荒墟牧神 - 第395章 儲君兇猛 - 錦書坊

The Sunherds aboard the Dawn Ark were as though facing a mighty foe; one after another they leapt up, soaring into the air, anxiously sweeping their eyes over the rampart that shrouded Dawnspring. That rampart was formed of light spouting from the well, taking shape as a hemisphere of radiance that cupped downward to guard Dawnspring; for several hundred li around, the space of Dawnspring was a world unto itself. Shen Mu had never been to Dawnspring, but he supposed that beyond the hemisphere of light there must be other means of concealment, so that it would not be so conspicuous, so arresting to the eye. Otherwise, a great golden sphere several hundred li across, blazing with golden light, appearing in the Ruins would long ago have been known throughout the Ruins—and even beyond. Fengdu, for instance: Fengdu appeared only when night descended, and could not be seen at all; only by a stroke of fate could one enter it. Dawnspring must be much the same as Fengdu—standing there in the Ruins, yet perhaps utterly invisible. So finding Dawnspring was no easy matter; to locate this place, the otherworldly demon gods must have spent enormous effort indeed. The canopy of Dawnspring shone with golden light, as though beaten from gold leaf, and suddenly a huge face appeared upon it, nose and eyes complete, pressing inward, as if it meant to squeeze through the barrier and enter Dawnspring. The face had a very long chin, like a long handle, yet its mouth grew at the very bottom of that chin; its eye was enormous—and it had only one, occupying the center of the face, as though a great ball were propped atop the bridge of its nose. It was monstrously strange. "Which world's demon god is this?" Shen Mu was astonished; never had he seen a demon god that looked like this. Just then, from every direction came a ceaseless slapping and smacking, and one grotesque face after another plastered itself against the canopy of Dawnspring; in the blink of an eye the canopy over those several hundred li of space was covered with faces! Large and small, each different in feature, yet all built alike: at the center of each face a vast, disproportionate eye, a long chin, and a mouth set upon the chin. In the blink of an eye the sky was plastered with these faces, their great eyeballs rolling this way and that, gazing with keen interest at what lay within the barrier, wearing eerie smiles that made the scalp go numb. Suddenly the great eyeballs in those faces all turned in unison toward the sun bound by chains in midair, and every face showed astonishment at once. "Those are Doubles." The old clan chief's face was grave. "A kind of demon race. The Doubles differ from other demon races: they excel at assimilation. When they meet a form of life, they assimilate it, remaking it utterly, until it becomes one of their clan—or rather, becomes a part of them." Shen Mu was slightly startled. Assimilate the other, make it one of their own, a part of themselves? There was such a bizarre race? "The strangest thing about the Double clan is that they share a single mind." The old clan chief showed a look of shuddering dread, then hid the dread away. "If they catch you, their mind and consciousness will assimilate you. A single Double demon god often has millions, tens of millions, even hundreds of millions of doubles; their mind is immeasurably powerful. If they catch you, they can simply smash your mind and consciousness to pieces, and their mind will remake you into a part of them!" Ling Yuxiu, Si Yunxiang, and the others could not help shuddering. If such a demon god broke out of the Ruins and came to Jingping, the kingdom of Jingping would in all likelihood turn wholly into Doubles within a few days! Hundreds of millions of minds gathered into one—who could withstand that? It seemed the old clan chief of the Sunherds had spoken truly: if the Sunherds were wiped out, and the demon gods of the Ruins burst forth from the Ruins, the outer world too would be wiped out! Su