Chapter 374 — Uncanny Craftsmanship

The box at Mojiang's feet rattled and shook, and suddenly the Heavenly Emperor's Jade Register flew out of it, landing with a swish in Shen Mu's hand. Mojiang did not turn his head; he raised a hand, his fingers dancing, and made several gestures.

Shen Mu hung the Jade Register at his breast and said in a low, level voice, "Grandpa Mojiang wants us to retreat into the hall! Fat Dragon, get up, don't squash that deer to death!"

The dragon qilin scrambled to its feet. The great deer lay sprawled on all four hooves, panting, tongue lolling.

"Phooey!" The dragon qilin spat a mouthful of dragon saliva at the deer.

"This clod is a shocking waste, spitting out whole bottles of dragon saliva!" Shen Mu was furious, and his heart ached.

The footsteps in the darkness drew nearer. Two enormous flood dragons came first into their view: dragon heads vast as small hills, long necks, sharp claws—and then a pair of feet, gripping the backs of the two flood dragons, emerged from the black curtain.

The rain filled the air, scalding water pouring down like a waterfall onto the towering figure that walked out of the darkness. The rain washed the scales on his body glistening bright, and in them flashed bolt after bolt of lightning.

The two flood dragons halted. A lightning bolt tore the darkness open and lit up that towering figure.

The Dragon Lord.

The Dragon Lord, with only a few strands of hair left on his head, his face black as charcoal!

"You would bar my way?"

His gaze split the darkness like lightning, like two beams of light falling upon Mojiang, whose furnace blazed at his back, seeming to shine right through his body. His voice boomed like thunder: "You think you can bar my way? Hand over that simple-faced brat who burned off my hair, and I will grant you a whole corpse!"

Mojiang blinked, and scratched his head.

"Grandpa Mojiang, he means me!"

Shen Mu poked his head out from inside the hall, looking honest and guileless. Earnestly he said, "Dragon Lord, it was I who burned off your hair. The boy didn't mean to. You told me to feed the dragons, and I fed them well, and they followed me. Then they saw your hair and came chasing after it—so ugly, so damaging to the Dragon Lord's image—and so the boy took it upon himself to help you burn away those three thousand strands of worldly vexation."

The corner of the Dragon Lord's eye twitched, but his gaze never left Mojiang. He dearly wished to look away, yet he knew that in the briefest instant of doing so, he might well suffer a fatal blow.

"So you are a remnant of the Kaihuang Era."

His gaze fell on the furnace behind Mojiang, and he sneered. "You are a descendant of the Celestial Artisan of the false Heavenly Court of Kaihuang times, are you not? The false Heavenly Court conferred divinity, and named your ancestor the Celestial Artisan. You artisans built the Land of No Sorrow, and built the Other Shore Ark that leads to it—yet it never reached the Land of No Sorrow. Heh. The gods sealed you away. We thought you remnants would die in that seal, never expecting that some would escape it! Why do you not speak?"

Mojiang's face was expressionless. He made a gesture.

Shen Mu poked his head out of the hall and called loudly, "Dragon Lord, he called you a wretch. It was him who cursed you, not me!"

The Dragon Lord's face darkened at once. The two flood dragons at his ears quietly stretched their bodies, leaped onto his shoulders, slid down along his arms, and slowly, as they went, grew larger and larger, their scales sliding over one another in layers like mechanisms of exquisite precision, sheathing his arms.

And from within his robes, three more flood dragons grew one after another, coiling about his waist and his legs.

Dong.

The Dragon Lord leaped down from the dragons' backs, two thick dragon claws digging into the ground. The two flood dragons beneath his feet swiftly shrank, transforming into two dragon maces that he gripped in his hands.

"Remnant of the Celestial Artisan Bureau of the false Heavenly Court!"

The Dragon Lord roared. His flesh hideous, a savage draconic strength erupting from him, sharp dragon teeth clenched tight, he raised the dragon maces and smashed them down at Mojiang: "Die!"