Chapter 686 — The Old Angler by the Cold Pool

"His Majesty sends the Sun Guardian to Taihuang Heaven — it seems I must make the trip to the Sun-Herding Clan myself!"

Shen Mu left the imperial palace, summoned the Dragon Qilin, and rode straight for the Desolate Ruins. Six days later he came to the Dawn Spring, and there he met Yan Jingjing.

They had not seen each other for several years, and the girl had grown up; she had blossomed into a young woman of striking loveliness. Seeing Shen Mu arrive, she came dashing out at once and said with a laugh, "Cowherd Brother, look at my legs — they're completely healed!"

Shen Mu's gaze fell upon her. The girl wore rather loose garments: a flowered-pin ceremonial gown, a pale blue outer robe, and beneath it a chest-wrap embroidered with a three-legged crow.

Her outer robe was very long, nearly trailing on the ground, so that her legs could not be seen.

By the look of the workmanship, it must have been made for her by Yu Zhaoqing. The Sun-Herding Clan had done the Heavenly Feather Clan a kindness, and after the Heavenly Feather Clan settled in Jingping, the two families had often visited one another.

Yan Jingjing turned her waist sideways and lifted one side of her skirt, baring a leg. The girl's leg was very slender — only there were no trousers beneath, and her skin shone white as snow, an arresting sight indeed.

Shen Mu felt a fleeting stirring of improper thoughts, but he suppressed it at once. He had once examined both of Yan Jingjing's legs and touched them more than once, so he still had a measure of self-restraint.

"Show me the other one too," Shen Mu said. "I'll check whether the two legs are the same length."

Yan Jingjing gathered one side of her skirt in one hand, waist turned, and with the other hand lifted the other side of the skirt and held it against her breast.

Shen Mu crouched down to examine them. The girl's legs were pressed close together, with scarcely a gap between them, and he laughed. "They really are healed through and through."

The Sun-Herding Clan Chief walked over, coughing again and again. "Ahem, ahem — Sun Guardian, in front of outsiders, put your skirt down."

Yan Jingjing hurriedly let her skirt fall, her cheeks faintly red. Shen Mu hastily stood up, and only then did he notice that the Woodcutter Sage was standing behind the Clan Chief; because the Clan Chief was a man of immense stature, far beyond ordinary folk, he had not been visible.

The Woodcutter Sage looked at him with a smile that was not quite a smile. Shen Mu's expression did not change. "Master, what brings you here?"

"The Dawn Boats were designed by me," the Woodcutter Sage said with a smile. "I have come this time to take back the blueprints for the Dawn Boats that I left here, and hand them to Jingping, so that Jingping's Heavenly Artisans may build several Dawn Boats and Soul Boats."

Shen Mu said with a smile, "I came this time meaning to dismantle the Sun-Herding Clan's Dawn Boats, draw up detailed blueprints, and build a few anew. It is fortunate you arrived so quickly, Master — otherwise, had I gotten here first, the Dawn Boats would already have been taken apart by me."

The Sun-Herding Clan Chief's ruddy face turned black in an instant, as though the sun had gone out. He thought: "Dismantle the boats? Last time you came, you dismantled our sun! Luckily we fished another one back out, and now you want to dismantle our boats..."

The Woodcutter Sage walked toward the Dawn Spring. "The Dawn Boats are not especially troublesome. But with Jingping's present foundations, such a colossus could not be designed — that is the way of accumulated depth. I designed the Dawn Boats and the Soul Boats, but the highest attainment in the crafting of things in the Kaihuang Era was not mine. It belonged to another!"

Shen Mu's heart stirred. "Might that person be the Venerable Buddha?"

The Woodcutter Sage came to the edge of the Dawn Spring and peered down into it. "When I taught, he was not yet a monk. Later, ensnared by love, he took refuge in the Buddhist order and became the junior fellow disciple of the Great Brahma Heaven King Buddha. The Land of No Sorrow was his design... There are still plenty of suns in the well; more Dawn Boats can be built."

Shen Mu said with a smile, "I have met the Indra Heaven King Buddha. He is being hunted by the Crimson Emperor of the Southern Heaven, Qi Xiayu."

The Woodcutter Sage was astonished. "Hunted? He deserves it. But he hid himself away in the Buddhist Realm, so the Crimson Emperor would not move against him — why hunt him now?"

"He has done wrong," said Shen Mu, looking for all the world as though the matter had nothing whatsoever to do with him. "He wreaked havoc in the Buddhist Realm and very nearly slaughtered every spy the Celestial Court had planted there; then in the Supreme Heaven of the Buddhist Realm he made himself a little Nether Capital. The Great Brahma Heaven King Buddha struck his name from the Buddhist Realm and drove him out. So the Crimson Emperor seized the chance at once and hunted him down on his heels."

"So that is how it is. He was fair of face in his youth, a famously handsome man of the Kaihuang Era — no wonder the Crimson Emperor took a fancy to him. Beauty is the root of all trouble."

The Woodcutter Sage rose and called the Black Tiger God, handing him a thick stack of blueprints. "Take these to the capital of Jingping, and give them to the Emperor."

The Black Tiger God accepted the order and went off with a whistle.

The Woodcutter Sage cast Shen Mu a glance. "Beauty is a curse — there is no mistake in that saying. He was too handsome, and so many women loved him. You should be careful too."

Shen Mu rejoiced inwardly: "So that means I am handsome too..."

"You are passable at best — one might say not ugly. But you scatter feelings wherever you go." The Woodcutter Sage poured a bucket of cold water over him. "With the Indra Heaven King Buddha and the alchemist of your village as warnings from the past, you ought to be careful. Girl, let us go find someone who fishes for suns."

Yan Jingjing answered and followed him, and Shen Mu followed as well.

The Woodcutter Sage led them out of the Dawn Spring. Outside, the sun stood at its zenith, but it was hidden by Luofu Heaven, so the sky was somewhat dim.

"The Indra Heaven King Buddha's lay name was Li Youran. Later, love turned to hate between him and the Crimson Emperor, and he became a lay disciple of the Buddhist order, where his roots of wisdom showed themselves. The Great Brahma Heaven King Buddha gave him the name Indra. When the Kaihuang Era fell, he meant to build a great ship and carry the people of the Heavenly Artisan God Clan away to the Land of No Sorrow. The Crimson Emperor came after him, and fearing that the Crimson Emperor would harm his people, he chose to draw the Crimson Emperor off alone. Yet..."

The Woodcutter paused a moment, then sighed. "When he returned, he found the ship wrecked and the people dead. He thought it the Crimson Emperor's murderous work, and all his hopes turned to ash. The Great Brahma Heaven King Buddha came to guide him onward, and so he went with Great Brahma. When the Crimson Emperor heard that he had gone to the Buddhist Realm to become a Buddha, he said that the moment he left the Buddhist Realm, his life would be forfeit. That ship was called the Other Shore Ark, and it lies in the Desolate Ruins."

Shen Mu and Yan Jingjing listened spellbound. Suddenly Yan Jingjing said, "Then was it the Crimson Emperor who slaughtered his people?"

"I do not know," the Woodcutter said, shaking his head. "In times of war and chaos, who can say?"