Tales Of Herding Gods | Chapter 87 - Trap
Qin Mu muttered, "Why would Moon Ship be here…"
The ship should be Moon Ship as it had similarities with Sun Ship. Around Moon Ship was dead silence and not even a figure could be seen. This ship had collapsed and laid flat between the mountains. More than half of the waning moon hanged in the sky motionlessly and the ship was over forty miles away from the nearest city.
The direction which the jade pendant was floating towards was the direction of Moon Ship.
The two mysterious ships on the geographic map of Great Ruins, Sun Ship and Moon Ship. Qin Mu and Village had already seen Sun Ship and had never seen Moon Ship yet.
This Moon Ship was no smaller than Sun Ship. Sun Ship was like a huge volcano with legs, having peaks that were spewing fire and lava boiling. On the other hand, Moon Ship was entirely silver grey in color, creeping there like a silver toad with three legs. To be exact, it was like a toad carrying a ship while creeping among the mountains.
It was as if Moon Ship was alive as the mountain slowly moved up and down like it was breathing. However, the ship's body was already in ruined and in a much worse condition than Sun Ship.
Sun Ship had appeared in Great Ruins and returned to Sun Well, so how did Moon Ship appear in the living realm of the dead and not return to Moon Well?
"Is Carefree Village referring to Fengdu or Moon Ship?" Qin Mu mumbled.
"Carefree Village, what is carefree? When one dies, they would naturally be carefree. Could Carefree Village be referring to Fengdu, living realm of the dead?"
Village Chief suppressed the shock in his heart, "However, Carefree Village may also be referring to Moon Ship. As Moon Ship broke through the darkness, the people on-board lived in peace, carefree and without worries… Didn't Sun Guardian told you that Carefree Village only appeared in the darkness but he didn't know where it would appear. This means that Carefree Village is constantly moving and if so, this could be explained if Carefree Village is in the area covered by Moon Ship. Moon Ship appears at night, therefore, Moon Ship would move at night. With Moon Ship bringing Carefree Village to appear at night, the ship would be constantly moving, therefore, Carefree Village would be constantly moving as well, having no fixed location. Mu'er…"
He paused before saying, "This is only my guess, however, if it's true, you may be a Moon Herder."
"I'm a Moon Herder?" Qin Mu was slightly stunned, not understanding the meaning of it.
"If you are born in Carefree Village, you may be the descendant of Moon Herders."
Village Chief smiled, "Didn't you say you met a woman stretching her hand out to you and tried to put her palm together with yours on the dragon pillar in Border Dragon City? I think that woman may be your kin or even your…"
He didn't continue, but Qin Mu understood what he wanted to say. It might even be his mother!
Back then, Moon Ship must have brought Carefree Village to the outskirts of Border Dragon Village. Sun Ship came in the day while Moon Ship came at night. That woman must have discovered Qin Mu and noticed the jade pendant on his neck, therefore, wanted to acknowledge him!
However, being in such a dilapidated and desolate state, could Moon Herders live in this place?
Furthermore, why would Moon Ship appear in the living realm of the dead?
Suddenly a melodious singing came from Moon Ship. The gloomy voice was cold and dismal, sounding like a mother that was missing her long lost child.
"When I left here; Willows shed tear.
"I come back now; Snow bends the bough.
"Long, long the way; Hard, hard the day.
"My grief overflows; Who knows, who knows…"
…
When Qin Mu heard the song, he only felt the urge to cry, just that he didn't have any flesh, therefore, there were no tears to be shed.
That song from the huge Moon Ship was faintly discernible and was somewhat lonely and melancholy. The longing for her child had turned into a gloomy temperament.
Looking at Moon Ship, there was a good looking woman standing at the bow of the ship in the gray fog and looking over at Qin Mu.
Their endless gaze of longing seemed to meet across the air.
Qin Mu wanted to close his eye but he couldn't. Keeping silent for a moment, he then told Village Chief, "Village Chief, let us go back."
Village Chief was slightly stunned and asked him softly, "Aren't you going up to meet her?"
Qin Mu shook his head and said stupefyingly, "She's not my kin and this is not Carefree Village."
Village Chief's heart shuddered, "What did you see with your Nine Heavens God Eyes opened by Blind?"
Even though he was powerful, Blind was still stronger than him when it came to eyes. Now that Blind had opened the nine heavens of Qin Mu's god eyes, what Qin Mu could see he might not be able to see.
"What I see isn't a woman and is a devil god."
Qin Mu's gaze landed on the woman on Moon Ship and what he saw wasn't a mother longing for her child but was a malevolent devil god with disk-shaped bone spikes on its back emanating black aura!
The devil god was singing softly and seemed to be baiting him over!
This wasn't a situation of meeting kin but was a scam. From the moment the jade pendant had shone on the dragon pillar in Border Dragon City, it was a scam which purpose was to bait Qin Mu to enter this place!
