Chapter 431 — Carrot and Stick

If I cannot complete the task the supreme gods have set us, I cannot survive either. Either let me trigger the Five Thunder Gourd and let me leave, or I trigger it and we fight to the death!

Even if I die, I can drag you all along with me!

" Shen Mu shook his head.

"You cannot drag any of us. " Bai Xi laughed aloud. Shen Mu brought out the True Dragon's Nest, produced the divine limbs he had seized from Xinghan, and assembled them into a demon-god image with four heads and many arms. He said, "Senior Brother Bai Xi, I have no shortage of ways to protect myself. I am well versed in teleportation, and I know summoning arts.

This body I prepared for an old friend of mine.

If you will not come to terms with me, I shall summon him from the Dutian World. Forget protecting myself - killing you would be child's play. " Bai Xi's gaze fell upon the four-headed, many-armed patchwork figure, and his eyes grew smaller still. "Are you bluffing me? What demon-god could you possibly know? " Shen Mu smiled faintly, then produced a bone-white altar and a wooden effigy of a demon-god. He activated the divine ability of talisman-writing to command ghosts and summon deities, performing rites upon the altar.

After a moment, gusts of yin wind sprang up, demonic vapors churned, and rune after rune on the wooden effigy flared in turn. Bai Xi's expression shifted slightly, and he called out in haste, "Stop!

No need to summon. I believe you! " Shen Mu stopped at once and secretly breathed a sigh of relief. Had he continued the summoning, even if he reached the Dutian Demon King, the king would not necessarily have paid him any heed.

The Dutian Demon King bore heavy burdens - heavy responsibilities and a timid heart.

Since their last parting, he had never contacted Shen Mu again, declaring that he would absolutely never return to this world. If he learned that over a hundred divine statues had sprung up across Jingping, along with one weather weapon after another of inscrutable might, he would be even more afraid to show his face.

Shen Mu took down the wooden demon-god effigy, set the assembled demon-god body upon the altar, and smiled. "Can we negotiate now?

" Bai Xi's face churned with uncertainty. After calculating for a moment, he gritted his teeth and said, "I have elders and children in the Upper Heaven!

If I fail in my task, my race will surely be wiped out! I must return to the Upper Heaven and bring them out!

" "Do not believe him, my lord," Jiao Wangshen said under his breath. "He does indeed have a race in the Upper Heaven, but the Upper Heaven is not a place one can go to just because one wishes, nor come down from at will. The Upper Heaven has officiating gods of reception.

Without their permission, no one may freely enter or leave!

" Shen Mu smiled faintly. Bai Xi's face changed dramatically, and he sneered, "How could the Dragon-Keeper have raised a traitor like you? " Jiao Wangshen sneered back: "If the Dragon-Keeper had not been subdued by my lord, how would I ever have become a traitor? " Bai Xi stared with his mouth agape and said in disbelief, "The Dragon-Keeper was subdued by him?

" "The Dragon-Keeper, like you, was gravely wounded by me and in the end had no choice but to submit.

" Shen Mu smiled gently.

"The terms I gave him were exceedingly generous - command of the Yong River, Dragon King of the Yong!

Every year those who leap into the Yong to die, those who die in its shipwrecks, are his rations.

The fare is absolutely first-rate.

What is more, over a hundred Dragon King temples, large and small, line the riverbanks, and every one of them worships him. The Dragon-Keeper basks in incense and offerings, living a life of boundless ease. " Bai Xi laughed in fury. "Yet you would have me turn to stone - a truly shameless trick! Am I no better than that bastard who keeps dragons?

" Shen Mu said with the utmost earnestness, "Senior Brother Bai Xi, whatever request you have, by all means name it. If I can satisfy it, I will not be stingy.

But as for opening this Five Thunder Gourd, that need not be discussed further. Activate it, and I will fight you to the bitter end - the fish dies, the net is torn! " Bai Xi sank into hesitation, unable to make up his mind. Shen Mu's eyes flickered.

He stole a glance at the Five Thunder Gourd, truly on his guard against that great calabash, and sounded him out.

"How about this: wait a few days. If your Upper Heaven gods prevail and activate the other weather weapons, I will turn and go at once and let you activate the Five Thunder Gourd as you please. I will return to my Wasteland Ruins, take no further part in worldly affairs, and let the true gods descend to destroy the world. But if, these few days, you wait and see no Upper Heaven god activate the other weather weapons, then you and I will speak again. What do you think? " Bai Xi gritted his teeth and said decisively, "Very well! " Shen Mu laughed heartily, coughed several more times, and panted, "Senior Brother, your junior's constitution is not strong.

I shall take my leave.

" Bai Xi was astonished, thinking: This boy is rather easygoing about leaving me here. .

. If my fellow seniors of the Upper Heaven can activate the other weather weapons, it matters little whether I activate the Five Thunder Gourd. If they do not, then they are all dead, and my surrender is nothing much at all. Shen Mu strode out of the great courtyard, and his countenance abruptly turned grim, startling Si Yunxiang and the others - the change had come far too quickly.

"Fragrance Saintess, inform the Emperor - have His Majesty bring the Sun-Shooting Divine Cannon to bear! " Shen Mu said savagely.

"Also, I shall write out some prescriptions.

Help me gather the ingredients, Saintess, for I mean to refine a deadly poison. Moreover, summon all the masters in the sect who are skilled in the Five Ghosts Transport Art - move the Five Thunder Gourd as far away as it can possibly go! " Si Yunxiang hesitated a moment, then tested: "Sect Leader, is that not going a step too far? " "Forewarned is forearmed!

If the talks fall through, move the Five Thunder Gourd and then kill him without a moment's delay!

"