荒墟牧神 - 第9章 粉骨遺城迎黑潮 - 雲海書庫

"There really are ruins ahead!" Shen Mu raced along with the beast herd when he suddenly saw the ground fall away before him and a canyon open up. Inside the canyon, astonishingly, many ancient buildings had survived—palaces scattered in disorder, a broad plaza, lofty towers. Facing this stretch of ruins stood a towering gateway that spanned the canyon from wall to wall, its great ornamental pillars entwined with coiling dragons. The beasts were charging straight for that gateway, pouring into the ruins. "The black tide is coming!" Shen Mu looked up, his scalp prickling. The black tide, like ink, was streaming down the cliff face from above the canyon and flooding into it! It would reach the gateway of the ruins in moments and swallow it whole. The herd grew even more frantic and hurled itself at the gate. It had become a deadly, desperate rush—demon beasts collided and trampled one another; a single slip meant bones and flesh ground to powder. But there was no time to care about that now: anyone who failed to rush into the ruins before the black tide arrived would die far worse. Shen Mu charged forward in desperation and seized the tail of a colossal beast. That beast was immensely powerful, like a black mountain racing across the land, and wherever it passed it sent demon beasts flying or crushed them flat underfoot. The demon beasts behind it also leapt up, one after another, grabbed its tail, and let it drag them into the ruins. Shen Mu looked down and saw beasts that on ordinary days were savage and ferocious now clinging to the tail in terror, not daring to twitch. He glanced back—Senior Brother Qu, Senior Sister Qing, and their other three companions, who had been hunting him, were also rushing madly toward the ruins, not far behind. At last, just before the black tide drowned the gateway, the colossal beast plunged through the huge portal, and at the same moment the ink-black tide engulfed the gate. Senior Brother Qu, Senior Sister Qing, and the others came howling after it, but only Qu, Qing, and one other youth made it through before the tide closed over the gateway. Of the other two, one was a step too late—only one arm got through. The other youth got his face, chest, legs, half his belly, and one arm through the gate; the rest of him was lashed by the black tide. Senior Brother Qu landed inside the gateway and immediately reached out to seize his two junior brothers. He caught one by the hand and gave a hard yank, and out of the darkness he dragged a ghastly white skeleton. His other hand had not yet closed on the other youth when he saw that boy pitch forward onto his face. Senior Brother Qu and Senior Sister Qing's hair stood on end. The youth's front still had all its flesh and blood, but the back was stripped completely bare—something in the black tide had eaten every last trace of it! "What in the world is in that black tide? How can such a thing exist?" Senior Sister Qing shrieked. Senior Brother Qu pulled himself together, exhaled a murky breath, and said in a deep voice, "A man's death is like a lamp going out. Those two junior brothers died ridding the world of demons and guarding the Way—they died where they should, and they died gloriously. That little fiend deliberately waited until the very last moment before the black tide to reach these ruins. He must have meant to use it to kill us!" The other youth burned with indignation and said through his teeth, "He is in these ruins too, surrounded by the black tide—he has nowhere to run! Find him and chop his corpse into ten thousand pieces to avenge my junior brothers!" "There he is!" Senior Sister Qing saw Shen Mu spring down from the colossal beast's tail and at once shrieked, "Little fiend, you killed my two junior brothers—and you still think you can run?" Shen Mu was speechless with fury. "You chased me for no reason, hounded me all the way until dark, and killed yourselves—what has that to do with me? I was living quietly and never provoked you; you c