Chapter 557 — The Perilous Domain

The Black Tiger God's brows knit deep, and he shook his head. "I am the one who lost him. I must find him!"

Si Yunxiang and Ling Yuxiu exchanged a look and said together, "We will go with you!"

"And me!" Xue Hu'er lifted her tail, then looked at Long Qilin.

Long Qilin hesitated. Xue Hu'er's eyes glittered, and she said softly, "Fat Long, if you cannot find the Young Master, all you can do is go hungry."

At once Long Qilin was brimming with vigor. "Count me in!"

Sang Hua looked at her father. "Father, they do not know the land..."

The Venerable God Sang Ye had a great headache. "Be careful in all things. On your second day deep in demon territory, I will lead troops to attack and draw the demon race's attention, so that you may have some peace."

At the edge of the ill-omened land, the demon-fire nightmare steed beneath Shen Mu gave a mournful cry as a chain of blade-light sheared through its legs. A demon adept burst open its belly and struck at Shen Mu upon its back.

Shen Mu sprang up, pressed his palm downward, and smashed man and horse to powder in a single blow.

Whoo —

An old woman came charging with a great gourd on her back; from the gourd blood-light surged like a tide and drowned him. The bloody tide stank, spun madly, and became a blood-red python that bound Shen Mu tight, squeezing until his bones cracked aloud.

In Shen Mu's eyes the array-patterns spun madly. A great sun rose out of the river of stars, and with a hum two beams of light slashed out: one cut off the serpent's head, one cut the old woman's throat.

A Rakshasa scorpion-woman whipped out her tail-hook like a long lash; the poisoned barb pierced Shen Mu's shoulder and hurled him high, then dashed him hard against the ground. Another demon youth, bearing eight great banners on his back, bowed to Shen Mu where he fell, and the eight banners shrieked forth and planted themselves around him.

"Demon Linked-Mountain Formation! Suppress, suppress, suppress, suppress, suppress, suppress, suppress, suppress!"

The demon youth roared it eight times, and eight phantom mountains dropped from the sky; with eight thunderous booms they struck, and the earth quaked.

Then amid the eight mountain phantoms countless points of starlight flickered and became a strange force field of Daluotian star-power. Shen Mu struck out a palm, and the eight mountains shattered.

He cut his way out of the banner formation, and head-on came more than ten blade orbs spinning madly at him. He hastily struck out a palm, and a huge character meaning Still appeared in the air; the dozen blade orbs were frozen in place. The next moment the orbs spun, and countless demon blades shot out of them and chopped the Still character to powder!

Shen Mu turned, trod the Dipper's stars, and dodged a myriad demon blades by a hair's breadth. His sword pellet flew up; he caught it in his hand and swept it with the wind, and the countless demon blades shattered.

A dozen demon soldiers with three heads and four arms came howling at him, advancing as others fell back, one guarding while another struck, killing madly toward Shen Mu.

He blocked again and again, and in the blink of an eye took dozens of blows. He hastily fled into the earth, but the dozen four-armed demons pressed their palms down on the ground together, and the earth heaved with a rumble and forced him up from below.

Shen Mu leaped into the air and came crashing down, dragon-shaped and serpent-striding, howling as he plunged into a great marsh ahead.

The demon soldiers chased him to the marsh's edge, then suddenly halted as one, frowning deeply.

"What now? Do we go in?" one demon adept said in a low voice.

Shen Mu walked into the marsh and looked about. Mist lay in heavy layers, demon qi filled the air, and beneath the clear water corpse after corpse floated; on the patches of bog that broke the surface lay nothing but bones, and rust-eaten primeval weapons.

He thought a moment, then came to a patch of bog and rapped lightly on the bones on the ground. "Brother," he said with a smile, "how does one go from here?"

The dry bones sat bolt upright, turned its head to look at him, and its jaws opened and closed: "This is the road to the Yellow Springs. None return who come."