荒墟牧神 - 第11章 神音裂壁開靈藏 - 雲海書庫

holly broken the wall, so he could not see what else lay inside. That lightning-shaped crack was slowly closing. Shen Mu's heart sank a little. Plainly the Spirit Fetus Wall was not so simple a thing as he had imagined: it had form but no substance, like a thick, viscous fluid—pierce a hole in it, and the hole would heal. Only by mustering everything in one unbroken breath and shattering the Spirit Fetus Wall utterly could the Spirit-Soul Divine Palace be opened. "My qi cultivation is not yet strong enough, but striking out a crack lets my qi rise by leaps and bounds! It will not be long before my qi can break the Spirit Fetus Wall open!" Shen Mu's spirits soared—and then all at once the crow of a cock came to his ears. His heart stirred, and he hastened to open his eyes. Among the strange beasts that had entered the ruins for shelter were several bald-necked roosters, monstrously tall and imposing, a full man's height, with magnificent plumage—save that their necks were bare of feathers. The crowing just now had come from those bald-necked roosters. "Day is breaking." Shen Mu's heart stirred. A dim glow had already appeared in the eastern sky, and soon the sun would rise; there was no longer time for him to break fully through the Spirit Fetus Wall. Fortunately he now understood how the wall was to be broken. If only he could escape this place from the hands of Senior Brother Qu and Senior Sister Qing, he would have all the time he needed to make his breakthrough. Though he had not fully broken the wall, that single crack had raised his cultivation considerably, and he was confident enough that he could escape the two of them. "Day is breaking," Senior Brother Qu said, with meaning in his voice. Senior Sister Qing said icily: "Three of our junior brothers died to rid the world of demons. If this little devil-king slips away, would we not have failed their spirits in heaven?" Shen Mu turned a deaf ear, rose to his feet, and worked the stiffness from his limbs. In the plaza the maidens still contended with the darkness, thrust and counter-thrust, neither giving way, light and gloom locked in savage slaughter. Before long another crow rang out. The darkness grew restless, its voice becoming incomparably loud and heavy, while the divine sound the maidens gave forth grew fierce and shrill. Divine light and darkness clashed violently, point against point, a sight to shake the heart. Then suddenly a third crow came, and a thread of sunlight pierced the gloom in the east, falling upon the highest peak nearby. At that touch of sunlight the ink-black darkness ebbed away like a tide, retreating swiftly into the distance, as swift as it had come, faster and faster, until at last it vanished beyond the horizon. The morning sun shone down upon the canyon; before its light had yet fallen into the ruins within, that Rosy-Cloud Soul Pearl was seen slowly sinking, and the riot of rosy radiance that filled the plaza poured into the bright pearl. The radiance vanished, and the maidens in the plaza were once more skeletons sitting cross-legged, motionless, as though this night of maidens battling the darkness had been only a gorgeous dream. Shen Mu had long since heard the villagers speak of the strange happenings in the wild ruins; the things that occurred here were bizarre and beyond all reason. But hearing was one thing; to live through such wonders himself was far more staggering. Whenever night fell and the darkness came creeping, the faces in the darkness, the mysterious demonic sound, the rouged skeletons that turned into maidens here in these ruins each night, the war between light and darkness—each was a wonder beyond comprehension. These secrets waited for someone to uncover them. Shen Mu hid himself among the moving beasts and quietly made his way out. The herd plainly had its unwritten rule: no one raised a hand inside the ruins. But once outside, the beasts themselves would surely turn deadly. Elsewhere, Senior Brother Qu threw a gla