Chapter 1399 — The Nine Hells Terrace
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 1 of 3
Shen Mu's eyes went wide. He looked at the dragon qilin's "dry father" upon the throne, and at Long Xiao's "adopted son" below it, and a feeling of absurd, grotesque unreality rose in his heart. He had still been worrying whether the dragon qilin had been devoured by that colossal beast — never imagining that Long Xiao had caught it and taken it as an adopted son!
And from the look of things, the dragon qilin was doing rather well for itself at Long Xiao's side. Then came a humming sound.
Shen Mu spread out his Divine Treasure domain and urged on the Dao of the Great Beginning, and the chains around his neck slipped off of their own accord.
Long Xiao's head snapped up, his eighteen eyes fixed dead on Shen Mu. "You can defy the rules of this place and use divine abilities?
" he cried in astonishment. Shen Mu flexed his body and looked around.
"This place forms a natural shackle of the great Dao, one that locks down cultivation. The Dao cultivation I can bring to bear is not much — only four kinds. " Long Xiao was startled and uncertain.
After a moment he burst out laughing. "Remarkable! Truly remarkable! No wonder you are honored as Heavenly Venerable Mu.
I had thought you were a fraud, a placeholder among the Heavenly Venerables — but it seems you do have some skill! " He rose and stepped down from the throne, crossing the distance to Shen Mu in a few strides. His long body circled Shen Mu several times. Seven of the nine necks of his nine heads had been severed; though the dragon qilin had healed him, he was still far from recovered.
He looked Shen Mu up and down as though appraising livestock, and praised him: "Truly remarkable. Your cultivation is not high, but these abilities of yours are truly out of the common run. " He returned to the throne.
The throne must have been refined from the thorn-mountain of this place, like a thicket of brambles, yet it could not harm him in the least. Shen Mu glanced at the dragon qilin and smiled.
"Long Xiao, your adopted son is quite a curiosity — half dragon, half qilin. " The dragon qilin shouted, "Mount Mu the Heavenly Venerable, you had best know this: my surname is Long, my name is Pi!
You may call me Young Master Pi! When I was fleeing, I used a divine ability, and several good brothers who were also fleeing saw it and, without a word, seized me in their jaws and ran. Later my adoptive father arrived, and finding me clever and of surpassing wit, took me as his adopted son. " Shen Mu blinked, and at once understood. In the battle in which he, Wei Suifeng, and Prince Youming had slain the Earth Mother Primordial Sovereign, the Lapis Lazuli Azure Heaven Banner had covered so vast a range that the dragon qilin and the colossal beasts nearby had all fled to avoid being caught up in it.
The dragon qilin must have been trying to use its reverse-summoning divine ability to summon itself back to Great Black Mountain in the Ancestral Court, only to be discovered by the other fleeing colossal beasts.
Those beasts took the dragon qilin for one of their own, and seeing that he did not run fast enough, they carried him in their jaws as they fled for their lives. Unable to use the reverse-summoning ability, the dragon qilin waited until they had fled to a safe distance — and then ran into Long Xiao, who was also in flight. Long Xiao swept them up and fled all the way here, hiding himself away.
The dragon qilin's medical skill was a mess, but compared to the colossal beasts it was far, far better, and so he ingratiated himself by treating Long Xiao's wounds. Long Xiao must have taken quite a liking to him, and seeing him clever and capable, took him as an adopted son. Long Xiao laughed.
"Heavenly Venerable Mu, do you know what this place is? It is called Mount Qi.
In the old days the Creators called it the Heavenly Prison, the Terrace of Nine Hells! In ancient times, Creators and ancient gods who had committed monstrous crimes were usually thrown in here.