a thousand li. We can get there in half a day!"

Shen Mu took out the golden flute and blew it with his vital essence. "It won't take half a day."

A flood dragon, linked to Shen Mu in spirit, gave a shake and transformed into a colossal creature tens of zhang long. Shen Mu leaped onto its back, and the dragon qilin leaped up after him.

"Climb on, all of you. In half an hour at most, we'll be there," Shen Mu said.

Wang Muran and the others exchanged startled, doubtful looks, then one after another leaped onto the flood dragon's back. The great stag leaped up as well, casting a dubious glance at the flood dragon, then another dubious glance at the dragon qilin standing on the flood dragon's back too.

The dragon qilin eyed its nose and its heart, head lowered, staring at the tip of its own nose, pretending not to see the contempt in the stag's gaze.

Mojiang, lugging his box, jumped up as well. The flood dragon, so fierce and imposing a moment before, was instantly pressed flat to the ground like a dead snake, its four claws scrabbling this way and that, gouging furrows in the earth, yet it could not rise to its feet.

"Grandpa Mojiang, get down, get down!"

Shen Mu said in alarm, "You're crushing him to death!"

Mojiang climbed down sulkily and made a gesture with his hand. Shen Mu's face flushed red. "Grandpa Mojiang, why are you cursing at me? It's not that I'm unfilial to you, it's that your box is too heavy... See, you're cursing again!"

Wang Muran and the other two looked at one another.

Shen Mu blew the golden flute, and more than a dozen flood dragons flew over, joining forces to lift Mojiang up. Only then was Mojiang satisfied. These dozen-odd flood dragons were all exceedingly powerful, equivalent to the very finest sect-master-level beings carrying Mojiang in flight, so naturally their speed was not slow.

The group pressed onward at tremendous speed. The trees on either side flashed past almost without shadow, and one mountain peak after another swept by them. On the dragon's back, the great stag kept staring at the dragon qilin, the contempt in its eyes growing thicker, snorting again and again, as if mocking this fat brute.

The dragon qilin's tail drooped, and it stared at the tip of its own nose.

Shen Mu felt rather gratified. "Fat Long still has a sense of shame. He's not a piece of rotten wood that can't be carved. Tomorrow, when I feed him another Fire-attribute Divine Essence Pill, he ought not to spit it out."

Suddenly, several black flood dragons with slender waists burrowed out, some crawling on treetops, some flying in the air, raising their heads to watch as flood dragon after flood dragon escorted Shen Mu and the others past.

Shen Mu caught a fleeting glimpse, and his heart gave a jolt.

Mu Qingdai said in surprise, "Flood dragons are exceedingly rare among exotic beasts. How have they suddenly become as common as weeds?"

Those few black flood dragons flew up, raised their heads, and cried out in a strange voice: "Maha, maha!" The group turned to look, and saw a dense black mass of thousands upon thousands of black flood dragons flying toward them, blanketing a whole stretch of mountain.

Then those thousands of black flood dragons leaped, swam, and flew, chasing after them.

Shen Mu withdrew his gaze and turned his head.

"Only one with such ability could be Lord Dragonkeeper! Most of Lord Dragonkeeper's flood dragons are with me. Where did these black ones come from? They don't look like true flood dragons."

He opened Lord Dragonkeeper's Taotie Pouch and took out the Dragon-Raising Sutra. Opening it, he examined it carefully. One passage spoke of nourishing the body with dragon qi.

"Draw in dragon qi, refine the body into a dragon; as the art progresses and transforms, muscle, flesh, skin, and hair may all be transformed."

Shen Mu was slightly startled. He turned to look back at the black flood dragons madly pursuing them. "Then these black flood dragons must be things from Lord Dragonkeeper's body. With so many of them, they can only be his hair. Worthy of a god of Heaven, to refine even his hair into dragons. And if they're hair, then they must fear fire..."

He blinked. The flute's melody shifted slightly. The fire flood dragon carrying Mojiang slowed its pace, then suddenly dropped, plunging into the mountain forest below.

Shen Mu drove the flock of dragons onward, while behind them that dense black mass of flood dragons came chasing madly, like a black cloud.

When the black cloud flew over the place where the fire flood dragon waited, terrible true fire suddenly swept up from below, in an instant shrouding a sky tens of li across. Countless black flood dragons struggled and burned in the flood dragon's true fire, and black smoke rolled through the air. In but a moment, the black flood dragons transformed from Lord Dragonkeeper's hair were burned to nothing by the fire flood dragon Shen Mu controlled, utterly consumed.

Having burned away the black flood dragons, the fire flood dragon shook its head and wagged its tail, chasing after them. It soon caught up and resumed carrying Mojiang onward.

Mojiang looked approving, and gave Shen Mu a thumbs-up. Shen Mu smiled bashfully and waved his hand. "Grandpa Mojiang, don't praise me like that..."

Wang Muran, Mu Qingdai, and Long Yu stared at one another, watching those thousands of burning black flood dragons turn to black ash in the flames and drift down. Each of them shivered.

"Muran, you're a good boy. Keep your distance from the Human Emperor."

Long Yu said in a low voice, "That man is too sinister!"