Chapter 152 — The Golden Palace of Loulan

" Libationer Bashan barked.

The Green Ox gave a low moo, and his body suddenly swelled with thumping sounds, muscles bulging, rising higher and higher until he was a hideous, sinewy, ox-headed monster of a man. He strode to the golden gate, shrugged his shoulders upward, and tore that immensely heavy gateway out by the roots!

The barbarian great shamans and experts beside him were struck dumb. Libationer Bashan said mildly: "Carry the gate up the mountain. " Shen Mu's heart gave a jolt; he understood Libationer Bashan's intent.

Blockading at the gate below, they could scarcely reach the heart of the Golden Palace of Loulan; but hauling the gate up the mountain and blocking it before the palace's main hall would make it far easier to steal Zaifu's lower half.

Yet that would also offend the Golden Palace of Loulan beyond repair; this venture, he feared, would end only with somebody's death. If they went deep into the Golden Palace of Loulan, those powerhouses had only to block the road down and they would be trapped, which would be very bad indeed. Libationer Bashan gave a cold snort and walked on, sending his voice into Shen Mu's ear: "Once we are up the mountain, it won't be you two blockading the gate — I fear they mean to come for me.

This is rather different from what I had in mind.

.

. " Shen Mu consoled him: "The man who taught me to steal is a lame old fellow — truly formidable. " "How did he come to be lame?

" asked Libationer Bashan.

Shen Mu hesitated, then answered honestly: "It seems he was caught while stealing something, and a leg was chopped off.

" Libationer Bashan sneered: "When I heard he was lame, I already knew he'd been caught thieving and beaten lame. Have you ever stolen anything?

" Shen Mu hesitated again, then shook his head: "I haven't tried yet.

" Libationer Bashan's last hope perished; his face shifted between gloom and brightness, and he abruptly thrust a map into Shen Mu's hands: "This is a map of the Golden Palace.

Keep it for now.

.

.

I hope you never need it. For now we take one step and watch for the next; once we reach the palace, adapt as things come, and perhaps I can find a chance to steal my master's lower half. " The stairway of the Golden Palace of Loulan was exceedingly long, stretching all the way to the summit.

Shen Mu and Ling Yuxiu climbed after Libationer Bashan, looking about: on both sides of the road stood many golden statues of gods, each one grotesque beyond measure — human yet not human, demon yet not demon, god yet not god, bearing at once the features of men and of gods and demons, in shapes strange and multifarious. To walk such a road weighed heavily on the spirit; even Snow Fox, who loved to bicker with the Green Ox, fell strangely quiet now, and only the Green Ox's ponderous footsteps sounded. Shen Mu looked back: the steppe experts and the barbarian great shamans followed them in silence, eyes blazing fire. Ahead, glittering palaces appeared one after another, and beneath them stood people of monstrous shapes — some with horns on their heads, some with wings on their backs, some with beast heads, some with serpent tails.

Yet these were not of the demon race; the demon race carries demon aura, as Snow Fox does, and the Green Ox, though his aura is faint, has it too. These monstrous folk had no demon aura at all.

Snow Fox and the Green Ox were transforming toward the human; the powerhouses of the Golden Palace of Loulan seemed rather to be transforming away from it.

Such was the way of cultivation beyond the frontier, unlike Jingping's: to turn toward the inhuman, to draw near to gods and demons, was to become a great shaman. Still, some among them kept ordinary human form; these could surely command their bodies at will, shifting and withdrawing as they pleased, their powers flowing freely.

Before the halls stood many cages crammed with people in rags — no doubt the "material" for the Golden Palace of Loulan's shamans to cultivate with. Ling Yuxiu's expression changed slightly, and anger rose in her heart: "They are subjects of my Jingping!

" Shen Mu said woodenly: "Jingping too seizes the people of my Wasteland and makes slaves of them.

" Ling Yuxiu trembled slightly and said no more.

"Young Master, they do not only use humans for cultivation; demons have been captured as well.

" Snow Fox pursed her lips, and Shen Mu looked: indeed, in several of the cages monsters were penned. Libationer Bashan said: "The Shaman Cult has strange arts that cultivate with souls, altering the body's make.

Absorb a bird's soul and you may grow wings, or a bird's head upon your shoulders; absorb a goat's soul and your body turns goatward too. Those who perfect a divine power are called great shamans; those who do not are called shaman-practitioners; and at the Heaven-Man realm one is called a Shaman King.

The Golden Palace of Loulan is the holy ground of the Shaman Cult, and its art is known as the Shaman Sovereign's Loura Sutra — quite extraordinary.

" — That makes six chapters today; the burst continues tomorrow, with two chapters at noon, two more at eight in the evening, and one more at ten.

Brothers, I beg you to keep lending your support.