Chapter 244 — Wreaking Havoc Upon the Living
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 2 of 4
The village head sat in perfect serenity: "Only eight."
Shen Mu was startled: "Eight? So few?"
"One move to a realm."
The village head narrowed his eyes. "And so, only eight."
Shen Mu counted on his fingers: Spirit Embryo, Five Luminaries, Six Harmonies, Seven Stars, Heaven-Human, Life and Death, Spirit Bridge — by any reckoning, seven realms. Then why eight moves?
"Beyond the Spirit Bridge realm, what comes next is godhood! Could the village head's eighth move be a god's move?" His heart pounded.
These days, apart from pondering the sword art, he did nothing but cross swords with the village head, using the pressure the old man put on him to force himself one step further.
He was trying to fuse the three basic sword forms of the Imperial Preceptor of Jingping into Sword Brings Forth Kaihuang, and with a figure like the village head to guide him, his progress was naturally swift.
The village head's sword art drew near to the Dao; to him it mattered not whether the basic forms numbered fourteen or seventeen. But for Shen Mu, adding the three sword forms of the Imperial Preceptor of Jingping could raise the power of that move considerably.
In those days his mastery of the sword advanced by leaps and bounds.
Shen Mu seemed to have gone back to former times: every day sparring fists with Lord Huo, matching blades with the butcher, stealing from and being stolen from by the lame elder, learning to forge with the silent craftsman, cultivating the Sacred Pupil with the blind elder, refining elixirs with the alchemist, painting with the deaf elder, cutting and sewing clothes with Granny.
Though every day he collapsed onto his bed utterly spent, the days were full to the brim.
Now that he had returned to the village, what Lord Huo, the butcher, and the rest had to teach him was deeper and higher as well. Before, they had taught him only the rudiments; now that Shen Mu's horizons and experience had risen, he could learn their more profound skills, which gladdened every one of the old men and women of Yincan Village.
"Granny's inner demon has flared up again!"
In an instant the village was in chaos. The lame elder cried out at the top of his voice, "Blind elder, come quick! Old Lady Si has shown her true face — I can't bring myself to strike her. You can't see her, so you do it, you put down this little demoness!"
Shen Mu was in the middle of a blade contest with the butcher. At the words he looked up in alarm, and saw a woman walking out of Granny Zhu's room. At the sight of her, Shen Mu's heart gave a violent lurch, as though an invisible arrow had struck him square in the chest.
Granny Zhu must have revealed her true face, and plainly she had dressed with great care. The clothes she wore were no longer ragged things but cut from fine silk, fitting her perfectly and setting off her figure to advantage.
Her makeup too was carefully done: bright eyes and white teeth, powder and paint very light, concealing nothing of her devastating beauty.
On her left wrist she wore a bracelet of emerald green jadeite, and from her earlobes hung teardrop earrings. As she stepped out of the room her radiance was such that it seemed no longer deep winter; it was as if spring had turned to summer in a single breath. Though the cold still bit to the bone, everyone in the village felt only spring warmth, blossoms opening, lush and fragrant.
She walked out like a goddess descending from beyond the world into the mortal one, and every soul in the village was struck still.
The alchemist, ashamed of his own unworthiness, covered his face and fled. The deaf elder's brush dropped onto the table; he hurriedly fetched a bronze mirror and began to comb and paint before it. The silent craftsman rushed to the water vat to wash his face. Lord Huo recited the Buddha's name to quell his inner demon. The butcher scraped off his beloved whiskers with his slaughtering knife. And the lame elder shut his eyes tight and bawled for the blind elder to come.