Chapter 204 — A Youth's Embarrassing Past
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 4 of 4
The lame old man produced a scroll from somewhere and unrolled it. "This Portrait of the Sword God Carrying His Sword — that should be the village head. The village head as a young man. That deaf fellow must have seen the village head in his youth. Tsk, tsk. This painting cannot be looked at. One glance and your eyes will go blind..."
He rolled the portrait up and tossed it to Shen Mu. "It's yours. Use it to ward off evil. If a village head painted by the deaf old man is used to ward off evil, ghosts and gods alike will keep their distance. Don't open it. At your cultivation, one look and your eyes will go blind, and you will die. The deaf old man's way of painting had not yet reached the divine realm then, but the man he painted was too strong. You must not look at it yet."
Half believing, half doubting, Shen Mu put the scroll away in his Taotie pouch.
Old Huo said, "The deaf old man did indeed see the village head. But he revered and admired him. In the village he was closest of all to the Mute Artisan. The Mute Artisan left without a word, and I reckon the deaf old man could not sit still either. He will surely come out to look for him."
Shen Mu was moved. Ever since he left the village, the people of Hidden Cripple Village had been leaving it one after another. These old men and old women said they did not miss him, but every one of them had walked out of the village for his sake.
He gave himself wholly to identifying the efficacious medicines the lame old man had "borrowed" from the imperial palace, thinking, "The imperial palace's ingredients truly are all rare treasures — only a shade inferior to those in Grandpa Pill Master's herb garden. Hard-won efficacious medicines indeed!"
With these medicines in hand, he already had in mind a prescription to nourish Old Huo's arm and the lame old man's divine leg. He need only go to the Taixue Academy's storehouse and purchase a few supplementary ingredients.