"Man! Even I, an old martial wanderer also almost fell into his trap!"
Village Chief took a deep breath and his divine light shone bright, grabbing Qin Mu to rapidly retreat back. Meanwhile, the woman on Moon Ship suddenly became berserk and frantically flew over through the air from the ship's bow!
The woman whirled like a spinning top in mid-air, her body growing bigger and bigger. Her face also became more and more malevolent as she finally struggled free from the constraint of her skin, revealing her real body. It was a devil god that had eight long legs, two heads, and five tails!
Her legs were like human arms and her feet were like human hands. She sprinted extremely fast in the air as she gave chase!
"Padma dalie!"
Lotus blossomed in front of Village Chief and filled the sky and the ground. The apparitions of devil buddha sat on the lotus as they all raised their palms and unleashed their mudras at Village Chief!
These devil Buddhas were all apparitions, however, they seemed to materialize and had a physical body. Every move from the devil buddhas was different as the attacks came from all around Village Chief and Qin Mu.
Buddha was supposed to be sacred yet this devil cultivated the divine arts of devils into devil Buddhas. It could be said that it had betrayed the scriptures and strayed from the path.
Village Chief's expression didn't change and remained calm. A sword light flew out from his finger and flashed from lotus to lotus. The sword light was so fast that Qin Mu couldn't catch it with his eyes and could only see a snow white light winding among all the lotus and devil Buddhas.
The next moment, the lotus all shattered into pieces and the head of the devil Buddha exploded with a bang, turning into devil vital qi which rushed out in all directions.
"Sa Paramita!"
The devil pounced over and just as her voice dropped, a huge whirlpool appeared behind Village Chief and spun rapidly. It was like a monster that had a mouth full of razor-sharp teeth as countless of razor-sharp blades revolved around in the whirlpool. In the whirlpool was a long rainbow bridge which was flowing rapidly into the whirlpool.
Village Chief and Qin Mu were instantly pulled in by the whirlpool. The rainbow bridge pulled the two persons into the insides of the whirlpool and countless of sharp blades came attacking from all directions, slicing as they revolved.
The end of the whirlpool was like a paradise with birdsong and fragrant flowers. Everything looked so peaceful but that was obviously where the core of this devil's killer move lay!
"Mu'er, stand on my hair!"
Village Chief gave a shout and his hair started growing furiously. Every strand of hair was like a huge and thick pillar penetrating out from the whirlpool along the rainbow bridge. Qin Mu landed on one of the strands of hair and stood there. He could only feel that the hair under his feet was swelling rapidly, becoming thicker and longer as it almost penetrated through the whirlpool.
Whereas the other hairs were like the messy dance of wild snakes as they broke the blades in the whirlpool which was coming in all directions. Countless shattered blades fell into the whirlpool and were crushed into powder by the powerful current.
Qin Mu raised his head and saw the huge and malevolent face of the devil god at the entrance of the whirlpool. With her eyes sparkling slyly, she opened her mouth wide open and waited for Village Chief to send him into her mouth.
Right at this moment, Village Chief's other strands of hair tunneled into the devil god's mouth and gave a forceful tug, pulling the devil god into the whirlpool as well.
"Mu'er, quickly go to the dock and board the ship to leave! Go now!"
The strand of hair gently flicked Qin Mu out of the whirlpool which then closed with a rumble. Village Chief and the devil god had vanished.
Qin Mu's body dropped from the sky and he was quite a great distance from land. If he was to drop straight down, he would definitely die!
He hurriedly took in a deep breath and blew out. A gust was instantly created in front of him and Qin Mu's feet rapidly moved to step on the cusp of gust, slowing down his falling speed,
He huffed and puffed a few times before finally landing on the ground. This was still Carefree Village which was saturated with gray fog, however, the darkness didn't invade here, therefore, it was still a safe place to him.
Suddenly a huge whirlpool appeared above his head. Four thick and long arms popped out from the whirlpool and clawed towards the sky. The malevolent devil popped his head up as she tried to crawl out of the whirlpool.
However, something seemed to be grasping firmly on her legs and she was pulled back into the whirlpool once again.
"Heavenly Devil Horde!"
An angry roar came from the whirlpool. As the devil god was pulled back into the whirlpool, Qin Mu saw black dots spurting out from the whirlpool.
"Leave quickly, Mu'er!"
Village Chief's voice came from the whirlpool, "Go on ahead, I'll catch up to you! Quick, if the devil gods in the city are alarmed, you won't be able to escape…"
The whirlpool disappeared and Village Chief's voice was cut off.
In the air, the black dots fell to the ground like shooting stars, shaking the ground from the collision. Gray fog then started to surged over, becoming thicker and thicker. When the black dots had landed on the ground, they were shrouded in fog, therefore Qin Mu couldn't see clearly what was exactly inside.
The fog soon spread over to Qin Mu and flooded over the youth. From the gray fog came the thumps of heavy footsteps which were like huge stones pressing down the heart.