Chapter 446 — The Uncanny Western Frontier

It was a ruin in the desert: palace after palace of earthen yellow, more than half of them fallen, leaving only broken walls and toppled pillars, and there the flames burned fierce and roaring, more blazing than anywhere else. The ruin covered a vast tract, several thousand mu in extent.

The dune giant burned from head to foot, its whole body crimson, fire wrapped around it; it had no legs and no feet, yet it raced through the ruin's great avenues and narrow lanes as though flying, passing through one street after another. Beneath the giant's body whirled and flew a mad, spinning sandstorm, and so legless though it was, its speed was great.

The one it hunted now was Shen Mu and Ban Gongcuo both, for both were pursued by this dune giant; boom, boom, boom came the tremendous crashes without cease, and each blow of the dune giant was immeasurably heavy, smashing down upon the desert so that sand and stone shot out like swords!

Yet this dune giant did the ruin no harm at all; meeting broken walls it simply submerged them, and the red sand flowed over them, and the ruin remained whole and untouched. The divine arts of the Western Lands were utterly unlike those of Jingping; theirs was the road of all things having spirits, so that even sand and stone could turn into a giant and do battle, and one blow of the dune giant split mountains and shivered rock, irresistible in its might. If that dune giant ever landed a blow on either of them, the terrible force alone would be enough to wound them grievously!

Yet even so, Shen Mu and Ban Gongcuo still strove to kill each other, only doing their utmost to dodge the dune giant's attacks. Ban Gongcuo had lost an arm and moved awkwardly; Shen Mu, though he commanded eight thousand swords, could not wound the dune giant, however exquisite his swordcraft.

Even if he cut the giant to pieces, it would at once recover as before, its strength in no way diminished. The two men's body arts were outstanding, and the dune giant's attacks were tyrannical beyond measure, but it struck only with its fists, with no spells or divine arts, and so was not too great a threat to them.

But the strange thing was that this dune giant seemed to attack only Shen Mu, and took no notice of Ban Gongcuo at all.

"A spell of the True Heaven Palace!

" Dragon Qilin looked this way and that. "But where is the caster hiding? " "That is a guardian of the desert, not a divine art.

" Xiong Qi'er clambered by his mane up onto his great head, cast a glance around her, and said, "My mother said there are many ancient ruins in the desert; long ago they were the dwelling places of the gods who guarded the desert. Later those gods left, but they left guardians behind to watch over this desert, and anyone from the Wasteland who comes here will be attacked by those guardians.

" Suddenly the red sand in the ruin flew up, and another dune giant rose to its feet and rushed at Shen Mu with terrible speed.

Shen Mu waved a hand, and several dozen crimson sand dragons roared and galloped, charging the dune giant.

All this way, as he chased Ban Gongcuo, his qi had run faster and faster and the power of his divine arts had grown greater and greater; this was the moment when his fighting strength stood at its peak!

Those several dozen crimson sand dragons tore through the dune giant with a roar, passing through the bodies of both giants.

"Hm? " Shen Mu's heart jumped; he felt the power of law hidden within this art of his being devoured, for the sand dragons had passed through the dune giant's body, and all the power of law within them had vanished! Ban Gongcuo saw his opening, and charged in with the great cauldron above his head, while behind him the two dune giants, having absorbed the power of law from Shen Mu's art and swallowed down the dozens of sand dragons along with it, swelled enormously and came killing toward Shen Mu. Shen Mu clenched his fist, thumb upraised, and traded a hard blow with Ban Gongcuo.

At once Ban Gongcuo felt that there was little force in the blow, but that within the fist lurked an inward-drawing power, hauling him forward toward Shen Mu.

And Shen Mu's upraised thumb, falling into Ban Gongcuo's eyes, sent a chill through him! "The killing force of this blow lies in that thumb! " He threw all his strength into breaking free.

Shen Mu's move was no fist art at all but a sword art; that thumb of his was his sword, and if he could not break free, then the thumb would press down and that sword would surely cut him in two!

"This fellow, how has his fighting skill improved so swiftly, so fearfully?

It is not even a year since we last crossed blades; how has his strength risen so fast? " Ban Gongcuo put forth all his strength, and at last tore free of Shen Mu's fist; and at that moment the sword light at the tip of Shen Mu's thumb blazed up, his qi turning to threads, each thread a slender sword intertwined with the rest, and with a hiss the sword light chopped down together with the descending thumb!

Ban Gongcuo abruptly became a black shadow and dropped, clinging to the sand, and the shadow flew off at speed, away from Shen Mu. Shen Mu raised his hand and pressed down, and at once a great palm print half a mu across appeared on the ground.

Ban Gongcuo let out a breath: "The wretch missed. .

.

" Yet at that very moment the sword light in midair, blotting out the sky, hummed and buzzed, and all of it shot downward together, covering so vast an area that he could not escape its compass at all.

Suddenly a third dune giant rose from beneath Shen Mu's feet, and the rain of swords falling from midair went out of control at once. Ban Gongcuo hastily tore himself free of the black shadow; the shadow became a man who leaped up out of the desert, dodging and flashing again and again along the way, evading shaft after shaft of light, and fled the ruin.

He looked back, and saw Shen Mu swallowed by three dune giants, and knew not whether he lived or died. "When that wretch is gravely wounded by the dune giants, that will be my best moment to kill him!

" Scarcely had Ban Gongcuo thought this when he saw Dragon Qilin come roaring toward him. Ban Gongcuo gave a cold laugh: "You beast, you dare raise a hand against me? " So saying, he bowed his head and made obeisance, crying out in a harsh voice: "Fat Dragon!

" At once behind him appeared a vast altar, and the demon god upon the altar bowed its head and made obeisance too.

Dragon Qilin was unmoved. Ban Gongcuo, somewhat panicked, hastily bowed again: "Dragon Qilin!

" Dragon Qilin was already not far from him, firelight brimming in its mouth. Ban Gongcuo spat blood; he had been gravely wounded to begin with, and this soul-bowing art drained the primal essence savagely, so that two bows had already cost him dearly.

"Qingqing! " Ban Gongcuo clenched his teeth and bowed once more. Xiong Qi'er, clutching Dragon Qilin's mane, climbed onto the head of that plump, huge beast and looked at Ban Gongcuo in curiosity.

Ban Gongcuo opened his mouth and with a retch sprayed out an arrow of blood; from Dragon Qilin's mouth a pillar of fire, wrapped in blazing radiance, swept across more than ten li, and wherever it passed, several dunes were leveled by that single pillar!

Ban Gongcuo hastily hid himself inside the great cauldron; the tremendous clang, clang, clang of it gradually receded, and the cauldron was swept up into the air, then came down, rolling and tumbling, swept out dozens of li.

Dragon Qilin raced over, and where the cauldron had fallen there was only a sand pit and a smear of blood; Ban Gongcuo had plainly fled through the earth.

"My strength was not enough to hold him either?

To live ten thousand years is truly something; his skill at fleeing for his life is even greater than the Patriarch's.

" Dragon Qilin marveled.

From the ruin came an earthshaking crash.