Chapter 446 — The Uncanny Western Frontier

Dragon Qilin looked back, and saw that a fourth dune giant had appeared in the ruin, more than thirty zhang tall, a match for the Pagoda of Ten Thousand Buddhas of the Great Tingming Temple, moving with incredible swiftness, chasing Shen Mu and raining blow after blow upon him. "The Patriarch must not be harmed!

" Dragon Qilin hurried toward the place.

Suddenly Shen Mu's form vanished, and the next moment he appeared before it, floating in midair, his whole body wrapped in uncanny flames and in a swiftly spinning teleportation rune array.

Shen Mu swiftly put out the fire on his body; his face was scorched black, but fortunately the robe he wore had been refined by Yu Zhaoqing and other masters of the Heavenly Feather clan, and had not been destroyed in the flames. A rustle of sand came.

Shen Mu looked back, and those dune giants had come rushing out of the ruin like the wind, killing toward this side in a fury. "Dragon Fatty, back!

" Shen Mu waved a hand, stopping Dragon Qilin as it charged forward.

Those dune giants were extremely fast, and soon rushed up before Shen Mu; then the vast dunes shook and parted to left and right, pincering in on Shen Mu from either side. Just as they were about to fall upon him, the teleportation rune array around Shen Mu lit up and his form vanished once more!

The dune giants crashed into one another, and sand flew everywhere; then one after another the dune giants re-formed and hastily went racing madly back toward the ruin. Before these dune giants could get back inside, they suddenly collapsed and crumbled, becoming dunes of sand heaped one upon another. Dragon Qilin hastily ran over, and saw Shen Mu floating in midair, and beneath him a palace more than half collapsed, with a shrine niche in its midst, and in the niche a wooden idol covered in strange patterns, whose head now lay upon the ground.

Shen Mu raised his hand, and the Carefree Sword flew back; his face grave, he studied the head of the wooden idol.

A moment before, he had drawn these dune giants out and returned to the ruin, sweeping it with the Danxiao Heavenly Eye, and had discovered that the strange patterns on the wooden idol were ceaselessly flowing; and so he had cut off the idol's head with a single stroke of his sword! With the idol's head severed, those patterns, which had been shining with light, went out one after another.

And in the very instant he cut off the idol's head, he sensed a fearful spiritual ripple come rushing out of the idol at him, only to be blocked and driven back by the jade pendant he wore at his breast. "Very uncanny.

. .

" Shen Mu turned his head and said, "Qi'er, are there gods in your True Heaven Palace of the Western Lands?

" Xiong Qi'er shook her head. "I have never heard of any.

" Shen Mu gripped the jade pendant at his breast and said softly, "Hidden in this idol is a spirit; when I cut it down it even attacked me.

The idol's master should still be alive. " "Patriarch, Ban Gongcuo has fled," Dragon Qilin said hastily. Shen Mu did not take it to heart.

"He has been fleeing for ten thousand years; he has long since become a master of escape, and to wipe him out at a single stroke is indeed no easy thing. Was it not so when the Imperial Preceptor of Jingping besieged the Golden Palace and he slipped away? What chills my heart is that the True Heaven Palace of the Western Lands may have a living god.

.

. " He raised his head and looked west.

This wooden image of a god could gather sand into giants, which showed that it used the supreme art of the True Heaven Palace.

That supreme art was called the Myriad Gods' Natural Art, a cultivation method suited to women. Xiong Xiyu had taught it to Shen Mu, but Shen Mu's gains from it had not been great.

"The Imperial Preceptor of Jingping and Palace Mistress Xiong Xiyu have gone to the True Heaven Palace; they may be in for trouble.

" Shen Mu drew back his gaze and thought: "I only hope that god is not too strong, otherwise.

.

. " He shook his head.

"What I dread more is this: why would this god of the True Heaven Palace leave behind this ruined palace?

These dune giants were clearly meant to kill the Forsaken who leave the Wasteland. What, in truth, is the True Heaven Palace? " He leaped onto Dragon Qilin's back, and Dragon Qilin bore him westward, and soon ran more than ten li.

The ruin was silent.

After a moment a rustling came, and the patterns on the two halves of the wooden image slowly lit up, and the idol's head suddenly flew up and settled upon the idol's neck. The patterns on the idol grew brighter and brighter, and this carved wooden idol was actually turning bit by bit to flesh and blood; its wooden body was about to become a body of flesh and blood!

More terrible still, the wooden idol twisted its head around, its face turning to the back of its body, and its two eyes slowly opened, looking in the direction Shen Mu had gone.

The idol opened its mouth, and its voice was dry and uncanny: "A noble among the Forsaken.

This Palace.

. .

" Shua — a sword light came skimming level with the ground, breaking through the air, and in a flash pierced through the head of the wooden idol that was turning to flesh and blood; then the sword light blazed and cut the wooden idol into countless fragments!

Twenty li away, the sword light flew swiftly back and slid into the sheath behind Shen Mu. "Gods?

I have killed two or three of them myself.

" Shen Mu stood with both hands tucked into his sleeves atop Dragon Qilin's head, his body rising and falling with the beast's advance.