Chapter 559 — The Peak of This Life

Just then, laughter like silver bells rang out from the lake. Following the sound, he saw bare-skinned girls draped in gauze playing upon the water—some leaping into it, some sitting upon its surface, laughing and frolicking. Shen Mu's eyes lit up.

He took out brush, ink, paper, and inkstone, ground the ink, lifted his brush, and began to paint. In a short while he had finished a picture: another lake, girls bathing in its waters, and a lotus throne.

Shen Mu leaped and plunged into the painting, where he played and frolicked with the girls, thoroughly merry.

The painting stood at the lake's edge.

Within it, the young man sat triumphant upon the lotus throne, the girls reclining at his side; with a girl in each arm, he had even claimed those extraordinary-looking weapons for himself—truly at the very peak of life! Light surged across the lake's surface, and then all at once everything vanished. Something vast seemed to be gliding beneath the water, closing in at terrific speed, raising ripples upon the surface like small islands. Splash.

The lake split open, and out of the water leaped an enormous eyeball wreathed in demonic flame—the eye of a demon god, by all appearances.

This demon eye must have gained sentience over the long years, or else been seized by some remnant soul; it was exceedingly strange, having even grown legs and arms—four legs and four arms—with two pairs of small wings behind the eye. It circled the painting, looking left and right, envying Shen Mu within it beyond measure.

"Goo-goo! " The demon-eye monster was beside itself with excitement.

All at once the monster shrank to the size of a washbasin, beat its wings with a great flapping, darted at Shen Mu's painting, and with a pop plunged inside.

The moment it entered, the eye split open, revealing an enormous mouth—for the eye had grown sharp teeth all around—and it roared furiously at Shen Mu: "Goo-goo—! " Terrified out of his wits, Shen Mu leaped down from the throne and fled helter-skelter.

The demon-eye monster, swelling with pride, bounded onto the lotus throne, pulled the girls to its sides, and hugged one to each of its flanks, at once feeling that it had ascended to the very peak of a monster's life.

Shen Mu leaped out of the painting, lifted his brush, and swept a single stroke across it; the girls and the demon-eye monster within were all frozen in place. "An interesting monster. Far stronger than I am—only a bit stupid, ignorant of how wicked hearts can be, and it tried to trick me.

It used treasure and women to lure me, yet I lured it instead; it walked straight into my net. " Shen Mu took out his seal, breathed on it, and stamped it in the painting's lower right corner, sealing the picture; then he rolled up the scroll and stowed it in his Taotie pouch.

"This monster's strength is no small matter. If I should meet an enemy I cannot withstand, I can release it to face them in my stead.

" Shen Mu walked on, a flicker of anticipation rising in his heart. "If I could run into more ill-omened things in this ill-omened land and collect them, they would be most useful! These ill-omened things are all remarkable treasures. If it were that fellow Xing'an, he would surely love this place.

Come to think of it, it has been a long time since I last saw Xing'an. . . " At last he left the marsh behind and came upon the ruins of a city, fallen palaces and buildings everywhere.

Destroyed by the fires of war, the place had gone long unvisited; its tattered streets were strewn with shattered bones. A dark wind blew, and a broken skull rolled across the street with a clear, clattering sound.

Suddenly the street split open, and a long spine burst through it like a dragon, ribs for legs, hurtling toward him with a shriek to kill! At the spine's end was a ferocious head—the head of a demon god, most likely—flesh long gone, its skull bristling with bone spurs, hairless and savage beyond measure, its vast bloody maw gaping wide as it pounced. Shen Mu bolted.

As he ran, a battlefield suddenly loomed up before him: countless skeletons locked in combat, their battered vital weapons flying, whipping sand and stone into the air. Shen Mu was about to skirt around it when the enormous spine rose into the air, treading on demonic fire.

Gritting his teeth, he could only charge into the battlefield. Only once inside did he realize how bad things were: every one of these warring skeletons was terrifyingly strong—even the weakest was scarcely weaker than he!

Boom, boom, boom! The sound of drums rolled out.

Two white-bone giants, each a hundred zhang tall, had pulled the great thighbones from their own bodies and, shaking their heads in excitement, were beating the war drums with them.

The drums thundered, and the skeleton soldiers on the battlefield went nearly berserk, slaughtering one another in a frenzy. Shen Mu sank into a bitter struggle. Stealing a glance, he saw the spine with its demon-god skull charging wildly back and forth, cutting its way toward him!

"Wei Liao is here! You demons and devils, dare to run wild no longer!

" Shen Mu turned toward the voice and saw the Qisha Star Lord Wei Liao, axe of office in hand, leading countless bones in a wild charge.

With a tremendous boom, that army of bones flooded the battlefield, and wherever it passed, shattered bone fragments whirled across the sky. Wei Liao swung his axe and smashed the demon god's skull to pieces, crying at the top of his voice, "In life, be a hero among men; in death, a hero among ghosts! Overthrow these demon whelps and rule the ill-omened land!

We shall become the ill omen itself! " Shen Mu gaped. Wei Liao swept the battlefield like a whirlwind driving dead leaves before it.

Before long, dry bones lay across the ground, and the victorious skeleton soldiers grinned, excitedly picking through the intact bones to replace the broken ones on their own bodies. Wei Liao strode over and said, "This ill-omened land is perilous beyond measure, young friend. We will see you out!

"