Chapter 1004 — The Mottled Sword, the Mottled Heart

" Shujun nodded. "I have gained a rough understanding of the Daoist methods and divine abilities of a million years, and I have some plan now for the road I will walk in future, though it is not yet clear.

Shall we rise into the air and look at the lay of the land in Taihuang Heaven?

" "There is no need.

" Shen Mu smiled. "I have already mastered Kaihuang's Taihuang Heaven-Pacifying Sword. Let us go to Taiming Heaven in the Worry-Free Land.

" Shujun was doubtful, but he followed him all the same, flying toward Taiming Heaven.

Between Taiming Heaven and Taihuang Heaven a divine mountain joined the two heavens; from its very base up to its summit the pair climbed, and so crossed into Taiming Heaven.

Working in the same fashion, they sought out the greatest academy and study halls of Taiming Heaven and read through the whole of its books and records.

Shen Mu was once again a step ahead of Shujun; he was the first to read through the texts of Taiming Heaven and knew them all by heart. He was just about to step out of the library when a voice suddenly came, cold with mockery: "Heavenly Venerable Mu, bolting your books down whole like that, glancing over a few pages here and there, and you think to comprehend His Majesty Kaihuang's sword arts and so defeat him?

What a wild fancy!

" Shen Mu looked toward the voice and saw a burly man with thick brows and big eyes, a sword case on his back with several hilts jutting from it.

He had already met one master who was not fooled by the illusion of his own divine sense; seeing now that this big fellow was likewise unconfused by his divine sense, he was not greatly surprised. After all, many in the Worry-Free Land were masters of the Kaihuang era; they had migrated here, and some, frustrated and unfulfilled, had sunk into obscurity and hidden themselves from the world. "Whom do I have the honor of addressing?

" Shen Mu asked. "The Sun Warden under Kaihuang — Yan Rinuan.

" The burly man lifted the sword case from his back, gripped one hilt and pulled hard, but could not draw the blade. Scratching his head, he said, "A moment, Heavenly Venerable Mu.

I have not drawn my sword in twenty thousand years; even the treasures I forged myself have rusted shut. " He wrenched at it with all his strength and at last drew out a flying sword, its blade heavily mottled with rust.

"It is not the sword that rusts; what rusts is the Sun Warden's sword-heart.

" Shen Mu studied his blade and smiled.

"The Sun Warden's sword-heart has rusted badly indeed. " "Let me polish it a while! " The burly man, Yan Rinuan, walked out of the library to the stream beside the academy and ground and whetted the rusty sword with a hiss and a shriek, until the water ran red with rust.

On and on he ground, yet the more he ground, the more rust came up on the blade.

Suddenly he froze, and sat by the stream staring blankly into space.

Shen Mu stood behind him and waited in silence.

Then he saw the rough fellow's shoulders begin to shake; at some point he had started to weep, tears like fire, pattering from his eye sockets and turning into flames that danced across the sky.

"What use is this sword to me? What use?

This sword — it damned well won't shine any more! " He sprang to his feet and thrust at Shen Mu with the sword.

Shen Mu stood there without moving a muscle, sword light hissing all around him.

Yan Rinuan danced the sword, and the rust-mottled iron blade wove around Shen Mu a world of rust, like a world of steel set upon by time, steeped through with the breath of decay and rot. "If the heart is not clear, the sword is not clear — even this Taiming Heaven-Matching Sword has rusted!

" Yan Rinuan shouted, dancing the sword faster, bellowing again and again; he leaped and thrust, roaring, "What use is this rusty sword?

What use is this rusty heart?

My sword was once called the swiftest blade after Kaihuang's own, the hottest of swords!

And now it is swift no longer, and my sword and my heart alike have gone cold! " As though he had fallen into madness, he performed the second form of Kaihuang's sword Dao, the Taiming Heaven-Matching Sword.

The vision of a rust-eaten Taiming Heaven rising into being around Shen Mu was overwhelming to behold.

Having performed the move, Yan Rinuan could no longer contain the fury in his heart; he flung the rusty sword far away with a sweep of his arm. The instant it left his hand he regretted it; he ran over, picked the sword back up, and, weeping, ground it beside the stream. Shujun came up and asked in wonder, "What is the matter with this man? " "His Dao heart has been wounded.

" Shen Mu said, "Let us go take a look at Qingming Heaven.

" Shujun hesitated.

"The Daoist methods and divine abilities of the Worry-Free Land seemed novel at first, but after reading the texts of two great academies, I find a great deal of repetition.

Holy Infant, there is no need to visit the academies of the other heavens. " Shen Mu smiled.

"It will do no harm to look.

" Shujun had no choice but to follow him.

The two came to Qingming Heaven, and before they had even found where Qingming Heaven's academy lay, they saw an old man by the roadside burning paper before a grave, bowed to the ground and wailing, "Shen Ye, dead in the flower of your youth, so miserably —" Shujun laughed.

"Old fellow, I once had a friend as bold as you, who dared to insult the Great Emperor. When I went to visit him the next year, the grass on his grave mound stood taller than a man. "